By Eileen Goldfinger, house and garden editor @Blogfinger
Eileen’s secret recipe for her large potted hibiscus plant: She has brought it into the house each of the last 4 winters, before the frost, placing it in a sunny window. This is a tropical plant, and frost will kill it. It goes dormant in the winter, so it requires just light watering.
This spring, she took it outside into the rear garden where it gets partial sun, especially in the afternoon. Hibiscus needs sun. Then she removed it from the pot and pruned off one-third of the roots. After that, she replaced the potting soil and added timed release fertilizer (“Osmocote”). Then she placed it into the soil and pruned back the branches by a third. Watering should be light, weekly, and with weekly liquid fertilizer ” Organic Bloom” by Espoma.
All summer it has bloomed more than usual, and the blooms only last one day. Then, during the last week of August, the plant erupted with a record-breaking (for our garden) 8 simultaneous blooms occurring at one remarkable point.
Conversation from the Township Committee meeting on May 24: (From our reporter on the scene)
Q. A member of the Public asked “Have you heard anything from WAVE?” (WAVE is the secretive group of investors that would develop the North End.)
A. Gene Anthony (Township lawyer) : “No. It’s strange.”
A. Randy Bishop : “Very strange.”
Note: About a year ago, Dr. Michael Brantley (Committeeman) said: “It’s time we take a look at all our redevelopment zones to see what we really want to do”
–The jailbird panhandler has returned to the North End near Main Avenue. Last week BF received two complaints. The mo is the same: tall, well dressed black man shows up out of nowhere and says he just got out of jail and wants to work. Or course, he really wants money. This has been going on for several years with the same guy. He uses a subtle form of intimidation, and Grovers should not have to put up with that. NTPD says do not give him money; instead call them. 732 988 8000.
Song of the week: DJ Sam Feelgood “Up All Night Long.”
Wake up and smell the roses: The beach roses are in full bloom. Go down there and take a whiff. (When I was a kid, a whiff was a strikeout, but now it’s a different aroma altogether.)
The gardens in Ocean Grove are still showing color even though most of the leaves have fallen from the trees. Many shrubs in towns are now resplendent with berries and autumn leaves of reds, yellows, purples and gold. A multi-color display prevailed in a lush garden hugging the sidewalk and shown above on Main Avenue near New Jersey Avenue.
While we chatted with the gardener, a squirrel scurried over via a low tree branch. The creature practically came nose to nose with her, as if they were partners in experiencing the lingering display of colors.
Inside our house, buds were forming on Eileen’s Christmas cactus which has the promise of deep pink flowers very soon.
Two years ago our garden columnist Miss Pegi (Costantino) wrote about bringing hibiscus plants indoors for the winter. This is what she said in Blogfinger on November 2013:
“The hibiscus is a tropical plant which can be brought in for the winter, provided it doesn’t freeze to death before you do so. Last week we had, according to Pegi, a “hard frost” in the Grove, but many of her plants did survive including begonias and zinnias. Many homeowners who have hibiscus in their gardens simply buy new plants each spring, but that can be expensive. If you bring them into the house, you can pinch off the buds and place the plant in a cold environment such as a garage just to let it go dormant and keep it alive till spring and save money.
“Or, you can bring it in to enjoy the blooms, even though that might weaken the plant for the spring. The hibiscus must be placed in a sunny window. Don’t water it too much—“keep it on the dry side.” If it is near a source of heat such as a radiator, you might have to water it more often. Pegi says, “Do not fertilize it during the winter.”
“If the plant gets some yellow leaves, “pluck them off.” In the spring you can then buy new plants or cut back the winter plant, put back into the garden and fertilize.”
Eileen followed Pegi’s advice and brought in her mandarin orange (with magenta centers) colored specimen to sit in a west facing window and receive only water for the winter. She brought the plant back into the garden in the spring of 2014 where it did fine. In 2015, sitting indoors during the bad winter, the plant had a few indoor flowers, but it lost quite a few leaves.
However, when she put it back in the garden it responded dramatically with higher growth, dense foliage and flowers all spring and summer.
We expect a new column from Miss Pegi very soon.
PATTY GRIFFIN Something worse than faded flowers—-“Faded Love” from the album Remembering Patsy Cline.
