By Jeanne Lawrence, UC Master Gardener of Butte County, June 29, 2018
The genus Viburnum comprises over 150 evergreen and deciduous shrubs and small trees, many of which do very well in our Butte County environment. In addition to providing structure and interest to the home garden, many viburnums are drought-tolerant and often provide fruits for birds to feed on. Some species produce highly fragrant flowers. And deciduous viburnum species can add lovely fall color to the garden before their leaves drop.
The following are just a few of the Viburnum species that do particularly well in our area.
Viburnum tinus (Laurustinus). This evergreen shrub is fast-growing in full sun or partial shade and creates a dense hedge of leathery oval, dark green, two-to-three-inch-long leaves. Allegedly only growing to 12 feet, examples have been spotted in Chico that easily reach 15 ft. or more. In early spring, tiny pink buds open up to clusters of white flowers that are long-lasting and fragrant; when the flowers finally drop, they are followed by equally long-lasting clusters of blue/black fruits that are loved by birds and may hang on until summer. V.tinus can be kept tidy by pruning, but if the possibility of a 15-foot hedge alarms you, dwarf and compact varieties are available.
Viburnum davidii. For a lower-growing shrub that provides nice structure in front of taller plants, V.davidii is a good choice. It is evergreen, with large oval leaves of up to six inches. It prefers partial shade, and, if happy, can produce clusters of brilliantly-colored metallic blue fruit.
Viburnum opulus ‘Sterile' (Common Snowball). Deciduous in colder climates, V.opulous is nearly evergreen here. A taller Viburnum, it can reach up to 15 feet, but is easily kept in bounds. Its leaves are lighter green and maple-shaped. In spring it has snowball-like flowers clusters about two-and-a-half inches across, which start out lime green and turn to white. The flowering stems make a spectacular display as cut flowers indoors. This Viburnum bears no fruit.
These are just a few of the interesting shrubs in this hard-working genus. If you have space for a new shrub, think about adding a viburnum to your garden.
For more information on gardening in our area, visit the Butte County Master Gardener web page at: http://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/. If you have a gardening question or problem, call our Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or visit ucanr.edu/p/49588.
By Cindy Weiner, UC Master Gardener of Butte County, June 15, 2018
One plant suitable for dry shade is Catalina perfume or evergreen currant (scientific name Ribes viburnifolium). Native to Catalina Island and Baja California, it is a small evergreen shrub with glossy dark green leaves that have a spicy fragrance. The arching red stems reach 3 feet tall and spread about 6 feet. Pruning the stem tips will increase the density of the plant. Small rose-colored flowers appear from February to April. The fruit, a reddish-orange berry, isn't commonly seen in garden settings. While Catalina perfume needs no supplemental water once established, it can tolerate more, so it can be grown alongside plants with greater water requirements.
Island alum root (Heuchera maxima) is native to the Channel Islands. It grows one to three feet tall and has creamy white to pinkish flowers. Crevice alumroot (Heuchera micrantha) grows on rocky mountain outcrops from central California north to Oregon. It is smaller than island alum root and its flowers are white or pink. Many cultivars of crevice alum root are available in general nurseries. These cultivars have been selected for foliage with silvery, bronze or purple tones. Three of the cultivars are “painted lady,” “Blessingham bronze,” and “purple palace.”
For more information on gardening in our area, visit the Butte County Master Gardener web page at: http://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/. If you have a gardening question or problem, call our Hotline at (530) 538-7201.
By Lynnde Sharpton, UC Master Gardener of Butte County, June 1, 2018
Fire blight is caused by a bacterium and is a common and frequently destructive disease that shows up in April and May. Fire blight can also affect pyracantha, ornamental pear trees, and some other landscape plants.
The first sign of fire blight is often blackening of flowers, shoots or leaves followed by a watery, light tan ooze from affected shoots. Open flowers are the most common infection site and remain susceptible until petal fall.
Initially, fire blight infections might be localized, affecting only a flower cluster, but then the infection grows downward, extending into twigs and branches. These twig cankers kill more and more tissue as they advance. Dead, blackened leaves and fruit cling to dead branches throughout the season, giving the tree a scorched appearance -- hence the name “fire blight.” The pathogen can kill highly susceptible trees, while others may suffer significant branch dieback. Once infected, the plant will harbor the pathogen indefinitely unless the cankers are pruned out well below the infection.
