Category: Advice

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Aspidistra: The Cast Iron Plant

 

TheGardenLady received this question from Rachel:

I’m at college studying floristry and I’m trying to find the seasonal availability for Aspidistra but can not find it anywhere.  I was wondering if you could help me on that one please.

The Aspidistra is a plant that is a native of the Eastern Himalayas, Taiwan, China, and Japan.  In the US it is grown as a houseplant unless you live in Zones 7 (preferably 7b) and warmer climates.

In the warmer climates the Aspidistra plant is grown outdoors as an evergreen foliage plant.  (You can attempt to grow it in Zone 6b provided you don’t have temperatures dropping too low because a hard winter will knock the leaves off, or, although they probably will grow back by June because the root is so tough, will look ratty if frozen.) (In 6b you can attempt to grow Aspidistra outdoors if you put a wire container around it and fill it with a mulch of something like leaves or boughs of evergreens to a depth of a few feet during the winter.)

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Protecting Encore Azaleas from the Cold

 

TheGardenLady received this message from Encore Azalea:

Cold temperatures are quickly approaching and Encore Azalea® would like to help you prepare for winter’s frost.

Azaleas, like most plants, may need protection during freezes and extremely cold weather. If you feel that your Encore needs protection, any cloth material such as  burlap, old blankets, or sheets can be used to cover your plant.  It is recommended that you drive stakes in the ground around your Encore and drape the cloth cover over stakes.  Foliage in contact with the cover can be injured, so try to minimize cover contact with plant. 

Mulch heavily to protect the Encore Azalea’s roots.  Also, reduce water before the first frost.  Then, after a couple of hard freezes, water well to provide moisture.  This will help the plants to go dormant, or “harden off”. 
 
For more information on Encore Azalea®, please visit this site.  

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Winter Care of Knock-Out Roses

TheGardenLady received this question from Julia.

How do I prepare my KNOCK-OUT Roses for winter?

KNOCK-OUT Roses were bred to be almost maintenance free. So, if you live in zone 5 or a warmer climate, winter maintenance is minimal.

The KNOCK-OUT rose site says that “Knock-Out Roses were bred with greater cold weather tolerance to relieve the northern gardener of the need to apply and remove winter protection materials and the necessity to replace winter killed plants when protection failed.”

That being said, mulch the roses with leaves or hard wood AFTER the first hard frost – you want the ground to be frozen solid.*   If you want, you can burlap the rose plant. Burlaping will also prevent the deer from eating the rose bushes.  If the roses are in pots, the pots should either be buried in the ground or brought into the garage. The pot does not give adequate protection to the roots during the cold, freezing winter.

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How to Deal with a Sick Mother-In-Law Plant

 

TheGardenLady received this question from Dawn:

Someone gave me a mother inlaw plant and said it lives outside and that I couldnt kill it, but it looks like its dying now…will it die in the winter and rebloom in the summer?

Plants that will grow outdoors all year long come from a place that has a similar climate to the one that you live in.  Sansevieria comes from Tropical Africa.

Zone 6, where I live, is too cold for the Sansevieria trifasciata (Latin name) or mother-in-law’s tongue plant (one of the common names for this plant) to leave outdoors in the late fall, winter and spring.  As tough as the plant is, it cannot tolerate very cold or freezing weather and in colder zones is used primarily as an indoor plant.

Since you do not tell me what temperature zone or area of the country/world you live in, I cannot tell you if the plant can be outdoors over winter in your area. Do you live in a tropical zone?

Besides not being able to live outdoors in cold weather where it will die, Sanseviera cannot tolerate overwatering or it will get root rot and also die. See TheGardenLady.org column Mother-in -Law Plant here.

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Growing Plants in Containers

 

TheGardenLady received this question from Yoonsin Park:

I live in a condo with a small patio.  Due to that I can only have container plants.  I don’t want to get larger & larger containers as the plant grows.  I just want to get one container and the plant to retain itself in it.  What is the best way to do that?

Container growing is one of the hottest methods of having an outdoor garden. There are a profusion of books on the subject.  Amazon.com lists 1514 books on container growing. One authority on the subject is Sydney Eddison whom TheGardenLady had the good fortune to hear lecture and see the slide show of her container garden.  Read this article by Eddison.

This summer at the Perennial Plant Conference at Swarthmore College I had the pleasure of hearing, seeing her slide show and meeting, briefly, Rita Randolph of Randolph’s Greenhouses in Jackson, Tennessee. Rita’s canvases are her containers which she sells; some you can  see on her website.

