February 11, 2019 Kim’s Weekly Garden Blog
Hi Gardeners,
I am sitting here enjoying a warmer house as snow flies
outside. Our furnace was out for a few
days and we had to make do with electric heaters and boiling water on the
stove. It’s not fun. Hopefully it was
fixed this morning, but I do think we may need a new thermostat along with the
a part that was replaced. Now with an ice
storm possibly setting up tonight I have to worry about the power going out, so
I am enjoying heat while I can.
Are you tired of this weird winter weather? I know I am. I always hate February. I am
hoping these weather swings from warm to cold we keep having aren’t damaging my
plants outside. Normally this time of
year plants don’t respond very much to just a few days of slightly warmer than
normal temps but we are getting closer to the time when daylight length will trigger
plants to start coming out of dormancy when it gets above a certain
temperature. And when we get a quick
drop after that it’s hard on plants.
The inside plants didn’t get below 50 degrees, at least the ones in
the main house, and I think they really appreciated the extra humidity from
boiling water. There are big buds on the
amaryllis, and I hope they don’t drop off because it got a little colder. I will also have to wait and see how the
plants on the porch fared, because it got colder for them with not as much
warmth coming off the house.
Next week I will begin fertilizing the houseplants again. It’s time they woke up and started growing
again. I use the water-soluble fertilizer at half strength at first and when I
notice lots of new growth I go to full strength.
Remember this weekend it’s time for the Great American Bird count. Get those feeders full so you can help count
birds. birdcount.org.
Dealing with ice damaged landscape
plants
While it’s dangerous, for humans an ice storm is also disastrous for
the landscape. And sometimes in an
effort to save plants, people do more damage to them. When ice builds up on plants great care is
needed to prevent further damage.
Evergreens may become loaded with heavy snow or ice and be bent or
splayed out. Carefully remove the snow-
you can break the branches easily. Don’t grab and shake them, brush the snow
off a little at a time. If the branches
are ice covered there is not much you can do.
Leave the shrubs or trees alone or you may do worse damage. And be careful that larger limbs don’t drop
on you. After snow or ice is gone you
may have to prop or tie up some plants to help them regain their shape.
If tree limbs break trim the broken area off to leave a clean
cut. You don’t need tree paint on the
stumps. Be very careful working around
large trees after a bad storm. You can
easily be killed or seriously injured by falling branches. Look up. Dangling branches can fall in unexpected ways
if you tug at them and one branch falling can start a cascade.
If your perennial or woody plants have started to have swollen
flower buds or are in flower when an ice storm hits you will probably lose the
flowers. If it gets above freezing
quickly some plants may continue to flower, sometimes a little discoloration of
the flower will occur. The plants may not set fruit if they were at pollination
stage when ice covered.
Plants like daffodils, tulips and other spring blooming bulbs are
only harmed if heavy ice breaks them off or smashes them. If not broken, they
can be covered in snow and it will actually protect them.
Chocolate for Valentine’s day?
Did you know more chocolate is sold at Halloween than at any other
time? But Valentine’s Day is a close
second and chocolate and Valentine’s Day go hand in hand. February is also heart health month and
chocolate is great for heart health.
Chocolate is high in antioxidants and decreases inflammation in the
blood vessels, which lowers blood pressure and promotes good cardiac
health. Research shows that if you eat a
small amount of dark chocolate every day you will decrease your risk of heart
problems by one third.
People who are depressed often crave chocolate and for good reason. Chocolate contains chemicals that lighten
your mood and “sweeten” the pleasure centers of your brain. Other medical research has found that
chocolate boosts memory, attention span and problem-solving skills. Some research suggests chocolate improves
insulin sensitivity and that chocolate may improve eyesight in low light
situations. German research says that
flavonoids in chocolate help the skin by absorbing UV light and increasing
blood flow to the skin, protecting skin cells and making the skin long younger.
Researchers
at Louisiana State University found that the good microbes in our colon love
chocolate. Chocolate, or cocoa to be exact, has plenty of good antioxidants,
and is known to be good for the cardio-vascular system. But when we eat
chocolate the good antioxidants in it are hard for our bodies to digest. When chocolate gets to our gut however, the
good microbes jump on it and break the chocolate molecules and fiber down to
smaller molecules that we can easily digest.
Chocolate is the only solid edible that melts at 93 degrees, just below
your body temperature, which means it melts in your mouth. Surprisingly
Americans are only 11th in the average amount of chocolate consumed
by citizens each year. Switzerland is
first, with Australia and Ireland next in line.
It takes 400 cacao beans to produce a pound of pure chocolate and
between 40-50 million people across the world have jobs based on the chocolate
industry. The most expensive chocolate in the world is said to be “Madeleine”
which is made by Fritz Knipschildt of Knipschildt Chocolatier in Connecticut.
