Horticulture Guy"Live Long and Garden" – Peter Punzi

Question: I’d like to ask you a question. Recently I ordered garden seeds from a licensed nursery in another state. These seeds came shipped in clear cellophane with no directions or instructions of any kind such as sun, shade, when to plant ,etc, etc. I complained and they said tough – no refunds. What I’d like to know is what is required in packaging to ship seeds across state lines? Don’t packets have to contain certain specific information? How do I file a complaint against this dealer? I’d appreciate any help you could offer. Bob – new castle, indiana

Answer: I believe there are minimum standards like name of plant, year it was packaged. If you would like to pursue this further I wood contact the USDA’s (United State’s Department of Agriculture’s) Seed Regulatory and Testing Branch:
Write to: Seed Regulatory and Testing Branch
801 Summit Crossing Place, Suite C
Gastonia, North Carolina 28054-2193
email: seed.ams@usda.gov
or call: Phone: 704-810-8870
FAX: 704-852-4189 (Lab), 4109(Chief)

Q. I would like to create some artificial “Growth zones” for some bonsai trees. I would like to create a zone 7. How would I go about doing this and what kinds of artificial lights would I need? Charley Stran – Eau Claire, WI
A. To create a true zone 7 inside a home can be difficult especially if you are growing deciduous bonsai specimens.  The USDA zones really only concern themselves with the lowest minimum temperatures.  But the zone still has cold temperatures and daylength changes that are necessary in the proper amounts to trigger dormancy and then to break dormancy. You may be able to achieve this in an unheated garage and use a light timer to change the day length to match outdoors resetting it once weekly to follow the seasons. The grow lights could be as simple as fluorescent full spectrum bulbs (or one warm white and one cool white bulb) or as sophisticated as metal halide lamps.  If you are using an unheated garage you may need no additional heat but you should be sure that the temperature doesn’t go below 10 degrees F, which is the upper threshold for zone 7.   Many bonsai enthusiasts have outdoor hotbeds, which are essentially cold frames with heating cables on the bottom.  Most deciduous specimens will need a specific dormancy period where the temperature is between freezing and 45 degrees F.  If you can provide that you can grow most deciduous plants.  Don’t forget plants have a range of zones that they can grow in.  They will have a lower limit zone and an upper limit zone.  The lower limit zone is usually based on the coldest temperature it can tolerate.  The upper zone has to do with how warm the winters are and dormancy.  This is why Florida grows citrus and not peaches or apples.  It is to warm in the winter and the peaches and apples don’t break dormancy. 

Q. I want to plant a nice shade tree in my back yard. It seems like every tree I consider has its pros and cons. I am most concerned about the mess—I have installed a beautiful clay paver stone patio that we use like another room in the house. I love Oaks but I don’t want acorns all over the patio. I love Maples, but I don’t want those helicopter things falling either. A medium-fast grower would be great. I live in Minneapolis. (zone 4b, I think.) Any advice? THANKS! Mark Jacobson – Minneapolis, MN

A. I am inferring from your question (since you mentioned maples and oaks) that you want a deciduous tree that provides shade in the summer and then allows light during the winter.  So I assume that you are all right with leaf raking duty but just not dealing with a trees fruits/seeds.  Since fruit/seed comes from female flowers (or the female part of a complete flower) selecting a species of tree where the trees’ gender is split by individuals would be useful.  This setup in a plant is called dioecious (Greek for two houses).  So one tree has male flowers only and the other has female only.  Oak and Maple (as well as many other well known trees) are monoecious (you guessed it “one house”) so both flowers are present in each individual.  There can be either both male and female flowers on the plant or a complete flower that contains both the male and female parts (like a hermaphrodite). The Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is a dioecious shade tree whose cultivars are asexually propagated (cloned) from male trees.  This has been propagated this way because the female fruit stinks to high heaven!  Another alternative is to find sterile trees that don’t produce fruit or seed like Marshall’s Seedless Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) as well as many of the other ash hybrids that are seedless.  Now that you know to ask for male or sterile cultivars of shade trees you can also visit your local nursery to find out what selection is available to you locally.