Gardening To-Dos in January

December 31, 2015 by lheideman

by Zachary Davis, Somervell County Texas AgriLife Extension Agent

January is a good maintenance month for Texas gardens. This can be a great time for you to survey your lawn and garden and see what you would like to change in preparation for the coming spring. You can also use this month to prune trees, especially fruit trees, and possibly plant a new tree or shrub.

Proper maintenance can include pulling young tree seedlings in unwanted areas, working compost into your garden site, protecting tender plants from frost, planting tulip and hyacinth bulbs. You can also check for signs of unwanted insects by looking for live scales, spider mites, and mealy bugs. Spraying for these insects can be done as long as temperatures are above 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you do decide to plant a new tree visit Texas A&M Forest Service Tree Selector at: http://texastreeplanting.tamu.edu/ This selector tool allows you to select the county you’re in, what kind of space you have for your tree, the size of tree you want, and what you’re looking for in a tree. Pruning existing trees can be very beneficial or very damaging to a tree depending on proper pruning. Remember to use sharp tools and try to thin your trees versus topping them. You can remove dead or damaged limbs, and prune to mold young trees to grow properly.

Planning for spring can include looking at what worked or didn’t work last year and setting your goals for the upcoming year. Look at seed catalogs and start growing some of those spring plants indoors for later transplant. Plants to begin indoors include broccoli, cabbage, and lettuce.

Remember there is never a bad time for a soil test, although most people don’t think of it this time of year. You can prepare your soil and avoid missteps in the coming spring when it can be too late.

For additional information, contact Zach Davis, AgriLife Extension agent in Somervell County 254.897.2809.

The Poinsettia

November 29, 2015 by lheideman

by Linda Heideman, Somervell County Master Gardener

No flower says Christmas in the United States like the beautiful Poinsettia. It is part of the large and diverse Spurge family, botanically known as Euphorbia pulcherrima.

Poinsettias received their name in the United States in honor of Joel Roberts Poinsett, who introduced the plant into the country in 1828. Poinsett was a botanist, a physician, and the first United States Ambassador to Mexico. He sent cuttings of the plant he had discovered in Southern Mexico to his home in Charleston, South Carolina. The word Poinsettia is traditionally capitalized because it is named after a person. December 12^th is Poinsettia Day, which marks the death of Poinsett in 1851.

Today the plant is known in Mexico and Guatemala as “La Flor de la Nochebuena” (Flower of the Holy Night, or Christmas Eve). In Chile and Peru, the Poinsettia is called the “Crown of the Andes”. In Spain it has a completely different holiday attribution: “Flor de Pascua” meaning “Easter Flower”.

Poinsettias have also been called the lobster flower and the flame-leaf flower, due to the red color, but today there are more than 100 varieties in many solid colors, or even marbled and speckled varieties. The Paul Ecke Ranch in California grows over 70% of all Poinsettias purchased in the United States and does about 50% of the world-wide sales.

The showy colored parts of Poinsettias that most people think of as the flowers are actually colored bracts (modified leaves). The yellow flowers, or cyathia, are in the center of the colorful bracts. The plant drops its bracts and leaves soon after those flowers shed their pollen. For the longest-lasting Poinsettias, choose plants with little or no yellow pollen showing. The colors of the bracts are created through “photoperiodism”, meaning that they require darkness (12 hours at a time for at least five days in a row) to change color. On the other hand, once they finish that process, the plants require abundant light during the day for the brightest color.

In nature, Poinsettias are perennial flowering shrubs that were once considered weeds. But they are not frost-tolerant. They will grow outdoors in temperate coastal climates, such as Southern California beach communities. In the ground, they can reach 10 feet tall!

Despite rumors to the contrary, Poinsettias are not poisonous. Some people with latex allergies have had a skin reaction, most likely to the sap in the leaves. A study at Ohio State University showed that a 50-pound child would have to eat more than a pound-and-a-quarter of Poinsettia leaves (500 to 600 leaves) to have any side effects. The most common side effects are upset stomach and vomiting, The leaves are reportedly not very tasty, so it’s highly unlikely that kids or even pets would be able to eat that many! But be aware that leaves can still be a choking hazard for children and pets.

If you’re up for the challenge, it is possible to keep your Christmas Poinsettia through the year and get it to bloom next year, but recreating the size and color of this year’s bracts is almost impossible. These plants are plentiful and cheap. Why not just look forward to new ones every year? They will keep a few weeks if you put them where it’s cool (65 to 70 degrees), where the light is bright in the daytime, and let them dry out between waterings. Remove the pretty outside wrapping and don’t let them stand in water.

Good luck!

Gardening Tips for November

November 1, 2015 by lheideman

by Linda Heideman, Somervell County Master Gardener

Fall is a great time of year to plant wildflowers in our area, especially bluebonnets and poppies. These plants will germinate in the mild weather of fall and go through winter as small plants until time for their annual spurt of colorful growth in the spring.

Cool season vegetables may be harvested in November. It is important to harvest when they are at peak quality. For example, broccoli should be harvested when the heads are still tight and prior to buds loosening to prepare for opening their yellow flowers. Harvest beets and other root crops while they are still young and tender. Fully mature, they will not have the same taste and eating quality.

Leaf season is here! Those tree leaves that are littering your landscape contain 50-75 percent of the nutrients that the tree took up during the year. Don’t throw them away! Gather them for mulching and composting. Think of them as nature’s own slow release fertilizer and as free mulch.

Fall is the absolute best time to plant trees, shrubs, and woody vines. Fall planting gives the plant all winter to settle in and start to establish new roots, which helps it become better prepared for next year’s hot summer weather.

Clean out the remains of your summer annuals and till in some compost to prepare the soil for your favorite cool season flowers. Set out transplants of pansies, violas, snapdragons and ornamental kale and cabbage. Dusty miller is a good foliage plant that is hardy. A thick mulch layer helps protect these favorites from an early freeze.

Choose berrying plants at the garden center now while they have berries on them. Holly species, such as yaupon and possumhaw, have separate male and female plants. So you’ll want to make sure your plant is a female, if you want to enjoy berries in your landscape.

Plant perennial spring-blooming bulbs soon to allow time to become established before spring. However, wait until early January to plant tulips and hyacinths. Buy these bulbs now, but keep them in the refrigerator (away from produce) until time to plant.

(Researched in the Texas Gardener Magazine, November/December 2015 issue, by Skip Richter.)

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