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Blooming Time for Bulbs

marshallhinsley — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:50:14 +0000

All over our area, you will find blooms. Our state bluebonnets are lovely, but not too common in the urban areas. Narcissus, daffodils and tulips are much more common. They are fun bulbs, but take planning ahead since we have to plant them in the fall in North Texas. Most years, we don’t have the long cold seasons a great many bulbs require. There are several varieties that do well and naturalize here (come back stronger each year). White Flower Farms has a Web site listing varieties, the zones in which they do well and if they will naturalize. Ice Follies are one variety of narcissus that is commonly available in local outlets.

As for tulips, I have been known to put them in the same boat as azaleas — plant once, enjoy and throw away — but I’m learning every day. Through a Master Gardener class on bulbs, I discovered what is called the “Species” variety of tulips. These varieties are originally from the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and the Caucasus. They are not planted quite as deep as others, and they come up year after year. They aren’t as large as many tulips, but do well in our hardy clay soils. I am ordering them for planting this fall and will let you know how they do! If you order, be sure and check the zone. We are in zone 7b, but I usually look for zone 8 to be on the safe side.

Our other big bloomer is the iris. There are lots of them around, and they are all beautiful. You can make your own iris garden any time of year. Unlike tulips and narcissus, they aren’t particular about when or where they are planted. Just give them a chance, and they’ll make it. They do better in a mostly sunny area and planted shallowly so the rhizome has some sun. In planning a bed, watch the amount of shade, as well as the drainage. Irises can’t take wet feet happily. Put the short ones in front with the taller ones staggered back, and be ready to thin them every three to four years. These are great plants to share.

You really can’t plant much on top of irises, but narcissus and daffodils are planted deeply enough to accommodate shallow rooted plants. Try some. They will cover fading foliage as the weather heats up.

Enjoy the spring blooms and spot out places to plant your bulbs next fall. For other questions, call the Master Gardeners at the Ellis County AgriLife office at (972) 825-5175.

Written by Nancy Fenton, Ellis County Master Gardener.

Fun in the Shade

marshallhinsley — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:01:08 +0000

This month, our theme is how to get something to grow in the shade. There are lots of shade-loving plants, but they need to be especially hardy to take our heat and erratic rains. Prepare the soil with compost and expanded shale if needed, and you will be ready to start.

Sometimes it is hard to find blooming plants that do well in the shade. Columbine is one of the best, and if it likes it where you put it, it will reseed itself and make lots to share! Blue and yellow (gold) varieties are available. Lily of the valley usually blooms early in the year also. Hosta will tolerate alkaline soils and comes in many interesting leaf colors ranging from wavy silver and green to very light green with dark edges. They bloom, too, with lavender or white flowers on a long stem.

It is difficult to get really bright blooms in the darkest shade, but bright bulbs provide lively color before all the leaves come out to shade your area. Pansies in the cooler months and impatiens in the warmer ones can do well in the lighter shade areas. In the darkest areas, go for caladiums in white, red or yellow hues. Against a background of hardy ferns like the Wood Fern, Japanese Fern or Royal Fern, the contrast can be wonderful. My favorite background “filler” is the Inland Sea Oat plant. It looks a lot like a regular oat plant as it grows, but takes very little water and loves deep shade. But be aware that it spreads rapidly, once you get it going.

Next month we will look at a fern garden that will not require a giant water bill. For other questions, please call the Ellis County Master Gardeners at Texas AgriLife Extension, (972) 825-5175 or visit with us at the 2011 GARDEN EXPO to be held at the Waxahachie Civic Center, Saturday, March 26.

Written by Nancy Fenton, Master Gardener.

February is Rose Time

Now_Staff — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:47:03 +0000

Think of Valentine’s Day, and getting roses for a special friend comes to mind. Roses are a sentimental favorite as well as a beautiful flower. A garden full of roses is truly a thing of beauty. You can have a rose garden that will grow, bloom and possibly outlive you, if you plan a bit and do the proper preparation. Ninety-nine percent of roses adore full sun, so when planning, look for a well-drained, sunny spot away from walls and fences. If the spot is not as well-drained as you would like, build it up. Compost and expanded shale will help, as will a soil test if you have not had one on the bed area in a while.