Chocolate is a plant-based product with immense health benefits and
should be considered a vegetable. (Just
kidding). Most chocolate growing is good
for the environment as chocolate likes to grow in the shade of other trees and
this promotes more forested land.
Red also goes with chocolate. If you are choosing a wine to go with a
chocolate dessert or that box of candy, choose a red wine. And red roses also say Happy Valentines
day. In the language of flowers red
roses symbolize passionate love. According
to statistics about 35% of us are going to buy flowers as a gift this
Valentine’s day and in the process spend about 2 billion dollars. The great
majority of those flowers will be red roses, 110 million of them.
So
grab a box of chocolate and some red wine and roses for your significant other
and you will have covered all bases.
More
tips for seed starting
Don’t start those seeds too soon! The house is not the ideal place for
seedlings to grow. So, unless you have a
heated greenhouse use patience. Grow
light set-ups can work, even a sunny window sill, but if it’s too long before
you can plant your seedlings outside, they will get lanky, stunted from small
pots and may not transplant well when the warm weather finally arrives.
To know when to start seeds inside you need to know when your last average
frost date is. You can ask an
experienced gardener in your area or your county Extension office if you don’t
know. When you know that look at seed
packets or catalog descriptions to see how long before the last average frost
you should plant the seeds. Then count backwards from your last frost date and
you’ll know when to start the seeds.
Some seedlings need 6 weeks before transplanting outside, others may
need 10 or 12 weeks. If the time when
you normally have your last frost still feels too cold holding the seedlings a
week or 10 days before you plant them outside won’t be too harmful. But if there’s a late spring and you started
the seedlings way too early your plants could be stressed by the indoor
conditions and never perform well in the garden.
The second tip is to buy good seed starting medium. To avoid fungal
diseases, use soil-less potting mix to start seeds, not garden soil or compost.
Finely ground mixtures are better for starting most seeds. These mixes will
generally say “seed starting mix” or something similar. Read the bag to see if
the mix contains fertilizer, some do, and some don’t. If the mix contains fertilizer you will not
need to add fertilizer for the seedlings unless they are still in the
containers after 8 weeks or more.
Everything should be immaculately clean when you start seeds. If you
reuse items or recycle items for seed starting, wash everything in hot soapy
water and rinse well before adding potting medium. Of course paper and cardboard items can’t be
washed, but use clean items that haven’t been stored near soil or previously
used for planting.
It’s hard to wait when you have the itch
to garden but waiting until the time is right to start the plants and using the
right potting medium results in healthier plants.
Caring for Cacti
Cacti have always been popular as houseplants but with the
emphasis on natural landscaping that requires less watering, landscaping with
cacti has also become popular. Many
people who have been known to be forgetful about watering choose cacti as
houseplants, but cacti do require some basic care.
In this article we will discuss caring for cacti in the home
and in the landscape. This article focuses on the desert type of cacti. Succulents
are closely related to cacti and often seen in the same environments, but they
won’t be covered here. The forest cacti
commonly known as Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving cacti are covered in this
article; http://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/christmas-thanksgiving-and-easter-cacti.html
Cacti characteristics
There are hundreds of types of cacti from tiny plants to towering
tree like forms. There are so many species that they can’t be covered
individually here. A lot of species are
sold without even a common name other than cacti, which can be another problem when
one is trying to identify a species and learn about its care. New cacti are always coming into the
houseplant trade.
Most cacti are leafless, although a few may retain rudimentary
leaves. Cacti produce their food by photosynthesis like other plants but in the
stems instead of in leaves.
Most cacti have “spines” to protect them and these can be quite
painful when encountered. The spines can
be hair-like and almost invisible or thick and long. The color of the spines
can be white, green, black, blue or red.
A few types of cacti have few or no spines. Spines may grow singly along the stems or
they may appear in clumps.
Cacti are generally some shade of green, but some have reddish or
brown stems. Some are so covered with
silvery spines that they appear silver. Some
cacti have a single stem; others are branched or form a clump of multiple
stems. The stems can range from pencil
size to barrel shape and they store water and food for the plant to get it
through the lean times.
Some cacti stems appear waxy and some types of cacti develop a
felt-like or wooly area called the cepahlium, which produces flowers or areoles
if they produce spines. Some cacti stems
are heavily ribbed, others are smooth.
Cacti stems that are shaped like broad paddles are called pads.
Many types of cacti are grafted on to each other to produce odd
looking plants with different colored tops or odd shapes for sale. These will usually continue to grow if well
cared for. However, the grafted areas
will sometimes die, leaving you with the original base species.
Many cacti have beautiful flowers, some are even scented. Don’t be
fooled by bright colored straw flowers that are often glued onto small cacti
for sale. A close examination will usually tell you what is real. Real cacti flowers usually feel like other real
flowers, not like dried straw. There
will be buds present and sometimes wilted flowers if the flowers are real. It is rare to find small cacti with real
flowers in a store.
