Dusting Day

I realized as I looked at my plants this morning that dusting day needs to happen soon.  Houseplants are just like any other flat surface in your house - they collect dust, greasy residue from cooking, and other pieces of debris.  Not only is "dirt" on your houseplants unsightly, it also isn't good for your plants. 

Plants need clean leaves to breathe, eat and absorb sunlight.  Plants take carbon dioxide from the air in through the pores in their leaves and, working with the sunlight they absorb, complete the process of "photosynthesis".  Photsynthesis is how the plant produces its food and then expires oxygen into the air for us to breathe.  Trying to complete this process through dust and greasy residue on leaves is sort of like us trying to sip mashed potatoes through a straw - it just doesn't work very well.

There are several ways to accomplish cleaning your houseplants.  You can give them a "sponge bath", using a soft sponge, like the type used for baby bathing, and wipe each leaf, upper and lower surfaces, individually.  You can also use a soft cloth, like old t-shirts, to do this wiping.  The key is a soft, non-abrasive cloth or sponge.  This works well for large, smooth leaves, but for those tiny leaved plants, it's a long, tedious process that requires far more patience than I possess.

So, I opt for giving my plants a shower or tub bath rather than a sponge bath.  Large plants are lifted into the bathtub and placed under the shower streaming with room-temperature water.  I still have to wipe some on the underside of the leaves, and other places where the shower spray can't reach.  If you have a flexible shower head, you can place the pot on a stool that gets them high enough to reach everything with the shower head and save yourself having to wipe the undersides and hard to reach spots.  

Any plants which will fit in my laundry room sink are placed there, where I can use the sprayer hose to spray the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves.  I try very hard to fit most everything there.  When I have to use the tub and shower, I usually end up wetter than the plants.  I can control this a little more in the laundry room.

Regardless of whether you use a sink or bathtub, the water should never be warmer than room temperature, and the planter must always be left to drain well after this process.    You also need to shake or wipe off any standing water, and let the plant dry well in a spot out of direct sunlight.  Keeping them out of direct sunlight until after the plants are dry will ensure that they don't get sunburned through the water droplets.

African violets and other fuzzy leaved plants also need to be cleaned.  I know we are used to hearing that we should never get water on the leaves of African violets.  That's true to a certain extent, but the little hairs on the violet leaves collect more dust and debris even than a smooth leaved plant.  So, what to do to clean them? 

Well, I just stick mine in the laundry room sink and spray away.  The "after-care" is what needs to be a little different.  After spraying, I give the plants a gentle shake to get the majority of the excess water off the leaves, then use a soft terrycloth towel to completely dry each leaf.  I need to make sure there are no water droplets pooling in the crown of the plant, as well.  Then, I take a hair dryer on the cool  setting and blow air across the plants for a few minutes.  I usually leave my violets set in a dark corner where there is no chance they will be exposed to sun for the next 24 hours or so.

Houseplants benefit from a good cleaning every couple months or so, but please don't use the commerically available "leaf-shine" products on your plants.  These are oil based products that clog the pores of the plants and will eventually make them sickly.  Likewise, shampoos and most other "human" soaps and detergents are not good for plants.  I do sometimes use a a small amount of liquid, non-detergent type soap for plants that have greasy residue, particularly those I keep in the kitchen.  Ivory is a good soap for this purpose.  I've also heard some people advise using milk to clean your plants.  In addition to the thought of souring milk hanging around on the leaves of your plants being kind of icky, the fats in milk can clog the pores. 

You'll keep your plants happiest with a shower of just plain, room temperature water every couple months.  This serves the additional purpose of saturating your potting soil well and when you allow that water to drain away, it's taking some of those built-up fertilizer salts down the drain with it.  so, clean away.

Desert Rose

We are back in the deep freeze again.  Sunday the temperature was in the upper 40's.  Snow melt water was running everywhere and we had "avalanches" coming off the steel roof all day long.  This morning, the actual temperature is minus 7 degrees and with wind chill, it feels like nearly 30 below.  Brrrr.  Still no outdoor gardening around here.

Another plant that spends time outdoors as long as temperatures don't drop below 50 degrees and the rest of the time in the four season patio is my Desert Rose (Adenium obesum) plant.  It is a deciduous plant that hangs on to its leaves until December, then finally yields to the short number of daylight hours and loses most, if not all, of its leaves until spring.  Even without leaves, Desert Rose is an interesting plant, with its swollen, elephant foot like stems.  In the spring, it will develop clusters of narrow, oval, bright green leaves and finally burst into a mass of bright red flowers that nearly cover the plant. 