EarthKind roses have been tested all over the nation and found to be sturdy, as well as beautiful. Knock Out, one of the first EarthKind roses, has been cultivated to include pink, yellow, rainbow and blushing white varieties. Plan your color scheme and look around. Hybrids can be great roses, but they usually bloom only once a year whereas EarthKind roses bloom all season. An attractive bed could include Sea Foam roses crawling over the edges and then a bed built with varying sizes and colors. With the white edging, an apricot yellow small shrub like Perled’Or or a lilac pink one like Caldwell Pink would begin to show off the multi-color beauty. Depending on
the size of the bed, medium and large roses of many colors can be added. They all require sun, careful watering and mulching.

Turn your lawn sprinklers away or off, and go to drip- or hand-watering for this bed. EarthKind roses can be found at local nurseries. Buy small and leave extra room between plants for the air to get through after they mature. Damp leaves and poor air circulation are the primary causes of black spot and other rose diseases. Any roses already in your beds should be cut back now. Any canes that cross should be evaluated and one of them cut severely. My two
roses that struggle in the shade are cut back to 6-inch canes and come on like gangbusters until the trees leaf out! For a brochure on EarthKind roses and hints for
growing, call the AgriLife office at (972) 825-5175.

Written by Nancy Fenton, Master Gardener

A New Start in January

marshallhinsley — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 07:05:08 +0000

WAXAHACHIE, TX — Tired of the same old gardens? Try your hand at different looking beds. They are called theme gardens and can be as large or small as you want, but they all need planning.

This month, let’s talk about an herb garden. Some herbs do well in North Texas and others do not. Do your homework to find out which ones do well in our heat. The growing medium is very important, and most herbs need lots of well-drained soil. Sand or our alkaline clay with copious additions of compost and bed. Planting as soon as the soil warms up in a very sunny area is preferable, but later is acceptable.

As for specific herbs that will winter over, fennel is a good one. It is used in fish dishes. Lavender is used to flavor cookies, and due to its pleasant smell, it is also used to freshen drawers. Myrtle is used in meat dishes or as a substitute for bay. Curly parsley may be used as a substitute for parsley. Rosemary is great on chicken or in seasoned butter. Thyme is used to intensify any flavor or as salt. All these are cold hardy and can survive our cold spells without damage.

French tarragon, sweet marjoram, Mexican mint marigold and rose geranium are all great tasting as well as great looking. With a littler cover and care, they will survive the year. If you are short on space, you can try containers. Just remember to repot often!
Remember that the herbs may be small when you get them, but they will be much larger when grown with full sun. It will help to plan accordingly. All theme gardens will have several common characteristics: They will all need the right soil, sun and water for the plants you are planting. Mature size should also be taken into account. Next month, we will talk about rose gardens for North Central Texas.

Written by Nancy Fenton, Master Gardener.

Gifts for the Gardener

Now_Staff — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:58:14 +0000

WAXAHACHIE, TX — Another year has flown by and the holidays are almost upon us again! Years past have seen me with gloves, tarps, clippers, shovels, etc. high on my gift-giving list, and they are still good choices. But there are some other fun ones I would like to mention, so I delved into the file of pictures, magazine articles and other advertisements I collected all year to find these fun, and sometimes useful, gifts.

The bottle tree is very popular this year and especially fun if you supply multicolored glass bottles to go on it — full or empty. They make charming additions to any garden area.
Of course, a gardener would love an actual tree. Texas-native trees will be cherished for years to come, and Christmastime is not too late to plant a container-grown tree. When selecting a tree, be sure to remember our alkaline clay soil, and stay away from the exotic ones advertised in the newspapers and catalogues if you want it to flourish outside.

My brother’s favorite gift last year was a matching pair of “boot cleaners,” one for the back door and one for the front door. I had a bit of trouble finding the ones with the brown brushes, but most farm and feed stores have these year-round.

I get bulb baskets for our children’s families since they are pretty easy on busy moms around the holidays. The grandchildren can plant them in the yard after the holidays and see if they will come up year after year. I usually avoid tulips for the Texas families, since they are more of an annual here in the South. Star of Bethlehem and amaryllis are both good choices that will come back bigger and stronger year after year, as do narcissi and daffodils. You can even buy your own bulbs and make your own, just be sure to chill the bulbs first!

Last but not least are color-changing solar lights that add a bit of whimsy to your landscaping. Available at some local stores and online, they are a fun and welcome addition to the dreary days of winter.

Have a great holiday; be careful; and be ready to start another year. I’m going to try to look at some theme gardens for Texas next year, so stay tuned!

