Prune, Cutback, Deadhead and Clean Up

SPRING CLEANING

One of the beauties from our collection of iris.

Great weather today for getting out in the yard - 75-degrees F with a light breeze.

There are many tasks to take care of already that require loppers and pruners. I love the Fiskars pruners with the rolling handle. An entire day of cleaning out beds, cutting out shrubs and young trees, trimming daffodil and iris plants and my hands do not hurt. (What Americans call pruners, the British call secateurs - I'm reading a British gardening book)

"Down to Earth" by Helen Dillon.

Now that the weather has cleared, I'm planting 20-plants a day as a goal. Of course weeding and soil amending is being done in order to give my babies a chance to thrive. I still have about a 50 percent thrive rate. The other half are eaten by bugs and bunnies, fail altogether or just never make the grade.

This is a good time to make the first cut on your chrysanthemums. Begin pruning them back now so they will bloom on full, well-branched stems in the fall. The last cut will be at the end of June.

What's happening where you garden?

Find a Pot and Fill It

Fill Those Pots!

Pots of plants on the front porch, by the driveway or placed in a resting spot in the shade, add an inviting touch to the appearance of your home or business.

Whether you are using last year's containers or purchasing new ones, keep in mind that you are creating an environment for living plants and their roots. The size of the pot, the quality of the soil environment, fertilizer and water are the elements to consider even before plants are selected.

CONTAINERS

Clay pots allow the soil to dry more quickly and plastic pots are easier to move but their tendency to hold moisture can lead to root problems. Wood containers such as half-barrels and crates make great growing conditions for plants. Cement is difficult to move and retains heat but can be perfect for plants like bamboo. Glazed pots are non-porous and plant roots cannot breathe in them so many gardeners put clay pots inside them.

Drainage holes have to be present in growing containers unless you want to create a water garden with water plants. Many of the new Styrofoam pots work well but you have to put your own drainage holes in them.Use containers large enough to hold the plants roots at their mature size. Gigantic containers hold a lot of water and should have enough plants in them so the soil dries between watering.

SOIL

Purchase fresh soil for this year's plants. To re-use, dump it out of the pots and remove all remains of old plants; check for insect infestations. Add slow release fertilizer and perlite or vermiculite - about one-third as much as soil. Consider adding moisture retention crystals to the bottom soil.

WATER

Most potted plants require daily watering. Water pots late afternoon so plant roots can absorb moisture overnight. Avoid getting the leaves wet. If your watering method always soaks plants' leaves, water in the morning to give the leaves the entire day to dry off. Wet leaves attract insects and diseases.

PLANT SELECTION

Light: Will your planter be in the sun or shade half day or all day? Will it sit on concrete in full sun? Will a porch or shrubs protect the plants from harsh wind?

Color: Do you want the colors to blend by having three kinds of plants with red and pink blossoms, blue, purple and white or yellows and oranges? Do you want a large planter with a tree in the center and flowering plants around it? Would your spot be good for an assortment of succulents? What about a collection of shade loving foliage?

When Rose and Ed Meeks of Muskogee get their planters ready in the spring, they don't take any chances on success."I'm home bound, and I like to look out the windows and see it look perfect," Rose said.Ed said he uses fresh soil in their containers every year and he waters with diluted Miracle Grow every time he waters. They fill a 4-foot-long planter box just outside the window with wave petunias, red hibiscus and moss rose.

DESIGN

Designers suggest that gardeners follow the formula they call: Thrillers, Spillers and Fillers.

A tall plant goes in the center of the pot, plants that dribble down the sides are planted around the outside, and fillers are tucked in between. You can use that method or make up something of your own.

Think outside the box a little this year and go beyond marigolds, pretty as they are.

Taller plants for full sun, up to 2-feet — Angelonia or summer snap dragons, Jewels of Opar (Limon), Pentas in pink, hot pink, red and white, Lantana, Castor bean, Silver Dollar Eucalyptus.

