FLOWERS

Research finds that spread of invasive plants into Minnesota can be just one click away

Noah Fish — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:00:00 GMT

How easy is it to have invasive plants delivered right to your door?

Too easy, discovered the University of Minnesota's Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center along with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The groups collaborated on a recent research project to understand the online sales of terrestrial invasive plants as a pathway of spread in Minnesota.

The research team, led by principal investigator Amy Morey, aimed to purchase up to five different samples of 77 different plants from unique sellers and document data from the sales and items received. Of these, 57 were regulated under the Minnesota Noxious Weed Law and 20 were unregulated but prioritized by the research team as potentially harmful.

"If you think about the internet, in whatever context we're speaking about, it's a complicated platform, and it's a complicated landscape," Morey said. "When we're talking about the ornamental plant trade as a narrow subset of that, it's no different."

According to the research summary, previous research has documented the widespread availability of invasive plants through online sources, including many that ship worldwide.

Morey, who purchased plants from 20 countries and 30 U.S. states, said she likes to believe that many who purchase invasive plants online don't know they're doing so.

"There are so many plants out there, and it can be difficult to keep all of them that could be problematic, and (the) problem can be context specific, too, so what might be a huge threat in Minnesota may not necessarily have the same intensity in another state or certainly another country," she said. "I think awareness is still a big key to this issue."

The methodology

Morey said she used Google Chrome as the browser while searching for invasive species for sale online, and entered the names of each species in the search bar.

"If you're familiar with Google, there's also a shopping tab, so you can go there immediately, and for a lot of species, that just opens up where you don't have to look very hard at all," she said. "For my particular methodology, that's where I started. If I couldn't find anything after a 10-minute search, I cut it off."

If the opposite happened, where she found a lot of options, she'd attempt to purchase up to five examples of the species from different vendors.

The results were a bit overwhelming, Morey said, as she was able to buy 57 plants that are regulated under the Minnesota Noxious Weed Law, and only about 8% of all her attempted purchases were denied due to regulation.

"We got all sorts of plant material — things that were in pots, that were a couple feet high, bare roots, that were dormant, rhizomes and seeds ... But those also came in various shapes and sizes in terms of packaging and where they came from," she said.

All plant material is being kept in a secluded area at the University of Minnesota. Final data from the study will be available later this year.

Advice for online shoppers

Morey said for online plant buyers, it's important to be educated on what's invasive to your state before making a purchase.

"When you're online looking for plants, or even in a store, you see something new, take a beat, and type the name into your favorite search engine, and ideally, it's the Latin name or the scientific name, but that's not always obvious, or sometimes it can be a little difficult to find when you're buying plants," Morey said.

When in doubt, buy native, she said.

"There's so many really beautiful and great and diverse plants that are part of Minnesota's native flora that are much healthier for our lands, and we should really encourage better understanding of what it is that you're purchasing and ultimately putting in the ground," she said.

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Flower farm inspires legislation to change Minnesota agricultural product definition

Noah Fish — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT

MAZEPPA, Minn. — A southeast Minnesota flower farm has inspired a new bill that would officially recognize floriculture as an agricultural product under Minnesota law.

The bill, Senate File 2626, by Minnesota Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, and co-authored by Sen. Aric Putnam, D-St. Cloud, received its first hearing on April 3 in the Senate Taxes Committee. It aims to make small flower farms like Bleed Heart Floral Farm and Design in Mazeppa eligible for agricultural classification, and bring tax relief and regulatory clarity to a growing number of Minnesota flower farmers.

“This is about fairness,” Drazkowski said. “Flower farmers are working the land, generating the income their families need to survive, and supporting our local economies. They’re farmers in every sense of the word, and the law should reflect that.”

Bleed Heart Floral, owned by Allie Kuppenbender and her husband, Tony Lent, grow cut flowers for wholesale, community supported agriculture subscriptions and for events. The operation exists on 14 acres of rolling farmland in Wabasha County with flowers raised on only about two of those acres.

Despite bringing in over $50,000 per acre last season, because flowers aren’t specifically named in state law as an agricultural product, the land is taxed as residential, leading to higher property taxes and steep permitting costs for basic farm structures.

“We may be small, but there is serious interest in local flowers, with demand often outpacing supply,” Kuppenbender said as she testified in the April 3 tax committee hearing. “This is not a hobby or a backyard garden. It is my family’s main source of income."

