- Author: Erin Mahaney
I love to grow a variety of easy-to plant, spring-flowering bulbs for their colorful, cheery blooms in the garden and to fill vases inside my home. One of my favorites is ranunculus, which come in a variety of colors and petal styles, and are very easy to grow. The flowers have a long vase life, which helps brighten grey spring days.
Ranunculus corms can be purchased in packages in stores and on the internet. The corms are strange looking little things with little spikey points. Many people recommend soaking the corms for about 4 hours (no longer!) to plump them up before planting. I've planted the corms pre-soaked and without soaking (I forgot) and haven't really noticed a difference. But again, the recommendation is to soak them.
Ranunculus require rich soil, full sun, and regular water. The corms should be planted 2” deep with the spikes pointing down. The plants will bloom about 3 months after planting. I prefer to plant the corms in the fall so that I'm not mucking about in the muddy garden in late winter, but they can be planted in late winter or early spring as well. It's worth noting, however, that ranunculus are cool season flowers that bloom primarily in our area until late April or so. Once the weather warms above about 70 degrees, they are done for the year so the planting and flowering schedule needs to account for warming spring temperatures.
One advantage to planting ranunculus in the fall is that spring-blooming bulbs often go on sale late in the fall season. This can provide an opportunity to try a variety of flowers, including some that might otherwise be costly at full price. For example, this year, I experimented with some ruffly Italian Cloni Pon Pon varieties that I purchased at a deep discount last fall. But the classic varieties, such as the various Tecolate lines, with colors ranging from light pastels to bright hues, bring great joy as well.
Ranunculus are perennial and, in our growing zone, they can rebloom from year to year. But in my backyard at least, they are best treated as annuals and replanted in the fall. While some plants will rebloom, a variety of conditions (including drought) can make a difference in whether they survive. By replanting at least a few new corms each year, I can try a few new varieties and also be sure that I will enjoy a supply of beautiful flowers in the spring.
- Author: Paula Pashby
Every so often, I rescue a spider from my bathroom, and sometimes I need to call my husband to help. I do the same for other creatures, but I have always been particularly curious about spiders. One spider type that visits often has very long legs, which are well known as daddy-longlegs.
I have been noticing these daddy-longlegs in various parts of our yard and wondered whether they are beneficial to my garden or something of concern. Once again, my research into this question took me down another rabbit-hole of unexpected information.
I was pleased to learn that, yes, the daddy longlegs add to the garden ecology! I found out that they have an extensive diet of usual plant pests, like aphids, and will also feast on dead insects and even a spattering of bird droppings.
To my surprise, I also found out that daddy-longlegs (Opillones) are not actually a spider (Araneae), they just look like one. One visible distinction between daddy-longlegs and spiders is that they have one round body part, while spiders have two. Another difference is that daddy-longlegs do not have the silk glands necessary to create webs and do not produce venom.
BUT wait: Most of the daddy-longlegs that I usually see are hanging out in spider webs! I took a closer look and I now see that these guys do have double bodies. So, what I have been thinking was a daddy-longlegs is, in fact a spider known as the cellar spider, Pholcidae. It also turns out that they are beneficial to the garden. The cellar spiders feed on flies, mosquitoes, brown recluses, cockroaches, and even black widows. Oh, and they are not venomous to humans!
Thus, I had another pleasurable day of discoveries. The bottom line is that both the daddy-longlegs and cellar spiders are beneficial and not dangerous… welcome residents in our garden.
- Author: Erin Mahaney
We live near a fast food restaurant that doesn't have much landscaping, mostly white rocks and few scrubby plants. But it also has six compact, deciduous, spring-flowering magnolia trees planted in two groups of three that are quite charming. Even smaller magnolias can exceed 8' tall, but these magnolias have been hard pruned to maintain a size of approximately 4' x 4' for over twenty years. Perhaps the magnolias weren't the right choice for the location if they had to be maintained in such a compact form, but whoever pruned them did it well. The plants were healthy, didn't have any obvious pruning cuts, and bloomed spectacularly each year with with pale-pink to white flowers.
But not this year. This spring I noticed that one group of three trees had their limbs decapitated. The other trio of plants appeared to be untouched. I took these photos just after peak bloom when the trees were leafing out. Compare the pruned trio of plants to the other trio. The pruned trio has stumpy limbs with a few leaves on sparse branches and very few flowers. The other trio of plants has lush foliage, more natural branching, and previously was covered with flowers. Why do they look so different?
When pruning deciduous magnolias, many gardening experts say “don't do it” unless preventative maintenance is required. Magnolias don't require regular pruning. But sometimes there is a good reason to prune – the health of the tree, safety, to prevent a limb growing into a wrong location (like a pathway), to remove crowded or weak branches, etc. A common mistake, however, is planting a tree or shrub in the wrong location. If a plant has to be pruned continuously or heavily to fit its location, then it is likely the wrong plant for that spot. (I'll admit that I'm guilty of this error, including with my own compact deciduous magnolia, but perhaps that's a blog for another day.) These six magnolias must be pruned regularly to fit their landscape situation.
