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When are Persimmons Ripe? American persimmons grow wild throughout a large area of the rural United States, from the Ozarks to the southern Gulf States up into parts of Michigan and the Great Lakes. They produce fruit that is plum sized and quite astringent unless fully ripe and soft. Oriental persimmons are a little larger, the size of a peach, and are not nearly as hardy as the native varieties. Oriental persimmons are of two types: astringent and non-astringent....

Why Create a Parking Strip Garden? Beyond the fact that many of our parking strips look awful, there are a number of reasons to revamp this area. Water scarcity and the increasing cost for irrigation are making it too costly to maintain, and maintenance it needs! The hell strip is usually a poorly conditioned area with compacted, nutrition-less soil that isn’t even owned by you but that you must maintain. People walk across it, dogs poop on it, and it is surrounded by heat reflected concrete and asphalt that can reach temps up to 150 degrees F....

Hibiscus Losing Leaves Hibiscus plants are generally separated into two groups: tropical or hardy. Many of us in cooler climates still grow tropical hibiscus, but as annuals or houseplants that are moved in and out of the house depending on the weather. Sensitive to cold and environmental change, leaf drop on hibiscus can merely be a sign of stress from this change. A tropical hibiscus that has spent all winter in a toasty, warm home may go through shock when set outside in cooler spring weather....

In the case of a hill or steep slope, a rain garden may not be the ideal solution. However, it is possible to have a rain garden on a hill. Sloped Rain Garden Alternatives For a rain garden, the slope from the highest to the lowest point in the desired area should not measure more than 12 percent. If it is higher, as in the case of a hill, digging into the side of the hill may compromise its stability, making erosion more of a problem....

Why Honeysuckle Propagation? There are types of honeysuckle vines that are invasive and, in some regions, grow out of control, creating a real problem. If you have ever battled this fast-moving vine, you might wonder why anyone would want to propagate it. The non-invasive honeysuckle is a desirable garden plant for pretty flowers, a lovely scent, and for creating shade as it climbs trellises, walls, and other structures. Although honeysuckle grows quickly, you may want to propagate in your garden to give it a boost and to let it reach more spaces or create more shade....

Choosing Houseplants for North-Facing Windows Keep in mind that no plant likes to be placed in a dark corner. There are plants that will tolerate it, but you’ll want to have your plants within a foot (30 cm.) or so away from your north-facing window. Here are some plants that like low light windows: Pothos – Pothos is a wonderful low light houseplant. You can allow the trailing vines to grow long, or if you’d like a bushier look, you can trim them back....

Dividing a Lady’s Mantle Plant Lady’s mantle plants were once used for medicinal purposes, but today they are mostly grown for their attractive flowers and growth patterns. Their thin stems produce large, beautiful clusters of tiny yellow flowers that are often so heavy they cause the stems to bow down slightly under their weight. This makes for a lovely mound of bright flowers that stand out against a green backdrop. The plant is a perennial down to USDA zone 3, which means winters have to get awfully cold to kill them....

But there’s more to know about this common red birch tree. Read on for more fun facts about the water birch. Meet the Red Birch Tree The water birch is also known as the red birch, river birch and western birch. Its natural range extends from Alaska and the Pacific northwest across to the Rocky Mountains. The red birch prefers growing in the lowlands, along streambanks and riverbanks. Betula occidentalis is a relatively short, scrubby tree with multiple trunks, none growing very thick in diameter....

How to Grow Broccoli As a cool-season plant, knowing when to plant broccoli is the key. If harvesting broccoli plants in midsummer is desired, it’s best to start broccoli indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date. Sow seeds ¼ to ½ inch (6 to 13 mm.) deep in a quality seed-starting mix or soil pellets. As a rule of thumb, broccoli seeds germinate within 4 to 7 days when ambient temperatures remain between 45- and 85-degrees F....

How to Overwinter Elephant Ear Plants If you would like, elephant ear plants can be brought into the house and treated as a houseplant for the winter. If you decide to keep your elephant ear as a houseplant, it will need high light and the soil needs to stay constantly moist. You will also want to make sure that it gets plenty of humidity. In the spring, once all danger of frost has passed, you can put your elephant ear plants back outside....

Tips for Starting a Hobby Farm Look before you leap: Research is the cornerstone of any good business plan. Even if your stay-at-home goal is to save money by raising your own food, understanding the time and resources you’ll need will help you achieve your goal quicker and with less risk. Seek hobby farming tips from print resources and the local farming community. Don’t overlook your agricultural extension office as a valuable resource....

