
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994                   TAG: 9405020187
SECTION: HOMES                    PAGE: E1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: John Arbogast
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLANNED GARDENS BLOOM BEST

The Horticulture Department at Virginia Western Community College is again offering a number of one-credit seminars designed to meet the needs of both home gardeners and professional horticulturists in the Roanoke Valley. These courses, which go beyond the "one-visit" programs that Extension can offer, will meet one day or night a week for five weeks.

Seminar topics offered in the first five-week session, which runs from mid-May to late June, are "Landscaping Your Home," "Garden Design," "Trees, Shrubs, and Perennials" and "Pests in the Landscape."

Seminar topics offered in the second five-week session, from late June through late July, are "Home Horticulture;" "Teaching Children About Plants," "Bonsai Gardening" and "Lawn Care."

For more information, contact the VWCC Horticulture Department at 857-7120. To register, stop by the VWCC admissions office by May 19. The tuition for each seminar is $45.30.

\ Using flower color effectively

This is finally the time of year when we install our annual flower gardens for an anticipated season of beauty. Thus, the information I just received from the National Garden Bureau concerning selection of flowers for their colors in the landscape should be helpful.

Obviously, for flower gardens around the home, selection of flower colors that will complement the colors of the home exterior will be most pleasing. For folks whose home is beige, gray or white, just about any flower color scheme should be fine.

However, if your home is accented with a colorful trim, you may want to pick flower colors that echo that color or complement it. Red, for example, is the direct complement of green, so red geraniums, salvia or petunias, etc., would be a good choice for a neutral house with green trim.

The National Garden Bureau also advises that unless you are expert at using color, stick to two or three colors that you repeat in your annual plantings. This will give a planned, unified look to all your garden spots and avoid the hodgepodge look that lacks focus and distracts from the overall look you want to achieve.

Q: I have a rose plant that I ordered last year. It came so late that I just heeled it in my flower border; now I want to move it to a permanent spot, but I need some information first. The plant is called the Blue Moon Rose, and I'm told that I must have a certain fertilizer where I plant it in order to get blue roses. Can you tell me the name of this fertilizer? The company that sold the rose did not know. M.B.J., Roanoke

A: I would suggest moving your Blue Moon Rose to a sunny spot that would be suitable for roses in general if you have not already done so, and give it normal rose care, which could include light monthly feedings now through August with any packaged "rose food" or even 5-10-10 garden fertilizer. I am not familiar with any rose that behaves like a hydrangea, producing blue flowers in an acidic soil but pink flowers if the soil is alkaline. Sulfur or aluminum sulfate is used to make soil more acidic. These materials are not considered fertilizers in the usual sense. However, roses usually make their best growth with the soil pH near neutral and are not likely to do well if the rose gardener tries to experiment with the soil acidity.

Send short questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to Dear John, c/o the Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491. We need your mail, but this column can't reply to all letters. Those of wide appeal will be answered each week. Personal replies cannot be given. Please don't send stamps, stamped envelopes, samples or pictures.

by CNB