I am enjoying my new plants in their cute little pots.  I know that the cute pots will eventually have to go if I want my philodendron and my scheffelera to continue thriving.  The philodendron, in particular, grows rapidly and will soon need more soil.  Most plants that arrive in the stores in their full glory for events like Valentine's day, have been pushed pretty hard to achieve in the greenhouse before they are shipped to the retail center.  They might be root bound and they have used up many of the nutrients in the soil to accomplish that beautiful little specimen that keeps saying "Take me home.  You need me.  Spend money on me."

Houseplants generally don't mind and actually appreciate having their roots a little cramped.  But just a little.  When re-potting, you should select a pot that is no more than 2 to 3 inches larger around than the pot your plant currently lives in.  The pot should also have good drainage holes.  I know some sources will tell you that if the pot doesn't have drainage holes, to place a layer of gravel or pottery shards in the bottom of the container.  I am not a fan of this method because that water still has no place to go.  Instead, it sets in that gravel or pottery, becomes stale and musty, and eventually your plant's roots are going to grow into the bottom of the pot and sit there in that yucky water.   I prefer to either buy only pots that have drainage holes or make my own holes. 

With plastic pots, this is a simple process.  Just get out your drill, select a large enough bit to make nice size holes,  place the pot upside down on a smooth, stable surface, push the bit down to make a small indent in the plastic and drill several holes around the bottom of the pot. 

With a ceramic or terra cotta pot, this is still how you do it, but you must use a masonry bit and drill carefully.  It is a little more difficult to get the bit started, as it wants to slide around on the smooth surface of the pot.  I help it along by scratching the surface of the pot slightly with a file or nail, knicking it just enough to allow the bit to get a foothold.  Then, you drill....and drill.  Often, with this type of pot, instead of drilling multiple drainage holes, I choose a large enough bit to make a hole adequate to drain the entire pot.  This is also when I remind myself that my electric drill was the best present I ever received.

There is a danger of breaking the pot, if your bit is dull or if you place too much pressure on the bottom of the container.  With a little care, it can be done.  I've been fortunate enough to not break any pots, yet, and if I can do it, I think most anyone can.

And today's photo really has nothing to do with repotting plants, although these are planters full of plants.  I just have a bad case of Spring fever and can't wait until the corner of my deck looks like this again.

Temptation

I stopped at one of our local big box stores on my way home yesterday.  The parking lot was full so I had absolutely no choice - I had to enter through the garden center doors.  

This garden center orders their plants from a highly respectable nursery, so they are very nice plants when they first arrive.  And, they had just received a wide selection of cute little plants for Valentine's day.    Too cute to resist....

Well, I did resist for a little while.  I left the garden center with an empty cart, did the rest of my shopping and all was well.  But, then I had to walk right past all those cute little plants on my way to check out at the garden center register.  And, I still had room in my cart.  Now, when you have to stand in line behind several people before you even get to the cash register, there is just no sense in getting to the register with space left in your shopping cart.  It would be a waste of waiting time.

So, I came home with a silver leaf philodendron, a miniature scheffelera, and an orchid.  I'm good with caring for the philodendron and the schefflera.  I need to do some research on the orchid and I'll share that with you at a later time. 

The silver leaf philodendron is one of many philodendron varieties on the market with variegated leaves.  These are especially nice because, with their low light needs and the light colored variegation on the leaves, they do a nice job of lightening up darker areas of your home.  They will do well in a north or east facing location and will thrive even if located several feet away from the light source.  Mine is going to live on the table in the foyer, which is lit with a medium sized window in the east facing door, and I suspect it will do just fine there.

The miniature scheffelera requires bright indirect light so it is going to need to be placed much closer to a window than the philodendron.  The key with the scheffelera is to give it bright light but never direct sunlight, so while the perfect place for me to look at and enjoy my scheffelera is on the small table by the west facing patio door, it likely wouldn't thank me for that hot afternoon sun as we move closer to Spring and Summer.  So, instead, I'll place it directly on the window seat of the east facing bow window where it will receive lots of light but any direct sun it receives will be the cooler morning sun.

