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UPDATE:    18 November 2004

    from David Sarasua, TRN Member:

Mushroom Compost

One of the joys of living in the Bay Area is that this is one of the largest mushroom-growing regions in the United States.

Now you may ask why is this a joy? If you live next to a mushroom farm, you know they produce a smell that can only be described as very unpleasant. Well, I love to garden, and I happen to have clay soil. Actually, I should say, that I had clay soil. I now garden in pure mushroom compost.

I am fickle when it comes to gardening. What I plant in one place today, I usually will dig up and plant somewhere else in the future. I am not sure why I do this, but I do. I think I get pleasure in dealing with the soil. Anyway, when I first bought the house, I thought if I would turn the soil and add a bit of gypsum, my soil would be nice and fluffy. I'm not sure where I heard this, but it was advice that I heard time and time again.

Early on, I borrowed a roto-tiller to turn the top 12 inches of my soil. Well, even the roto-tiller I borrowed - a real beast - could only go down to six inches. I roto-tilled the six inches and used a shovel to till the bottom six inches by hand. I did not know how much gypsum to add, so I added about 100 bags to my backyard. It was not too expensive and I really wanted my soil to be fluffy. Boy, was I wrong! One good rain and the material reverted back to its same, hard character.

A friend of mine was having his house torn down, and he asked me if I wanted some of the plants as they were all going to be replaced. We went over in my pickup truck and proceeded to dig out the plants. His soil was the same clay that I had, and we proceeded to break two indestructible shovels from Home Depot. These where the fiberglass shovels that have a limited lifetime guarantee… limited to what you use them for and how you use them.

When I bought the house, I had to dig a hole to mount a mailbox. It took about four hours to dig that hole (I finally borrowed an electric jackhammer). Gardening in clay is not a pleasure. Obviously, I really enjoy gardening, but this clay soil transformed my joy into real drudgery!

I often donate my time to Saratoga Horticulture Research Foundation. One of the first things I noticed is that they don't garden in clay. They use potting soil. Now here is a soil mixture that urges you to garden…nice and fluffy! This is the way I wanted my garden soil to be. How could I get my garden soils to be more like that potting mix? That was the question! It all made me wonder what other gardeners in my part of town did with their yards.

Driving around the neighborhood, I suddenly started noticing that there were answers everywhere, staring me in the face. All these ugly raised beds in the parking strips. Why would anyone do such an unsightly thing? The answer was pretty clear: the clay soil is so hard that it was easier to bring in six inches of soil than to deal with the earth that's there.

Well, getting back to mushroom compost. Clay weighs about 2,000 lbs. per cubic yard and it has a high cohesion level…it binds with itself. A friend of mine who operates a back hoe states that clay is considered bed rock for grading. I think having a house built on a clay foundation is great, but as a foundation for gardening, I was not pleased. Mushroom compost weighs 500 lbs. per cubic yard and has a much lower cohesion level.

There is a simple pie pan test where you take the material in your garden and mix it with any amendment to determine how much of that amendment you should add. Take ten pie pans and mix your soil with an increasing 10% amendment mixture (the first one is 10%, the second is 20% and so on). Take this mixture and mix with water and let it dry. When you get a mixture that makes you happy, then you know how much to add to your garden. Now when I did this, it was not until I got to 50% before I was satisfied. Adding 50% of some amendment to my garden was not going to be an easy task. Think about this. I remember reading somewhere that the roots of most plants reside in the first twenty four inches of your soil.

What I wanted to do was to completely remove the first twelve inches of soil and then mix the second twelve inches with some type of amendment. Economically this is difficult. I found it was cheaper to just remove all twenty four inches and put in a potting mix. Since potting mixes ranges from about $20 to $40 a cubic yard, this was not a cheap solution. I needed a more affordable solution.

I read all I could find on soil and was amazed at the science. Did you know that loam is a combination of sand, silt and clay? In all my research on soil, I found that a number of potting mixes contained a material called mushroom compost. Why where they using this product and why was it relatively inexpensive when compared to other mixes? The reason is that it is a waste product of the mushroom farms in our area. Mushrooms, actually mycelium, need organic material to colonize and produce mushrooms. After the mycelium breaks down organic material and reproduces the material is spent as far as the mushroom farm is concerned. However, this is the stage where the plant material loves the waste product. This happens in nature all the time. Fungus breaks down organic material and the plants use the material to grow.