Monitoring trees regularly, a couple of times a week, will allow you to identify and deal with new fire blight strikes before they become a branch infection. It is important to remove and destroy any new fire blight infections before they spread and affect more tissue. Dip pruning shears in a 10-percent bleach solution after each cut.
If fire blight strikes have been ignored, the infection will spread and infect the branch. Once the wood is infected, the branch must be pruned out well below the infection. In this case, you will need to remove the diseased wood in summer or winter when the bacteria are no longer spreading through the tree. Again, dip pruning shears in a 10-percent bleach solution after each cut.
It is critical to make your cuts in the right place. Find the lower edge of the visible infection in the branch, trace that back to the branch's point of attachment and cut at the next branch juncture down without harming the branch collar (this is the distinct enlarged portion of woody tissue formed at the base of a branch where it attaches to the trunk). This will remove the infected branch and the branch to which it is attached.
When selecting new fruit trees, choose those that are less susceptible to fire blight, if possible. The most susceptible varieties are Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Gravenstein, Jonathan, Mutsu, Pink Lady and Yellow Newton. Unfortunately, most pear varieties are susceptible to fire blight.
For more detailed information on identifying and controlling fire blight, see IPM Fire Blight Pest Notes.
By Brent McGhie, UC Master Gardener of Butte County, May 18, 2018.
The Butte County Master Gardener program began in 2008, and in 2013 the organization formed a partnership with the Patrick Ranch Museum. As a result of this partnership, the Patrick Ranch Museum dedicated about an acre of land for the Master Gardeners to develop a series of gardens that demonstrate sustainable gardening practices and highlight climate appropriate plants for the home gardener.
Most of California, including Butte County, is in a Mediterranean climate zone. From a global viewpoint, Mediterranean zones are relatively uncommon. In addition to California, Mediterranean climates exist only in limited areas in Chile, Australia and South Africa and around the Mediterranean Basin. These areas have a climate that is characterized by hot, dry summers and cool moist winters. It is our hope that by showcasing California natives and other plants that are adapted to this climate, we will inspire local gardeners to incorporate them into their landscaping plans. Master Gardener Kay Perkins has headed the Demonstration Garden project from its inception. She says “… a drought tolerant garden does not need to be rock and bark chip and cacti; you can have a beautiful garden that will attract wildlife as long as you choose native and Mediterranean plants that are adapted to our hot summers.” Click here for a list of Climate Appropriate Plants.
In 2017, Master Gardeners installed an herb garden within the Backyard Fruit Orchard and in the early spring of this year we planted a Summer Dry Garden. The Summer Dry Garden consists of plants that, once established, should be able to survive with just the water provided by winter rain. This garden should be a great resource for those who want to keep water usage at a minimum! Our most recent addition, just completed on May 9th of this year, is the Berm Garden. To create this garden, we built a retaining wall with repurposed material and backfilled it with topsoil. The resulting artificial embankment illustrates an effective alternative method of landscaping when you are faced with poor soils.
Master Gardeners are a volunteer organization, so all costs associated with plants, materials and labor that go into creating the Demonstration Garden are dependent on donations from individuals and local businesses, fundraisers, and countless volunteer hours. However, it's a labor of love and we encourage you to visit the gardens for landscaping ideas, or simply to enjoy the pleasant, tranquil garden environment we are establishing. The gardens are accessible for viewing whenever the Patrick Ranch Museum, 10381 Midway (between Durham and Chico), is open. Although Master Gardeners do not have regularly scheduled hours at the Demonstration Garden, they are often there planting and maintaining the grounds and are always happy to answer any questions you might have. Many of our educational workshops also take place at Patrick Ranch and workshop attendees often tour the gardens while they are there. For more information, please visit our website at: ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg. Garden questions can be directed to the Master Gardener Hotline at 530-538-7201.
If you would like to support the Demonstration Garden and other Butte County Master Gardener educational projects, you can make a tax deductible donation here.
