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Poinsettias are absolutely everywhere during the holidays, and for good reason! They're beautiful, festive, and easy to take care of. With proper care poinsettias should retain their beautiful color throughout the holidays.  Poinsettia plants should not be exposed to cold temperatures. They are best placed in a paper plant sleeve to protect the plant from the cold as well as to prevent them from breaking. If temperatures are well below freezing, all parts of the plant should be protected from the cold. Be sure to remove wrapping as soon as possible after bringing indoors. Remove wrapping from the bottom up to avoid damaging your plant.  Choose an indoor location out of direct heat, cold drafts, and sunlight. Your poinsettia will not do well if placed in a busy entryway where doors are constantly opening. Be sure to keep your poinsettia away from windows because direct sunlight and cool temperatures can cause the foliage to wilt or drop. Cooler temperatures will prolong the ...

 Hawai’i, I wish I was there. Sandy beaches and palm trees. (Sigh.) The guest speaker at the November meeting of RCEMG was Dr. Ted Radovich of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. While he was talking and showing pictures of the lush greenery with verdant mountains in the background, we sat here in cold, windy Kansas dreaming about sandy beaches and palm trees (at least I was.) Here in Kansas we tend to think of Hawai’i as a tropical paradise. Dr. Radovich, from his perspective of agricultural systems, showed us the more practical side of the islands.  Born and raised on O’ahu, Dr. Radovich is an extension specialist in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. He leads the sustainable and organic farming systems laboratory and oversees a small plot of organic land. His current state-wide program is focused on understanding how crop yield and quality can be optimized in agricultural systems that reduce reliance on conventional chemical fertilizers and increase...

Faded plants left standing all winter can play a critical role in the overwintering of beneficial insects, as well as birds and mammals. These plants may contain seed or fruit , or offer hiding places during the off-season.  Image: Margaret Roach When to clean up the garden in the fall? The best time to start your fall garden preparation is after the first few freezing nights have killed back much of the flowers and foliage on the plants. Freezing temperatures are a trigger for perennials that it’s time to begin the process of going dormant for the winter. But don't start cutting back your plants too early, it could trigger new growth on the plants, and you don’t want to do that in the fall. Fall flower bed cleanup chores you can skip Leave the foliage on your plants –  Dead plant material is a wonderful place for beneficial insects to hibernate during the winter.  Litter is a critical habitat for various insects and other anthropods, like bumblebees that provide pollina...

Fall is a great time for dividing and planting garden perennials. The Reno County Extension Master Gardeners invite you to our yearly Perennial Plant Swap this Saturday, October 17 at the Reno County Farmers' Market from 8:00 to noon. Bring extra perennial plants (no annuals please) from your garden and exchange them for plants brought by others. Houseplants, seeds, garden tools and books are welcome to be exchanged as well. Please be sure to label your plants and seeds. For more information, contact the Reno County Extension Office.

The term jack-o-lantern comes from the phenomenon of a strange light flickering over peat bogs, called will-o-the-wisp or jack-o'-lantern . The name is also tied to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who bargains with Satan and is doomed to roam the earth with only a hollowed turnip to light his way.  Jack-o-lanterns are a yearly Halloween tradition that came to the United States from Irish immigrants. In the 19th century, turnips were hollowed out to act as lanterns and carved with grotesque faces and used on Halloween in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Left: A traditional Irish Jack-o-lantern in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland. Right: Modern carving of a Cornish Jack-o-lantern made from a turnip. Thanks to Wikipedia for the information! Orb-Weaver Spiders: Spooky Webs But Great For Pest Control Halloween is not too far away and nothing is more iconic than seeing an enormous spider web and a scary-looking spider in the center as part of your decoration...

Master Gardeners were on hand at the Demo Garden recently to help harvest our hops with Jacob and Pippin from Sand Hills Brewery.  Hops are twining perennial bines. The long stems of the common hop are considered bines, not vines. What's the difference? Unlike vines that use tendrils and other means to climb, bines climb with the help of short, stiff hairs along the stems. They grow from rhizomes, which are underground stems that produce the roots and shoots. Planted by Jack and Allen, the hops were started in the Demo Garden from four bare-root rhizomes  and have taken  about three or four years to establish themselves. At full maturity they can grow up to 18 feet tall.  The hops cones were hand-picked from our bines that now cover two trellises.  The hops flowering plants come in male or female and only the female produces the cones for use as hops. Hops cones are harvested for lupulin, a yellow powder clinging to their leaves. Lupulin cont...

