• First prize: Victoria Alvarado (pictured above) won two baseball tickets!
• Second Prize: Alice Saracco won a set of barbeque utensils.
• Third Prize: Joseph Gigante won a tool set.

Daylilies, members of the Liliaceae (lily family), are some of the easiest to grow and most popular of the garden perennials. Because they range in size, color, and design application, there is a daylily for almost everyone and every garden. Like their name Hemerocallis, "beauty for a day," the individual daylily flower lasts only one day. What is so wonderful? They are borne on long arching stems with the flowers in clusters and bloom in succession over a period of two to six months from mid-spring to late, depending upon the variety.

Daylilies are versatile in the garden and landscape. They can be very dramatic in a perennial border or in the foreground of shrubbery plantings. They can be spectacular as foundation plantings, cover an unsightly bank or serve as accents beside a pond. These flowers are more dramatically effective when planted in clusters of three or more to create sweeping drifts or a mass effect. Not only do the flowers sway in the breeze, so does the light, strapping foliage. Motion in the garden!

The flowers of the species come in vibrant shades of yellow, orange, and red, with a much more varied color selection in the hybrids. Plants have been developed with flowers in cream, gold, scarlet, pink, apricot, purple, violet, and plum. There are also hybrids, which repeatedly bloom throughout the summer; they bloom early, then after a short rest, bloom again, constantly repeating the process.

Don't miss out on our new daylily hybrids with ruffles, piecrust ruffles, and picotee borders. Ruffles have soft, lightly wavy edges. Piecrust edging has heavy indentations, much like edges to a pie crust. Picotee has petal margins that are either lighter or darker than the main petal color—a contrasting color. All of these new introductions are gorgeous!

Choose a sunny or lightly shaded location for your daylilies. The best flowers will be produced when they are planted in a sunny location, unless you live in a very hot climate; in this case, choose a lightly shaded area. Daylilies also enjoy a regular feeding every two months during the growing season to maintain their bloom color.

They are tough, adaptable, vigorous-growing plants that will thrive in nearly all kinds of soil; however, the best is soil that is moist, but well drained, fertile and humus-rich. Unless you are lucky enough to have that kind of soil, improve your soil with an amendement for best results. Also add mulch around the plants to minimize weeds and retain soil moisture. (Although with recent storms, that well-draining soil may look more important at the moment!)

Here at McAdam Garden Center, we have plenty of lovely daylilies for you to choose from. Come in and look around!

Many homeowners revel in the glory of their garden in spring, only to be disappointed when plants start to dry out and look stressed in the heat of summer. The natural reaction is to pour more water into the garden to "moisturize" the plants. This in turn can lead to root rot and/or the continuous lowering of soil temperature to the point that plants aren't stimulated to grow--or just plain die (overwatering is one of the main causes of plant death). But these problems can be greatly reduced or, in many cases, prevented by summer mulching.

The goal of summer mulching is not only to reduce summer heat stress on plants, but to create an environment for plants that will be conducive to good growth. Mulch is to a garden what a roof is to your home. We couldn't heat or air condition the home without the roof. The same seasonal temperature variance occurs in your garden. A 2" layer of mulch not only retains moisture in the soil but it maintains a cooler temperature in the summer and a warmer temperature in the winter.

Mulching also brings many other benefits to the garden. It gives the garden a tidier appearance and greatly improves the growing conditions for plants. Mulch helps suppress weeds and helps to conserve moisture. It creates an environment where earthworms can thrive and enhance the soil's condition. Nature provides this for us in natural settings; when we apply mulch to our garden, we mimic what is naturally done on the forest floor.

The strategy is to stimulate the growth of good soil bacteria, which in turn digest plant foods that the plant will recognize as nutrients and absorb. By keeping moisture in the soil you will attract earthworms and beneficial microbes and bacteria. The earthworms loosen up the soil, easing compaction, while the beneficial microbes help digest nutrients more efficiently, making them more readily available to the plants. Maintaining "moist" soil as opposed to "wet" soil keeps the temperature of the soil at a more consistent level for optimum growth. Mulch also provides a blanket to the soil that protects against soil crusting, as it decomposes and adds humus to the soil.

