Join the Brazos County Master Gardeners for an educational event at the Clara Mounce Public Library in Bryan.
This event is open to the public at no charge.
Learning at the Library – Landscape Design with Native Plants
Join the Brazos County Master Gardeners for an educational event at the Clara Mounce Public Library in Bryan.
This event is open to the public at no charge.
Learning at the Library – Keyhole Gardens and Raised Beds
Join the Brazos County Master Gardeners for an educational event at the Clara Mounce Public Library in Bryan.
This event is open to the public at no charge.
2026 Spring Plant Sale – Save the date!
Bring your wagon and join us at the Brazos County Extension Office (4153 County Park Court in Bryan) for our spring plant sale. We will begin at 8AM and stay open until we sell out!
Cleanest Tools On The Block
Stephen Brueggerhoff, CEA – Horticulture, Brazos County AgriLife Extension; published 1/06/2026
All images unless otherwise noted by Stephen Brueggerhoff
Garden tools are essential to a successful gardening experience and often become life-long partners in sustainable gardening practice. Do not forget that practice is only as sound as the care you take in maintaining your garden tools. I offer a few tips and reminders to help you be successful in nurturing this long-term relationship.
Store Properly and Clean After Use
It can be challenging keeping tools moisture free living in a region with increased humidity, and it is best to store them dry indoors in a covered shed or garage. Long handled tools such as shovels or rakes can be suspended on a mounted rack for adequate air flow, and hand tools can be hung on a peg board or stored in a drawer. Keep the wooden parts of your tools off the garage floor regarding long-term storage as concrete can wick moisture that may compromise the wood. At least once a year, apply tung or linseed oil to preserve the wood and use walnut oil a few times out of the year.
Tools benefit from cleaning immediately after use. Wear a pair of gloves and use a sturdy long handle utility brush for surfaces of a shovel or on metal tines of a landscape rake. Remove collected soil on metal surfaces with a hard stream of water and a sturdy bristle brush. Use a rag to wipe off water and allow the metal to dry overnight. Afterwards, if you see rust, use sandpaper or steel wool to scrub affected surfaces and then oil with a light application of lubricant. My preference is mineral oil as it provides an effective, long-lasting protective coating and is less caustic than other petroleum-based lubricants. Keep handy a 5-gallon bucket filled three-quarters with sand and moistened with mineral oil to dip your shovel blade in after cleaning.
Popular brand name secateurs, lopper and pole pruner blades can be taken apart for detailed cleaning and sharpening as appropriate. Always stay focused when cleaning your tools to ensure safe handling of sharp objects. It is not necessary to sharpen your tools to the point of cutting a sheet of office paper, rather keeping the bevel intact and sharp enough for clean pruning cuts.
Vigilance for Rust
While it may not be practical to lubricate our tools after daily use, it is important to treat them for long-term storage. I admit I have been that forgetful person that has left tools in the garden overnight and had to rehab rusted hand pruners and shovels. You can remove a patina of rust with household vinegar, saturating a folded paper towel or cloth and rubbing till you see smooth metal. Keep in mind that vinegar itself is corrosive and can damage aluminum and copper. This practice is best used as a last resort rather than for continual maintenance. More severe cases of rust may require soaking in vinegar overnight. Hand pruners can be dismantled to submerge exposed metal. Use glass or thick plastic containers large enough to host the metal parts and make sure that rubber parts or plastic-coated handles are not submerged. Remove from the vinegar bath, wipe with paper towels or rags, and then use steel wool to finish the work. Once these actions are completed, immediately apply your preferred lubricant for a protective coating.
Disinfect and Sterilize
The action of cleaning is a practical way to reduce the potential of your tools becoming a vector for pathogens. However, sterilizing pruners is the best practice when actively pruning plants susceptible to viral or bacterial infection like oak wilt or citrus greening. You can lessen the chance of spreading pathogens by pruning below affected wounds and not through discolored or gummy tissue. Take the time to clean blades when pruning in between individual plants. Consider using available and least caustic sanitizing materials. I do not recommend diluted or full-strength bleach because it is corrosive. Isopropyl alcohol at full or diluted strength is often mentioned in literature and used because of its availability. Alcohol wipe packets can be kept in the pocket or gardening bag for portability and immediate access. Another option that may be practical is non-corrosive household disinfectant products at full strength.
Wait On Winter Cleanup and Spring Pruning
Our landscape plantings are undergoing winter dormancy and depending on the weather, are not actively growing at this time of year. While it is tempting to keep things looking tidy, it is best to let the landscape rest and leave pruning and intensive raking for another time. I will write about best pruning practices for woody ornamental and fruiting trees later in winter. There is additional information for you to explore regarding best pruning practices from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension EarthKind™ Landscaping website: https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/. Don’t forget to visit Brazos County Master Gardeners website for local programs: txmg.org/brazos. May you enjoy your gardening experience in the New Year, and I always look forward to seeing you in the garden.