Cacti plants need to be old enough to bloom, usually 3-4 years,
and bloom may not occur in every year in all types of cacti. In nature bloom
usually happens quickly, after spring and summer rains. There are some cacti
that will produce flushes of bloom whenever conditions are right throughout the
summer. Blooms range from tiny star
shaped flowers to long, dangling trumpet shaped flowers. Some cacti also have
attractive seed pods or fruits.
A lot of cacti bloom on new wood.
To get them to bloom after they are mature you need to encourage
dormancy in winter then a flush of growth in early spring. You need to know your species to know the
exact bloom time and exact conditions for blooming.
A few cactus species
There are dozens of cacti species used as houseplants and landscape
plants here are just a few pictures and descriptions.
Aporocactus flagelliformis or the rattail cactus has drooping, long tubular stems and pink
tubular flowers. They are popular houseplants and can be grown in baskets.
 |
| Rattail cactus credit odelet / Lépinay wikipedia |
 |
| Cereus repandus var. monstrose credit wikipedia -dragonglow |
Sometimes you will see a cactus with a rounded red or pink globe or
one with bright yellow tubular stems grafted onto another type of cactus. These
cacti are grafted onto other cacti because they lack chlorophyll and can’t
produce their own food.
The red ones are Gymnocalycium
mihanovichii friedrichii or Hobatan cactus. The yellow ones are Echinopsis chamaecereus at least the top
colored parts are these species. The
green bottom part is usually a ridged cactus of a Hylocereus species.
 |
| Hobatan grafted cactus Credit Utente:Morgoth92 wikipedia |
Opuntia species of cactus are the prickly pears with broad flat
pads and a variety of spine colors. They may also be called tuna or nopal. They have an edible fruit like a small apple
or pear that appears after the yellow flowers. Opuntia humifusa and Opuntia
fragilis are hardy types. If you are
purchasing them for outside check the species hardiness rating.
 |
| Prickly Pear cactus Minnesota Arboretum
credit; SEWWILCO
|
Rebutia species are globular and stay small. They flower while young and have orange funnel shaped flowers produced from near the base and produce lots of offshoots for dividing.
 |
| Rebutia Credit Otakar Sida wikipedia |
Mammilllaria species are globes with hooked spines and rings of tiny pink or white
flowers around the top when they bloom. Some are covered with silvery looking
fine, hair like spines.
 |
| Mammillaria species Credit rationalobserver wikipedia |
Cephalocereus senilis is sometimes called old man cactus because it is covered with
fine white hair-like spines that look like a wispy haired old guy.
 |
| Old man cactus Credit Raul654 wikimedia |
Indoor cacti care
Any species of cacti can be grown indoors but smaller varieties
are usually offered as house plants. Many cacti offered as house plants come
with tiny dried strawflowers stuck in them and people think they are
blooming. The true flowers are much more
beautiful but harder to achieve indoors.
Cacti need a sunny window, preferably with southern exposure or
strong artificial light. Most cacti are
slow growing inside, which is generally a good thing. You may want to repot
cacti each year for the first 3-4 years, while they are small and
immature. After that most cacti don’t
need frequent repotting and since repotting cacti can literally be quite a
pain, they are best left for several years before re-potting. You may want to
handle the cacti with tongs or stiff paper wrapped around it when re-potting or
working with the plant.
Pots for cacti should be quick draining, clay pots allow moisture
to escape through the walls as well as the bottom. Use a potting soil especially designed for
cacti or mix regular potting soil and sand in equal parts. Don’t use too large of a pot for cacti as
this encourages over-watering. A new pot
should only be an inch wider and deeper than the old one.
Some cacti become top heavy for their shallow root system and tend
to tip over and expose the roots. A few
stones on the top of the soil may help prevent this. Or you can place stakes on
the side that the plant wants to tip toward. Some species of cacti have
trailing stems, and these will do well in hanging baskets.
Place your cacti where you will not regularly brush against it or
where small fingers or pets cannot touch it.
If the spines get in the skin, they often are very painful and can get
infected. A piece of tape placed over
the spine can often pull it out.
Most indoor cacti are fine at your typical home temperatures. And homes with low humidity don’t harm them.
You may want to move them away from cold windows in winter, so plant parts
don’t touch the window. And do keep them
out of cold drafts, such as by a door that’s frequently opened.
Cacti do need water, although they should be allowed to dry out
between watering. In fall and winter,
they become semi-dormant, especially if in a cool environment. They need very little water at this time. When the days begin to get longer in spring,
water more frequently. Water until the water comes out of the bottom of the pot
and then allow the pot to dry before watering again. A weak fertilizer low in nitrogen may be used
in spring to encourage blooming.