Desert Rose is a succulent and needs to be watered moderately.  In the winter, when the plant is nearly dormant, I water once a month or less.  If the stems begin to look shriveled or feel softer, it is time to water.  In the summer, it needs to be watered to maintain a consistent soil moisture, but never any standing water.  This is a plant that if you are going to err in the way you water, it better be on the side of not watering.  Too much water will cause the roots and the bulbous stems to rot. 

Desert Rose prefers a well-drained, sandy and slightly acidic potting mix.  If the potting mix contains peat, it probably is going to have that slightly acidic formulation, so this isn't something I really worry about.  Fertilizing with a 10-10-10 fertilizer is generally sufficient, but when I want to foster more blossoms, I give it some high phosphate fertilizer, such as a 10-50-10 mix. 

It requires full sun, so indoors it is right next to the west windows.  As the weather begins to warm, I gradually acclimate it to the outdoors by first moving it outside to a shaded, sheltered area and increasing its exposure to the sun each day until I finally get it into a full sun location.  This is also a time when I prune off any leggy, scraggly stems.  This pruning fosters development of more buds.  Then I can sit back and watch the glorious bloom show.

Plumeria

Another of the cuttings in the care package I received from Louisiana was a plumeria.  When I received the cutting, it was about 12 inches long and looked like a piece of green wood.  It came with instructions to let it dry for about two weeks before dipping the base in rooting compound and planting in well-drained soil.  I watered it sparingly and waited for it to grow.  And waited.  And waited.  Yes, it took a very long time to show any signs of life, but the cutting remained green and healthy looking, so I knew it was ok.

Now, my plumeria is about 4 feet tall.  In the summer, it has a nice, rounded canopy of glossy, large green leaves.  While night time temps are no lower than 50 degrees, my plumeria lives outdoors in a sheltered, sunny location.  In colder weather, it lives in the four season patio.  This plumeria is a deciduous variety, so by mid-December, it looks like a green log with maybe one or two leaves left at the very top.  Those leaves eventually drop off and the plumeria looks like it has died.  During that time, the plumeria wants no fertilizer and wants its soil kept on the dry side.  Keeping the soil too moist during this dormant period will result in root rot and death of the tree.

In a couple months, I'll see new leaves begin to emerge, and if I'm lucky, maybe a bloom or two.  When new growth begins in the spring, I'll begin watering it to keep the soil just barely, but evenly, moist and fertilizing it with a high phosphate fertilizer, a 10-50-10 formulation.  The plumeria requires heavy feeding to produce blooms, so it needs to be fertilized every two weeks during the growing season.  I'll also move it into a full sun location and when it's warm enough outdoors, I'll gradually acclimate it to a full sun location out in the yard.

Last spring was the first time my plumeria bloomed.  It produced one beautiful, heavenly scented light pink flower.  That means I will have one more branch on my tree this year.  Plumerias only produce a branch when they bloom.  I am anxiously awaiting the time when my many-branched plumeria is covered with enough beautiful and fragrant blossoms to create my own fresh Hawaiian lei.

Night blooming cereus

A few years ago the heater in our four season patio failed.   Of course, heaters only seem to fail on the coldest nights of the year, so by the time we checked on the patio in the morning, the 30 below zero outside temp had brought the temperature inside the patio to well below freezing.  My peace lily survived the deep freeze, but most everything else was non-revivable. 

That day, I posted a note about the loss of all my beloved plants on a national gardening forum.  A week and a half later, I received a package from a lady in Lousiana whom I have never met.  She felt so bad for me with the loss of all my plants, that she'd cut slips from some of hers and overnight mailed them to me.  You've gotta love the generosity of gardeners, don't you?

 One of those slips was a night blooming cereus.  Night blooming cereus is a form of spineless cactus whose bright green glossy leaves grow in a sprawling fashion.  They produce large, white, very fragrant blossoms that begin to open around sunset, reach their full glory around midnight, and collapse and fall by dawn.  The plant generally does not begin to bloom until it is about 5 years old and initially only produces a few blooms.  As the plant becomes more mature, it will set buds along the entire length of the long, wavy leaves and bloom from midsummer through late fall. 

My new plant is just getting to blooming age, so I am hoping for at least a couple blossoms late this summer.  One of the challenges of growing night-blooming cereus in North Dakota is that it needs complete darkness during the time it is setting buds and blooming.  It sets buds in mid-summer, a time when we have very few hours of complete darkness here.  In the past, I've found that sets the bloom time back some, to later in summer and fall, when the nights have started getting longer again.

