Desert Messenger

10 www.DesertMessenger.com February 15, 2023 Gardening with Dennis Desert Messenger News offers FREE Classified Ads! Here's the small print: Items for sale under $500. Private Party Only. 1 per month. Yard/Garage/Craft Sales, Wanted, Give-a-ways, Free, Lost & Found, etc. (non-commercial) For more information, contact Rain at 928-916-4235 or Email: Editor@DesertMessenger.com The public is encouraged to attennd the monthly Quartzsite Town Man- ager's Meetings, which will be held at 1:00pm on the Wednesday im- mediately following the FIRST Town Council Meeting of every month. Bring your questions and con- cerns. The meetings are held at the Quartzsite Library Meeting room, 465 N. Plymouth Ave. For more in- formation contact Town Hall 928- 927-4333. Town Manager meetings T��� ����� ������� �� D����� M�������� ADOBE HANDYMAN & PAINTING • Painting • Pressure Washing • Wall Texturing • Popcorn Ceiling Removal • Landscaping • Minor Plumbing • Minor Electrical • Minor Drywall Repair • Roof Coating • RV Repair RELIABLE, REASONABLE RATES References Available CALL/TEXT 928-412-9642 (not a licensed contractor) What's new at the Quartzsite Art Guild? New Location for meetings is Mountain Quail RV Park Clubhouse located at 490 N. Moon Mountain Ave., Quartzsite. New Time: 12:30pm - 2:30 pm on the Second Thursday of each month through March. • February 24-25 Guild Art Show • March 9th Last Class of the season – To Be Announced We strive to bring artistic people to- gether to: Meet new friends, improve and grow artistically, learn new techniques, provide Fine Art shows for the community as fundraisers for local charities. Each month we will post on Facebook what the class will be. Annual membership fee is $10. Members are invited to partici- pate in the Art Guild Show. ~ Oney Budge, President Linda Klein, Secretary/Treasurer Quartzsite Art Guild Update NERIUM OLEANDER By Alex Taft Most of us are familiar with olean- der bushes. They bloom profusely and can do well in our poor soil with little water. They are used as a sub- stitute for privacy fencing. They are beautiful and toxic. The entire plant is toxic; not just the leaves or flowers, but all of it. If you handle it at all, you should do so with gloves. Sometimes it is easy to take for granted something we are all so familiar with such as the Nerium olean- der. They thrive and survive here with wa- ter or not, and with poor soil and or ne- glect, with excessive heat and they keep growing. A good ex- ample that we all drive by are where properties have oleander fencing and it seems to be barely alive because the property owner has been absent. Then the property sells and suddenly the ole- anders are blooming and green once again. We have all seen examples of that, driving around town. Oleander originates from the Medi- terranean which means they can tol- erate the heat but not the cold. The history and folklore of oleanders are interesting. Oleanders' toxicity was used by the ancient Greeks to induce hallucinations. Since hallucinations were considered messages from the gods, the use was limited to Apol- lo's priestesses and specifically, the Oracle at Delphi. Leaves were either chewed or burned to bring about prophe- cies. In ancient texts the plant is often ref- erenced as laurel but is actually the Neri- um oleander that is referred to. Oleander was a very popular ornamental shrub in ancient Roman gar- dens; it is depicted on murals in Pompeii. Charred fragments of the oleander wood were found in the ru- ins of Pompeii after the volcano erupted and destroyed the city. It is indeed a plant with a long history. This past week I received a ques- tion as to what fertilizer oleanders like. My answer was a nitrogen- based fertilizer. I looked it up and the most common is a 10.10.10 fertilizer with nitrogen, phospho- rus and potassium, if the oleanders are slow to grow or not blooming well. Oleanders can turn yellow if they are watered too much. If you want to propagate the oleander you can either plant the seeds that the plant generates or you take cuttings from new growth and place them in water or compost. Oleanders are subject to a bacterial disease called oleander scorch. You can limit the spread of the disease by pruning back the branches that are infected. Oleander scorch is most common in California but can also be found on occasion in Arizona and Texas. The leaf scorch presents as yellow leaves, a drooping plant and eventually, brown tips on the leaves. Pruning helps to mitigate the disease. Ole- anders do very well with pruning. It helps to better shape and fill out the plant. Prune about one third of the older branches at the base of the plant in the fall for the best results. New growth will come in spring to fill out the plant. Oleanders come in many sizes and colors of red, pink and white and from the dwarf shrub of two to three feet tall to a twenty- foot tall shrub that doubles as a pri- vacy fence. Sometimes a brief question can be the starting place for a history lesson because plants, as Dennis would be glad to tell you, have a history too. This is why cemeteries are sometimes registered botanical gardens. Note: for those who did not know Dennis, he was a part-time employ- ee of the town parks department, a Master Gardener since 1985 and instructor for the Master Gardener Class. He passed away in 2018.

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