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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2007)
'X * JULY ¿9. ¿997 juStpUt,1$ Heat Wave TmAVAILABLE when y qu are Which greens make the cut, and which wither under the weather? w ow! Our hot summer weather has finally arrived. From the safety of a slightly cooler house, I am look ing out at my garden, hoping that once it cools down, all the plants out there that are wilted will perk back up again. Last year when it got this warm, not all of them did, and I wound up with a few casualties of the summer heat. Like always, the empty spaces in my garden were soon filled right back up with new plants. I am sure that by the end of this beat wave, there will be more than one or two hydrangeas around Portland with some fried flowers. No doubt there will also be some drought-stressed trees that will think it is fall already and start showing some bright colors. And 1 know that if any of you still have any pansies in your gardens, they probably will give up after this. With all the burned leaves and crispy flowers, I can’t help but notice a few things around Portland that not only still look good but also seem to not notice the 100-degree temperatures. On almost every block in Portland, someone has a yucca of some sort planted. Everywhere I turn, it seems, I see those lovely stalks covered in white bell flowers, and 1 love it. Most commonly planted is Careful and energetic handling of all your home financing needs mortgage : Advocates .v * \ G7(M) SW 105th Aw., Suite 200 Beaverton, < )R 97005 Toll Free (877) 8269900 Fax (503) 297-0824 E-Mail: C(»llet-i intga< h<x~ates.c<>in www.migadvtKates c<>n> Colleen Weed office 503*297»9900 Get Dirty with Dan BY DAN YOUNG where it can easily resprout. Leaving it unpruned will often cause the plant to split open and start to look shabby after only a few years. In my old garden, I used to have the hardy banana Musa basjoo. Although I decided I didn’t want the big tropical look for the garden I have now, I always loved watching it grow when it got warm. Overnight it would push out a huge, fresh new leaf, and I always wondered if I were really quiet, if I could hear it happen. Although the banana loves the heat, it definitely needs some help Gay Active Senior Retirement Community Gay Owned & Operated Rainbow Vista 1350 West Powell Blvd, Gresham, Oregon www.rainbowvista.com Eyeglasses Contact Lenses Sunglasses Eye Exams (888)470-0130 Eyeglasses Contact Lenses Sunglass blink sun/mon 12-6. tue-sat 11-8 eye exams every day clinton & se 21st ave 503.546.2565 blinkpdx.com Lavender can hold up to Portland's summer sun. Yucca filamentosa, which is the species that you probably have noticed blooming at about this time. It seems like such an old-time plant around the city, but I think that it deserves to be planted a little bit more. I mean, who wouldn’t love a 6-foot-tall beau tiful flower in their garden? Its pointed evergreen leaves look good year-round, it’s completely drought tolerant/rain tolerant, and it can be planted in just about anywhere except deep shade or standing water. 1 have to give some credit to lavender here also. Those who know me well might giggle at hearing me suggest this, but in all fairness, it does stand up to the heat. Most lavender varieties flower now and, being from a hot, dry place, have no problem with summer’s heat waves. I do appreciate the smell of it on a hot day when its oils seem to be oozing out of every leaf. 1 suggest planting it where it will have good drainage and a full day’s worth of sun for best growth. It also benefits from being sheared in the early spring, not too hard into old woody growth, but trimmed back into green leafy stems from you, the loving gardener, to make it through the summer. I used to feed my banana monthly during the growing season with a fertilizer high in nitrogen, usually leftover lawn food. 1 would also keep a thick layer of mulch on the ground around it and soak it with water twice a week, if not more. Hardy bananas aren’t what 1 would call a low- maintenance garden plant, but it sure was a fun thing to grow. In the next couple of days, as 1 try to prove that humans can live off of nothing but Popsicles, I’ll be watching to see which plants out there really take the heat in stride. I will also be checking to see which of them can’t beat the heat. Part of me hopes just a little bit that some of them don’t make it so that I can have some room out there in my yard to try a new thing or two. To reach D1RTY D an , who will answer any and all of your gardening questions, simply e-mail dirtydthegardener@yahoo. com. I sesuet pejuoo sesseißeAq swexq e Hawthorne Auto Clinic Inc. > HH’h’. ha wtho rhe auto. coin