Cacti problems
Cacti indoors do face some disease and insect problems. The most
common problems are generally caused by over watering. If the end of a pad or stem is shriveled,
with a bit of soft rot in a line below that it’s a sign of over-watering. Check the stem bases to see if they also look
soft and rotted. Any rotted areas on
cacti stems or pads also are usually a sign of overwatering, although cold
damage may sometimes produce soft spots.
A cacti that has rotted at the stem base will probably need to be
cut off just above that and an attempt to root the still healthy areas can be
tried. If just stem tips are rotted cut
them off and allow the cacti to dry out well before resuming watering.
Dry corky bumps on cacti pads or stems can be caused by physical
injury, such as something rubbing on it, by insect feeding, or sometimes by
underwatering.
Cacti that shrivel and look limp without rotted looking, soft
areas on the stem bottoms may be under watered.
Feel the pot, if the soil is dry and the pot feels light, water the
cacti well and see if it looks better.
Cacti can get scale insects, look for hard brown shell-like bumps
on the stems. These can be scraped off
with your fingernail if there are only a few. Otherwise you’ll need a systematic
insecticide for houseplants.
Bronze colored splotches on cacti stems and pads could indicate
spider mites, which thrive in dry conditions. Check the cacti carefully for
tiny moving insects, often red in appearance. The best way to deal with spider
mites is to wash them off. The cacti can
stand one good shower. Make sure excess
water has drained out of the pot. Then, allow them to dry before watering
again.
If a cactus grows at least a little each year, and seems firm and
green, it’s probably healthy.
Cacti propagation
Cacti are generally easy to propagate from pieces of stem or
pads. Remove a piece at a natural joint,
where an offshoot or pup pops up at the base or cut the tip off a slender
stem. Let the pieces dry and form a
callus for a few days before inserting them in pots of cactus medium and
lightly watering.
Many cacti can also be grown from seed but buy seed from reputable
nurseries rather than obscure sellers on EBay or Amazon. Some take a while to germinate and many grow
slowly from seed. Not all cacti species have seeds that are offered for sale.
Once again buy seeds that are from nursery grown plants and do not
buy seeds collected from the wild. It’s
illegal to collect seeds from endangered species.
Cacti care in the landscape
In areas where temperatures don’t fall below freezing and summers
are not humid, cacti can make attractive landscape plants. There are even some
hardy cacti that can survive winters as far north as zone 5. Cacti and succulents should be separated from
other plants that require more water.
The area they are planted in should be in full sun and the soil must be
well drained. Sandy or gravely soil are
ideal.
In areas where it gets colder cacti can be planted in pots that
are sunk into the ground and then brought inside for the winter. Prickly Pear cactus can survive both cold and
mid-western humid summers. There are even a few cacti species that prefer partial
shade, such as Discocactus
crystallophilus, although they may be hard to find.
Natural rainfall will normally be enough for cacti in the
landscape. If you do water them try to
keep water off the stems and water so they are dry by nightfall. Do not water during the winter months.
Fertilization is usually not needed although a light application of low
nitrogen fertilizer in the spring may be used to encourage growth.
Plant your cacti away from paths and sitting areas so people do
not get the spines in them. If you want
to mulch around them use gravel, sand or rocks and not wood chips, which hold
water close to stems and may cause rot.
Do not collect cacti from the wild. Many cacti are now
endangered or almost extinct in the wild.
It is illegal in most places to take cacti from the wild. Buy your cacti from reputable nurseries that
will state the plants were grown there and not collected.
Cacti are unusual as houseplants and for those who can’t remember
to water on a regular basis will be a houseplant you can succeed with. But remember those spines can be painful and
even dangerous if they should get in the eyes.
Homes with pets and kids may want to carefully consider adding cacti to
windowsills and yards. Even the prickly
pear grown outside can be tricky to weed or work around so place it carefully
and consider a pebble mulch.
A tip for better strawberries
A new study out of England found that strawberries produced more
and higher quality fruit if they were near other flowering plants that
attracted pollinators. This should hold
true for strawberry production here too.
If you want to take advantage of this, plant flowers that will be
blooming around the time your strawberries bloom. It could be wildflowers like Dames Rocket or
garden plants that bloom early. Plant those
flowers within 10 feet of the strawberry patch if you can.
Strawberries have small flowers close to the ground and plants
that are tall and that will stand out to pollinators blooming around the same
time as strawberries will help bees find the strawberries. In my area these
include lilacs, redbud, bristly locust, ninebark and fruit trees. In your area you are looking for plants that
bloom about a month before you normally begin harvesting strawberries or when
your strawberries usually bloom.
Have a happy Valentine’s Day, I hope you get chocolate for your heart.
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
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