We recommend spreading a 2" inch layer of mulch or bark over the top of the native soil. There are many mulching materials available. Color, particle size, and nutrient exchange are considerations when choosing your material. Non-organic decorative mulches such as rock or gravel may be an attractive addition in gardens but give nothing back to the soil. Note: make sure not to place mulch right up against plant stems or tree trunks.

When mulching is incorporated with a good organic fertilizing program, the plants in your garden will not only survive the stress of summer and winter, but will thrive in it. Mulch will also give your garden a more "finished" look, adding to its overall beauty.

June 19
Those of you who signed up, please don't forget--tonight is Ladies' Night!
Don't miss our ladies' night out to celebrate one of the longest days of the year. FREE massage, drinks, hors d'oeuvres, music and more.

When most people think about drought tolerant landscaping they conjure up images of rock, cactus and succulents. And while they can have a place in some drought tolerant gardens (if you live in the desert) most modern drought tolerant designs don't rely on them and are filled with the beauty and color of many favorite mainstream plants.

Most existing landscapes already have plants that can survive periods of drought. The key is to select plants for your particular growing conditions when planning and designing (or re-designing) your landscape and then placing these plants together according to their water needs.

Your goal should be to create three basic divisions of plant groupings: a very low water zone, a low water zone and a moderate water zone. Each area should be irrigated separately, according to specific water needs. In this way you can have one area that uses more water than the environment naturally provides and another area where you might need no extra water at all.

Consider foliage texture and color, bloom period and the shape of each plant when selecting plants for your garden. Also incorporate some plants with grayish foliage; these have a natural reflective quality that allows them to survive in low-moisture, high-heat situations.

Along with proper plant selection are a couple of other very important principles which should be incorporated into any drought tolerant garden:

• Make sure to use a soil amendment when planting.
• Cover open areas around plants and trees with a two inch layer of mulch to reduce evaporation, keep the soil cool, and help prevent weeds.

Last, a drought tolerant garden needs to be watered correctly in order for you to succeed in your water-saving goals. Each water zone should be on a separate station and timer. Make sure to irrigate in the early morning to help reduce evaporation. Be sure to pull weeds as needed to reduce competition for water, and feed your garden at least quarterly to help your plants stay healthy and strong.

With careful selection, planning and execution, drought-tolerant landscapes can be as pleasing as those needing heavy irrigation. We have a great selection of colorful drought tolerant plants, and our staff of garden experts is available to help you every step of the way.

The mouthparts of insects have adapted over time to suit the feeding style of each type of insect. Mouthparts differ from insect to insect, so the damage that they cause is useful in the classification and identification of the pest. Differentiating the type of insect damage will help you determine how to control the pest.

A chewing insect is any insect that has teeth. Most winged chewing insects (such as beetles, caterpillars and grasshoppers) feed only on leaf tissue, working from the leaf edge towards the center and eventually to the leaf stem. Crawling chewing insects, such as cutworms, will also eat roots and even stems of small plants.

Rasping insects (such as mites, snails, slugs and thrips) actually scrape off the surface of the leaves as sandpaper would. They suck up the fluids from the top layer of cells until all the green tissue has been consumed, leaving only the skeleton behind.

Sucking insects (such as aphids and whiteflies) have slender mouthparts with which they pierce leaves and stems to suck out plant fluids. Large populations can cause curling, yellowing and distortion of leaves, as well as stunting of shoots. Most sucking insects also produce large quantities of a sticky substance known as honeydew, which often turns black with the growth of a sooty mold fungus.

If you're not sure what type of insect is attacking your plant, just bring in a sample and one of our nursery experts will recommend a remedy to help your plant.