Not knowing about this material, I decided to learn more. There was a lot of information on mushroom compost. A lot of it wrong. Just like the advice I got on adding gypsum to the garden.  Some people stated that the material was salty and hot. Now salty or hot was not the same when you talked to different people. I thought salty meant table salt and hot meant heat. When you asked people to explain what they meant by salty or hot a lot could not explain. It was something they heard but did not understand.

All fertilizers are salts. Salts are a type of chemical bonding that are unique. They are a weak bond and come apart when in solution form. For example, if you take water, specifically deionized water and test for electrical conductivity, you will find that water is not a very good conductor. We all know that water conducts electricity. Salt dissolved in water does conduct electricity.

Plants need fertilizers but are limited in how much they can deal with at any one point in time. When you first see a soil analysis, you wonder what are all these new terms such as pH, EC and CEC. The first time I saw this, I thought you had to be a scientist to read this stuff but it really is not difficult to understand. EC stands for Electric Conductivity. This is how they determine how much salt is in the material. Most plants can only tolerate an EC under 4. I was surprised to find that the EC was about 14 for most soil amendments.

Let's talk about pH for a minute. Most plants can not take up nutrients unless the pH is between 6.5 and 7.5. If the pH gets outside this range, the plant cannot absorb the nutrients. CEC stands for cat ion exchange capacity. Soil is negatively charged. What holds the nutrient is this charge. Most nutrients are positively charged. Some have more voltage than others and the higher the voltage the stronger they can hold on to the soil particle. Nitrogen is a very weak charge and is easily displaced by other nutrients. This is the reason that most soils are deficient in nitrogen.

All soils are not equal. Some soils have a higher negative charge than other soils therefore they can hold onto more nutrients. One of the reasons that organic material is a blessing to gardeners is that organic material has a stronger negative charge.

This is an article on mushroom compost so let's get back to it. I went down to a rockery and purchased some material and really enjoyed running my hands through it. I smelled it and it had an earthy smell. Well it turns out that there is a life form called Actinomyces. It is suppose to be part bacteria and part fungus…the scientific community in classifying fungus and bacteria did not know where this life form belongs. This life form excretes a smell that is very earthy.

After much research on mushroom compost and soil, it turns out that given certain parameters, a soil scientist can tell you if a plant will do well in a particular material, but you need to actually try the material to determine if it really can do what they say. So I planted in varying mixes of mushroom compost. Mushroom compost is sort of like wine, in that wine is a living breathing medium. I found that when I took a fresh batch of material to the soil lab, it had an EC of 14. A year later, the same material would have an EC of 6. What happened? One of the nitrogen sources that this mushroom farm would use was DPW, Dried Poultry Waste, a very nice term for chicken waste. In that particular waste was Potassium Chloride. Potassium Chloride has a low charge and is extremely water-soluble. One good rain and the medium from the stand point of EC, was very well close to what plants can tolerate.

Anyway, I tried growing in varying mixes of mushroom compost. The plants that I tried were agapanthus, vinca, onions, roses and geraniums. They all did rather well.

 

I was talking to a backhoe operator who gave me some prices to do some mixing. It was cheaper to dig out and replace the soil than it was to mix. So I crossed my fingers and had a part of my parking strip dug out and replaced with mushroom compost. We dug three feet down and backfilled with pure mushroom compost. After a year, I found this part of the garden was the best to garden in...the soil was a pleasure to work with.

My wife thinks this is the man's approach to gardening as she stated that she would have constantly amended the soil. The problem with this as with the computer that I use…she has her own computer but insists on using mine…is that she likes to garden in the spot that is pure mushroom compost.

My last thought on this is that mushroom compost is not the same material everywhere. Also, mushroom compost has very little to do with mushrooms except that it is the medium that is used to grow mushrooms. In understanding what a fungus is, it is a life form that decomposes organic material. After the fungus does what it needs to do, the plants just love the material. The term mushroom compost that we are discussing is called by many names. The farms called it their spent material.

