Hort Shorts
- Fall is the time to plant daffodils for spring bloom. For a prolonged season of color, select several different varieties including early, mid-season and late bloomers. If you buy bulbs off the shelves, check the labels for this information. Mail-order catalogs usually list the bloom time too. When in doubt, check the American Daffodil Society’s database of varieties at www.daffodilusa.org/daffseek.html. DaffSeek includes 8,500 photographs of various daffodil varieties.
- To preserve your garden bounty in the freezer, blanch the vegetables before packing and sealing. Blanching involves scalding the produce by boiling or steaming. This process prevents loss of flavor, nutrients, color and texture. Blanching time varies according to the type of vegetable. The National Center for Home Food Preservation offers complete instructions at www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze/blanching.html.
- Plant grape hyacinth (Muscari) bulbs as “markers” near newly planted tulips and daffodil bulbs. Grape hyacinths produce foliage in the fall, so they will remind you where you planted bulbs that don’t sprout leaves until spring.
- Now is a good time to decide what new shrubs and trees to plant this fall and winter. Before selecting trees and shrubs, learn the average height and spread at maturity and site them accordingly. This will save years of pruning and the tendency to butcher them when they encroach on streets, driveways, houses and utility lines.
- Take photos of damaged or diseased plants if you’re unsure of the cause. You can share these with a local Extension agent or fellow gardener as well as compare them to photos in reference books. Photos in digital format can be mailed to the appropriate source for diagnosis. Applying a pesticide or herbicide without knowing what you’re treating can be ineffective, expensive and harmful to beneficial insects and other plants growing nearby.
- Your growing zone, i.e. Zone 7, is based on the USDA’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Gardeners use it to determine what plants are likely to survive the winter in a given region. But heat is also a factor in how plants fare in gardens. To help round out the picture, the American Horticultural Society created the Plant Heat-Zone Map, available for free download at www.ahs.org/pdfs/05_heat_map.pdf.
- Some species of invasive exotic plants may wreak havoc not only in your garden, but beyond its borders. The North Carolina Botanical Garden recommends a number of species to avoid. The list is updated as new information becomes available. Find it at http://ncbg.unc.edu/pages/74.