Have you chosen the varieties of vegetables and flower you want to grow in your garden this year? As you can see from the new plant catalogs there are many exciting new varieties to grow this coming season, and now is the time to make your seed pu rchases. You can give your garden a head start by planting these seeds yourself and growing your own transplants.
February is the time to start your seeds, since many vegetables and flowers need 4-6 weeks to develop before they are ready to put into your garden. Because outside temperatures are still too cold to allow seed germination, you will need to create your own mini-greenhouse to provide heat and humidity for your seeds. Fear not – it isn’t complicated or expensive to do this.
If you look out your window at the landscape, you are probably seeing either snow, frost or the brown remains of last season’s garden. Would you like to see some green out there during this winter time of the year? Here are a few plants you can put in your garden this spring that will bring lovely greenery to your yard in the dead of winter!
Holly is a really wonderful plant year-round, but it is most beautiful in winter. With its glossy leaves and berries that will lure your favorite winter birds, it is a natural for your yard. Consider planting some American holly options, like Castle Spire, because it’s more adaptable to a wider range of growing conditions than English holly.
Coral Bells (Heuchera) is another all-season favorite; although it flowers in the spring with graceful spikes, it is the beautiful foliage that we most appreciate about this perennial. Heuchera americana ‘Marvelous Marble’ is a particularly beautiful variety, although coral bells do come in a rainbow of foliage colors. This plant works well in containers as well as beds, and prefers some shade. They will attract hummingbirds in the summer!
It’s winter and the landscape is desolate and brown, but don’t waste this opportunity to lay out your garden agenda for the upcoming season! Now is the ideal time to be planning your activities for the new growing season, which will be here before you know it.
Did you know that there are certain times of the day that are better than others for routine gardening tasks? Yes, we all know that we prepare our beds and plant in the spring, water and weed in the summer, and prune and divide plants in the fall. But some tasks are better performed during certain times of the day.
Morning, defined between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., is the best time for harvesting, dividing and pruning.
As gardeners, we all need something to dream about during the cold and dreary winter months. Although the amaryllis planted in a pot for Christmas is now in full, glorious bloom, we need more this winter! Fortunately, new seed and nursery catalogs will soon be pouring in, so we can see what is available for our spring and summer gardens.
There are a number of new plants that were introduced recently and many will be available by mail order or in our local garden centers. Included in top new annuals is a beautiful purple petunia call the Glamouflage Grape petunia. This will definitely be a head-turner for your containers and beds; the foliage is variegated white and green, which really sets off the lovely, soft purple flowers. Also, because it is slower growing than other petunias, it won’t get leggy or take over your container. This plant is 6-8 inches tall and 10-12 inches wide and prefers full sun; it will be available in local garden centers.
Poinsettias are beautiful star-shaped red blooms, as delightful to boosting our Christmas spirits as Christmas trees and stockings hanging off a fireplace. If you have purchased flowering plants to enjoy during this Christmas season, chances are you have at least one poinsettia. The poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima), is one of the most popular winter holiday plants and a native to the area around Taxco, Mexico. Joel R. Poinsett, the first United States ambassador to Mexico, introduced this lovely plant to us after seeing them grow in Mexico to be large woody shrubs, often reaching heights above 10 feet!
The Poinsettia is a member of the spurge family and is characterized by small, inconspicuous flowers and large, brightly colored, leaf-like bracts. Poinsettia bracts may be red, pink, white, yellow, speckled or marbled; the most popular color is red, although horticulturists at OSU have introduced an orange poinsettia for their fans, and you can purchase these orange beauties at the OSU-OKC Horticultural center during their annual sale which lasts until Dec 14.
Now that winter has truly descended on us and our gardens are but lovely memories, do you miss the color of flowers in your yard? As a gardener, it is difficult to get through the gray days of winter, but there are options to cure your winter blahs with flowers in your home. Christmas and Thanksgiving cactus (covered in a previous column) are readily available now in shades of pink, orange and bright red. Poinsettias are now available at local garden centers; OSU-OKC has their annual sale going on until Dec. 14 and Canterbury Gardens in Midwest City is open Dec. 4 to 6 for their annual poinsettia sale as well. There is another option, also, and if you start now, you will have glorious blooms by Christmas. Read on! Monday, December 09, 2013
Although many of us have opted for artificial Christmas trees, for many families, going out and choosing a Christmas tree is an annual tradition. And bringing the tree home and decorating it signals the official start to the holiday season. Proper selection and care of your Christmas tree will help ensure that it lasts through the holiday season.