 

Two letters from Lynette Keppler, TRN Correspondent, South Africa

From September 9th:

Dear Clair,

I am making a slow recovery from a very painful knee replacement and will later have to have my hip done. The good news is that it can only get better!

In the meantime, I have very exciting news for people in Natal and probably the rest of the country. We have a lot of difficulty in finding good China roses, even though they grow extremely well in our hot climate in Hillcrest. When I was in England, I saw 'Irene Watts' grown alongside a beautiful pathway flanked with white plants. This pink China rose really stole my heart and, after three years, I have managed to locate two plants. I will immediately give them to Des Wright, our local propagator, and together with Lorainne Lee, [we'll work to] get in a good stock; then I will go ahead with the marketing.

 I love combining old roses with modern roses, and we have no alternative as most of the local gardens are extremely small.  Ludwig Taschner, our biggest rose grower in the country, is going to reestablish his Heritage roses, so we will all be able to obtain stocks again in about a year. He supplies the whole of South Africa. In the meantime, I will let Gwen Fagan and Wendy Kroon from the Cape know of my good news.

There are many gardens in the country with extensive collections of Heritage roses, and our largest collection comes from Fay Clayton in the Hilton area of Natal. Her garden is at its best in November.

I have managed to get about 50 'Mutabilis' into our local rose park in Durban - Jameson Park. This rose has become a firm favourite, simply because I have made a few hedges in our own public garden in the Heritage Market in Natal.

Yours sincerely,
Lyn. Keppler

From October 19th:

Dear Clair and Jef.

I have just been made President of the South African Rose Society and would like to say that I have NEVER been president of anything before. I will send you a copy of the letter I sent to Wendy Kroon and Gwen Fagan. I will send photos tomorrow when MIKE SHOWS ME HOW!

Regards,

Lyn

Here's a bit of background:

I was asked to open Jameson Park, a rose park known for its home to more than 4,000 roses. Mike Oxland, the manager, and Dennis, the man who tends to the roses, had set aside money from old roses that had been sold to buy good stone edgings for the beds. Their design is superb and they have a lovely fountain in the centre.

When they had finished laying out the beds, I received a phone call to design the roses. I happily went down with a big pad and Ludwig's catalogue, sat on a large stone, and spent two hours selecting roses that I thought would be suitable.

I was then told that R22,000 (Rands, approx. $3,500US) had been saved and what could I do, especially as I needed at least R90,000 (~ $14,400US) to complete the park. I had no idea how I would accomplish this feat. I immediately phoned my very good friend, Ludwig, and I told him what the boys had saved and did he have any ideas as to how I could fill the park with about 3,000 roses.

The retail selling price of a rose, including delivery, is R52.95 ($8.48US)! Ludwig very kindly asked me to submit the plan and he would see what he could do. When I came down for a quick review, my heart lurched with joy as I now realised that Cinderella had suddenly found her slipper and was now queen of the ball again!

The very latest roses had been supplied by Ludwig and, as it happens, there are two good beds of 'Lynette Keppler,' a lovely, double, soft pink, fragrant rose; as well as two beds of 'Helen Naude,' named in honor of a radio personality whom I had met at the convention.

She was our compere (facilitator) during the international quiz, and Des Wright the Chairman for Natal Rose Society, Professor Alan Brimer who was head of the Durban-Westville University, and I were on the quiz team representing kwa Zulu Natal. And we WON the quiz and were presented with a very expensive, pure silver, floating trophy; which was quickly snatched back and kept under lock and key for the next event! (I will send you photos of the opening and photos of the roses. They are exquisite and ALL THANKS TO LUDWIG.)

I was presented with two certificates and a filigree gold bracelet that I had set my heart on and which had been set aside for me to buy when I had sufficient funds. My sister has a way of finding these things out. Heirlooms at the Heritage is my favourite shopping spot as they often sell cut glass bowls with roses engraved on them and antique jewelry which happens to be my weakness.

Getting back to something old, I will be planting Noisettes over the gazebos and thought that Crepuscule, which came out in 1904 and also grows exceedingly well in our very hot humid climate, would be the perfect candidate. This rose blooms all year and will also provide shade for people sitting in this area.