For the couple, who have two children — Otto, 4, and Aurora, 6 months — margins are tight as they have actively invested their profits from the operation into building the farm's infrastructure.

"This change would make a big difference for myself, my family, and other flower farmers," she said.

Blossoming business

The business, which began in 2020, quickly found its niche during the pandemic as a wholesale seller to floral shops and its CSA subscription of weekly bouquets which Kuppenbender said was a "huge hit" from the get-go. The couple purchased 10 acres from their neighbors in March of last year, in hopes to achieve agricultural homestead classification.

A letter two months later from the Minnesota Department of Revenue stated otherwise, referencing a specific statute that defines agricultural products as "livestock, dairy animals, dairy products, poultry and poultry products fur-bearing animals, horticultural and nursery stock, fruits of all kinds, vegetables, forage, grains, bees, and apiary products by the owner."

According to the Department of Revenue, nursery stock is defined as "a plant intended for planting or propagation, including but not limited to, trees, shrubs, perennials, biennials, grafts, cuttings, and buds that may be sold for propagation, whether cultivated or wild, and all viable parts of these plants."

It does not include cut material such as flowers, which didn't make sense to Kuppenbender.

"We're growing an ag product for market, and the USDA defines cut flowers, or floriculture as a specialty crop. I've gotten FSA funding before, so it really seemed like we were eligible," she said.

They appealed last summer to the Wabasha County Board of Commissioners, which has the ability to override the classification status, but they denied the appeal and cited the Minnesota Department of Revenue's explicit definition of agricultural products.

The couple has since spent several thousand dollars in taxes and inspection fees on newer structure to the farm, which they wouldn't have been required to pay through an agricultural zoning.

"Because we're not zoned agricultural but zoned residential, any structure that we put up that's bigger than 200 square feet has to have a land use permit and or building permit, and go through Minnesota state building inspection," Kuppenbender said. "Our hoop houses have to go through a building inspection, even though they're impermanent structures, there's no foundation, and they're very, very clearly used explicitly for the purposes of agriculture."

After reaching out to Drazkowski, he felt the issue coincided with Putnam's bill — SF1498 — which modifies the definition of agricultural land for property tax classification purposes in Minnesota, specifically expanding the ways small parcels of land can qualify for agricultural classification. The bill introduces new criteria for parcels less than 11 acres to be classified as agricultural land, particularly for market farming.

"They were able to fast track this bill to get it heard this year," Kuppenbender said.

After speaking out on the issue, Kuppenbender said she's heard from other small farms who have ran into similar issues, most of which are operated by young farmers.

"This is what everyone's talking about, young farmers. We need young farmers to get into agriculture. The average age of a farmer is in their 60s, and they're not going to be around for forever," Kuppenbender said. "The barriers to farming are already very high. Land access is already really high. Just the cost of adding infrastructure is really high."

"Making it so farms like myself, beginning farmers, first generation farmers, have the benefits that bigger farms, or more established farms, or farms growing commodity crops have every day," she said. "It seems like the county thinks that we want them to make a special exception, or it's a slippery slope if they do something for me, then everyone else growing flowers in their backyard will ask for an ag exemption. That's really not the case. We made over $50,000 per acre last season. We're a legitimate farm business. We deserve these benefits."

Bill's future

The bipartisan bill reflects broader efforts to change how Minnesota defines small and diversified farming.

Drazkowski and Putnam continue to work on additional language to ensure farms under 15 acres that demonstrate production and profit can qualify.

The bill, which would take effect for taxes payable in 2027, was laid over and will be considered for a larger tax bill later in session.

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Parks and Rec to hold Indoor Flowering Bulb class March 19

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 21:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — The city of Bemidji Parks and Recreation Department will offer an Indoor Flowering Bulb gardening class from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19, at the Tourist Information Center.

"Get a jump on spring by planting a flowering bulb garden that will bloom in your home," a release said. "This flowering bulb garden will grow over the following weeks to bring a sense of spring, sunshine and cheerfulness into your home while you wait out the last few weeks of winter."

All supplies will be included: planter, soil, flowering bulbs, as well as instructions for planting and care.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own gardening gloves and can drop in any time between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. to create their planter.

The cost is $20 per planter.

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Parks and Rec to hold May Day flower arrangement class

Pioneer Staff Report — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:56:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — The city of Bemidji Parks and Recreation Department will offer a May Day flower arrangement class from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Netzer's Floral, 2401 Hannah Ave. NW.