I'll watch them in their new homes to make sure they are happy there.  A plant will tell you if it's getting too little light by becoming tall and spindly with "wimpy" looking leaves.  It will tell you if it is getting too much light by showing signs of burning or scorching on the leaves, places where the color is leached out or where there are brown, "crispy" looking spots or edges.

And yes, I can find any excuse I need to find when I want to justify buying more plants.

More about Winter interest

Yesterday we talked about using ornamental grasses to create interest in your garden over the long months of Winter.  Today we'll talk a little bit about how to use structures.

The key to using structures for Winter interest is to look at them in the Winter.  Seriously.  A structure can look completely different surrounded by the bare bones of Winter than when surrounded by the lush greenery and blooms of other seasons.

This trellis, for example, doesn't look like much in the Summer.  Oh, the clematis that climbs it is gorgeous, but in a good year, I don't even see this trellis once that clematis is in its full glory.  But, in the Winter, it creates a gateway to a beautiful view of mature tree trunks and the snow beyond.

If you want to place a structure for optimum Winter interest, now is the time to place it.  Summer views are a lot more forgiving.  If you move that trellis a little bit north or a little bit south to capture the best Winter landscape, chances are it's going to work just fine in the other seasons as well. 

Now, I know I don't want to be out there trying to push a trellis into frozen ground, so you might just need to measure and mark the location until Spring thaw.  You can do this by taking graph paper and drawing your garden spot to scale, measuring, and marking it exactly where you want the trellis to go.  That's my husband's way.  I'm more inclined to hold that trellis up, move it back and forth until it's where I want it to be, take a couple of sturdy rocks or bricks and lay them on the ground where I need to place the legs of the trellis come Spring.  I'm done and back in the nice warm house while he's still getting his measuring tape out.  :)

Winter Interest

For those of us who garden in an area where the average growing season length (the period of time between the first day of the year when the climate will first support plant growth to the last day) is roughly 175 days, the non-growing season can be a long dry spell.  Since there is nothing I can do about the climate where I live, I try to compensate by creating areas in the gardens that are interesting, even in the depths of winter.

You can do this by using permanent structures, such as pergolas or gazebos, or by using plants which will stand up to the Winter snow and winds.  Shrubs with colorful bark, such as red osier dogwoods (cornus sericea) with its brilliant red stems, or Ninebark (Physocarpus sp.), with its peeling, cinnamon colored bark, create color and interest in the Winter garden. 

Ornamental grasses are also great for Winter interest, as well as providing a source of food for those brave birds who stick around for the Winter.   There are many ornamental grasses hardy for our zone that will work hard all year long in our gardens.

One of my favorite ornamental grasses is Miscanthus purpurascens, also known as Flame Grass or Maiden Grass.  It is fully hardy in our zone 4 climate and has nice, sturdy stems that stand up well to the winds and snow load.  The beautiful white plumes of the seed heads glisten with hoar frost, or wave gently in the wind, or simply stand upright with a comforting fluff of softness against the Winter harshness. 

Ugh!  I went to our four seasons patio last night to enjoy some of the plants I keep there for the Winter.  My Bay Laurel tree appears to be doing very well from a distance - lots of nice, new growth, a pretty green color.  But, when I stepped in to take a closer look, I found sticky "goo" on some of the leaves.  Sticky goo on houseplants is never a good thing.  It usually indicates unwelcome visitors in the form of aphids or scale insects.  In this case, it is scale insects.

Scale insects are those brownish - grayish little disk-like things stuck to the underside of leaves, especially along the central leaf veins, or clustered along the stems.  They are usually about the size of a pin head, but can be smaller or larger.  Whatever size, they are ugly and a challenge to control.  And Bay Laurel is one of their favorite buffets, so they don't give up easily. 

