Dear Helen: Over the course of last winter and early spring, frequent guests at my bed and breakfast were sisters whose mother lived in a nearby care facility. We became quite close. After the mother died I听wanted to create a commemorative garden area with plants bearing the sisters鈥� names: Camellia, Heather, Daphne. I鈥檝e听got the first two and now want to find a particular daphne 鈥� one I came across in bloom last February. The flowers had a听marvellous fragrance. Can you tell me what daphne I should be looking for? M.P.
The daphne that blooms in late听winter and early spring, with an exquisite perfume, is winter daphne (Daphne odora). This daphne needs a very well drained soil and shelter from the hottest sun.
听
Dear Helen: After growing garlic successfully for years, I found half my crop infected this year with what I believe is white rot. Some bulbs had squishy cloves and others showed a small amount of fungal growth. Up until harvest time early in the month the plants looked entirely normal.
D.W.
All diseases of garlic commonly indicate their presence before harvest time with some听leaf distortion, plant stunting, withering or discolouring.
Even white rot, the most devastating garlic disease, usually causes leaf yellowing, starting at the tips, and often stunting, at early stages of the disease. Later, when they are gently pulled, infected plants will听lift away easily from the soil because the roots will have rotted.
At this point, a soft rot will be visible at the bulbs bases along with fluffy white fungal growth peppered with tiny black dots (the sclerotia, which are resting reproductive structures).
The sclerotia can remain dormant in the soil for decades, to be triggered into germination by the presence of sulphur compounds that garlic and onion roots exude. Infections begin at the bulb bases.
As soon as failing plants are noticed, it is important to dig them up and look for the fluffy white mould and the sclerotia. If听they are present, seal infected plants and the surrounding soil in听a plastic bag. Linda Gilkeson, a听Saltspring Island entomologist and educator, recommends leaving the bag in the hot sun for听several days before disposing of it (not in the compost).
Because white rot is a great threat to commercial garlic production, ongoing experimentation is being conducted in the search for controls.
Oregon State University has had some success in reducing numbers of sclerotia by triggering their germination using dilute garlic or onion juice to soak soil sites where white rot has occurred.
They recommend waiting at least six months after infected garlic (or onion) plants have been removed, because the sclerotia won鈥檛 germinate during this dormant period.
After the dormant period, when sulphur compounds in the form of garlic or onion juice are applied to the soil and no host (onion family) plants are present, the sclerotia will germinate and,听lacking a host to live on, will听die.
This control tactic is still in the experimental stage. Meanwhile, try to leave at least three years before growing any onion family plants again in a site. Make sure the soil is fertile and very well drained. Plant only perfect garlic cloves.
Garlic used to be one of the easiest and most care-free plants a gardener could grow. Now, with various diseases showing up with increasing frequency, this is changing.
听
Dear Helen: Early in the spring I听found and bought an evergreen daphne I鈥檇 been looking for, one听called Eternal Fragrance. It听is supposed to bloom several times from spring to autumn, and听stay neat and compact.
I am hoping all this will turn out to be true, though at the moment my little plant looks a bit straggly.
N.D.
A few plants are like that. They don鈥檛 show well in nursery containers and are very slow to take on a characteristically pleasing form. Kalmia (mountain laurel) is an example.
I, too, purchased an Eternal Fragrance daphne because I鈥檇听heard so much praise of its virtues. The plant鈥檚 appearance was a little disappointing for the听first year or so and then, seemingly all of a sudden, it took on a most attractive look.
The shrub is now a tightly knit听mass of small, shiny leaves on a compact, flat-topped shrub around 60听centimetres across and 30 centimetres high. The plant bloomed well this spring and has shown numerous clusters of perfumed summer flowers. It's been worth the wait.
听
Saturday. I鈥檓 taking a break from writing the weekend column. I鈥檒l be back next Wednesday.