The cost is $25 per family.

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A floral fixture: Amy Berg reflects on opening Petals and Pine Floral Studio

Daltyn Lofstrom — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 13:15:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — In just four months, Amy Berg has made a name for herself on the floral design scene.

Her new business, Petals and Pine Floral Studio, specializes in weekly, biweekly and monthly floral subscriptions and delivery. Launched at the beginning of September, Petals and Pine has quickly become a floral fixture for the Bemidji area.

“The community has really embraced the idea and I gained a lot of followers quickly and have a lot of repeat customers,” Berg said. “It’s all about building those relationships.”

Berg took note of past experiences that convinced her to open up shop. One motivator was her former boss at a flower shop in Devils Lake, N.D., where she worked her way into floral design when taking a break from teaching.

She earned certification through the Floral Design Institute in Portland, Ore., shortly after which Berg and her family moved to Bemidji in 2019. She would soon pick up teaching again — wrangling first-graders for a couple of years starting in fall 2020 — before coming up with an entrepreneurial vision.

“This idea kind of came to me. I called the lady I had worked for and said, ‘talk me out of this idea I have,’” Berg said lightheartedly, “and she didn’t. (She said) ‘It’s really a great idea to do it from your home and not have to manage a storefront or employees.’”

Sept. 1 was the official start date of Petals and Pine with the namesake coming from Berg’s love of white pine trees, which she also incorporated into her logo.

From that point onward, she was set up to operate from her home garage.

One-woman show

Stepping down from teaching to focus on the business, Berg has navigated the learning curve of managing all the operations that lead to a beautiful bouquet.

“Keeping up with ordering flowers, doing the design, keeping the website up to date, booking classes,” Berg detailed. “Maybe one day I’ll have a social media manager. It would save me some time.”

Berg enlists occasional help from her five kids and husband, Eric, for various tasks. Though she doesn’t technically employ anyone, her kids may get a little extra cash for helping out.

“If they want to earn a little money, they can wash buckets, sweep the floor and that kind of stuff,” Berg said. “Then they want to be paid immediately, but I always say, 'Hey, that’s not how it works.'”

Holiday seasons are particularly busy, so order delivery may become a family affair.

“Gearing up for Valentine’s Day, I’m like ‘where are my delivery people going to be?’” Berg added.

Floral arrangements range in frequency of delivery as well as size and are available as sympathy, wedding and designs for other special occasions. A vase exchange takes place each time a bouquet is delivered, meaning nobody has to collect vases that they may not reuse and it saves on costs as well.

The range of bouquets leaves little room for predictability during week-to-week deliveries.

“I have my subscriptions which give me a lot of consistency, but you never know when there’s going to be a funeral or a last-minute birthday or anniversary order,” Berg said. “Really, each week is different.”

Being able to take part in these special occasions through her bouquet creations and getting to know her customers is part of Berg’s favorite part of the job.

“I have one lady who says, ‘I just love every other Monday,’” she said. “Her work ladies gather around and they open (the bouquet). It’s like an unboxing experience.”

Flourishing into the future

By not setting specific work hours, Berg maintains a good work-life balance.

“During the day, if I have to bring somebody to an appointment, I can,” Berg mentioned of being a business owner and mother. “Then I can make up that time after the kids go to bed.”

What comes with scheduling flexibility and avoided brick-and-mortar costs, however, is a higher electric bill for running coolers and refrigerators that were repurposed from different sellers, including Cherry Berry when they relocated.

“Ideally, most floral shops have a big walk-in cooler, but we obviously can’t turn this (garage) into one of those,” Berg noted.

As it turns out, that higher bill is a small cost to pay with Berg being able to live out her dream. Moving into the future, she hopes to grow her subscription base and continue to offer floral design classes in the area.

“The classes have been super popular. People love to try their hand at design and learn a few things, tips and tricks about flowers and designing,” she said, “and walk away with a finished product.”

Above all else, she wants to continue spreading the happiness that comes with each floral arrangement.

“Being able to see the joy that it brings people when they receive flowers,” Berg left off, “it’s just really rewarding.”

More information on the business can be found at www.petalsandpinefloral.com.

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The power of flowers: Local floral shops 'Petal It Forward' with free bouquets

Maggi Fellerman — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 00:24:42 GMT

BEMIDJI — Joy was in the air on Wednesday in Bemidji, not just because it was over 40 degrees and sunny, it was also national “Petal It Forward” day.