For young scale insects, insecticidal soap effectively kills them, but in my experience, I don't see the little buggers until they are old enough to resist harm from the soap.  So, tonight I'll be out there scraping off the visible insects with my fingernail and then wiping all the leaves and stems with a cloth soaked in 70% rubbing alcohol.   In the past, I have also resorted to putting alcohol in a spray bottle and spritzing the hard to reach places, especially where the leaves attach to the stem.  You need to be careful with this form of application, though, as alcohol can burn the leaves.  Then it will require careful watching, as they tend to re-infest easily.

You can also try to control them and other sucking insects with a "systemic" insecticide, an insecticide form that is highly soluble in water and therefore is easily transported into the tissues of the plants.  Imadocloprid formulated for indoor use, generally a 0.22 % formulation, is one of the most common.  It comes in granular form and is scratched into the surface of the soil.  Since I use my Bay Laurel leaves a lot in cooking, I hate to use insecticides, even though it is stated to be safe for human consumption after 14 to 21 days.  There is a question in my mind as to how that works since it also says it stays active in the plant tissues for up to 8 weeks. Hmmm????

The other downside of imadocloprid is that, like most pesticides, it isn't smart enough to distingquish good bugs from bad - it kills indiscriminately.  There are a couple ladybugs who hitched a ride into the patio last fall that I don't want to harm, and I don't want to take the chance that there would still be imadocloprid active in the plants when I move them outside for the bees and butterflies to enjoy this Spring. 

So, I guess I have a Friday date night with my Bay Laurel tree and the rubbing alcohol bottle.

De-salting pots

Well, as promised yesterday, here is some information on how to salvage those salt-soaked planters. 

Non-porous planters, such as plastic or ceramic, should be scraped cleaned of as much of the salt residue as possible with a sharp knife or scraper.  Be careful, though, not to scratch through the finish or knick the edges of the pot.  This will not only weaken the pot, but will leave openings that can harbor organisms that can cause bacterial, fungal or viral infections in your plants.  Once most of the residue has been scraped clean, wash the pots in a solution of one cup of white vinegar to three cups clean water.  If residue is "stuck" let the pots soak in the vinegar solution for a few minutes and then use a brush to clean away any remaining residue.  Rinse the pots thoroughly, dry, and store or prepare them for re-use (we'll talk about that later in this article).

For porous pots, such as clay, the fertilizer salts actually move into the clay itself so they require a little bit different approach.  You will use the same 1:3 vinegar solution, but you will need to submerge the entire pot into the solution and allow it to soak for 8 to 10 hours, more or less depending on the degree of salt build-up.  After the soaking, brush off any remaining residue, wash the pot thoroughly in the vinegar solution, rinse, and dry.

Preparing pots for re-use is pretty simple, takes only a few hours and will save you a great deal of misery.  Soil and those scratches and nooks and crannies in the pots all can harbor yucky diseases that will make your plants and you miserable.  Prevent the problem by soaking porous pots for 8 hours in a solution of one cup bleach to one gallon of water.  After the soak, remove the pots, rinse, and re-plant.  For non-porous pots, a quick rinse in the bleach solution is sufficient.

While this likely isn't necessary for new pots, it certainly doesn't hurt, either.  I do this, especially if it is a planter that has been stored outside or under plant shelves, or any number of those other very dirty places that garden centers tend to store pots.  :)

Another morning that feels like Spring is in the air.  It's highly unlikely we won't have more cold weather and snow before Spring actually arrives, but these nice, warm days are pressuring me to get all my Winter projects done so I'm ready to hit Spring yard work running.

One of the things I do toward the end of Winter, is inspect my house plants to see if they need re-potting or any other TLC.  I inspect the pots for signs of fertilizer salt build-up.  That's that white, powdery or crystal-like "stuff" that leaches through porous pots, like clay, or builds up along the edges of non-porous pots.  It is virtually impossible to raise healthy, strong potted plants without the use of fertilizer, but the down-side is that fertilizers are basically soluble salts and they build up in soil over time.  In addition, if we water with tap or even filtered water, there are salts in the water.  Your potting medium may have salts already in it, as well.  Too much salt to plants is just like too much salt to humans - detrimental.