Night blooming cereus likes bright sun and tolerates very hot temperatures.  I move it outside in the summer and back into the patio right next to a west window when the nights start getting down into the 40's. 

Care needs to be taken when moving the plant.  They have a shallow root system and, with their long heavy succulent type leaves, they are very top heavy.  They should be planted in a heavy pot to add some weight to the bottom.  A porous pot is best, since these plants do not tolerate any water standing around their roots.

They should be planted in a rapidly draining sandy soil and watered only when the soil has dried completely.  Night blooming cereus are not hungry plants and require feeding with a standard houseplant fertilizer only about once a year, in the spring.  They grow quickly and may need to be pruned occasionally to keep them in check.  They can also be grown on a trellis, but this tends to make the roots less stable and the plant more top-heavy over time. 

Night blooming cereus are very easy to grow.  It takes a lot of patience to wait for a night-blooming cereus to bloom, but look at this picture of one of the blossoms - worth waiting for, don't you think?

I'm looking forward to mine!

Orchids, Final Installment

It happened again!  I had to walk through that garden center.  Orchids were 75% off in an after Valentine's clearance.  They were a little stressed, but some of them still looked good enough to come home.  So, I bought one in the other color that had caught my eye the first time through.  One of its flower stalks should bloom for a while yet, I hope.  Then I will try to get both my orchids to rebloom.

This process starts by fertilizing as we talked about yesterday.  Then I'll move it to a new environment where the night time temperatures are slightly cooler than where it likes to be after buds are set.  Nighttime temps lowered to 55 to 65 degrees for about a month will stimulate the orchid to set buds.  Water and feed the orchid as normal during this time.

Once a new flower spike is visible, the orchid should be returned to its normal location.  A flower spike is a root that begins to grow upward and develops a small, flattened growth on the end that looks like a mitten.  The flower spike will need to be supported as it grows.  This requires a small dowel and tiny clips to hold the stem along the length of the dowel.  They make special orchid clips for this, or you can use the tiny claw type hair clips.

Once the buds have appeared on the flower stalk, avoid turning the plant.  The buds will follow the light and turning it will result in flowers that are twisted on the flower stalk.  My phaelanopsis orchids will put out one, maybe two, flower stalks per year and are not particular about what time of year it happens.  It simply responds readily to changes in temperature when it has rested enough since the previous bloom. 

If you have difficulty getting a rebloom, try dropping the temperature more, but not below 55 degrees.  Insufficient light will also keep an orchid from setting a new flower stalk.  All in all, the phaelanopsis orchids are known as the easiest to grow and the easiest to encourage reblooming, so I am hopeful. 

Orchids, part 2

I've learned how to water my orchid and the growing conditions it likes, so I'm hoping it will continue to bloom for a good long time.  An orchid blossom can last for anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks, so they are a great plant for long term beauty.  But, what should I do after the last orchid blossom falls?

As long as the flower stem is green, it should be left alone, at least for awhile, as it may develop new buds along the ends of that same stem.  If it's been several weeks and there is still no sign of buds but the stem remains green, you can trim the stem back to a node.  A node is that little swollen area that occurs periodically along the stem.  Cutting back to just above a node may stimulate bud production.

If the stem turns brown or dry, it should be cut back to one inch from the base of the plant.  A dry or brown stem will not produce new flowers and leaving it on the orchid is unsightly, and may keep the plant from putting energy into new growth.

Orchids do require fertilizing to do their best.  After flowering, orchids should be fertilized with a half strength 20-20-20 fertilizer at least once or twice per month.  The fertilizer should be mixed in water and poured into the pot until the fertilizer solution runs from the drainage holes in the pot.  You'll need to skip the ice cubes on the weeks you fertilize and just use the fertilizer solution instead.  The pot should be placed in a sink or other location where the excess fertlizer solution can drain freely away from the roots, as you don't want any standing fertilizer water in the drainage tray.

Tomorrow we'll talk about getting an orchid to re-bloom.

Orchids

We had Spring for a few days with warm temps, sunshine and snow melt running in the streets.  Today it's back to Winter with some sub-zero temps predicted for next week.  The good news is that it just can't last very long anymore!

Earlier in the week, I told you about the orchid I bought on my way through the garden center.  I’m not an expert on orchids, so I did a little research.  Since yesterday was Valentine’s day and the one day of the year that more orchids are given as gifts than probably any other day of the year, I thought some of you might have received an orchid from your sweetheart and be interested in what I found.

There are hundreds of different kinds of orchids.  My orchid is a phaelanopsis, or moth, orchid.  This is the most common type of orchid, the one you usually find in grocery stores or big box garden centers.   Mine is one that is marketed under the trade name “Just Add Ice”. 

