Posts

How to Pot Berry Plants For larger berry plants, like blueberries, use large pots or planters typically associated with small trees or shrubs. It may also be a good idea to pot these near the location where you plan to keep them, as they will be heavy once filled. You could also opt for a planter with rollers for easy moving. While individual plants vary with soil type, the basic planting is the same for berries growing in a container....

Ten Shade Loving Annuals Ageratum – Ageratum is a highly adaptable annual. Though it will grow in full sun, it can also be grown as an annual shade plant. Commonly referred to as flossflower, these full shade annuals produce a profusion of fuzzy flower clusters in shades of white, pink, red, and blue. Begonia – Begonias are the most numerous species of annual flowers for shade. Tuberous begonias and wax begonias are among those which are most commonly found at garden centers....

You may be looking for full-sun groundcover Texas plants, perennials, native plants, or even Texas superstars. Many annuals and tropicals love full sun, too. Best Full Sun Plants for Texas Gardens Perennials are often the staple of a summer garden. They come back year after year from their own roots. They are easily propagated by seed, division, or cuttings. In many cases, division will invigorate the root system of an herbaceous perennial....

About the Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest encompasses a large amount of varied terrain including coastal areas, rain forests, desert climates, mountain regions, prairies and pretty much everything in between. That said, the most common perception of the Pacific Northwest includes the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and sometimes British Colombia. Other definitions include parts of Alaska, California, Montana, Wyoming and the Yukon Territory. That’s a lot of varied climate for one nomenclature!...

About Bing Cherry Trees Deeply red, heart-shaped fruits with a taste of summer and the promise of pie. I’m talking about Bing cherries, of course. The variety was first introduced in 1875 in Salem, Oregon and has become one of the most economically important cherries. Bing cherry trees thrive in temperate regions and bear 4 to 7 years from planting. Learn how to care for a Bing cherry and you could be enjoying backyard fruit in just a few years....

Bird Feeder Problems Bird watching is a time-honored tradition and puts the gardener more in touch with nature and its denizens. Erecting bird feeders enhances the garden and persuades different species of Aves to make your landscape their home. Unfortunately, birds are not the tidiest of eaters and even a catch tray under the feeder is often not effective to prevent the spread of debris. Purchase hull free food without sunflower seeds to minimize the damage....

Help, My Blanket Flower Won’t Bloom This Year It’s not that unusual to have blanket flowers bloom prolifically one year and not at all the next. One of the draws of this perennial is that it can potentially produce flowers from spring all the way through summer and into the fall. The problem is that when the plants flower so extensively, they have put so much energy into it that they fail to put enough in reserves....

Boston Fern Propagation Propagating Boston ferns isn’t too difficult. Boston fern propagation may be accomplished via Boston fern shoots (also referred to as Boston fern runners), or by dividing Boston fern plants. Boston fern runners, or stolons, may be removed from a mature parent plant by taking the offset whose runners have formed roots where they come into contact with the soil. Thus, the Boston fern shoots create a new separate plant....

Taking Cuttings from Boston Ivy Plants How to propagate Boston ivy when you’re faced with a clump of plants? The easiest way to get your cuttings to root is by beginning in the spring, when most plants want to grow the fastest. Spring stems of ivy are softer and more flexible than those in the fall, which can become woody and more difficult to root. Look for stems that are flexible and growing in the spring....

When Will Cabbage Make a Head? The answer to, “When will cabbage make a head?” is, it depends. The common green cabbages form heads more quickly than the huge Savoy cabbage. You can expect to see heads in approximately 71 days with green cabbage. Red cabbage takes slightly longer and Nappa cabbage will form small heads in only 57 days. Cabbage head formation sometimes occurs better in the moist, gently warming conditions of spring than in the cooling days of fall....

Calico Aster Plant Info Calico aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum) is a perennial wildflower which is native to the eastern United States. Most often occuring in USDA zones 4 through 8, this member of the aster family rewards growers with a profusion of blooms in late summer and into early fall. Although individual calico aster flowers are no larger than half an inch (1.5 cm.), large, white clusters of the flowers bloom up and down the length of each stem, making this plant a beautiful addition to ornamental flower borders....