Poinsettia for Holiday Cheer
Stephen Brueggerhoff, CEA – Horticulture, Brazos County AgriLife Extension; published 12/20/2025
All images unless otherwise noted by Stephen Brueggerhoff
Bright and cheerful colors play a very important part in our mental well-being at this time of year. Silver and gold offer effervescent qualities that appear to brighten up even the darkest corner. Greenery through wreaths, bowers or even container plantings bring a sense of ongoing life at a time when plants shed their leaves through winter dormancy. Red is the color that really stands out and depending on a timely seasonal cool down and rain events, we may capture a crimson glimpse from the falling leaves of Texas Red Oak (Quercus buckleyi), Shumard Oak (Q. shumardii), Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis) or Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). A plant that is always available and very popular this time of year for holiday cheer is Poinsettia.
Poinsettia Origins
We value Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) as indoor container plantings for their unique and attractive bold red vegetation. They are naturally distributed in parts of southern Mexico to Guatemala in tropical, deciduous forests. The plant is referred to as Nochebuena or Flor de Nochebuena in Mexico, a name offered honoring seasonal Christmas celebrations.
The common name is attributed to the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Joel Robert Poinsett who introduced the species in the 1820s. According to an article from the Texas State Historical Association website (www.tshaonline.org), Joel Poinsett’s charge was to expand the U.S. territory from the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 down to the what we know as the Rio Grande. Mr. Poinsett brought poinsettia specimens from Taxco, Mexico back to his home in South Carolina around 1828. Cultivated specimens were exhibited at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society flower show in 1829, setting the stage for contemporary cultivation. There is a related species native to Texas and the lower 48 called Fire on the Mountain (Euphorbia cyathophora). This species produces a blotchy and non-uniform red color at the base of each leaf in the fall.
Colorful Foliage
Poinsettia’s colorful foliage are modified leaves called bracts that surround clusters of urn-shaped, yellow-colored flowers that are called cyathia. In their natural habitat, Poinsettia can grow into a shrub reaching 10 to 15-foot tall. They are temperate tropical plants and perform best at temps averaging 70-degrees during the day and 60-degrees at night. They will lose their vegetation if exposed to temperatures below 50-degrees and may exhibit signs of stress at temps above 80-degrees. Because of this sensitivity, it is best to grow Poinsettia in containers to move indoors during cold winter and blistering summer months. The container soil should be well-draining; Poinsettia is susceptible to root and stem rot if kept in saturated soil. Even though the plants thrive with more light exposure, provide afternoon shade during our commonly hot summer months.
Poinsettia are members of the spurge family (Euphorbiacaea), a plant family known for expressing a sticky milky sap when cutting stems or leaves. This milky sap can cause skin irritation for some people susceptible to skin allergies and may cause symptoms such as mild irritation to nausea and diarrhea if ingested by pets. While the plant is not considered poisonous, take care when placing plants indoor or outdoor settings and within proximity to pet traffic and habit.
Varieties That Fit Every Need
Let’s talk about color! There is estimated to be more than 100 varieties hybridized to produce vivid foliar colors that range from deep red to salmon, apricot to yellow, and cream to white. There are also a few that exhibit white speckled variegation to attract our wandering eyes. Remember that the colored vegetation are bracts that subtend the flowers. Nurserymen use natural phenomenon of less sunlight exposure in the fall to initiate flowering and produce this change in bract color. Poinsettia are considered short-day plants, meaning that flower buds form when the plants are kept in 14 hours of total darkness out of every day for a four-week period. This activity is best started in late September or early October to get the bracts to change color in time for our holiday celebration. A few varieties to consider:
- Autumn Leaves – blooming from November through December, with bracts in shades of peach, yellow and pink. Reported to be cold sensitive.
- Cortez Early Red – vibrant red bracts that can produce by mid-October.
- Marblestar – dusty rose centers edged in creamy white. Late blooming in December to January
- J’adore Pink – compact habit, pastel pink pointed bracts
- Wintersun – bright, large creamy bracts
Resources For Home and Commercial Cultivation
Texas A&M AgriLife Aggie Horticulture hosts a webpage called the Texas Poinsettia Producers Guide, an educational resource offering valuable information on production schedule, irrigation, diseases, management and more. You can also get a glimpse of hundreds of cultivars as well as home and commercial production information from North Carolina State University Extension’s Poinsettia Trials webpage – trials.ces.ncsu.edu/poinsettias/. These holiday plants can continue to bring joy during this season with just a little bit of care and gardening knowledge.
Season’s greetings to you and your family, I look forward to serving you with outstanding horticulture programs, and I will see you in the garden.