There are several ways to decrease the salt build-up in your soil.  For minor problems when the plant otherwise does not need to be re-potted, you can "leach" the salt from the soil.  This involves watering the pot heavily until the water runs freely from the drainage holes of the planter.  Do not leave the drainage tray on the planter during this process - you want that water to run down the drain.  Allow the water to completely stop dripping - usually about 20 to 30 minutes and then repeat the process.  For heavier build-up, repeat the process a third time.  Clean all visible salt deposits from the sides of the pot and the drip trays. 

You can also immerse the entire pot in clean water, let stand until the soil is well saturated, then lift the pot and allow to drain freely.  Repeat this process several times.  This is a bit messier than simply running water through the soil, as the soil may float off the top of the plants.  If the soil in your planters is very compacted, though, this is a more effective means of flushing the salts.

For bad salt build-up, the plant may require re-potting with fresh soil.  Remove the plant from the pot, brush off as much of the soil as you can without damaging the roots, and re-plant in fresh, clean soil in a fresh, clean pot. 

Tomorrow we'll talk about how to salvage those salt-soaked planters.

It is one of those days that makes you believe that Spring really is right around the corner.  It's a balmy 32 degrees this morning, which makes for a very sloppy mess on the roads, but you could almost go for a walk with just a light jacket and be very comfortable.

My houseplants are beginning to respond to the noticeably longer days.  We have already gained an hour and 20 minutes of daylight since the shortest day of the year on December 21, for a total of nine hours, 51 minutes and 11 seconds of daylight today.  The short days of Winter, combined with the UV blocking in our window glass (I know, I know -window sales people insist this has no effect on plants, but they aren't gardeners, are they?) keep my more light loving houseplants, especially blooming plants, starved for sun.  Their green is a little less intense, they start to look a little spindly, and their blooming either slows down or stops all together.

A houseplant gardener has three choices to deal with "short day syndrome" in their plants.  They can just live through it, they can move to a sunnier climate in the Winter months, or they can supplement natural lighting with artificial lights - "grow lights".  Light is either cool-spectrum or warm-spectrum.  Cool-spectrum is blue light; warm spectrum is red light.  Most flourescent lights are cool (blue) light spectrum.  Incandescent lights are warm (red) light spectrum, but they are not good for plant lights because they give off too much heat.

 A grow light ideal for indoor plant growth is full spectrum, containing both red and blue spectrums.  The blue light spectrum is necessary for foliar health and growth, while the red light spectrum is necessary to promote blooming.   Plants given only red spectrum will grow tall and spindly and plants given only blue spectrum light will grow short and stocky but will produce few or no flowers. 

So, how much light is enough?  I am always tempted to leave the grow lights on my plants 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  If a little extra light is good for flower production, a lot should create mega blossoms, right?  Well, no.  Because you see, plants are just like people - they need their sleep, too.  A good rule of thumb is to offer your plants 16 hours per day of a full spectrum light and 8 hours of "rest" or darkness.  I put my grow light on a timer so I don't have to remember to turn them on and off.

And the next question is "how close does my light need to be to my plants?"  This is one where you might need to play around a bit because it varies by how much the light reflects, if the light is from one location source or if you use multiple lights from different angles, etc.  A good rule of thumb is to provide the light about 12 to 15 inches from the plant to start and then adjust your light source nearer or further away, depending on what it takes to achieve your desired effect on your plants.

I don't know about you, but I like my houseplants to bloom in the Winter.  In the summer, I have lots of other flowers to look at.  So, I encourage them by using a high efficiency, full spectrum grow light.

Yesterday I cleaned my fish bowl - a day that always makes "Fish" happy.  And my African violets, too.  My violets get to drink Fish's old water and they love it.  That waste water is packed full of nutrients.  Fish water isn't the only fertilizer I give them to keep them blooming over the dark Winter months, but it does give a nice little boost.

Yesterday I talked about the need to feed amaryllis.  All blooming plants are hungry.  But, what kind of fertilizer to use? 