For the other gazebo, I am tempted to plant Lamarque (see our TRN's Top 11 for 2004) - another Noisette - and combine it with Ralph Moore's Royal Midinette which has a profusion of.small burgundy roses. We will continue with our Mutabilis hedge, which will replace the acalapha wind breaks.

The history of Jameson Park goes back to 1925 when she was considered one of Cinderella's ugly sisters. Robert Jameson was born in 1832 in Kilmanock, in the lowlands of Scotland. It was in the Crimea that his patron died of cholera. And with him died Jameson's hopes of a commission. The young man, cast out into the world, decided to emigrate, and at that time, thanks to the publicity given to the Byrne settlers (who incidentally brought out many heritage roses with them and planted them in the Richmond area), the obvious place to go was Natal.

Jameson arrived in Durban in 1856. Some reports say that he grew pineapples where Jameson Park is now situated. His business flourished, and Jameson's jam was well known in Natal and beyond. Robert Jameson died at his home in Bellair on the 28th of February, 1919. Harry Worthington took over and found himself in his glory tending the business. He produced beds of sweetpeas, heliotrope, mignonette, wallflowers, pansies, and dahlias. The original ravenalia, planted at that time, are still standing today, as well as the steps built during his tenure.
The blossoming of Jameson Park came with the new regime in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Beaches. Mr. Cederick van Ryneveld introduced serios rose-growing in 1949. In Durban, we know that the Botanic Gardens grew the following roses:

Rosa centifolia "cabbage " pink
Rosa damascena "monthly" pink
Rosa indica, crimson China
Rosa semerflorens(crimson)
Rosa sempervirens,(white).

In 1939, Killie Campbell gave the Durban Botanic Gardens an old red rose which had been brought to Natal in 1863. The history of this rose is written in Gwen Fagan's book, "Roses of the Cape." It is 'Cramoisi Superieur,' which is still available today.

Jameson Park and its sister park, Mitchell Park - with avairies and animals and superbly planted gardens- is a must-see for anyone visiting Kwa Zulu Natal. The Durban Botanical Gardens, located near these two gardens, boasts wonderful old trees orchids, waterlilies, and a butterfly house; all in all, an absolute must for everyone who visits our region. We even have musical evenings, which are often held in the gardens.

The absolute beauty and tranquility of these gardens is enjoyed by everyone.

REGARDS,
LYN.

 

ed: We apologize for the update losses between these two listed. We are doing what we can to retrieve the lost data and add to its proper place herein as soon as possible.

 

 

Last updated 28 July 2004

STAFF BIOGRAPHIES

FROM THE EDITORS: We thought you'd like to know a bit more about the TRN
staff's backgrounds, lives, and loves. Thus, you'll find a few of their bios included
below. This will be continued next time with more staff information.
You will then be able to refer to all the biographies in our
new About Us section on the TRN main website. Enjoy…

VIRU AND GIRIJA VIRARAGHAVAN

TRN SOUTH ASIA CORRESPONDENT TEAM

Viru Viraraghavan fell in love with roses at age 18, in 1955 (birth date: 9th May 1937) when he saw a beautiful shrub of Julien Potin in full bloom, at Sim's Park ( a government botanical garden) in the hill station of Coonoor , which is in the Nilgiri ('Blue') Mountains of  South India. Coonoor is very near the more important hillstation of Ootacamund (Uthagamandalam) which used to be the summer capital of the Madras Presidency (a vast state which has since been divided into smaller states) during British colonial days. Viru's father was in the prestigious Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.), and so every summer the family would move to Ootacamund (called Ooty for short.)

Roses became his passion right through school and college, where he did his Masters in Chemistry. He passed the premier government administrative service, called the Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S., which was the successor to the I.C.S., in independent India) in 1959, and worked in various senior capacities, including Director, and Secretary, Agriculture and Horticulture Departments, Government of Andhra Pradesh, which is a state in central India (capital: Hyderabad). He voluntarily retired after 20 years, in 1980, to concentrate on rose breeding. He had been growing roses in his various gardens right from 1955 ( both his father and he, being in government service, were subject to transfers from place to place) and from 1965 he began to breed roses.

