ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601160004
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO HUSKER RED MAKES
COLUMN: dear john
SOURCE: JOHN ARBOGAST
Gardeners looking through catalogs and dreaming about landscape color this summer but dreading the work involved with annual flowers should give thought to perennials, which come back year after year.
Penstemon digitalis Husker Red has been selected as the 1996 Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association, an international professional horticulture group composed of growers, retailers, educators, garden writers and members of landscape-related industries.
Folks who recognize the name Penstemon likely know that this is a large native genus of perennials commonly called Beardtongue that is found especially in drier locations. Husker Red has white flowers and rich bronze-red foliage, making it excellent as an accent plant in the landscape, massed in border plantings, or used as a single plant specimen.
Husker Red also performs well in dry soil, likes slightly acidic soil, grows in full sun to light shade and reaches 30 inches in height when well established. It has as many as 50 white flowers on each of 20 or more open, airy flower stalks per clump during July and August and is good for cutting. It needs good drainage all year.
Gardeners should be able to obtain Husker Red through local garden centers or through the many mail-order perennial nurseries.
Q: Please help! A rodent is eating my tulip bulbs from tunnels; this is not a squirrel. R. H. W., Roanoke
A: Moles were likely responsible for digging the tunnels if the tunnels are raised, rather than just holes that are flush with the ground or mulch. However, moles are meat eaters, living on grubs and other animal life in the soil. Most likely a mole has made the run to the tulip bed and mice have followed to do the actual eating.
To solve the problem, use a mole trap or other methods that eliminate moles. Readers should note that using soil insecticides to try to starve moles out has not been an effective method.
You could also set snap traps for field mice (voles) in the mole runways. Be sure to get advice from the farm or garden center sales staff on the recommended procedure. Also ask the staff about a mouse poison, if such exists for outdoor use, and place this in the runways. You might also try physically closing or blocking all tunnels that you can find leading to the tulip bed.
Send short questions about your lawn, garden, plants or insects to Dear John, c/o the Roanoke Times, 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 during the weeks that the subject is timely. personal replies cannot be given. Please don't send stamps, stamped envelopes, samples or pictures.
Gardener's checklist
Jobs for mid-January:
Make preparations for starting transplants of early spring vegetables on sunny, warm windowsills, such as broccoli, cabbage, collards, bib or head lettuce, and quick-maturing cauliflower.
Look in your winter landscape to spot long tree branches that will shade summer flower beds so that you can prune properly while those flower beds are empty.
John Arbogast is the agricultural and natural resources extension agent for Roanoke.
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