A cut Christmas tree should last the entire holiday season without becoming too dry or dropping its needles, provided it is purchased fresh and given the proper care. Here are some tips to tell if a pre-cut tree is fresh. Your tree should have a healthy, green appearance without a large number of dead or browning needles, and the needles should be fresh and flexible. They should not come off in your hand if you gently stroke a branch. One useful trick to help you tell if the tree is fresh is to lift it a couple of inches off the ground and let it drop on the cut end. A few dried, inner needles may fall off, but the outer, green needles should not. Also, make sure the base of your tree is straight and 6 to 8 inches long so it will fit easily into the stand. To keep your tree from drying out on the trip home, cover it with a tarp or plastic.
Is your Christmas cactus blooming or about to bloom? Mine is covered with buds and blooms right now, even though it is close to Thanksgiving rather than Christmas. There is a good reason for this!
There are actually three types of holiday cacti: the Christmas cactus has flattened leaves with rounded teeth on the margins; the Thanksgiving cactus has pointed teeth, and Easter cactus has pointed teeth with fibrous hairs in the leaf joints. Interestingly, under normal conditions holiday cactus will bloom close to the holiday of its name, but these plants can be forced to bloom at other times. And to make things a little more confusing, most of the Christmas cactus sold are actually Thanksgiving cactus, and they will bloom in subsequent years at Thanksgiving time! Chances are, if your cactus is blooming now, it is a Thanksgiving cactus, even though it may have been blooming when you got it last Christmas.
If you want to truly experience autumn in all its glory, take a trip down to the Dallas Arboretum in Dallas, Texas. The feature right now is Autumn at the Arboretum, and you will not ever see a more spectacular Fall display than this one! The garden has been transformed with over 50,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash to create a storybook Pumpkin Village, in addition to the normal beautiful displays of plants and landscaping.
The colors, shapes and sizes of the blooming fall flowers at the Arboretum blend together to create great opportunities for fall family photos throughout the garden; you will see pumpkin-lined pathways and radiant displays of chrysanthemums. You can also take home a jack-o-lantern from the Tom Thumb Pumpkin Patch, with thousands of pumpkins to choose from in every shape, size and variety. There is also a Hay Bale Maze and Cinderella’s Pumpkin coach drawn with corn stalk horses! You can even take pictures sitting in the pumpkin coach!
As the autumn season progresses, many of our annual and perennial flowers are sporting seed heads or fruit. If you examine the tops of spent flower spikes, you will usually see a nice seed head with lots of seeds – plenty for next year’s crop of flowers!
It is not difficult to collect and save seeds from your garden. Many annuals and perennials like cockscomb, zinnias, black-eyed Susans, cleome (Spider flower), and hollyhocks can simply be harvested and dried to use next year. You can also save seeds from vegetables like pumpkins and squash, but be sure not to save hybrid varieties, as they are often patented. Also, you may not get what you expect when and if the hybrid seeds bear fruit!
Here’s how to save flower seeds: Cut the stems of your flowers and tie them into small bouquets to dry. Just hang them upside-down in a dry place, such as a kitchen window or in a utility room. You can also put them in a cardboard box to store them, depending on room available in your home.
Do you have lots of green tomatoes on your vines? Last week’s cold snap reminds us that we will soon have a killing freeze in our area, probably in the next few weeks; your tomatoes will most likely not ripen before that freeze comes, usually the first week in November. So how do you harvest them and what can you do with green tomatoes?
There are two methods of picking and ripening your green tomatoes, and both of them require that you pick your tomatoes before the vines are killed by a hard freeze.
The first method is simple, requires some space, and involves pulling up your entire vines. When a freeze is predicted, you should pull your entire vines up by the roots, being careful not to bruise the fruit. Simply hang the vines in a garage or crawl space where the temperatures remain at 50 degrees or higher.
Red, White and Blue Potatoes - Just in Time for July 4th
By Judy Kautz, Master Gardener
Gardeners like to experiment with new and unusual plants and vegetables, just to keep things interesting in their gardens. And one of the most exciting things about experimenting is sharing with fellow gardeners, especially if the experiment turns out to be a success.
Theresa, one of the master gardeners in our area, decided to try her hand at raising potatoes this spring. Of course, potatoes like cool weather and they mature in early summer, so this is the prime time for harvesting this year's spring crop. Not satisfied with plain old potatoes, she decided to plant red, white and blue potatoes for the 2012 crop.
