Scarsdale Gardens Lose Color Due to Impatiens' Blight
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It’s been a disappointing year for gardeners – scorching sun and high temperatures have been tough on plants, and many have withered and browned much earlier in the season than expected.
Especially troubling has been the performance of impatiens – often a staple of the suburban yard. In past years impatiens have thrived even in poor conditions – and by August produced colorful borders on residential flowerbeds.
We spoke to Al Krautter, owner of Sprainbrook Nurseries on Underhill Road in Scarsdale to find out why some impatiens are leggy, limp and dying and learned that a blight called downy mildew has afflicted almost all the impatiens in our area – with the exception of New Guinea impatiens which are not susceptible to the disease. Even more depressing, he predicts that there will be no impatiens in this area for another three years! There is no known cure for the downy mildew and Krautter thinks it will take three years to subside as the spores remain in the soil, even through the winter months.
He says that “Impatiens became so popular because they are so easy to grow, produced an abundance of color and inexpensively grown from seed. In the long run, the solution will have to be in hybridization and in the short run gardeners will have to choose alternative plants.
What can you plant instead? Begonias have always been a good garden border. With their waxy leaves in green or brown and red, pink and white flowers, they add color to the landscape, are shade tolerant and last until frost.
Krautter has converted his entire operation to an organic approach and recently published a book called “12 Steps To Natural Gardening” which is a guide to gardening without the use of toxic pesticides, chemical fertilizers or harsh additives. The book include 34 personal stories and horticultural principles and you can learn more about it here.
We also spoke to Elaine Yellen a Scarsdale resident and landscape designer about the flowers and she said, “Yes,
the impatiens are suffering from a fast spreading fungus which has affected almost 100 per cent of all impatiens we planted last spring. Apparently the fungus stays in the ground even over winter, so I will not be planting impatiens next year. Other shade tolerant plants I will use include torrenia, coleus, various begonia types (I love the tuberous ones) and caladium."
Movie Review: The Campaign - Should You Join the Party?
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Is The Campaign a winning ticket for weekend moviegoers? Scarsdale resident Deborah Skolnik got a sneak peek. Read her review. Ever trudged to the voting booth with a heavy heart because both candidates seemed like big losers? Be glad you don’t live in the 14th district of North Carolina, the setting for The Campaign. You’d be choosing between a pair of political rivals who’d make a Richard Nixon/John Edwards faceoff seem like an embarrassment of riches.
When we first meet incumbent Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell), he’s standing atop a podium, flashing a million-dollar smile and sporting a $900 haircut (“My father worked with his hands,” he tells the working-class crowd….then adds that Dad was a stylist for Vidal Sassoon.) Morally, though, he’s bankrupt. When Brady gets embroiled in a sleazy scandal—the unfolding of which provides one of the movie’s funniest sequences—the door opens for the competition. Straight through it lumbers newcomer Marty Huggins (Zak Galfianakis), a local oddball with a pair of dainty dogs and a sweater collection seemingly swiped from the old Cosby Show props closet. And it’s on.
Just as so often is the case with politics, things aren’t what they seem. Milquetoast Huggins toughens up fast, backed by a pair of corrupt industrialists (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) and a ruthless campaign manager (Dylan McDermott). Brady, so smug at the outset, begins to jitter apart as his approval ratings fall and both his “devoted wife” and frustrated advisor (Saturday Night Live’s Jason Sudeikis) take their leave. As the sparring intensifies, nothing is safe from the jabs both candidates throw—literally. Their families and reputations suffer as the poll numbers whipsaw.
Who wins? Who cares! The question is whether, for entertainment value, you ought to elect to go. To which I’d say it depends on your sense of humor. One problem is that American politics are such a dog-and-pony show already that it’s hard to lampoon them purely for satire’s sake. Given the recent brouhaha over President Obama’s birth certificate, for example, will you really collapse into shocked giggles when Brady accuses the mustachioed Huggins of being Bin Laden’s lost son?
