Meadow View Greenhouse & Garden Center

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February 2011 Everything Knox

It is difficult to think about gardening topics when there is 5 inches of snow on the ground. I will be the first to confess that the only attention my yard has gotten this winter is the occasional glance out the window. I know that there are several things that need to be done out there, but I’ll be darned if I am going out to prune in the snow!

Some of you have concerns about your plants, and I am sorry to say that those concerns are legitimate. I can almost guarantee that you will have some winter damage, and some of us will have losses. The odds on my gardenias making it through are 50/50 at best. There are some things that can be done to up the odds on your plants, however, and the forecast calls for temperatures in the 40’s next week, so bundle up and head on out for some fresh air!

• If you haven’t pruned your summer flowering shrubs, it is time. This includes Roses, Butterfly Bushes and Crepe Myrtles. We do workshops on pruning a couple of times each spring, so if you missed the one on January 22^nd, keep an eye on our calendar for the next class. Pruning gets many people in trouble because they just go out and whack away. Would you let someone that didn’t know what they were doing cut your hair? Don’t let them cut your shrubbery either!
• Don’t prune spring bloomers now or you will lose the blooms. I say this every year because every year somebody comes in late in the spring and wants to know why their azaleas didn’t bloom, and we find out it is because they pruned them in February. If evergreens like Azaleas and Rhodys have winter damage, wait until after they bloom to prune it off.
• This is a great time to get rid of those sneaky plants that try to hide in your shrubs. Wild honeysuckle, grape vines and Hackberry trees are easier to identify and remove this time of year.
• Weeds are still out there and need to be gotten rid of. Yep, that means you have to pull them. Weeding tools and trowels will prevent the weed from breaking off at the soil level and reappearing later.
• If some of your perennials have “heaved”, or pushed themselves out of the ground, push them back in. You can still spread mulch to protect them from the spring freeze/thaw cycle.
• You can plant pansies and violas if the ground isn’t frozen.
• If you are planning a vegetable garden, you can start getting it ready now. Till in compost or rotted manure when the ground isn’t soggy or frozen.
• You can start cold weather vegetables like broccoli and cabbage in cold frames and direct sow seeds like lettuce, spinach, early peas, and onion sets late in the month. You can also start perennial herbs and slow growing annuals indoors. Wait on the warm weather plants like tomatoes and basil. Be patient!
• Check your houseplants for signs of bugs, disease or stress. If you don’t have a humidifier, try placing your plants on a tray of water filled with pebbles to add moisture to the air (or get a humidifier). When they start showing signs of growth, begin fertilizing.
• This is still a great time to plan your garden. Walk around and check it out and see what you want to do this year. This is also the best time to have a landscape consultation because the structure is visible.

While you are working in the yard, don’t forget about the birds. The cold weather has been very hard on them too. Many of their natural food sources have been depleted, and insects are not exactly in plentiful supply right now. You may be making lots of trips to fill up the birdfeeder! Please use a high quality mix with lots of black oil sunflower seeds, safflower, nuts, and some millet for the ground feeders. Nyjer seed is the favorite of finches. Birds need fatty seeds and suet to keep their weight up over the winter and to give them energy.

If you have a metal or plastic birdbath out, try to get the ice out of it, clean it and fill it up as soon as you can or invest in a heater. Water is very hard to come by when it is all frozen, so a heated bath is the birdie equivalent of a trip to the spa!

Before I finish for the month, I will tell you that I just got back from my buying trip to Atlanta and I am very excited about some of the things we are getting in for the spring. We were able to get some fantastic deals on pottery this year, so we have some beautiful pots coming in at great prices. We have some terrific new things coming along with some old favorites, so visit us soon to see what is new.

That’s all I have to talk about for this month. Hang in there, spring is coming!

ETMV Feb 2011

T.S. Elliot may say that April is the cruelest month, but February gets my vote. It is grey and cold and damp, and the only redeeming factor is that it is short. On the other hand, January has been such a nasty month that I am hoping Mother Nature will give us a break and send some sunny skies and warm weather so I can finally go outside and work in my garden. It has been a rough winter and I want to prune something doggone it!

Can you tell I have a little bit of cabin fever?