Petal It Forward is an annual and national effort organized by the Society of American Florists designed to help people experience a day with smiles and happiness. Although the organization aims to show people that it's a pleasure to receive flowers, some find it's even more fulfilling to give them.

Two local flower shops, Netzer's and KD Floral, joined forces along with hundreds of florists across the country to commemorate the holiday on Oct. 19.

The Bemidji shops set up stands at Heroes Rise Mobile Coffee Trailer, Lower Hobson Memorial Union at Bemidji State University and in the Sanford Bemidji Medical Center with 360 bouquets to participate in the random-acts-of-kindness effort.

“We’re giving people free bouquets today,” Fisher Jambor with KD Floral said. “One to keep for yourself and one to give to someone else to spread joy and share flowers with the community.”

Organizers said that flowers can mean a million things, including a way to say “thank you” or “I’m sorry,” however on Wednesday, the flowers didn’t mean anything at all because making someone's day better was simply good enough.

Petal It Forward is a way to illustrate the positive health benefits of giving and receiving flowers. Especially in the last couple of years with the coronavirus pandemic and the toll it took on people's mental health. Science has proven that flowers reduce stress and anxiety and make people happy, according to the SAF website.

“The (Society of American Florists) created this event to promote the positive impact that flowers have on mental health,” Netzer's Floral owner Amy Nelson said.

According to Jambor, some were skeptical as he and Nelson stood in the Sanford lobby handing out the bouquets.

“What’s the catch?” One man asked. He soon found out the only catch was that he had to pass one of the bouquets to someone else.

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Saving Minnesota's state flower

Tom Cherveny — Sat, 09 Jul 2022 12:26:00 GMT

NEW LONDON — Just over two decades ago, Graden West found more than a good fishing spot on Long Lake near New London.

His footpath to the water held a patch of Showy Lady’s Slipper, the state flower. West recognized what others who had trampled carelessly over the native plants had not. He told his spouse, Becky, about the find.

She is passionate about prairie flora and tends her own prairie garden at their home near Nest Lake. Excited about the find, she called her friend Michelle Day. She put the supper she was cooking on hold just for the chance to drive out with her friend to see the flowers.

The invitation to see the flowers came with one caveat: Tell no one of their location. “It’s like a patch of morel mushrooms,” West explained. “You never tell the location.”

Neither of the women would ever imagine that in a few years time, they’d more than let the secret out. Day wrote letters to everyone from the Kandiyohi County Board of Commissioners on up to then-Gov. Mark Dayton to tell about the find and especially why it was the location that mattered so much.

Plans for expanding the segment of Minnesota Highway 23 by Long Lake to four lanes called for tearing up the site. At one point, the designs showed the site as part of a circle to be used by trucks hauling gravel for the road construction.

“That’s what got my goat,” said Day. She and West confessed that they became a “thorn in the side” to everyone when it came to their mission to save the Showy Lady’s Slippers. They attended open house meetings hosted by MnDOT. Day carried a packet of photos of the blooming flowers at the site along with her to show anyone involved with making decisions on the highway project just what was at stake.

“They’re a gift from God,” said Day of the native flowers.

Today, the flowers are survivors, thanks to the two women and Michelle’s late husband, Duane. Until his death in 2015, he was as avid as Michelle and Becky in the quest to save the flowers.

At one point, Duane, as a former architect, approached the engineers for the Highway 23 project with his own designs for how the expanded road could be routed to avoid this once-secret patch.

The location is not being saved, but the Minnesota Department of Transportation worked with Day and West to transplant the Showy Lady’s Slippers to new host sites.

Here’s the good news: Many of the transplanted flowers are surviving at their new sites and at least in one case, doing blooming well.

That’s at the Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center, where roughly one-third of the 95 Showy Lady’s Slippers saved from the highway project were transplanted last September. In most cases, the roots of transplanted Showy Lady’s Slippers go dormant for the first year after being transplanted, and usually do not bloom.

At one of the two Prairie Woods sites holding the new flowers, they are in full bloom. Several of the plants are doing pretty well, said Kory Klebe of Prairie Woods. He was on hand to help with the transplanting last fall.

Nate Johnson with the Minnesota Department of Transportation is responsible for roadside vegetation management and construction impacts on them. He credits Day and West with saving the plants by bringing their existence to the department’s attention. Due to their location, it’s entirely possible that the site would have been flattened by bulldozers without anyone being aware of their presence.