Fortunately, Galafiankis and Ferrell—who have made careers out of delivering absurd lines with flawless deadpan—are fun to watch as always. And there’s plenty of semi-hidden treasure the supporting actors’ performances (bratty kids, pious neighbors, and Jack McBrayer from 30 Rock, even!). If you’re hoping for a strong female in the bunch, though, be warned: This is one flick that’s not down with that trend. You’ll get your choice of connivers or fools, but that’s about it. Still, if you’re in the mood for an amusing cinematic trifle, go ahead and join the party. Either party.
Opens August 10.
Movie mom Deborah Skolnik is a resident of Scarsdale, a mother of two and a senior editor at Parenting magazine.
Slovenian Rhapsody
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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Those of you who missed the weekly email from Scarsdale10583.com last week may be wondering where we went. The answer is, far away. About as far away from Scarsdale as you can get. Here’s the story: Last winter a group of friends from town said they were taking a bike trip to Slovenia and invited my husband and me to join them. Now Slovenia was not on my bucket list – and to be honest I couldn’t even find it on the map. But they promised adventure, companionship and the experience of a lifetime so we took a leap of faith and signed on. To prepare, we biked when we had time, along the parkway and on county bike paths.
In the weeks leading up to the trip a few of the couples who were signed on to go cancelled their trips and sent some fairly ominous emails wishing us luck on the “technical descent” on Day 3 and the mountain pass through the 5,300 foot Vrsic Passage on Day 4. I realized I had not carefully reviewed the itinerary and that my training on the bike and on the tennis court may not have been enough for what the brochure called the “Tour de France worthy assault” that would be required. But it was too late to look back so we pedaled on with our plans, so to speak.
Before the bike trip we travelled to Vienna and were treated to a wonderful retrospective of Klimt’s work and toured Schonbrunn Castle, home of the Hapsburgs who ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918. We learned that the Austrians had dominated Slovenia – our next destination –from 1456 until the early 20th Century. More interesting was the Austrians' fascination with the beautiful Empress Elizabeth, a.k.a. Sissi, wife of the last Emperor of the empire. According to the audio-guide, the Emperor Franz Joseph I planned to marry Sissi’s older sister but asked for Sissi’s hand instead when she was only 15. Against her will, he moved her from Bohemia to the royal court in Vienna. Obsessed with her ankle-length hair and maintaining her 21-inch waist line, she bucked at court ritual. She refused to eat dinner with the family, avoided her overbearing mother-in-law and later fled to Corfu with her kids. Ultimately, she was murdered by an Italian madman. She has been compared to Princess Di and her image is on every tchotchke in the gift shop. It seems ironic that Austria, home of Freud, has transformed this neurotic and flighty Hungarian into a national folk heroine .... but I digress!
After Vienna it was onto Trieste where we met up with our group to begin the journey through the vineyards of the Friuli region of Italy. Before mounting the bikes, we were given the requisite safety talk and instructions on shifting gears, sharing the road with cars and trucks and avoiding aggressive dogs. I listened carefully thinking that this info could be lifesaving.
The first afternoon was a modest 23-mile ride to our hotel, which would have been doable if not for the fierce wind, called the “Bora” that made the biking doubly hard. The headwind was so strong that we had to pedal even on the downhills to move forward.
On Day 2 I was feeling more confident and though I had already fallen to the back of the pack I was determined to go at my own pace and enjoy the scenery. We passed quiet villages, well-tended gardens and fields of corn and wildflowers as we pedaled in the foothills of some stunning mountains that I learned were the “Julian Alps.” Trying hard to put thoughts of the mountain traverse out of my mind I made a valiant attempt to keep pace with the group.
The next day we rode 26 miles in the morning before coming to the base of the mountains. At that point the guides offered to take us up an1,100 foot ascent to a mountain village where we would be treated to pizza at a restaurant owned by a comical woman who had spent some time in the Bronx. The majority of us opted for the van, while a few of the more experienced riders braved the climb on their bikes. We were biting into our pizza’s with “rucola and ricotta” when one of the most adept riders showed up at the restaurant and was surprised that his wife was nowhere to be found. Panicked, he asked to use the phone to contact the group leaders to search for her. As he called we heard sirens from an ambulance and our hearts stopped. But luckily, soon after we got a call to say that “Primosch” our fearless Slovenian leader had found our friend sitting in a church yard waiting for directions. Her husband had gotten ahead of her and she had taken a wrong turn on a country road. When the same woman threatened to bike down a narrow pass that descended 1,690 feet after lunch, I grabbed her arm and led her to the van.