I decided that since I did a Gardening 101 article last month, I should follow that with a basic guide for selecting plants. Many a beginning (or experienced) gardener has been done in by poor plant selection. They find a flower or shrub in the garden center or box store that they like and take it home and install it, only to have it die in record time. Beginners tend to think that they have a black thumb and should never plant anything else, while experienced gardeners tend to blame the flower itself. In both instances, they may have just bought a plant that is picky and temperamental, or one that was never supposed to be planted in our area anyway. How many of you saw those tropicals in a local store that had a big sign on them saying “cold hardy”? How many of you read the fine print that said “good to 35 degrees”? That may be cold hardy in Florida, but it isn’t going to make it here.

So how do you go about making good plant buying decisions? It’s like everything else in life: educate yourself. Just as you read labels on other things you buy, read the labels on your plants, if they have one. If they don’t, ask someone that knows what they are talking about. Before you plant a $200 tree, you really should learn what it needs.

Speaking of trees, let’s start there first. The number one rule for tree selection is know how big that sucker is gonna get. Many an uninformed gardener has bought a cute little 3 gallon tree that looked really nice planted right beside their house; until it got to be 30 feet tall! Then they come to us asking about replacing it. Decide how big the tree needs to be before you shop.

You will also need to ask yourself what you want the tree to do. Is it supposed to act as a border or fence? Provide shade? Provide blooms in the spring? Do you want deciduous or evergreen? The more information you can provide, the higher the likelihood of us helping you select a plant that you will enjoy. Please keep an open mind however. If we try to steer you in a different direction, there is usually a good reason. If you want to plant a dogwood in the middle of your lawn, we will try to discourage you because a dogwood is happiest as an understory tree. If you want a Southern magnolia and you live on a small lot, we will try to steer you toward a smaller version that won’t get 60 feet tall and 30 feet wide. If you want a mimosa, we will tell you that you are going to have to dig one out of a neighbor’s yard because those are considered invasive non-native trees and we are not allowed to sell them!

How about shrubs? This is where people really make mistakes because they buy plants with little regard for the needs of the shrub itself. They buy rhodys or azaleas because their neighbor has them, even though the neighbor has eastern exposure while theirs is full western sun. Or they will buy a nice little shrub to go under their window, only to find themselves peeking through the branches in a few years. Read and ask folks, read and ask! Again, know what you want the shrub to do, know how much sun an area gets, and be flexible in your choices. This ensures that will have the best results.

Perennials selection can sometimes cause a few problems also. The main problem we see is people being, um, uninformed about what perennial means. There are some very long lived perennials (such as peonys), but perennial doesn’t mean permanent. Some will need to be divided or replanted after two or three years. Some customers also expect perennials to have the same bloom time as annuals, and for the most part, that doesn’t happen either. Some have a long bloom time, but most bloom for 3-6 weeks.

The key with perennials is to stage them. By this I mean plant perennials with different heights and with different bloom times. I have found the easiest way to do this is to visit the garden center at different times of the year to find out what is pretty, and then add them so that something is always blooming. Again, educate yourself or ask questions. Some perennials are very picky on what type of conditions they prefer. Others may need to be carefully controlled so that they don’t take over your yard!

Annuals and tropicals are my last subjects for the day. The main problem we find with customers choosing them is that they don’t know the sun situation for their yard. Let’s face it, how many people really track how much sun an area gets? They plant impatiens in what they think is a shady area, only to find that it gets sun at just the right time of the day to guarantee that the plants are swooning by late afternoon. Or they plant hibiscus in an area that only gets morning sun. What am I going to say? That’s right: educate yourself. Learn about your yard and learn about your plants, so that you can make the right decisions.

I have one more area to cover and it is very important. It is simply this: gardener, know thyself. Be honest about what and how much work you are going to be able to do in your yard. Will you be able to spend hours a day, or will you be lucky to get in an hour a week?  We have a customer who moved from Long Island and planted a huge vegetable garden the first year. He had no idea of the amount of work that would be required. Needless to say, he now has a much smaller raised garden. Don’t do that. Don’t buy hybrid tea roses if you think your fake plants are high maintenance. Don’t plant an English style garden if you like the manicured look. Let us help you make plant decisions based on who you are, not the farmer you think you might possibly be if the planets are in correct alignment. That way, if you discover you have a real knack and love for gardening, you can move up. Far better than discovering you hate it because it takes all your time.

That’s it for this month. We are going to develop our spring calendar today, so keep your eyes open for upcoming workshops.

Hang in there, it is almost spring!