Johnson said that when rare or endangered species are impacted, and it is possible to safely transport them, MnDOT will do so as much as possible.

Day and West were joined at their once-secret location last September by Johnson and others from Prairie Woods ELC, Sibley State Park and the Nature Conservancy. They dug up the plants and divided them up for transplanting.

Johnson visited the plants at Sibley State Park on Wednesday to see how they are faring. Some still survive, but a portion of the transplanted plants could not be seen. He suspects that deer may have browsed on them.

He is waiting for word from the Nature Conservancy on how their transplanted plants are doing on prairie lands they manage.

The two women said they are happy to know that the plants are survivors, although they wish the original site itself could have been protected.

West admits to mixed feelings about the highway project itself. She hopes the improved road delivers on the promise for improved safety. Her grandson, Nathaniel Shumaker, 11, of New London, died April 25, 2018 in an accident on the highway.

The political agreement that made funding possible for this project was made on Green Lake when fishing guide Kelly Morrel made an emotional appeal for a safer Highway 23 just days after attending Shumaker’s funeral. Morrel's boat mates were Gov. Dayton and Representative Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and Republican leaders in the legislature, Senator Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa, and Representative Kurt Daudt, R-Crown.

The women have been back to the site recently before work starts on it. They found another 13 Showy Lady’s Slippers growing around the perimeters of the excavated plants. While the Showy Lady’s Slippers are being saved, this site and others along the new highway path includes a wide variety of native, flowering prairie plants.

Their hope now is that saving the Showy Lady’s Slippers will help promote more awareness and appreciation by all of us for what we are losing, and hopefully, to save what remains. We have a lot of natural gifts like these that we do not always recognize, explained Day.

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How to protect your yard and garden from heat and wind

Don Kinzler — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 12:15:00 GMT

FARGO — It was so windy last week across the Upper Midwest that even cows were blown over. It was an udder disaster.

Mother Nature apparently heard us complaining about the late, chilly, wet spring, so she compensated by ushering in summer with hot, dry winds.

Hot, windy weather is the opposite of what makes our yards and gardens flourish. Some garden plants do enjoy heat, minus the wind, such as watermelon, muskmelon, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin, tomato and pepper.

Most plants in our area, though, are adapted to the generally cooler summers of the Northern states. Sure, we get a few hot days most summers, but we traditionally don’t experience the extended heat and humidity of the Deep South.

Plants that grow best in our region enjoy bright sunny days, moderate temperatures and a nighttime cooldown. Staples such as peonies, iris, geraniums and even rhubarb suffer and begin to decline in extended heat.

When we experience blast furnace heat levels, our cool-loving plants quickly regress to survival mode. Coupled with wind, flowers quickly shatter and plants themselves can break apart. Vegetable plants can whip and twist in the wind until stems are damaged beyond recovery. One hot, windy day can doom flowers and gardens.

Newly planted trees and shrubs easily develop scorched leaves, as hot winds desiccate foliage faster than the young root system can pump water upward. Trees without established roots can tip in strong wind.

It might sound dire, but there are ways to mitigate damage from heat and wind. Measures taken on a severely hot, windy day can save plant lives.

Preventing wind damage

Tall perennials, such as delphinium, giant fleece flower and lilies, might require staking, either throughout the season or temporarily on days of extreme wind. Small, newly planted perennials or shrubs can be protected on windy, scorching days by temporarily covering with a bucket or tote weighted with a brick or rock. Prop up the base to allow a little air circulation inside. Newly planted trees might require staking for the first one or two seasons. The support mechanism should allow for some movement of the trunk, which builds trunk strength. Damage to garden vegetables can be mitigated by using a hoe to mound soil around the base of plants to prevent stems from being whipped, twisted and damaged, which works well for cabbage, broccoli, squash, cucumber, melons, pumpkins, tomato and potato. Young vegetable transplants can be protected with open-ended cans or jugs placed around the plants, and removed as plants grow. Past generations used a wooden shake or shingle placed on the windward side of each plant. Vegetable and flower plants can be given temporary protection on gusty days with almost any object that provides a wind barrier. Move pots and planters to a sheltered spot until the wind subsides. Water trees, shrubs and all young and less-established plants in the morning of days forecast to have extreme wind.