Written by Nancy Fenton, Ellis County Master Gardener

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Ready to Put Those Perennials to Bed?

Now_Staff — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:21:07 +0000

WAXAHACHIE, TX — Now is the time to seriously think about fall and cooler weather. Central Texas usually gets its first freeze between the 15th of November and Thanksgiving. Those great perennials (plants that come back each year) will be even better next year with a little care now. Those that bloom in the spring need to be checked to make sure they are not too crowded. If so, they need to be thinned so they can grow to be large and luscious again.

Our most common perennial is the iris. Although it is tough, it can always benefit from a little care. Three to four years is about the longest they can just sit without care if you want them to thrive and bloom heavily. They do not die, but have to struggle for every drop of water and food. A small handful of slow-release nitrogen on the irises will feed them through the winter and make them ready to “burst out” come spring. Be sure to pull the dead leaves and mulch back from the iris rhizomes to avoid rot and/or disease, which are typical for irises.

Brown “sticks” of much-loved blooming plants that freeze at the first cold snap need to be cut back severely — like into the ground. Leaving the dead foliage encourages disease, and you do not want that! Daisies, phlox and salvias can all be cut back without fear. A little balanced fertilizer and a light covering of mulch will protect the roots from cold and stimulate great growth next spring.

Crepe myrtles and other blooming shrubs should have been trimmed just for shaping in late September. They can also benefit from a check on their mulches. Make sure your sprinkler system is winterized or drained and turned off. You may need to water just a little bit in the driest winters, but not enough to merit the chance of frozen systems. The ice fountains are lovely, but only if they are in someone else’s yard!
Enjoy the cooler weather! Get your cameras ready and start taking pictures now — the Master Gardener photo contest is coming. More information will be provided next month on how to enter.

Written by Nancy Fenton, Master Gardener

Air Scrubbers for the Home

Now_Staff — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 04:25:31 +0000

October is a great time to open doors and windows, at least for a while. When the weather does not permit open windows, try a few houseplants to freshen things up. In addition to adding beauty, they can even out humidity and add oxygen to a home. Recent studies by NASA have shown that houseplants not only produce oxygen, but they are effective in removing harmful chemicals from the air.
In the 1970s when our construction changed to make homes more energy efficient, there began to be a problem called “sick building.” All the synthetic materials, which are known to emit various organic compounds, were linked to numerous health complaints. Man, himself, adds to the problems in closed, poorly ventilated areas. Think about people in an airplane for an extended amount of time!
It is no secret that plants take in carbon dioxide and use it to make food by separating the carbon and the oxygen through photosynthesis in the daylight. They use the carbon for growth, seed production, etc. and emit the oxygen in the dark wee hours of the morning. The larger the leaf surface, the more effective the process.

According to recent studies there are many good plants to have in the house. The top ones are as follows:
1.   Mother-in-law’s Tongue
2.   Dracaena
3.   Philodendron
4.   Areca Palm
5.   Money Plant
6.   Airplane Plant
7.   English Ivy
8.   Chinese Evergreen
9.   Gerbera Daisy
10.   Ficus
11.   Christmas Cactus
12.   Golden Pothos
13.   Rubber Plant

If you choose to have plants in the house, get started now! Buy plants, saucers and rolling stands for them before they all disappear in the Halloween rush! I consider saucers and rolling stands a must since it seems important to protect the floor and to be able to clean under the stands. As for which plants to choose, make your selection based on how much light you have available. I have almost no direct sun, so I have to go with Chinese Evergreen, Mother-in-law’s Tongue, Golden Pothos and Corn Plant. I also like the fact that they tell me when to water by wilting. Water in the saucer can evaporate out and help the humidity when our central heat comes on. Studies show that as few as 15 houseplants will significantly reduce the quantity of indoor contaminants. Try them. You may like the look, and your lungs will love the extra oxygen!

Written by Nancy Fenton, Master Gardener.

The Time is Near

Now_Staff — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:28:37 +0000

September is here, and it is time to think about fall fertilizers for lawns. Sometime around the end of September, the evening temperatures cool down to 50 degrees or below. That is the time to get out the spreader! Another great indicator that it is time to fertilize your lawn is when you do not need to mow for two weeks or so. It is important to fertilize the lawn in the fall to prolong fall color and increase winter hardiness. Also proper fertilizer helps maintain a dense turf that resists winter weeds.