“Just Add Ice” is supposed to tell people like me, who know nothing about orchids, that this is a very easy orchid to grow.  I simply add three ice cubes to the pot once a week and it’s good.  I can even sign up for an email reminder from their website for that once a week ice cube treatment.

While orchids don’t like to be dry, they also don’t like to be overwatered.  Over-watering is a frequent cause of death for orchids.  That led me to wonder just how big those three ice cubes should be.  Well, the three cubes, when melted, should yield about ¼ cup of water.  So, that led me to wonder why not just give them ¼ cup of water once per week?  According to the Just Add Ice website:  “When placed on top of the media, the ice cubes will slowly release over time with no worries of over-watering. With the slow drip process, the water melts into the bark soil and seeps into the roots. The roots slowly soak up the water as it drips down, which prevents water from sitting at the bottom of your pot.”  You do still need to check for water standing in the bottom of the pot after the ice cubes are fully melted.  Orchids will not tolerate their roots setting in water. 

They also won’t tolerate being dry.  If you can see the orchid’s roots, and they are a nice bright green color, they are adequately watered.  If the roots are more a white or gray color, the orchid is too dry and requires water.  My “Just Add Ice” orchid is conveniently potted in a clear pot which sets inside the decorative container so it’s easy for me to check and see if it needs water.  If you can’t see your orchid’s roots but notice that the leaves seem a limp and droopy, they are telling you they need more water.

My orchid wants bright, indirect light and no direct sunlight.  The orchid leaves are very vulnerable to sunburn.  Direct sun will also cause the blossoms to drop, which is something I definitely don’t want to happen any sooner than absolutely necessary.

It also wants temperatures between 65 and 80 degrees during the day and between 60 and 70 degrees at night.  That fits right in with where we keep our home’s temperature, so my orchid should be happy, as it would be in most homes. 

Orchids are tropical plants, though, so humidity might be an issue, especially in North Dakota in the winter time.  Orchids thrive in humidity between 55 to 75%.  That’s a difficult level to maintain in a house that needs to be heated enough to be comfortable in very cold outdoor temperatures.  We have a whole house humidification system on our heating unit but we don’t keep the humidity at 55% because we don’t want moisture condensation on the windows.  So, what to do with my orchid?  The bathrooms or kitchens generally have a slightly higher humidity level than other rooms.  All of those rooms in our house are located on the west side of the house so I will need to find a way to keep my orchid far enough from the window to be out of direct sunlight but close enough to have bright light to keep them blooming and thriving.  If I can’t find that, I can add humidity to another room in the house with a small humidifier or by taking a pan with rocks nearly submerged in water and setting my orchid planter in the pan, keeping the planter from actually touching the water.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about how to keep that orchid blooming and what to do when it is finally finished.

Happy Valentine’s Day!   My amaryllis are doing their jobs and blooming their hearts out for the occasion.   So are my African violets.

We are going to talk today about a not so beautiful thing, though.

You’ve selected the perfect potting soil, brought it home and now you are ready to plant.  Maybe.

Have you ever been sitting in your recliner, reveling in the nice, healthy plants that surround you and all of a sudden there is this little black speck zipping around your nose, your ears, your eyes?  I know you know what I mean because anyone who has ever had houseplants has had a fungus gnat buzz their face.

I have found that more and more often, shortly after I’ve brought a new bag of potting mix home and transplanted some of my plants, I’ll end up with an infestation of those pesky little buggers.  Fungus gnat larvae get into the soil and feast on algae, fungi, and organic matter in the potting mix.  The adult gnats do not eat on the plant or bite humans or animals.  They exist solely to lay more eggs so that more fungus gnats can buzz around your nose. 

The eggs require moisture to hatch so one of the ways to control them is to allow the potting mix to dry completely before using it.  But, then we talked yesterday about what happens when peat moss dries out completely.  So, it ends up being which will be the lesser of two evils for you – dry peat moss or fungus gnats?  (Here’s a hint – simply drying out isn’t guaranteed to kill all the fungus gnat larvae).

So, what’s a gardener to do?  You can sterilize your potting mix.  If you make your own, you need to do this anyway, and while it’s a little messy, it doesn’t take much effort to do it with store-bought mixes.  Sterilizing can be done outside in a full sun area.  You spread your mixture evenly over a tarp or other porous material, let it set in the sun for four weeks, turn it over and let it set another four weeks before use. 