A multi-purpose fertilizer contains three essential "macronutrients" - nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), thus the "N-P-K" you see on the label.  N feeds lush green foliage; P feeds a good, sturdy root system; K promotes healthy blooms.  A balanced fertilizer, such as 10-10-10, contains equal amounts each of  N, P, and K. 

To foster strong blooms, you'll want to use a fertilizer that is a little heavier on the K, such as 10-10-17.  If you fertilize each time you water, you will want to dilute the fertilizer to approximately half of the recommended strength.  If you only fertilize once or twice a month, your plants will usually do just fine with a full strength solution.

Back to the fish bowl - that fish waste water is high in all three components.  Some of you might be saying, "peee-ew - that fish water is smelly".  You might notice a very slight odor when you first pour the fish water into the pot but as soon as all the water is absorbed into the soil, your nose will no longer detect it.  One word of warning, though.  Even though your nose doesn't detect any odor, if you have kitties around your plants, they will smell it long after you can't and they might find eau de' fish irresistable.  Keep them out of your plants by setting them in a room where kitty doesn't have access for a day or so or cover the top of the soil with crumpled aluminum foil - kitty usually doesn't like the feel of the foil and won't dig through it to get to the soil.

After a mini-blizzard yesterday, it is a gorgeous morning with a temperature of nearly 20 degrees already and highs climbing to 30 today.  The wind is calm and the snow yesterday left a beautiful blanket of white over all the gardens, marred only by the paw prints of the Wiese Acres kitties and Lady, our collie.  The benefit of being surrounded by trees is that we are protected from much of the wind and drifting snow.

This time of year, I'm still focused on indoor gardening and amaryllis are the most spectacular indoor blooms.  They are very easy to grow and the inexpensive bulbs are readily available, especially around the holidays.  A bulb planted at Christmas time will give you spectacular blooms around Valentine's Day, or about six weeks after they are planted.  Generally the flower stalk emerges first and grows to 1 to 2 feet tall.  Strap-like leaves emerge after the flower stalk is nearly fully grown. 

The bulbs are easily saved from year to year and with just a little bit of care, will give you spectacular blooms for many seasons.  Once the flowers fade, cut the flower stalk back to the top of the bulb.  Leave the foliage, as that is what feeds the bulb so it can produce blooms again the next year.  Water whenever the top half inch or so of the soil is dry - you want to keep it damp but not soggy.  Feed the bulb with an all purpose houseplant fertilizer every week.  The feeding is the critical part - without a steady supply of feed, the bulb cannot store the energy necessary to provide the next year's blooms.  When all danger of frost is past, move your amaryllis outside to a protected, partly sunny area.  You can either leave it in the pot or direct plant it in a protected area of your garden.  Continue fertilizing it weekly.  Before frost, bring the plant indoors and stop watering.  Once all foliage is dried off, remove the bulbs from the soil, allow them to dry slightly, then pack the bulbs in a paper bag filled with peat moss.  Store the bulbs in a cool dry place until about six weeks before you want to see blooms again.  Then plant the lower half of the bulb in a loose, rich planting mix, water regularly, and wait for the show.

Happy Groundhog Day

Well, the sun isn't up yet so I don't know if the groundhog will see its shadow or not.  I do know that we will likely have six more weeks of winter either way.  That's just the way it is in North Dakota.  But, once February arrives, we are able to see Spring in the distance. 

I did discover yesterday that I may have to pay for one winterizing project that didn't get completed last Fall.  My three year old Dwarf Alberta Spruce is looking a little "crispy".  While they are cute little trees that work nicely for winter color in small areas, they are very prone to winter burn in our climate.  Generally spraying them with an anti-dessicant or covering them with straw or burlap in late Fall is recommended.  I didn't get that done this year.  And my spruce is not happy about that.  I've covered it with burlap now and we'll see if it recovers come Spring. 

One of the joys / challenges of living in a harsh winter climate is waiting to see what actually survives and bursts back into life in the Spring.  Gardeners and farmers might be the only people who are actually happy to see a lot of snow, but that ground cover is vital for Spring moisture.  It is also critical to blanket the roots of perennials, trees, shrubs, and biennials from the extreme cold, and even more importantly, from the nearly continual freeze and thaw cycles we've been experiencing the past few years.  I am anticipating less winter kill this year than I saw last year, even though last year was a much milder Winter.