Taller plants for half sun — Shrimp plant, Variegated Tapioca, Spikes, Ixora.

Mid-size plants for shade — Hosta, Heuchera, FernsMid-size (1.5 feet tall ) for full sun — Cuphea Ilavea or Flamenco Cha Cha

Fillers for part sun — Ageratum, Mexican heather, heat tolerant Lobelia

Fillers for full sun — Osteospermum (African Daisy), purslane, Bacopa, Diamond Frost Euphorbia, Evolvulus blue daze, scented geranium (Pelargonium), Monkey Flower

Spillers for sun — Million bells, trailing Verbena, Scaevola.Spillers for part sun — Ivy, thyme.

OTHER COMBINATIONS

Trellis with Clematis, Bougainvillea, Allamanda, Jasmine, Mandevilla, Passion Vine, Plumbago

Full sun — Succulents with aloe in the center, jade and kananchoe around the outside

Half shade — Elephant ears in the center and pink caladiums around the outside

Full sun — Lime tree in the center with Bacopa and purslane around the side

Front door sun — Columnar skyrocket juniper with any of the filler plants surrounding

If you find a successful combination or your garden is having a beautiful week, contact Muskogee's new television station, INTV, Channel 22. They are looking for flower, vegetable and herb gardens, great pot combinations, and other plant stories. Contact them at 360-3705. Subscribe to their e-mail announcements at http://www.inmuskogee.com/ to receive program information

101 Kid-Friendly Plants for Fun and Family

Ball Publishing has a cool new book for parents and grandparents,

"101 Kid-Friendly Plants: Fun Plants and Family Garden Projects"

by Cindy Krezel ($10).

Just in time for summer fun in the garden, Krezel's book reflects her 15-years of gardening with children. The ideas in the book are directly from her experience - not theory.

She suggests that you start with seeds because there is so much to learn from using them (I agree). Watermelon and sunflower seeds are large enough to be handled by even the smallest children.

Each of the 100 bright yellow pages pictures one plant, describes it and gives project ideas.

Other content includes: Gardening basics, Bulbs in pots, Container gardens, Plants to NOT use with children and theme gardens. Themes include butterflies, dried flower garden, edibles, five-sense garden, plant a rainbow, science experiments, etc.

The book makes it easy to imagine playing outside in the garden with children because Krezel's approach is whimsical as well as informative.

Consider planting seeds with children in your yard - they will love getting their hands dirty and watching cucumber seeds turn into supper, morning glory seeds becoming big flowers, or Lunaria money plant becoming dried flowers for the house.

The theme for this pot is shade and purple. Choosing similar colored leaves makes a pot calming. Brightly colored flowers make a pot exciting. Think about color, leaf shape, height, sun and water requirements when assembling plants for a container.

Happy growing!

Talk About Rootbound!

I'm embarrassed to display this example of why spring is a good time to check your potted plants for being rootbound. This is a gorgeous Dicliptera from Bustani Plant Farm. It was supposed to go in the ground but I put it in a giant pot instead and it bloomed all summer with no care from me other than running the hose on the it to keep it moist. Then it spent the winter in the garden shed.

The pot had to be smashed in order to liberate the plant to put it in a larger pot with fresh soil. Needless to say, this trooper of the garden looked great despite my poor treatment and it looks even better with a little nutrition. This plant's grey, soft leaves are beautiful and it flowered all summer last year.

Description from the Bustani site: "Dicliptera suberecta (King's Crown) #164 $6.00
Tropical/Slightly hardy Perennial – Sun, partial shade – 18”x30” – Zone 7-10 –
Family: Acanthaceae Origin: Uruguay
The soft leaves of King’s Crown make it a garden worthy plant because their silvery color combines well with so many plants. Add to that, this plant’s summer profusion of bright red-orange tubular flowers and it’s easy to see why gardeners everywhere just have to have it. Heat and drought tolerant, King’s Crown is also an absolute delight to hummingbirds. Listed hardy to zone 7, we’ve over-wintered it for several years in a raised bed with extra mulch in our zone 6b garden. From a plant family that gives us numerous showy tropicals, the Acanthaceae, this beauty is from Uruguay. Orange flowers, silver leaves, moderate moisture, well-drained organically amended soil."