Moonflowers! Have you ever seen one? Moonflower  vine has bright white flowers that bloom in the evening just as the sun sets. Butterflies! This is butterfly season. There are lots of photos of caterpillars, crysalises and butterflies everywhere. Here are a few taken by Master Gardeners. Monarch caterpillars snacking on milkweed. Monarch caterpillars have thin stripes of black, yellow and white. Black swallowtails have a stripe pattern that includes dots of yellow, or sometimes orange. Monarchs never have dots, only stripes. Swallowtail eggs on a stalk of fennel. Swallowtail caterpillar Swallowtail chrysalis. Black Swallowtail butterfly ready to fly away. Monarch butterfly Yellow Swallowtail Thanks, Dee, Becky and Bonnie. For more photos, see our Facebook page.

These photos were sent to a Master Gardener who graciously allowed us to share them. Ron and Dee had another hummingbird get into the rafters in the garage, but weren't able to lure it out. When they opened up the garage the next morning, the little guy was lying on the concrete, exhausted and with cobwebs stuck to his wings.  Dee was able to gently remove the cobwebs and tried to get the bird to drink some hummingbird nectar from a little dish, but he was so weak he kept falling in. Ron found a syringe and proceeded to feed him droplets of nectar. He ate for about 15 minutes with a tongue that  was thinner than hair and unbelievably long. They left him to rest and when Dee checked on him about 20 minutes later, he was still there. (Typical male....left a mess before leaving.)  Dee stroked his back gently with her finger and off he flew!   Now, if they can only figure out how to keep these little guys OUT of Ron's garage in the first place!   Then came the butte...

Monday morning started with glorious Kansas weather  and lots of wildflowers along the walking path.  Great waves of Black-eyed Susan rudbeckia in the field, clouds of white  fleabane along  the path and a fringe-leaf ruellia (wild petunia)  named for its hairy stem and leaves. Erect dayflower. A relative of spiderwort, it blooms after the spiderwort is gone.  This one is a soft blue but I have seen many clusters in brilliant blue. Black-eyed Susan rudbeckia (and a bug.) Unidentified purple flowers (must be a new variety never before seen in Kansas.) Dandelion . Of course. Bright purple flowers – I think this is wild alfalfa . White fleabane grows in big clumps along the path along with mounds  of white morning glory . Hairy gayfeather. This prairie clover's purple flowers have faded but the seed heads  are still beautiful.

     Raised garden beds are great for growing small plots of veggies and flowers. They keep pathway weeds from your garden soil, prevent soil compaction, provide good drainage, and serve as a barrier to pests such as slugs and snails. The sides of the beds keep your valuable garden soil from eroding or washing away during heavy rains.       In Kansas, gardeners are able to plant earlier in the season because the soil is warmer and better drained when it is above ground level.       Elevated garden beds are planter boxes on legs. By raising the soil level, elevated beds reduce back strain when bending over to tend the bed. This is especially helpful for older gardeners, people with bad backs or wheelchair users.      Master Gardener Carl has produced two videos with instructions on building garden beds.  The first is a simple raised bed .  The second is a growing bed made from pallets which Carl has elevate...

Some plants will bloom more profusely if the old, spent flowers are removed, a process called deadheading. Annuals especially, focus their energy on seed production to insure that the species survives. If you remove old flowers, the energy normally used to produce seed is now available to produce more flowers. Perennials can also benefit by lengthening the blooming season. However, some gardeners enjoy the look of spent flowers of perennials such as sedum or purple coneflower. Also, the seed produced can be a good food source for birds. Not all plants need to be deadheaded, including sedum 'Autumn Joy', melampodium, impatiens, most flowering vines, Lythrum, periwinkle (Catharanthus), and wishbone flower (Torenia).    Those that do increase bloom in response to deadheading include hardy geraniums, coreopsis, petunias, marigolds, snapdragons, begonias, roses, campanulas, blanket flowers, delphiniums, zinnias, sweet peas, salvia, scabiosa, annual heliotrope, geraniums (Pelargoniu...