Indoor Purple Passion requires sunniest window, good drainage

A Guilford gardener writes to ask for any information I might have on the care and feeding of a houseplant called Purple Passion.

Gynura aurantiaca is the Latin name of this member of the composite (daisy) family. It grows as a purple, velvety vine and has cultural requirements similar to geraniums.

The very sunniest window in the house is best for growing Purple Passion indoors in winter. A light, well-drained potting medium should be used, and the soil should be allowed to go somewhat dry between waterings. Ordinary houseplant fertilizer should be applied once a month in winter, twice or three times a month in summer.

A Detroit reader has had severe scab on his potatoes for the past three years. He heard that one can tumble the seed pieces in a special fertilizer and eliminate the problem and wonders where such a miraculous product can be purchased.

Alas, I know of no such quick fix for this vexing problem. The organism that causes scab has a tendency to build up in the soil, if potatoes are grown in the same spot year after year. So, by all means, rotate your crops and avoid mixing the soil from different parts of the garden.

Liming the soil encourages the scab organism, hence the recommendation to never lime your potatoes. Also it is highly desirable to use clean, certified seed when growing potatoes.

A Newport reader had bad luck getting a strawberry bed established this summer. His plants did well until mid-July, then half of them succumbed to a “round cutworm that eats the root system.” Surviving plants were given a side dressing of sawdust and horse manure and other organic matter. He wonders if I have had experience with this pest.

The answer, thankfully, is no. I recommend that any gardener suffering losses to insects or disease contact the University of Maine’s Pest Management Office (1-800-287-0279). They will give a definite ID on the bug and recommend chemical and-or cultural controls.

As to the cultural practice of using sawdust and horse manure on strawberries, I would say that one should be careful not to overdo it with the former. Sawdust tends to tie up nitrogen in the soil resulting in stunted growth and shy bearing. Very well rotted manure is excellent for strawberries, either tilled in before planting or side dressed afterward.

A different Newport gardener wrote an exceedingly cute letter asking, “What good are robins?” They eat all the angleworms in her raised beds, they pull up her onion seedlings and pile them in small hills and, worst of all, they take one bite out of each strawberry. She reckons she would know when spring has sprung with or without the menace of robins. Her relations with the other local birds, she adds, are first rate.

What good are robins, indeed. I sympathize with the frustrated Newporter — really I do. But I wouldn’t give up my robins for all the world. Their sweet song at eventide is one of life’s greatest blessings. And I enjoy their worm-pulling antics whenever I walk across the lawn after a rain.

I suggest trying the inflatable “Scare Eye” device to rid the garden of unwanted bird life. Local garden centers carry them as do many of the seed catalogs.

The same gardener wants to know what causes woodiness and sponginess in turnips.

Turnips don’t like hot weather and must be planted either at the very start of the growing season or in early July for a fall crop. It is very important to keep the turnips growing without interruption. So water and fertilizer must not be spared.

Sometimes turnips become infested with the cabbage root maggot which spoils the root quality. For control measures, contact the UM Pest Management Office (listed above).

Michael Zuck of Bangor is a horticulturist and the NEWS’ garden columnist. Send inquiries to him at 2106 Essex St., Bangor, Maine 04401.