In 1980, Viru and Girija (born 17th September 1939, Masters in History, and Bachelor in Education) settled in Kodaikanal, a hillstation (2200 metres elevation) to the south of Coonoor and Ooty, as he felt the climate here was more conducive to rose breeding. Rose breeding aims began by trying to raise roses in unusual colours, and in the 'hand-painted' strain. He has released over 60 roses, some of which have been registered with the IRAR - a few are: 'Sunlit Snow' ('Annapurna), 'Magic East' (Boddhisatwa), 'Coffee Country' (Coorg), 'Nefertiti', 'Orient Silk'(Ahimsa), which is thornless, Orient Spice (Rajni), Southern Sunset (Tamrabarani), Magic Medley.

Our feeling that we needed to breed roses which would do well in warm climates (India is mostly tropical and sub tropical) was given a fillip when, fortuitously, we learnt of the existence of the only tropical rose species in the world - R. clinophylla (earlier called R. involucrata), which exists in 3 forms, according to the location it is found in, and we have been able to procure all 3 forms. We are still on the hunt for other forms in different places in the country.

We read about the Indian form of R. gigantea and made an expedition, in 1990, to the north east of India where at Ukhrul, on the Burma border, up a mountain slope (Mount Sirohi) , we found huge specimens of this species. Being January there were no flowers, but we collected seeds and cuttings, and have raised seedlings and now we have literally gigantic specimens scrambling up all our trees. We have been distributing seed to anyone interested.

We are now concentrating on breeding with R. clinophylla and R. gigantea. We are 5th generation down the line in each case, and have also crossed the 2 species themselves, and have started this line of breeding too. Clinophylla is a water-loving rose, we grow plants in our lily ponds, and gigantea has the hugest sized flowers. Our clinophylla and gigantea seedlings are still under trial, but hopefully in 2005 we will release some.

The ultimate aim is to extend rose growing to the warmer parts of the subtropics and even the tropical parts of the world, areas which are rapidly developing, but without roses. A special emphasis is on producing roses with 'evergreen 'foliage so that the rose becomes a plant beautiful even when not in bloom and thus able to compete effectively with the spectacular foliage of tropical plants.

In order to evaluate our 'warm climate roses' better we have a farm 400 kms. away from Kodaikanal, on the plains , where we test our roses. We go there for a few days every month to check out on how the seedlings are faring. Girija is researching on the history of the rose in India from ancient times.

Viru also hybridizes rhododendrons (we have a wild species in our hills, R. arboreum ssp. Niligirense ) and we grow camellias, magnolias, and a host of other trees and plants. We love to travel, visiting rose and other gardens, when it is possible to leave our own garden.

Both have held positions of Vice- Presidentship in the Indian Rose Federation, the all India apex body of rose societies. Both are also Editors of the Indian Rose Annual, (since1985) brought out in time for the annual National Rose Convention held in different cities each year.

We are also ardent environmentalists, being founder members of a conservation society in Kodaikanal, which being a tourist center, has all the attendant ills of a 'touristy' place. Kodaikanal is located in the Palni Hills ( part of the Western Ghats range of mountains) and has a pristine environment and ecosystems with many rare, endangered (and unfortunately many extinct) species of flora and fauna. Rosa leschenaultiana is a native of our hills.

PAT TOOLAN

TRN AUSTRALIA CORRESPONDENT

Pat Toolan is a conservator of old roses who live on 80 acres in the Barossa Valley area of South Australia.  For the past 25 years Pat's interest in gardening has become an obsession to save the older varieties of roses, iris and bulbs before they are lost. This is ensuring the survival of many found in old cemeteries, old gardens and on the roadside.

Pat is a member of Heritage Rose Societies in Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK and Europe, and also many Iris groups. She is currently the President of the Aril Society International, Australian Group Captain for Lost Beauties ( www.lostbeauties.com ) and has compiled an Australian report for the WFRS Specialised Conservation Committee.

Pat has written many articles which have appeared in several journals in Australia and overseas. She has also spoken on old roses in Australia, NZ and USA.