Preventing heat damage When temperatures soar above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, many plants suffer heat stress. Move flower containers into the shade, if possible, on the hottest days. Water flower beds, vegetable gardens, containers and newly planted trees and shrubs the evening before extreme heat is predicted. Watering down wood and rock mulch, walkways and the vicinity around plants and containers during the heat of the day can provide cooling by evaporation. Sprinkling plants with water can cool them down, but wetting foliage can cause serious disease, and water droplets can magnify the sun’s heat, causing burnt spots. If plants wilt from heat but the soil is still wet, resist the urge to add more water, which can cause additional problems. Mulch flowers and vegetables with straw or lawn clippings that haven’t been treated with herbicides. Mulch keeps soils moist and cool. Rock mulch can collect and retain dangerous levels of heat. Spraying the mulch with water in midday can provide cooling by evaporation. If an entire landscape is mulched with rock, removing rocks from a 2- to 4-foot diameter circle around plants and replacing with shredded wood mulch can be a permanent solution. Don Kinzler, a lifelong gardener, is the horticulturist with North Dakota State University Extension for Cass County. Readers can reach him at donald.kinzler@ndsu.edu.]]>

Don't worry too much about this common condition on rose bush leaves

Don Kinzler — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Q: I am not super familiar with roses and have started to try them recently. This year something new is happening to one of my rose bushes. There are little white or gray spots that eventually turn into a hole in the leaf. Can you help identify what this is? — Jessica D.

A: The gray spots which later fall out are caused by an insect called the roseslug sawfly. The larvae rasp away at the green layer of the leaf, leaving the thin gray tissue that eventually falls out, leaving a skeletonized appearance.

The damage occurs in mid-May through mid-June, when the feeding portion of the insect’s life cycle stops. Damage is often on the lower part of the rose bush, and newer growth is usually normal, as the insect’s activity ceases.

The larvae are a pale greenish color and often go unnoticed. Because the damage stops by mid-June, control is often unnecessary or ineffective by the time the signs are noticed. If damage is caught early, and a young rose bush is being badly affected, a rose spray or dust can be used, or insecticidal soap.

Because beneficial pollinating bees also visit roses, insecticides should be used sparingly, if at all. The damage from roseslug sawfly is usually cosmetic, unless feeding damage is affecting a majority of leaves.

Q: Our string bean plants are all full of holes, and I see a small beetle. What is the best way to control them? — John W.

A: Bean leaf beetles are seemingly everywhere again this year, and I’ve received many questions. The leaves of our own string beans were riddled with holes before I applied insecticide.

Several insecticides will give good control of these beetles, including Sevin, malathion and permethrin (one brand that contains the ingredient is the insecticide Eight.) Check labels for the waiting time between application and safe harvest. An organic insecticide that can be applied close to harvest is spinosad, and the label will indicate the exact interval.

Q: I’ve read your past articles about deer damage and wanted to tell you about a way I’ve found to prevent deer damage to our yard and garden. The method might sound a little crazy, but it really does work and is almost foolproof. — Evelyn B.

A: Evelyn caught my attention immediately when she mentioned deer damage prevention and foolproof. Deer cause millions of dollars of damage to trees, gardens and landscapes every year, and repellents can have mixed results.

Evelyn continues, “Deer were always eating our flowers, shrubs and gardens, and around eight years ago I read about a method using monofilament fish line. I read that if an area was encircled about 4 or 5 feet high with the fish line, the deer see the reflection of the line, don’t know what it is and won’t cross it. Or they feel it when they come up to it, and will go away.

“We tried the method, and it works great. We used PVC pipes or other posts to support the fish line, and surrounded the areas that we wanted to protect. It stopped the deer damage. Once, when the fish line came down, the deer got into the garden and ruined our beets. We put the line back up, and there was no further damage. I thought your readers might be interested in this method.”

Evelyn, your method isn’t crazy at all, because I’ve actually tried it with wonderful results in the past. Like you say, the deer see the glint of the monofilament fish line and won’t cross. The method might not be practical in all locations, but it’s much less expensive than a tall deer fence.

I’ve used this successfully along a tree row through which deer were entering to consume our garden. In areas that can be encircled, where humans might not accidentally walk into the fish line, this is an option well worth trying. Thanks, Evelyn, for passing along this method.