The ride over the mountain into Triglav National Park was exhilarating, even in the van. We were told that the steep and winding road had been built by Russian prisoners of war and that many had lost their lives in the process. We were treated to a series of stunning vistas and cascading waterfalls and stopped to watch the rushing turquoise water of the Soca River underneath a wooden footbridge. The hotel accommodations in the park were no match for the scenery. Our room at the Hotel Kanin looked like a dorm room and smelled even worse –so we retreated to the hotel’s indoor pool, where we were given plastic i.d. bracelets and thoroughly sprayed down before we were allowed to jump in. We enjoyed a dinner of fresh sliced prosciuto, tangy parmesasn, wild mushroom rissoto, fresh trout and crisp, dry white wine at a mountain lodge. After the bike ride and the dinner we all slept soundly despite the hard bed and Eastern bloc-style "amenities."
Our trip leaders saved the best for last and the next few days were spent riding to and around Lake Bled, a sparkling alpine lake that’s a famous destination for
We ended the trip with a day in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. Lively and scenic, the city is reminiscent of Venice and Prague and has lovely architecture, good restaurants and seems to be virtually undiscovered by western tourists. Next time you plan a visit to Eastern Europe, learn to spell Ljubljana and add it to your itinerary.
As my friends promised, it was an unforgettable experience and I am happy we risked it and even happier we came back in one piece.
- You can bike farther than you think you can.
- There’s much to discover in Eastern Europe, so brave unfamiliar languages, mundane accommodations and travel off the beaten path.
- Last -- You can’t cover Scarsdale while in Slovenia – thus the break in the website last week!
Where have your travels taken you? Share your adventures with our readers by emailing us at [email protected]
Postcard from Versailles
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Larry Milstein and Caroline Rodman, rising Seniors at Scarsdale High School, went to Paris and London for a week this summer. They thought that keeping a blog about their adventures in both cities would enhance their experience and preserve their memories through their writing and pictures. Here is an entry from their day at Versailles:
Off to Versailles! With all of its intricate frescos, gaudy gold decor, and manicured gardens, it was difficult to decide if Versailles represented the peak of human development or the decay of human rationality. It was a contradiction: indescribably beautiful, yet wildly overdone. To give some historical background, Versailles was the palace that was home to King Louis XIV, XV, and XVI. We learned that nearly everything about royal life was public, from waking up in the morning to even giving birth. So though it may be great to "be the king," the loss of a private life seemed like a little too much to give-up (and this comes from kids writing about their vacation in a blog no less!)
If you have a chance to get away this summer, send Scardale10583 some photos and a few comments on what you saw and learned. We’ll share it with your friends at home and extend your vacation to the community at large. Send photos and text to [email protected].
Stay Fit this Summer with the Scarsdale Adult School
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- Written by: Adrienne Fishman
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Last call for summer registrations! There are only a few days left to sign up for tons of fun and fitness classes with the Scarsdale Adult School. No need to join a gym for a great workout. Tuition for any six-week fitness course is $105 – a price that no one can beat.
Choose from “Body Sculpting” at Westchester Reform Temple or “Boot Camp” at the Girl Scout House with Jeannine Palermo, hatha or vinyasa yoga at Yoga Station in Hartsdale, mat pilates at Susan Marlowe Fitness Studio (day or evening sessions), or “Qigong: the Vital Energy” with Jian Yang Rong at Westchester Reform Temple. Consult the SAS website for all dates and times. Don’t delay – summer classes begin the week of June 25, 2012.
In addition, golf instruction for both beginners and advanced students will commence on June 26, 2012. Adrian Ponce, PTA teaching professional, leads this six-week course on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 7 p.m. at Westchester Golf Range. Videotaping and analysis will help you visualize your swing and improve your game. If you do not have your own clubs, equipment will be provided. Tuition is $175.
To register, please visit the website at www.ScarsdaleAdultSchool.org. Call (914) 723-2325 with any questions.