California Buckeye Facts California buckeye trees (Aesculus californica) are native to parts of California and southern Oregon. As a result of local growing conditions, this tree is specifically well adapted to growth in locations where there is little water or drought is possible. In fact, California buckeye trees are quite unique due to their summer loss of foliage. When the weather becomes hot in the summer, California buckeye trees may begin to drop their leaves as a means to survive difficult growing conditions....

About Datura Plant Propagation Datura is a lovely flowering plant with large, trumpet shaped blooms that open upwards toward the sun. It is oftentimes confused with brugmansia, which is also commonly called angel’s trumpet. However, the trumpet shaped blooms of brugmansia hang down, while datura blooms face up. Hardy in zones 7 through 11, datura is grown and divided just like any perennial in these locations. It is important to note that datura contains toxins in all parts of the plant, which have been known to cause skin irritations, and ingestion can be fatal....

Caring for Coleus in Containers Growing coleus in a pot is an ideal way to keep it. It won’t grow larger than the container it’s in, but if moved to a bigger container, it will fill it out, reaching as high as 2 feet tall. Since they will stay compact if need be, coleus in pots pair well with other plants. You can plant them as shorter ground cover in large pots featuring a tree or tall shrub, or you can plant them as the main tall attraction surrounded by other trailing plants around the outside edge....

What is a Plantain? Plantains (Musa paradisiaca) are related to banana. They look quite similar and are, in fact, morphologically similar, but while bananas are grown for their sugary fruit, growing plantains are cultivated for their firmer, starchy fruit. Both are members of the Musa genus and are technically large herbs and their fruit is classified as berries. Plantains and their cultivated ancestors originated in the Malaysian peninsula, New Guinea and Southeast Asia and can attain heights of from 7-30 feet (2-9 m....

Growing Violets Indoors Can you grow violets inside? The short answer is: no. Violets like full sun, cool weather, and consistently moist soil. It’s hard to give them any of these things indoors, let alone all three. If you try growing violets indoors, they will likely get very spindly and eventually die. Violets are hardy annuals, meaning that they’ll survive a light frost in the fall, but won’t make it through a hard frost or a freeze....

Ceanothus Bush Info Despite the differences between Ceanothus varieties, you will be able to recognize these plants by their distinctive leaves and flowers. Look for oval leaves with toothed edges. Each leaf has three veins running parallel from the leaf base to the outer leaf tips. Ceanothus bush leaves are glossy green on top, between ½ and 3 inches (1 and 7.6 cm.) long, and often spiny like holly leaves. In fact, the name Ceanothus comes from the Greek word “keanothos,” meaning spiny plant....

What is Cedar Apple Rust? Cedar apple rust, or CAR, is a peculiar fungal disease that affects both apple trees and red cedar. Spores from one tree only affect the other and vice versa. For instance, the spores on apple trees only infect cedar while the spores found on cedar trees only affect apples. This disease can quickly defoliate apple trees and cause blemishes on the fruit. Signs of Cedar Apple Rust Disease CAR fungus overwinters in large, brown galls (called cedar apples)....

Chocolate mint plants (Mentha x piperita ‘Chocolate’) are attractive, fragrant and easy to grow. As with most square-stemmed members of the mint family, growing chocolate mint can take over the area in which it is planted in the ground, readily and quickly. When learning how to care for chocolate mint, know that it must be contained in some way to avoid rapid spread. Horror stories of the escape of uncontained chocolate mint are shared by gardeners who planted it directly in the ground, only for it to take over the bed or spread to a neighbor’s property where it then had to be removed....

How to Get a Climbing Rose to Climb Climbing roses need your attention to help train them in the way that they should go. I have read recommendations to let the climbing roses grow for two to three years without pruning them except to remove broken or damaged canes. This is a good recommendation, but it does not mean that they need no attention. While growing in those first years, keep an eye on where the canes are growing and help train them by tying them back to the support structure you have chosen....