In 1999 Pat was awarded the Deane Ross Memorial Award by Heritage Roses In Australia for her work in publicising and saving the old roses.

The Churchill Fellowship awarded to Pat in 2001 enabled her to travel to the USA, Italy, France, Germany and the UK to study the preservation and conservation techniques and strategies for old roses and plants in cemeteries.

Pat is currently compiling and Old Rose Register and a book that will detail old roses of significance and their location, their background and their owners.

A garden is being formed in the Barossa Valley to house the found early Barossa roses, and a cemetery in Adelaide is a repository of found early South Australian roses - both at Pat's instigation.

LAKSHMI SRIDHARAN

TRN EDITOR, SCIENCE

I am a Molecular Biologist and a Botanist with a Ph. D. from the University of Michigan. I have been gardening ever since I was a little girl.

I grow nearly two hundred roses, a few flowering shrubs and trees. I enjoy sharing my gardening experience and knowledge in science with gardeners all over the world through my articles and lectures.

I publish articles in Rose News Letters, American Rose Magazine, other gardening magazines and Newspapers. Thirty of my articles received award of merit from the American Rose Society. One of my missions in life is taking science to the doorsteps of nonscientists. I intend placing my manuscript entitled "A Practical Guide to Growing Roses Successfully " in my website. I hope the website will be ready in a couple of months.

I am a horticultural judge. I exhibit roses both in the horticultural and arrangement sections. My roses have received trophies in the local and National Rose Shows.

My sister, Dr. Vatsala, and I are working on a Research Project to introduce new disease resistant fragrant rose cultivars through somatic hybridization. I strongly believe that science holds the key to the survival of rose gardening.

CLAIR MARTIN

TRN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Clair Martin is the first Shannon Curator of the Rose Garden at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens located in San Marino, California, and has held that curatorial position since 1983. Clair is also Curator of the Huntington Perennial Gardens, which include the renowned Herb Garden and the evocative Shakespeare Garden. Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1943 he has been involved with horticulture and roses since 1970.

From 1987 to 1992, Clair created and oversaw a complete redesign of the Huntington Rose Garden, making it more formal and, at the same time, more physically and aesthetically accessible to the institution's 600,000 yearly visitors.

Clair serves as chair of the Great Rosarians of the World annual lecture series, an endowed program focusing on the women and men who have made significant contributions to our love and understanding of the rose.

Clair has been a regular speaker at numerous rose conferences, included the World and International conferences. Each year, he presents as many as 30 lectures and demonstrations throughout California and the United States. He has presented programs at the American Rose Society's National Convention, the Canadian Rose Society, Australia, Bermuda, New Zealand, and has served as a guest lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Clair is actively sought as a professional consultant on regional historic garden restoration projects throughout California and the western U.S. He has also served on a number of botanical institution advisory committees in Southern California.

He has participated in a number of television productions over the years, including the BBC miniseries, The Quest For The Rose and the PBS production of Great Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn. Currently, Clair can be seen on the Do-It-Yourself cable network's show, Growing Roses. Additionally, he was asked to act as historical research consultant on the shooting set of Stephen Spielberg's film, Amistad.

In 1998, Clair was asked to be one of three float judges for the 1999 Tournament of Roses Parade in his hometown of Pasadena. Additionally, he's acted as rose and floral judge to many prominent events, most notably the Las Floristas Headdress Ball held each year in Los Angeles.

Clair has written four books: English Roses for Southern California, The Book of Outdoor Gardening, 100 English Roses for the American Garden, and 100 Old Roses for the American Garden. One reviewer called Clair "the Julia Child of Roses."

Clair recently founded The Rosarians Network and serves as its Editor-In-Chief. The Rosarians Network is an global online organization focusing on public rose garden management and preservation. With over 400 members worldwide, TRN's eJournal is an electronic bimonthly publication that focuses on the latest rose information, horticultural news, and upcoming events around the world. TRN now has contributing editors and correspondents based in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

While having grown up sesquicoastal - travelling between his birthplace in Kansas City, Missouri, and the family home in Newport Beach, California - for the past 38 years, Clair has made California his home.

MORE Staff Bios to follow soon!

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