Garden Detective: sorry impatiens in '11
DEAR JESSICA: I have a garden that gets only about four hours of sun, which has been perfect for impatiens. But not this year. The usual packhorse of shady gardens, my impatiens were skimpy and dwarfed. They never grew and, worse, began to die off in the middle of the summer. I noticed this happening to some of my neighbor's impatiens as well. Then a landscaper told me it happened all over Long Island. What got to them? -- Richard Koubek, Dix Hills
DEAR RICHARD: Not to gloat, but my impatiens did just fine last year. So I reached out to Julie Seghrouchni, horticulture educator at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County. She and the CCE staff field phone calls and in-person visits from residents with gardening problems on a daily basis, so I knew that if there were, in fact, a widespread problem, she would be aware of it.
"We did see a lot of that last summer," Seghrouchni said, adding that the season's moisture and extreme heat affected impatiens on Long Island, particularly on the North Shore.
Those conditions make for an ideal breeding ground for diseases like phytophthora root rot, and if your soil doesn't drain well, that would have escalated the infection. Anybody who ran an irrigation system would have been even more likely to see the problem, she added, which explains why my impatiens did so well. My irrigation system is very low-tech: It's just me and my watering can. To help avoid a reoccurrence, Seghrouchni advises anyone whose plants were affected last year to avoid planting impatiens in the same area next year.
DEAR JESSICA: I have a Red Lion amaryllis, which I purchased in a grow kit in December 2010. I got two flowers, then kept the bulb. There was no new leaf growth in 2011. I live in an apartment, so I didn't have the pot outside at any time. I have east- and south- facing windows. Is it easier to throw the bulb out and buy another kit? I know some years there may be no flower growth, so I need your advice on this. By the way, the top of the bulb is green and firm, not mushy. -- Robert Perlman, Forest Hills
DEAR ROBERT: Like any bulb plant, amaryllis requires a period of dormancy to rest and store up enough energy to bloom again. It benefits from time outdoors during the summer so it can soak up sunlight to use to create that energy. It should be returned indoors in early September. If at that time any of the foliage is still green, you should care for it as a houseplant -- watering and placing it near a sunny window -- until all the leaves turn completely yellow.
At that point the withered foliage should be removed, and when stalks and shoots turn yellow they should be cut off just above the bulb.
Then store the bulb right in its pot in a cool, dry spot like an unheated basement of 40-45 degrees. Don't water the bulb at all while in storage.
Then, in May, after the danger of frost has passed, it's ideal to sink the pot in the ground up to the rim in a spot that gets full morning sun and a bit of shade in the afternoon. Being in an apartment, you might not have access to an outdoor space for the summer, but if you have a really sunny window, you might have decent results. Still, if you want blooms over the holidays, you'll need to buy another bulb. Good luck!
DEAR JESSICA: A few weeks ago you published a picture of a zipper spider from one of your readers. A zipper spider was living in my garden a few years ago. When we got up one morning the following June, we got a surprise: baby zippers! The sac had been put in a sheltered corner near our garage and front porch. There were hundreds of babies. When we got home from work, all the babies were gone. We haven't seen a zipper spider since, but I look every year! -- Martha Simpson, Islip
DEAR MARTHA: Thanks for sharing your photos; they're beautiful. Please let me know if you spot any of those babies' descendants.