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan most of my transplanting eight weeks in advance.  Furthermore, I don’t do it only in the summer when the sun is actually hot enough to kill any bacteria or larvae.  So, I use my oven for small batches.  I spread the potting soil on an old cookie sheet or cake pan and bake it at 200 degrees for 30 minutes; stir it; then return it to the oven for another 30 minutes.  Let cool and plant. 

This will give you a nice, earthy aroma in your house.  So, if “nice, earthy” equates to “stinky” for you, you’ll want to do it on a day when you can open the windows and run your exhaust fan.  Personally, I love the smell in Spring when the soil is coming back to life after a long, dormant Winter and the baking potting soil reminds me of that. 

I don't recommend that you use your oven to sterilize potting soil that contains fertilizer or moisture control crystals.

If you’ve already planted your containers when the fungus gnats emerge, they are harder to control.  You can try letting your container get a little bit on the dry side, consistently.  You can try spreading a thin layer of pure sand over the top surface of the potting mix in your container so that at least the surface dries more quickly.  You can try houseplant insecticides.  And you can swat at fungus gnats buzzing your face.

Yesterday we talked about the containers.  Today we’re going to talk about the potting “soil” I’ll use when I repot my new babies.    It would be so easy if we just went to the store, picked up the one variety of potting mix they have, came home, transplanted our plants and they all lived happily ever after. 

But, it’s not quite that simple.   There are different choices of potting mixes and they really do serve different purposes.  African violet soil mix really is different from Cacti and Succulent mix.  And both of those are different still from an all-purpose mix. 

That said, potting mixes all should be designed to do three things:

1.       Hold moisture and nutrients around your plant’s roots;

2.       Provide enough air (yes, air) for growing roots to be able to breathe;

3.       Support the plant and anchor the roots.

Most potting mixes contain three main ingredients:  peat moss; ground bark and / or sawdust; perlite or vermiculite.  Some of them include some topsoil and others have slow – release fertilizers or moisture retention crystals added to them.   Cacti and succulent mixes should preferably contain sand and only small or no amounts of peat moss.

The peat moss helps the mix retain moisture, unless it is allowed to dry out completely.  Then, any water you add will simply stand on top of the soil or run down around the sides where the mix is shrunken away from the side of the pot.  As the water collects in the bottom of the container, the entire mass of potting mix / peat moss will begin to float.  You can deal with this by gently pushing the floating mass back into the water and holding it there until water moistens the peat moss, making it less buoyant again.  You can also place the entire container in a bucket of water, weight it down with small stones or pottery shards, and let it soak until the potting soil is re-hydrated, then remove the pot from the bucket and let it drain well.

Small quantities of ground bark and sawdust are added to potting mixes to improve drainage.  In larger quantities or with large pieces, it will reduce the moisture retaining capabilities of your potting mix, making it harder for your plants to thrive.    A “professional” potting mix usually is much finer and better blended than some of the home garden type mixes, but even the most expensive potting mixes sometimes have what seems to be the entire log lurking in them.  It’s best to pick these out and throw them away before you put the mix in your containers.

Perlite and vermiculite are minerals that are added to improve drainage and lighten the soil.  These are the little white or gray puff balls that you find in the mixture.  Vermiculite is mica particles and perlite’s base is volcanic glass.  Both are super-heated until they expand and pop like popcorn.  Vermiculite is better at retaining moisture than perlite but some gardeners are reluctant to use it, as mica is often found close to asbestos deposits and the vermiculite may contain small amounts of asbestos.

So, how do you know what’s in your ready-to-use soil mix?  Look for a list of contents on the bag to find peat moss or sphagnum peat moss, pine bark or other type of bark, and perlite or vermiculite as the primary ingredients.  If the bag doesn’t tell you, do the “feel and look” test.  Lift the bag and squeeze the mix inside.  If the bag is lightweight and the consistency is spongy or springy, that’s a good sign.  If the bag is very heavy or if when you squeeze the contents into a ball, it stays that way, it’s a bag to avoid.  Feel for the large pieces of bark or other clumps.

The best way to check your soil is to open the bag and inspect it.  Most retailers will not thank you for doing this, though.  But, if you do have a chance, sift through the mix and look for those “logs”.  Look also for the vermiculite or perlite balls and see if they are still intact or if they have been crushed.  If they are crushed, that is evidence of soil compaction and the soil has already lost some of its moisture retention and aeration capability.  If you pick up a handful of mix and squeeze it, when you open your hand, the ball of soil should crumble easily.  If it forms a ball that holds together, that won’t work well in containers.

Tomorrow we'll talk about one more thing you should do before you put that potting mix in your container.

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!