San Antonio Express News
GARDENING, Etc.
Sunday, October 5, 2003
The very first Annual Garden Festival of Roses is coming to San Antonio. Scheduled for Saturday, October 18 (9AM-6PM) and Sunday, October 19 (11AM-6PM), at the Antique Rose Emporium in San Antonio, renowned gardening experts will be on hand with a plethora of programs. The Festival has something for everyone and promises to please just about any gardener! Beginning gardeners, as well as the seasoned gardener, and of course, rose lovers… should not miss this event. All programs are free to the public.
Glenn Schroeter, production manager for The Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham will present “Getting to the Root of Propagation” and will be on hand to answer your questions. Glenn is responsible for 20 acres of production of roses and perennials.
Herbalist and author, Lucinda Hutson, will present “Dio de los Muertes,” a colorful slide journey through Mexico, and includes highlights of her own Tex-Mex garden. Her garden is filled with herbs, flowers and whimsical folk art. She has authored The Herb Garden Cookbook, and Tequila! Cooking with the Spirit of Mexico.
Professor and Extension Landscape Horticulturist, Dr. Bill Welch, will present the program,”Creating a Texas Country Garden.” Dr. Welch has written several gardening books and received the Service Superior Service Award from Texas Agricultural Extension in 1988. His books include Perennial Garden Color, Antique Roses for the South, and The Southern Heirloom Garden. He co-authored The Bountiful Cutflower Garden.
David Will, owner of Landscape Details and co-owner of Gottlieb Gardens specializes in native and heritage trees and plants. David is a professional horticulturist with degrees from Texas A&M University and Sam Houston University. David does a wonderful job with his program “Bulbs That Light Up Your Life.” Find out how to naturalize bulbs for this area of Texas.
Mike Shoup is the owner and founder of The Antique Rose Emporium. He opened the Brenham location in 1984. He co-authored Landscaping With Antique Roses and more recently authored Roses in the Southern Garden. Find out about “Pioneer Roses” from this expert rose grower.
Jim Johnson is a distinguished lecturer for the Department of Horticulture, and is director of the Benz School of Floral Design at Texas A&M University. He has authored five of twelve courses in the Texas Professional Certified Florists program and co-authored Texas Design Seminar, an advanced design course series for Flower Show Judges. His program, “Romancing the Rose,” will include many tips on designing floral arrangements from your own garden.
Don’t miss the chance to learn from the experts and participate in San Antonio’s first Annual Garden Festival of Roses. Our fall season provides a spectacular blooming period for roses, so bring your camera for some wonderful photos. The Antique Rose Emporium is located at 7561 East Evans Road (left off of Nacogdoches, just north of Loop 1604). Please call (210) 651-4565 for speakers schedule and additional information.
October is Primetime for Southern Yellowjackets
Cooler temperatures have finally arrived South Texas, bringing a renewed interest in the outdoors and all of the associated activities. Many of these activities will involve gardening, landscape projects or home improvement projects. It’s a perfect time of the year for these pursuits, but there are some insects this time of the year that might make these activities less fun than normal.
Over the past two weeks, calls to my phone at the Bexar County Extension office have steadily increased due to encounters with colonies of angry yellowjackets. The Southern Yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) is a small, bee-like hornet that prefers to build enclosed nests in the ground or near the ground. In addition to the ground, they will nest behind rock walls or timbers in raised beds, in clumps of pampas grass or similar places and even in the walls of homes. Yellowjackets are not keen on visitors around their nests. In fact, they will defend their nests in the same aggressive fashion as do Africanized bees. Yellowjackets will sting en masse and chase the “intruder” up to 1/4 mile before stopping.
One point of confusion usually occurs when mentioning yellowjackets. The average person’s mind paints a picture of a yellow wasp that builds a hanging paper nest under the eaves of a house or similar locale. While we all have grown up calling these yellow wasps “yellowjackets,” they are actually a species of paper wasp like the big red wasps.
Yellowjackets are very helpful predators on webworms and other insects, so they do have a good side. Generally speaking, yellowjackets nests do not survive the winter, rather the queens will hibernate and begin anew in spring.
For those who need to control yellowjackets, the best tool for this is a dust insecticide. Dust
insecticides containing carbaryl, permethrin, cyfluthrin, pyrethrins and others will do just fine for this purpose. In fact, it is the dust part that is important and not the active ingredient. Wait until after dark to treat the nests; treat the mouth of the nest with two tablespoons of dust and walk away. Usually, one treatment is enough for control. Extension publication L-1828 contains all of the information necessary for success. Send a self addressed stamped envelope to the Extension office at Yellowjackets, 3355 Cherry Ridge, Ste 212, San Antonio, Texas 78230, or check out the Texas Cooperative Extension Online Bookstore at http://www.tcebookstore.org for other publications as well. Many are available in Adobe Acrobat, and can be printed from the site.
One other outdoor reminder for fall involves mosquitoes. While cooler weather brings a promise of fewer bugs, mosquitoes will continue to be around until we have three consecutive weeks of night time temperatures in the mid to low 60’s. Be sure to wear mosquito repellant to protect yourself from bites and West Nile Virus. This holds true for hunters as well.
Lynn Rawe, County Extension Agent-Horticulture and Nathan Riggs, County Extension Agent-IPM, with Texas Cooperative Extension-Bexar County, contributed information for this article. For more information please call 210 / 467-6575.