Last Winter, we had virtually no snow cover and such warm temperatures in January and February that many of the trees and perennials broke their dormancy.  The new growth then suffered severe damage when we had some normal Winter temperatures later in the season.  The fruit trees that break dormancy early anyway, such as apricots and pears, suffered greatly.  I lost two pear, one cherry, and all my peach trees to the mild Winter.  One apricot tree was heavily damaged but it limped along all summer.  We'll have to see how that one does this year. 

Perennials and shrubs can be protected from this by applying about 4 to 6 inches of straw or leaf mulch late in Fall, after the ground has frozen.  There isn't much that can be done to protect trees from the warm spells that last long enough to fool them into thinking it is really Spring.   You can try to minimize their vulnerability by placing them in the right planting location. 

While it seems to not make sense to plant fruit trees on the north side of your property, that is where my orchard is located.  I intentionally located it there because it is the coldest, snowiest area of my yard.  Since it stays colder there longer, I hope to prevent too early a bud break and to discourage early blooms that often get hit with crop-destroying frost.  That doesn't always protect my apricot crop.  Those apricots are just early achievers and can't wait to bloom until all danger of frost is past no matter where I put them, but it does a good job of delaying the blooms of the apples, pears, cherries and peaches.

Friday, February 1, 2013

We have a heat wave!  Nearly 40 degrees warmer than it was at this time yesterday morning.  A light dusting of snow is on its way.  We desperately need moisture before Spring, so even snow is welcome.  This will be a good day to walk around the yard, check the condition of the pond and make sure the rabbits, mice, voles, and deer aren't bothering anything in the orchard or the other young trees. 

The best way I've found to protect trees from rodents is to place protective plastic sleeves around the trunks.  The bottom of the sleeve must be placed about an inch or so in the ground to keep them from burrowing under it.  Generally, covering the trunks about 3 feet up is going to be sufficient. 

Protecting your treasures from deer is a little more complicated.  Using plastic snow fence or chicken wire to build a circular barrier around them to a height of 5 to 6 feet is the method most likely to provide protection from hungry deer, although as snow builds up, so will the reach of the deer.  In the winter of 2010-2011, one entire row of my trees was "topped" at about 10 feet - the deer simply walked on top of the snow banks and browsed whatever was sticking out of the snow.  Pests!

Welcome to the Wiese Acres blog

Welcome to the brand-spankin' new Wiese Acres blog.  I love to talk about gardening almost as much as I love to garden, so I thought this would be a good way to while away the winter hours.  I'll try to post photos, tips and tidbits about gardening, talk about future gardening plans, vent some frustrations (like when the grasshoppers or flea beetles strip things bare), and just generally share my love of gardening.

Wiese Acres is a roughly 4.5 acre property, located in semi-arid, zone 4 central North Dakota.  Approximately 3.5 acres of that is used to grow flowers, grasses, trees, vegetables, fruits, and herbs.  The remaining acre is left in native grasses for the wild turkeys, pheasants, and deer to enjoy.  Oh, and the occasional raccoon and skunk.

Today, our high temperature has been negative one degree and with the wind, it feels more like 24 degrees below zero.  Not much gardening going on today, except in our minds.

January 31 - actual temp -21; wind chill -45 degrees.  Good day to stay inside.  The seed catalogues have been arrving steadily and my earliest seed and supply orders have begun arriving.  I am often asked about the best mail order sources for seeds and plants.  I do have some favorites, but when I am ordering from a new source, I always consult the Garden Watchdog at Dave's Garden; http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/.    You can choose to be a member on the site, or you can visit and obtain all the information as a guest.  You can see the reviews from customers of hundreds of different mail order companies.  Please take the time to look at the overall picture, though - since this is a customer offered review, looking at a single comment might not be an accurate reflection of the actual products and services of any given company.