Our alkaline soils have lots of their own phosphorous, so Texas A&M suggests fall fertilizers should be high in nitrogen (the first number) and very low in phosphorous (the last or third number). Usually the amount to be applied is one pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn. Most bags of fertilizer will tell you how much the bag will cover. Organic or chemical makes no difference as long as the numbers are the same.

Watering the lawn is the icing on the cake because it activates the fertilizer. Spray and soak will give you the best results, with the fertilizer going to the roots rather than running into our streams and lakes. This consists of several short periods of watering (the lawn, of course, not the street or drive) relatively close together, so the water soaks into the ground, rather than one long period when it runs off.

If you have more questions about lawns, call the Texas AgriLife Extension at (972) 825-5175.

Written by Nancy Fenton, Master Gardener.

Getting Trees Ready for Winter

Now_Staff — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:33:54 +0000

Did you notice how many limbs some of the trees lost this year? Let’s talk about what happens when trees are not pruned on a regular basis. The worst case scenario would be for a rather large branch to drop through your roof or on your car! The second worse incident would be for the falling limbs to take out electricity or close bridges and roads. We may not like it, but our local utility companies and counties have to pick up the slack when safety becomes an issue. Let’s face the reality; tree trimming can be a costly procedure, and if we do not do it ourselves, someone has to.

The county and the utility companies do not cut the limbs over your roof, but they do protect the lines that power our homes as well as the roads on which we drive. They have a lot of territory to cover, and it is an economic reality that they will move through as quickly as possible. Each one of us could pick up the cost of having our trees trimmed the way we want it done — as long as the safety issues were addressed. All it takes is a plan and a phone call to the utility or the county. Hey, it saves them time and money, so they would be delighted to see the homeowner/landowner take care of it.

Most of the trees around our homes are the slow growing, beautiful ones like live oaks, maples, burr oaks and pecans. Hackberry trees, poplars and cedars are fast-growing and short- lived. Even though they may look awful when the utility or county workers are forced to cut them back, they will cover the road again in two years if not “whacked back” again. Of course, any landowner has the option to trim back any trees on their property. The county and utility companies only do it to keep us safe on our public roads. The pictures taken on our pubic county roads may look bad right after the trees are trimmed in the spring, but drive back by in the summer months, and you will see lush growth everywhere.

This is the month to start scheduling your own tree trimming if you do not do it yourself. The first freeze is usually around Thanksgiving, and you do not want to be cutting on your trees anytime after October 1. The trimming stimulates growth, and you do not want the freeze to really damage your trees. Call a licensed and insured tree service now to get on their schedule, and get ready to sit back and smile as others scurry to repair roofs, get electricity turned back on and even to get out of their driveways when the big storms come!

Written by Nancy Fenton, Master Gardener.

July is Crape Myrtle Time

Now_Staff — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:08:24 +0000

Look around at all those gorgeous, blooming trees! If you do not have some crape myrtle trees, try them. There are varieties for every space, taste and color preference. They can run from 2 feet (miniatures) to 20-plus feet (tree size). They are all ultra- hardy and do very nicely on natural rainfall after the first year. The key is to pick your color and know the maximum height you can tolerate in the space you are considering for planting. Do not plant 20-plus foot trees under your power lines!
Texas A&M recommends some good varieties for our mid- Texas areas. Their sizes and names are as follows:

Red
2-3 feet Pocomoke
3-6 feet Dwarf Low Flame
5-12 feet Cheyenne, Tonto
10-20 feet Comanche
20-plus feet Arapaho

PINK
3-6 feet McFadden’s Pinkie
5-12 feet Caddo
10-20 feet Osage
20-plus feet Biloxi

PURPLE
2-3 feet Velma’s Royal Delight
3-6 feet Dwarf Royalty
5-12 feet Zuni
10-20 feet Lipan
20-plus feet Muskogee, Wichita

WHITE
5-12 feet Acoma
10-20 feet Byer’s White
20-plus feet Fantasy, Kiowa

You will notice not all sizes have all colors available. Take your pick of size and color. Buy from a reputable nursery. Ask if they will take it back if it is not the right size and color. Good nurseries will! Plant the tree in the full sun and water thoroughly each week until the days no longer hit 85 degrees or higher. All new plants need special care and crape myrtles are no different. Your investment in thought, time and money will bloom and bloom and bloom!

Written by Nancy Fenton, Master Gardener.