One factor explaining the difference between appearance of the two groups of plants might be when the pruning occurred. Timing matters. When pruning flowering plants, one must consider when the plant blooms and prune accordingly. Most spring-flowering plants, including magnolias, produce flowers early in the growing season on the previous year's wood. They should be pruned after flowering, ideally within a month after the blooms end. If one waits too long in the season to prune, then one might cut off the wood that supports the next year's flowers. Some websites, however, advise pruning deciduous magnolias in mid-summer to early fall to prevent the cuts from bleeding. This may then create the risk that some of the next year's flowers may get cut off. Given that the trio of hard-pruned plants have few flowers or leaves, my guess is that they were pruned late in the year, but the other group was not.
Another factor is how the pruning cuts were made. The pruned trio of plants had their limbs bluntly lopped off the top. Thisblog won't get into the details of pruning, but proper pruning involves the appropriate placement of the cut. In general, a cut should be about ¼” above a growth bud at approximately a 45-degree angle. Cutting too close to a bud can cause injury. Cutting too far away from a growth bud leaves a stub that will eventually wither and die. It will eventually decay and drop off, leaving an open patch of dead tissue. Aesthetically, it is better to cut a limb back to a fork or the trunk.
I admit I poked around in the foliage in the healthier looking trio of trees to see if I could find evidence of old pruning cuts, but then I became a little embarrassed to be examining the plants on a busy street corner. In a quick glance, however, I didn't see the same blunt cuts that were so visible with the other trio.
If a tree is hard pruned it likely will live, but it may send up a lot of water sprouts. A water sprout is a vigorous, skinny, upright shoot that grows on the crown or trunk of a tree, often as a result of over-pruning. Eventually water sprouts may regrow into “real” branches, but may create a thick tangled mess of weak branches in the meantime. Magnolias are notorious for producing water sprouts when pruned, so I'll be interested to observe whether this happens in the next year.
Regardless, the plants should recover. Maybe this is how they have been pruned for over twenty years and I never noticed before. But I thought that the difference in appearance was certainly striking enough to share.
- Author: Karen Metz
My mother bought me the cutest pink flowering plant in a little 2-inch bunny planter for Easter. She told me that she thought it was the prettiest Kalanchoe that she had ever seen. It was adorable, and just bursting with flowers. I was a little puzzled though. The leaves looked like classic scalloped Kalanchoe leaves, but the flowers were different. They looked like a supercharged Kalanchoe on steroids. I noticed that the label on the bottom of the planter said Calandiva.
The World of Succulents website and the Calandiva.com website helped to clear things up. Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is the scientific name for the typical florist Kalanchoe that we all know and love. It has 4 petals to each blossom. In 1998 a grower found a mutant plant whose blossoms had 32 petals per flower. After 4 years of research and careful breeding, growers were able to release this cultivar to the public as Calandiva. So, the official scientific name is Kalanchoe blossfeldiana ‘Calandiva'. It is now available in many colors and is extremely popular.
It is only hardy in USDA zones 10-12, so for most of us, it is grown as a houseplant. Calandiva needs essentially the same care as other Kalanchoe. They need light to flourish. They also need well-draining soil and to be able to dry out between waterings.
Now that I knew what I was dealing with, I looked at my Calandiva and noticed that this full, tall, blooming plant was in a small 2-inch pot. Sure enough, when I turned it over, roots had grown out the bottom. So, I repotted it in a 4-inch pot so it will have some room to stretch out. It seems to be very happy in its new home. According to the experts I can expect to enjoy the blossoms for 4-6 weeks. Thanks, Mom!
- Author: Nanelle Jones-Sullivan
Starting from seed can open the door to more variety, but it helps to keep notes.
1) Don't start too early! Holding seedlings under poor conditions while waiting for ideal weather results in weak, spindly plants. I want my seedlings to be “comfortable” in an airy environment with days of 65-70, and nights of 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit, and under lights 16 hours a day. I grow too many seedlings to use windows for light. Many instructions revolve around freeze dates, but it is nighttime temps around 55 that are most important for setting out tomato plants in my garden. Most years I start in mid-March.
2) Containers should be the right size, and easy to move. I start with the smallest containers to make good use of space and try many varieties, but tomatoes grow quickly, and after true leaves develop, they need to be “potted up” to larger containers.
3) Don't start too late! I want even the late varieties to be outside and ready to flower before days stay above 90 degrees. I usually aim to get them all planted around May 1st.
4) Don't forget about hardening off! Tomato seedlings like to grow in comfort, but you will need to slow growth by “hardening” them to withstand changes in environmental conditions. I “harden off” by gradually exposing them to cooler daytime temperatures; I try for two weeks, starting with 45-50 degrees F for two hours in a shady spot protected from wind.
5) Don't grow so many! I love all the colors, shapes, sizes, and leaves of so many varieties, but most seeds will germinate and survive, and each plant needs five months of care and can produce 10-15 pounds or more!