So, be a better plant mom than your humble writer here and check your potted plants from last year and give them a refreshing spring treatment of new soil, fertilizer and pruning.

Name That Glad; Name That Mushroom; Fashion in the Garden

This glorious glad is blooming for the first time this year. It's fuscia color is accented with lavender. The tag is nowhere to be found so I can't identify it. Any ideas?

MUSHROOM OMELET ANYONE?
Mushrooms are popping up and gardeners are wondering which ones they can eat. There are a couple of good resources online. Check with the experts at the
Forest Mushrooms site and this Ohio State University Fact Sheet before you saute.


We bought this water iris last year at a plant sale.

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?
One garden writer in Connecticut asks in her column this week, "What do you wear when you garden?" Good question. I wear pretty junky clothing and Muck Boots most of the time. Shorts or long pants depending on the weather.

So, What are you wearing when you dig, mulch, prune, and plant?

Easy Propagation Method and Voodoo Lily

Easy propagation method.
When the variegated ivy put out a long shoot of growth last fall, I tucked one end of it into a shorter bowl filled with vermiculite.
Both bowls sat on an east facing windowsill over the winter and were watered infrequently but at the same time. Both containers dried out between watering.

Today, I cut them apart. How easy is that?


VOODOO LILY
When Brent and Becky's Bulbs had their end of the season sale, I bought a Dragon. It was planted in a large pot and stayed in the garden shed over the winter. Here is its bloom as of yesterday.



Paghat says, "Dracunculus vulgaris (aka Arum dracunculus) is variously called the Dragon Arum, Voodoo Lily, Ragons, Snake Lily, Black Arum, Black Dragon, Dragonwort, & Stink Lily. In Greece it is called Drakondia, the dragon or serpent being the long spadex inside the enormous maroon-lipped spathe.It is native to the Balkans, to Mediterranean Europe, Greece, the isle of Crete & the Aegean Islands, all the way to Southwest Turkey. In some places it's a veritable weed in its natural settings, albeit a weed of splendid countenance.Though it looks like it ought to be tropical, it is not; & it transfers to the temperate garden with great ease, doing well in zones 5-8."

Someone took one into a local garden center and asked what it was. A local plant expert said it was a weed and to some people it is a weed because it spreads freely if it likes where it is growing.

If mine made baby bulbs I'll try one in the ground.

Salvias are Blooming with the spring Wildflowers

The wind has been terrific today. This afternoon it rained while I was mowing and then there was dime size hail. Spring has one surprise after another.

While holding the Salvia Greggii Pink Preference (Bustani Plant Farm) for a photo, a bee landed on my hand. They are all over the plants of course and you can actually hear them buzzing while doing the weed pulling. Ah, the joys of gardening.

In the shade garden, native Columbine
has taken hold and is slowly increasing in size as the years go by. We made the garden boundary with stones dug out of a planting hole for a crab apple tree. The bed was made from the contents of the compost pile, plus peat and cottonseed hulls. Every year, we add peat to keep improving the soil conditions.

Another 30 tiny seedlings and larger plants went into the ground today. The seeds of Red Star Hibiscus or rose mallow (Hibiscus coccineus) are getting their first true leaves.

Also the Edamame and cucumbers are sprouting and I think the seed starting is over for now - maybe for this year. We are running out of veggie garden space so I pulled out every other Brussels sprouts plant giving the remaining ones room to spread out a little.

As I was mowing today, I was able to see what looks OK and what needs more work. All in all, it is a pleasure to be outside at this time of year.

What's growing in your garden?