Consider pyracantha for security and flowers
Here are some questions I encountered last week:
Q: I need a plant that provides security and flowers on our backyard wall, but is also low maintenance and saves water. I'm considering roses and bougainvilleas.
A: Your choices are good, but consider pyracantha. It's a fuller evergreen and thorny bush with beautiful white spring blossoms followed by red or orange berries in the winter that provide food for our feathered friends.
Q: Will my crispy, brown-leafed mock orange return to normal or is it dead?
A: The extensive heat and the lack of water caused the browning. If you see new growth emerging, clean out the scorched growth and it will come back.
Q: Our photinia always looks sick. Is it worth saving, or should we consider other shrubs?
A: I'm high on shiny xylosma, silverberry or sugar bush. They're on display along with many others at the Springs Preserve.
Q: When do I harvest winter squash?
A: When your thumbnail has a hard time creasing the outer shell. Save an inch of stem when severing it from the plant to wall off potential diseases. After harvesting, place it in a cool, dry location for more ripening. Avoid letting squashes touch each other, and do not expose them to sunlight or moisture.
Q: Can I compost palm fronds?
A: Yes, but they are slow breaking down unless you chip them into fine chunks. To enhance the composting process, throw in kitchen scraps to feed microorganisms, and turn the pile often.
Q: Why do watermelons explode? I water three times a day for five minutes and sprinkle them at night.
A: You are over-watering. Vine crops like deep drinks with several days between each irrigation. When plants imbibe too much water, the melons explode.
Q: Can I transplant offshoots from my agave?
A: Yes. When offshoots get six-inches high, cut the cord between them and the mother plant and plant elsewhere.
Q: When do we start planting bulbs?
A: As soon as they're available. Here are some choices: anemones, crocus, daffodils, narcissus, Dutch iris, freesias, hyacinths, ranunculus, scilla, snowdrops and tulips. Get them early because warm weather dries them out while at the nursery and affects their quality next spring. Store them in a cool place until you plant. Refrigerate hyacinths and tulips six weeks before planting to ensure larger blooms.
Q: How do we get rid of the stump from an old tree?
A: Dig it out or rent a stump remover and grind it out. You can also hire a professional to do it.
Q: Tell me about gopher plant.
A: It doesn't attract gophers, but it is an unusually beautiful evergreen mounding shrub about two-feet high and three-feet wide. Its leaves are grayish blue-green with large round clusters of yellow flowers sitting atop of each stem. As the flowers age, they become tan and the stems die, but new stems emerge, repeating itself next season. It does well in containers and makes an excellent specimen plant, making it a conversation topic as friends visit your landscape.
Q: How do I care for my bromeliad?
A: It loves high humidity and filtered light. Spray leaves bi-monthly with a soluble fertilizer. Bromeliads are saprophytes, so it only gets nutrients through its leaves.
Q: How do you prune french lavender?
A: As flowers fade, remove the stems back so you retain its natural form and it will bloom again.
Q: Why are my pear tree leaves rusty?
A: It's spider mites. Wash them away with a strong jet of water and let the heat dehydrate them or use insecticidal soap.
Q: When do I shear my pine tree?
A: Never. Shearing ruins a pine's beauty, so keep them looking natural. When they develop candles (new growth at the tip end of every branch that looks like a candle) next spring, clip them off to shorten internode growth to keep them compact. Really, the best way to control pine growth is cutting back the water and fertilizer so they don't grow as much.
Q: Where can I get diatomaceous earth?
A: I saw some at Plant World Nursery, 5311 W. Charleston, Blvd., on the fertilizer shelf.
A BIG FARMERS MARKET
Come out this and every Thursday and visit the Molto Vegas Farmers Market to purchase high-quality locally grown fresh organic produce. It's from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 7485 Dean Martin Drive, Suite 106, one-half mile north of Blue Diamond. This market is cash only.
Linn Mills writes a garden column each Sunday. You can reach him at linn.mills@springspreserve.org or call him at 822-7754.