So, what causes hydrangea powdery mildew? Is there a powdery mildew hydrangea treatment? Fear not, read on to learn about treating powdery mildew on hydrangeas. What Causes Hydrangea Powdery Mildew? A powdery substance on the plant is the number one symptom of hydrangeas with powdery mildew. This foliar disease may be caused by several pathogens: Golovinomyces orontii (formerly Erysiphe polygoni), Erysiphe poeltii, Microsphaera friesii, and Oidium hotensiae are most prevalent on the big leaf hydrangeas....

Creating a Cosmetic Garden Herbal and botanical extracts in beauty products have become increasingly popular. I know that I have paid a little extra for hair or skin products simply because the label boasts being made of this or that plant extract. Odds are, most of us are already growing some plants that have healing benefits for skin or hair in our gardens or flowerbeds and don’t even know it. You don’t need to be a botanist or chemist to take advantage of these natural beauty products – dried, ground plants can be added right to the beauty products you already have....

Recognizing Target Spot of Tomato Target spot on tomato fruit is difficult to recognize in the early stages, as the disease resembles several other fungal diseases of tomatoes. However, as diseased tomatoes ripen and turn from green to red, the fruit displays circular spots with concentric, target-like rings and a velvety black, fungal lesion in the center. The “targets” become pitted and larger as the tomato matures. How to Treat Target Spot on Tomatoes Target spot tomato treatment requires a multi-pronged approach....

Illinois Bundleflower Facts Prairie mimosa wildflowers are native perennial herbs. They can grow up to 3 feet (91 cm.) tall. The flowers are small and round with white petals. The leaves are like other members of the mimosa family – alternate, compound, and bipinnate, giving the leaves a fern-like appearance. It is a legume, so prairie mimosa enriches soil with nitrogen. You’ll mostly see Illinois bundleflower growing in meadows or prairies, in disturbed areas, along roadsides, and generally in any type of grasslands....

What Causes Cucumber Mosaic Disease? What causes Cucumber Mosaic disease is the transfer of the virus from one infected plant to another through the bite of an aphid. The infection is acquired by the aphid in just one minute after ingestion and is gone within hours. Great for the aphid, but really unfortunate for the hundreds of plants it can bite during those few hours. If there’s any good news here, it’s that, unlike some other mosaics, Cucumber Mosaic Virus can’t be passed along through seeds and won’t persist in plant debris or soil....

Why Is Bush Honeysuckle Bad? While the U.S. has native honeysuckles—attractive flowering vines that pollinators love—non-native bush honeysuckles have become much more widespread. The most common are Tatarian, Morrow’s, Amur, and Bell’s. Non-native bush honeysuckles are bad to have around mostly because they crowd out native species that are better for wildlife. They leaf out earlier and block light to incoming native plants. Birds eat the berries of bush honeysuckle, but they are essentially junk food and don’t provide adequate nutrition....

Italian Cypress in Containers In the landscape, Italian cypress (Cypressus sempervirens) grow into soaring columns of evergreen foliage. They can shoot up to 60 feet (18 meters) tall with a spread of 3 to 6 feet (1-2 meters) and make impressive foundation plantings or windscreens. Italian cypress really does “shoot up,” since they can add up to 3 feet (1 meter) a year of fragrant foliage. And these trees are a long-term investment since they can live for 150 years....

What is an Italian Sweet Pepper? Choosing the right pepper for your garden will often depend upon how you intend to use them. Hot peppers have their place but overpower many recipes. That is where the Italian pepper can excel. What is an Italian sweet pepper? Peppers are actually a fruit and not a vegetable. Italian sweet pepper uses can fill in for many other fruits used in cooking. Their gentle flavor takes on spicy notes, sugary flavors, or adds zest to savory dishes....

Jackfruit Tree Info From the family Moraceae and related to the breadfruit, growing jackfruit trees (Artocarpus heterophyllus) can attain heights of 80 feet (24.5 m.) with a straight trunk branching out from the base. Jackfruit tree info finds these trees cultivated in India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, Kenya, Uganda, and Mauritius. They may also be found in Brazil, Jamaica, the Bahamas, southern Florida, and Hawaii. This otherworldly looking oddity has a very thick, rubbery rind with short, blunt spikes and up to 500 seeds....