By Laura Lukes, UC Master Gardener of Butte County, May 4, 2018.
Dr. Mistry is a professor of biology at Butte College, and an adjunct professor of biology at CSU, Chico. He recently presented a talk titled “The Fascinating Biology of Bats” as part of the Butte County Master Gardeners 2018 Spring Workshop Series.
Dr. Mistry's passion for bats is infectious. He describes the deeply folded, crenulated nose of a bat, which to this writer looks like the result of a terrible accident, as gorgeous. And upon reflection it is beautiful, because it is perfectly formed for its purpose: to accurately project the echolocation calls emitted from the bat's nose.
Insectivorous bats, part of a group known as microbats, navigate and hunt by echolocation, a complicated and finely-tuned system of call-and-response, which can determine in a millisecond the location of prey while both the bat and its target are in flight. Bats can consume up to their own body mass in insects each night. Research indicates that in Butte County alone, bats provide 14 million dollars annually worth of pest control value. In our state, that figure reaches 565 million dollars each year. That's a lot of moths, mosquitos, and other insects taken out by a safe, natural method.
The bats that we have in our region and, in fact most of the US, are insectivores. However, there are many other bats that consume fruit and nectar, and others that are carnivorous and feed on fish and frogs. Megabats, whose wingspan can reach up to five feet, are inhabitants of the Old World (Europe), and perform valuable seed-dispersal and pollination services. These bats may actually be better at seed dispersal than many birds, because they eat the fruit and drop its seeds farther from the parent plant.
Other bat species feed on the nectar of flowers, and some plants have evolved unusual ways to attract these pollinators in the dark, when color isn't visible. Special concave leaf and petal shapes send a response to the bat's echolocation calls, so bats can zero in on the flower and partake of its nectar while spreading its pollen.
A portion of Dr. Mistry's talk explored research done on the Mexican free-tailed bat. This is a tiny species, weighing less than 12 grams (0.4 oz). The females migrate annually from Mexico to deliver and raise their pups (yes, bat infants are called pups!) in humid, hot, limestone caves in Texas. Each female bears one pup, which attaches to the wall of an enormous cave. There are millions of mothers birthing their young in these caves, and their nightly feeding exodus can take hours to complete. Which begs the question Dr. Mistry asks: how does each mother find her own pup when she returns to a cave filled with masses of hanging babies – as many as 4,000 per square yard?
In the past, bat biologists believed that these mothers could not identify their own young, but instead engaged in a type of communal nursing, whereby the pups latched onto any mother within reach as she moved through roosting areas. But careful observation and research revealed that these bats knew what any self-respecting mammalian mother knows instinctively: which baby is hers. Bat moms employ at least three strategies to locate their young. Bats have spatial memories, and can remember in which general region of the vast cavern they left their pups. Once a mother nears her region, she begins calling, and narrows in on her baby through tracking its return call. When she is close enough, she can then definitively identify her pup through its smell.
It so happens that maternal instinct is not the only thing that bats share with human beings. The similarity between the bat skeleton and the human skeleton, particularly in the structure of our ribs, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hips, is astonishing. The difference lies in their elongated bones. Since bats locomote almost exclusively by flying, their body weight must be kept to a minimum. Birds have hollow, very light bones to achieve their measure of weightlessness. Being mammals, bats have heavier, solid bones, so they adapted by evolving very thin, elongated bones. The oldest fossilized bat skeleton discovered to date is just over 50 million years old. Dr. Mistry notes that bats have not changed much since then, so we (as yet) have no clear picture of their evolutionary journey to the present.
The fungus was first discovered in bats in New York State in 2006, and spread rapidly to the north and west. Over 5.7 million insect-devouring bats have died in 31 states and five Canadian provinces. At one time, it was believed that the fungus would not be able to easily cross the Great Plains. Then, about a year ago, cases were discovered in Washington State. All hibernating, cave-dwelling bat species in North America are susceptible, and regional extinction is a real possibility.
Dr. Mistry knows what bats like, and is willing to help you locate your bat box in an ideal space. Not only for you, but for the love of bats.
Note: For more information about the Master Gardener Program and Workshops, please visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/ . Garden questions can be directed to the at 530-538-7201.