If you have a gardening or lawn care question, email Don Kinzler, NDSU Extension-Cass County, at donald.kinzler@ndsu.edu. Questions with broad appeal may be published, so please include your name, city and state for appropriate advice.]]>

How to grow great winter-hardy roses

Don Kinzler — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 14:00:00 GMT

FARGO — Most of us have heard of the White House Rose Garden, but do you know its origins? It was started in the early 20th century when a part of the property was no longer needed for horse stables with the advent of the newly invented automobile, and the area was developed into a formal rose garden.

June is officially designated as National Rose Month, and with good reason: It’s the month when rose bushes are at their finest. June is the flowering peak for most rose types, with smaller flushes of bloom through the rest of summer.

I’m a big fan of roses, especially those that bloom delightfully without a lot of fuss. My wife, Mary, and I have a collection of 12 different cultivars of roses, and they survive winter beautifully, even without extra winter protection.

Roses can be confusing, because traditionally the types are divided into categories such as hybrid tea, grandiflora and floribunda. But my favorite rose classification is simple: winter-hardy and not winter-hardy.

“Hardy” is a relative term, and what’s hardy for Kentucky might not survive in the North country. If a rose tag says “winter-hardy,” it doesn’t necessarily apply to winters in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Many roses sold at national chains are not fully winter-hardy and are borderline for much of our region, including the Knockout series, Meidiland series, Carefree Beauty, Flower Carpet, Robin Hood, Simplicity, Freedom and Easy Elegance series. They’re best planted in a sheltered microclimate receiving good snow cover with protective mulch applied in fall. Most are rated for hardiness zones 4 to 5.

Winter-hardy roses

The following varieties, developed in Canada, are great choices to fill Northern rose gardens. They’re well-adapted, with hardiness ratings of zones 2 and 3. This is only a partial list, but it includes a few of our favorites.

Canada Blooms: Fragrant pink flowers with hybrid tealike form. Never Alone: Vivid blossoms with deep red edges and a vibrant white center. Campfire: Indescribable tricolor of reddish-pink, yellow and white. Canadian Shield: Large red flowers. Bill Reid: Yellow. Oscar Peterson: Large, semi-double white. Cuthbert Grant: Crimson red double. Hope for Humanity: Double deep red. Morden Blush: Pink, blushing to ivory. Morden Belle: Pleasant pink; disease resistant. Morden Fireglow: Glowing red. Morden Snowbeauty: Very floriferous white. Morden Sunrise: Vivid yellow-orange. Winnipeg Parks: Medium red. J.P. Connell: Lemon yellow. John Cabot: Medium red. Quadra: Dark red. Pavement series: Purple, scarlet, white types. Henry Kelsey: Rosy-red. One of the best climbers. William Baffin: Rose-pink. Excellent climber. Other older hardy types: Hansa, Harrison’s Yellow, Therese Bugnet, Topaz Jewell and Wild Woods Rose.

Where can we find these roses? Locally owned garden centers are the best bets, as they’re more likely to be knowledgeable about these cultivars for Northern gardens. No garden center will have all these types, but usually offer a few of their favorites.

Tips for growing roses Roses love soil high in organic material. Add generous amounts of peat moss at planting time and incorporate into soil. Potted roses can be planted all season, but planting by midsummer gives them more time to establish. Give late-planted roses protective mulch during the first winter. Plant the crown, where branches meet roots, at least 3 to 4 inches below soil surface for best winter survival. Roses bloom best with at least six hours of direct sun daily. Mulch soil around roses with 3 inches of shredded bark or cocoa bean mulch to keep soil cool and moist. Landscape rock is less preferable for roses, because of its tendency to trap heat. Roses thrive with good moisture. Avoiding wetting leaves to prevent foliage disease.

Products sold as rose dust or rose spray combine disease-preventing fungicides with insect control. Roses are heavy feeders. Fertilize monthly April through July for tremendous bloom. Trim off withered blossoms down to the first five-leaflet leaf below the flower, which results in a greater flush of new buds. Roses are sold “grafted” or “own root.” Own-root is preferred, because grafted roses are more susceptible to everything above the graft knob freezing out. Rabbits love consuming rose canes during winter, so add a fence of chicken wire in fall. If roses suffer winter rabbit injury or cane dieback, prune heavily in spring and the roses bounce back fine. Don’t prune roses in fall; wait until spring for best survival. Don Kinzler, a lifelong gardener, is the horticulturist with North Dakota State University Extension for Cass County. Readers can reach him at donald.kinzler@ndsu.edu.]]>