First Annual OG People’s Garden Tour, June 14, 2014. Blogfinger photo
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
We are happy to announce that there will be a Second Annual Ocean Grove People’s Garden Tour in 2015, exact date to be announced, although we believe that the tour will again be in June. The event will be sponsored by the Woman’s Club of Ocean Grove. Blogfinger will provide promotional assistance.
This is just a heads up for those who like to plan ahead. We hope that many of you will decide to join the fun. There are so many wonderful gardens in Ocean Grove, and sharing with fellow townies is a good thing.
It is especially exciting to realize that the event will be organized by an eminent expert in gardening, Pegi Costantino (aka Miss Pegi, columnist for Blogfinger and Woman-in-chief at the WCOG) who will be providing many more details after the summer is over. Thank you Pegi.
Peonies at 128 Heck. June 5, 2014. Blogfinger photo
OG secret garden
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Did it ever occur to you that most of the events in town are mainly for tourists? What do we do to provide events specifically for Grovers?
Yes there is a town-wide picnic scheduled for July 18, but I’ve been thinking about OG secret gardens for some time. We have gardeners in town who have created the most amazing floral and vegetative displays as they have overcome the challenges of small spaces.
But if a tree falls in a forest does it make a sound? The same sort of question evolves from gardens—-miracles of nature—- that no one besides the homeowner gets to see. Is the visual impact as marvelous as when many people get to witness those fragile displays that peak in June in our town?
Why not let neighbors from anywhere in the Grove come visit your garden on one special morning? I raised this idea up the flagpole a couple of years ago, and we got a few positive responses, but never actually tried it. Grovers can bring their friends, and outsiders who hear about it can come. (We won’t advertise except on Blogfinger)
So here’s the suggestion: On Saturday June 14, a date when gardens should look great, let’s have the People’s Garden tour from 9 am-1 pm. To participate, all you need to do is give me your first name (s) and your address. Then, whether 2 people or 20 people show up, you can have the pleasure of sharing your garden’s treasures. I will post the participating gardens during the week of June 7.
I know it’s short notice, but this is a funky idea, such as those popularized recently by Tom Costantino in a comment on BF where he extolled the virtues of quirkiness and character in our town.
And even if only a few gardens sign up, that will be OK for starters. Eileen and I will do it, and I bet some people show up to see the results of her hard work. Fear of failure is not an option as we try, as Ken Buckley often suggests, to make OG a better place.
FRANKIE RANDALL (Ok, the month of May is over, but what the heck. Make believe he’s singing about June) And oh, Frankie Randall was born in Passaic, NJ—in January.
The beautiful gardens of Ocean Grove are not, as some may think, maintained by the Camp Meeting Association or Neptune Township. A group of volunteers, the aptly named Ocean Grove Beautification Project, plans, plants, weeds and waters the gardens from March through November.
You’ve likely seen them on Thursday mornings hard at work — and it is hard work! — at one of the 18 flower beds around town, or in the Beautification cart dousing thirsty flowers in the 74 containers on the boardwalk, or up on tiptoe (or a ladder) plucking weeds from one of the five historic urns. Other volunteers come out on weekends or when needed for a specific task.
This year Beautification carried out a complete renovation of the twin beds flanking the Stokes statue in front of the Great Auditorium. Day lilies that had grown increasingly unkempt were removed and replaced with a colorful assortment of perennials and annuals. They also redesigned the bed at the Main Avenue flagpole, which is now a patriotic ribbon of red and white begonias and blue salvia against a backdrop of red cannas.
Not only do the volunteers garden, they raise the money to purchase thousands of annuals, as well as perennials, mulch, fertilizer and other supplies. They depend on contributions from individuals and civic minded organizations for support. They are environmentally conscious gardeners, relying on mulch and weeding rather than herbicides.
This weekend the Starving Artist at 47 Olin Street is hosting a fundraiser for Beautification from 8 a.m to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16. Owners Arnold Teixeira and Dave Fernicola will donate a percentage of the proceeds to the organization. Contributions can also be sent to directly to OGBP, P.O. Box 594, Ocean Grove, NJ 07756.
Here is a Blogfinger selection of photos of Ocean Grove gardens tended by Beautification. Place the cursor over the slideshow to find a tool to view images one at a time slowly.
