BIENNIAL ANNUAL PLANTS

GARDEN PATCH POINTERS
By Robert and Hoberley Schuler

BIENNIAL ANNUAL PLANTS
Flowering plants (excluding the woody shrubs and trees), are generally broken down into three groups according to their life cycles: annuals, perennials, and biennials. Annuals live out their lives within one year. In all but a few cases where they reseed themselves, new annuals must be planted each year, or after the old ones have died back.
Perennials, on the other hand, are more or less permanent plants in the garden, living more than two years. The stems and leaves may die back during the cold winter months, but the roots remain alive and send out new and bigger plants each spring.
Biennials are plants that take two years, or two growth periods to complete their cycle. The first year they grow from seed planted in the summer, growing into a leafy plant in the fall. The second year they flower, set seed and die. Confusion starts when we buy or set out a biennial such as foxglove, Sweet William or hollyhock that we have pre-planted or bought from the nursery and set out in the spring, have completed the first phase. When this plant blooms later, the second phase takes charge. After it blooms and seeds have formed, it will die in the fall and start the cycle all over again. Some perennials and biennials will in favorable climates, come from seed to flower in a single season and are treated as annuals.
Some biennial plants include: Foxglove, hollyhock, Canterbury bells, silver dollar plant, mulleins, Sweet William and forget-me-nots.
Some herbs are biennials including parsley, angelica, watercress, caraway (grown for its seed), fennel, lemon grass, marjoram, and rosemary. Parsley leaves are best harvested the first year. The second year, the leaves produce a bitter taste.
Seeds planted in the late fall or spring, are best planted in containers, covered with saran wrap and put in a warm place, such as the top of the refrigerator where the motor keeps the container warm. Do not transplant outside until the ground reaches 10º below the outside air.
Some biennial vegetables are harvested before they flower, such as cabbage and broccoli.
Some fruit trees, such as Haas avocado and persimmon trees are biennial or alternate bearing in that they produce their heaviest fruit every other year. The tendency of some varieties to bear in alternate years also limits fruit set in the off years. Since the flower buds were actually formed the previous summer, an especially heavy crop during bud formation may prevent adequate flower buds from forming or cause them to abscise. Heavy pruning or thinning during a year when the tree is producing can induce a more consistent bearing in some fruit.

BLACK-EYED PEAS
Q: I was invited to a New Year’s brunch where it was the Southern custom to serve Black Eyed Peas for the New Year to bring good luck. The wonderful tasting peas looked like beans, not peas. What gives? Dan Montgomery
A: Southern pea, Vigna unguiculata, also known as “Cowpea” and Black-eyed peas are a subspecies. The Genus is Vigna, the species is unguiculata and the subspecies is V. u. unguiculata. The common commercial one is called California Black-eye (California “45”). Southern peas are an essential hot-weather vegetable for gardens in the South and in the warm West, producing when the weather is too hot and humid for snap beans they arrive in time to grow with okra.

The cowpea is known around the world for its medium-sized edible bean with a prominent black spot. The Sunset Western Garden book shows both beans and peas are in the Family, Fabaceae, (Leguminosae).

“Good Luck” traditions of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day have been recorded in the Babylonian Talmud. Originally native to Africa, it was introduced into the West Indies in the early 1600s in Virginia. The tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day was thought to bring prosperity in the Southern States. The peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring, diced onions and served with a hot chili sauce or pepper flavored vinegar. Served with green peas, symbolizing money; the swollen pea’s symbolized prosperity; and because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion. Many Southern meals also include rice and their famous cornbread.
Sugar peas can be planted when the soil temperature reaches 50 º in the early fall (12 weeks before frost) and until spring when the soil reaches 40º. They are best planted in a well drained soil (sandy preferred) during cool weather and in humid conditions. Plant seeds 1 inch deep (2” in warmer weather) and in rows 18” to 24” apart. This time of the year, I plant my seeds in pony packs (3 per well, and start seeds under lights in a warm area. They will be ready to plant outdoors the 15th of February. Legumes are nitrogen fixing, bringing nitrogen into the soil, so lightly fertilize if at all.
Successive planting will give a good crop longer. Pick the pods before the seeds mature as the plants will stop producing pods if not harvested.

Q: Last fall, my sugar snap peas were covered with a white, powdery coating and the plants dried up. What was it and how can I keep it from happening again?

A: Your pea vines were attacked by powdery mildew, a fungal disease. Check the package of seeds to make certain that they are resistant to pea leaf curl and powdery mildew. I have noticed that a lot of our nurseries do not carry resistant pea seeds. Ask for them specifically for these seeds that are powdery mildew resistance or order from the catalogs that say their seeds are resistant.
The fungus is most common on mature vines when productivity is on the decline. You can dust your young plants now with a wettable sulfur compound. Infested vines can be composted or till into the ground.

Do you have a garden question? Email giving your name, city where you live to:
rhschuler@frontier.com

Robert H. Schuler, M.G.

GARDEN PATCH POINTERS
By Robert and Hoberley Schuler
Oregon State University Master Gardeners and NGC & CGCI
Garden Study and Landscape Design Master Consultants