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Making a Garden Bed when there is Sod

 

TheGardenLady received this question from Karen Meadows:

How do you layer over sod to make a garden bed?

To make a garden where one has sod, you must remove all the sod just as you would have to remove any type of grass. This can be back breaking work.  A slow, easier approach would be to layer over the area with several layers of black and white (no color) newspaper that you cover with a deep layer of mulch.  This approach can take up to a year to work. Either way the directions for getting rid of sod are on this DIY website.

When you have finished this task – removing all roots and stones - take a sample of the soil (as one would where ever one is making a garden) and have the soil tested. You can either buy your own soil testing kit or take the kit to your local Master Gardener office or your Agricultural Extension office where they will have it tested.  When the test results are in, follow directions for amending the soil for the type of garden you wish to make. You should also always amend the soil with compost.

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Sex Therapy for Cucumbers

                                                                           

TheGardenLady received this question from Jenny.

I am growing lemon cucumber this year for the first time on a trellis in my garden in the Chicago area. I have many plants that are thriving and have dozens of blossoms. My problem is that only one blossom has set fruit so far. The plants get about 8 hours of sun and otherwise look very healthy. I have a newly planted garden bed that I created out of vermiculite, peatmoss, and compost. The Kentucky wonder beans growing on the same trellis are fruiting (I have picked several meals of beans over the last 4 weeks) but the cucumbers are not.

The lemon cucumber is an heirloom cucumber which means that when you get fruit you can save the seeds and plant them next year, they will grow true to the parent.
 
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Zephyr Zucchini

                                                                          

TheGardenLady received this question from Kelsi.

I have a volunteer zucchini plant that popped up in my garden this year. However it is producing a bicolored zucchini I cannot identify.  It is green on the blossom end and yellow on the vine end.  Any ideas?

How exciting to have a zucchini volunteer. I hope you have tasty zucchinis.
 
One seed cataloge that has bicolored zucchinis is from the company Johnnyseeds.  Their’s is light green at the blossom end and yellow at the stem end.  It is called Zephyr (F1) Product ID is 2217.  Check out out the catalogue    
 
TheGardenLady spoke to a friend about bicolored zucchinis. This vegetable gardener spoke about buying hybrid seeds and having some of the seeds in the packet not growing true to labeled form.  Also, when hybrid seeds come back the following year like volunteer plants in your garden or compost, even though the last year’s product was a certain type, that seedling that returned might not grow true to form. Thus the volunteer might turn out to be a bicolor or some strange looking plant or vegetable. Only heritage vegetables will give seeds the following years that will be true to what you expected. 

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Dying Topiary

                                                                              

TheGardenLady received this question from Jina:

I have 2 potted spiral trees that I purchased and planted myself 2 summers ago. They have survived extremely cold winters. I have feed and pruned them each spring. I recently noticed some brown limbs and looks like dying. I’m not sure what I have done wrong, and would love some advice on how to care for them back to full recovery. Thanks for your help!

TheGardenLady does not know what type of tree you purchased that is spiraled. Usually the decorative potted spiral trees have been pruned to make it look like a spiral. This kind of pruning is not natural and can cause stress to the tree that was spiraled.
 
TheGardenLady does not know where you purchased your spiral tree. Trees often do not die immediately when you bring them home. Sometimes it can take a few years before the home gardener sees that the tree is dying.  That is why it is preferable to purchase trees in reputable nurseries – nurseries where the employees know the best way of caring for their merchandise. You might pay more for the plant but it is worth it to get a healthy plant. You can also ask questions when purchasing; for example, you can ask what their policy of return is should the tree die. And you can always return to the nursery where you bought the trees to ask more questions about the trees. Some of the chains that have inexpensive plants buy them cheaply and just water them. They have no idea how to really maintain those plants, so a buyer doesn’t realize that he/she is getting inferior merchandise.  Then when the buyer plants the tree, it might look like it is surviving for a few years only to start dying in the third year.  So you might not have done anything wrong. You might have bought  weak, unhealthy trees.  
 
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Looking for a Beautiful Garden Tour?

                                                                                   

One of the things TheGardenLady enjoys is visiting places with plants or plant related material. These include gardens, parks, arboretums, nurseries, farms, flower shows, farmers markets, etc.  These places can be private or public. If TheGardenLady is in the vicinity and the places are open to the public, TheGarden Lady will try to visit. There are so many different types of gardens and each is a work of art. The artist Monet knew this when he created his garden in Giverny, France.   
 
So how does one find good places to visit? There are numerous ways.
 
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