Let's start off with congratulations to all the Yorkton in Bloom winners! You should all be very proud of your efforts, and how wonderful it is that you shared your yards with the community! Thank you also to everyone at the City who worked on this program, and to Glenda Bohn and Vi Protz who were the liaisons between the City and the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society. Thank you, everyone, for your hard work in making this project a success!
More thanks go out to everyone who took part in the Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Show: another great year! To all our guests, it was great to see you! To all the exhibitors, thank you for taking the time to bring your entries, that's what makes a great show! To everyone from the Hort Society who helped to set up, take down, bring dainties, serve coffee, or greet guests at the door, a bouquet of roses to you all for your tireless efforts! Thank you also to Jeff and Mario at St. Gerard's Hall for all your assistance. The show is a great way to visit with other gardeners and learn about new plants.
Two gardening paths intersected this past week. The first was that while I was rummaging through my "gardening reading" pile, I found a great little book called "Flower Problem Solver" by the Ortho brand of garden products. This little gem has lots of good practical information on everything from poor flowering to wilting to pests and diseases.
The second path was that one fine day this past weekend, we went out to visit a dear friend and see his garden. He commented that some of his plants were afflicted with "aster yellows", a condition that I had never heard of before, have you? I thought that when we get home, I have to look it up and see what that is all about.
Here is where the two paths cross: that little garden book listed "aster yellows", so I made a few note to tell you about it. Aster yellows is a condition where the plant looks yellow and sickly. The flowers look deformed and stunted, as though they didn't fill out properly. Aster yellows might affect asters, but it also affects mums, snapdragons, marigolds, glads, and purple coneflowers.
The disease is caused by phytoplasms, similar to a bacteria, and go from plant to plant catching a ride on a little bug called leafhoppers. Heat makes the symptoms of aster yellows more severe, and we have had a lot of heat this year!
If you notice this problem in your garden, pull out any affected plants and get rid of them (don't throw them onto your compost pile, and don't leave them lying in the garden). Be sure to remove any weeds or foliage nearby that might be a good hiding place for the leafhoppers. And if you don't mind some chemical assistance in the garden, bug sprays are also available, check with your local greenhouse about the best one to use.
It doesn't seem possible that you and I should be talking about the first fall meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society, but it is just around the corner! On Wed., Sept. 19, at 7:00 p.m. at the Sunshine Room in SIGN on North Street, we'll kick off another great year of meetings and speakers! Our special guest will be Warren Crossman who will be speaking to us about "Heirloom Seeds and Growing Old Varieties of Vegetables". I know that it will be a great meeting, and Warren will have a lot of information to share with us, so mark that date down on your calendar and join us!
Till next time, have a great week, and enjoy these fleeting summer days!
