I confess I’m really excited about gardening this year. I spent this past Sunday morning curled up the couch with a big wooly sweater on, several cups of coffee, a marker pen and a big ole seed catalog. Not having to order seed for the past few years (small garden) I’d forgotten how much fun this is. I want this, and this, that one, and don’t forget that! Way too much seed but who cares. I’ll prune down the order during December when reality-checks set in but for now – I’m dreaming and making this garden in my mind.

I’m equally excited about some other spring plans I’m working on that will help your gardens. Like many garden writers, I give talks on different gardening topics and over the years, I’ve given my share. I really enjoy doing talks and chatting with other gardeners but I confess I really don’t like doing the traveling during the winter months when most garden conferences take place. Freezing rain on the highways isn’t my idea of a great time and it always seems to storm whenever I schedule a lecture. So…

I’m moving these lectures to the Internet.

I’ve been researching the different technologies and believe I’ve found a very simple way to deliver both sound and pictures over the Net. Neither you nor I have to download or install any new software and all you have to have on your computer is a set of speakers to listen and a monitor to see the slides of flowers and gardens.

So this spring, I’ll be delivering lectures on the Net.

Here’s an opportunity to tell me what you’d like me to lecture on I’ve done a lot of lectures over the years, I have literally thousands of slides to share. But I don’t have the time to do them all for this spring What would you like me to lecture on? What kind of gardening courses would you like to see me give?

I’ll set up and do the ones that are the most popular suggestions.

I will be holding the size of the class to a small number so you can ask questions (isn’t technology wonderful?) and I can answer them. Questions will be asked by chat/text.

There will be slides and graphs and illustrations and the whole ball of wax along with the voice lecture (always assuming you have speakers).

If you’re a member of a gardening club and would like me to give an online lecture to your club - and only your club – drop me a note and we can chat about it.

I’m also considering an online gardening class and if enough folks were interested, we could meet at a regular time once a week. What do you think? Tell me what you think right here and what the topic of the class should be – how long etc

Tell me what you think!

New Articles for You

I can’t list every article or page change I make over the course of the week (that’s what an rss feed does) but here’s a few interesting ones to get you going
How to control earwigs
How to control cutworms
How and when to cut back perennials
Growing Watercress
Is the tomato a fruit
Wintering Hybrid Tea Roses
Growing Asiatic lilies
Overwintering geraniums
Getting poinsettia to bloom again
Poinsettia care this Christmas

Want to ask a question? Click here to ask a gardening question.www.gardening-tips-perennials.com/askagardeningquestion.html

Your Questions Answered

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I have 2 amaryllis bulbs that bloomed last Christmas. I fed and watered them until the leaves faded and planted them outside this summer. At the end of August I brought them in, put them in a cool dark corner. Brought them back out into the light about a month ago. They have both sprouted leaves, but no sign of flower stalks. Can I assume they aren't going to bloom, and I need to go through the whole cucle again? Thanks for your help! bjH

A: If the leaves faded before you put them outside for the summer, I suspect they didn’t get enough light to replace the energy in the bulb. In any case, the bulb is too weak to throw a flower stem and light and feeding are the keys to success. But yes, it sounds like you’re going to go through the cycle again. There is an article up on the sites for those with similar problems. This is big-time disappointing isn’t it?

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Tomato Growing Secrets

Looking out my window, I just noticed my "chicken & hens" which I love, sitting there looking quite beautiful in my Mexican planter, on the inside kitchen window ledge. Now the problem Doug. Can I leave them there over winter or do I have to put them where they will freeze for winter. Looking outside , I think I am a tad late...Probably the shock would kill them.... Looked for answer`s on you web, but found none to deal with this.

A: First – thanks for checking for the answers on the sites. Appreciate it. Second – it’s a great question. What exactly happens if you try to grow a perennial indoors over the winter?

In short, the decreasing length of the daytime hours is forcing the perennial to slow down growth and enter dormancy. Dormancy is going to be expressed by fading leaves and the plant wanting to slow down growth and rest.

If you try to force it into growth, it will resist unless you’re providing lots of light. So normal perennial plants will simply either die back or sit and suffer miserably.

Ferns will stay green (most of them) but will stop growing until light levels pick up again in the spring.

Succulents such as your hens and chicks will slow down and try to go dormant as well.

If there’s enough light, they’ll sit and stay compact. If the light levels are low, they’ll slowly, ever so slowly start to stretch out as their reduced growing rate continues to tick over.

The big mother plant will flower early in the spring and then likely die off (the rosette that flowers always dies). If there’s babies, they’ll be fine but they’ll get leggy as well in the spring.

It is pretty late to shove them outdoors so I might try to get some supplemental light on them – particularly next spring when they might want to start growing.

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Does using dyed mulch adversely affect plants? Thanks. B

A: Not to the best of my knowledge. But then again, it does adversely affect my sense of design and garden aesthetics. Darn but that stuff is ugly. :-) In my opinion, it is too bright and you see it - taking attention away from the plants and flowers.

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Love your site - thank you! My question is in regard to your article on germinating seeds per baggie. Is there a specific amt. of seeds per bag that you recommend and how tedious is the task of pulling them out and potting them? I plan to start a lot of seeds inside (Jan/Feb ) and move them out to my portable greenhouse by March and I would love to try the baggie method. Any advise you can give would be very appeciated. I live in zone 6 and my daughter is getting married in mid May in our way-unprepared back yard!!Thanks again for your website and your time! Wish me good luck! Pam

A: Seeding and transplanting is tedious work for the first 100-thousand seedlings, after that it is simply routine. :-) Let me see if I can answer your questions and give you some advice to boot.

There isn’t a specific amount of seed – but I’d suggest no more than a hundred seeds per baggie.

Is it tedious? Well, yes it is if you’re doing more than a thousand. But you’ll find it slow going for sure. Not any more so than sowing in pots of soil.

If you’re using this system for perennials – you’re too late if you want the majority of perennials to bloom for this coming year. No perennials you can plant this spring will bloom by mid-May.

Annuals will also not be in great shape by mid-May – that is early in the season to have a great annual display. You could still be looking at late frosts in a cold spring.

Pansies grown under full light in individual pots would be your best bet. You could also start impatiens in early Jan – pot them into pots and grow several hundred under lights and heat to keep them short and then transplant them pot-and-all a day or two before the wedding to avoid the cold weather.

Or you could suck it up and order extra flowers from the florist or a bajillion pansies from a local garden center to make it look great.

But mid-May blooms in zone 6 with perennials and most annuals from seed this spring are going to be disappointing for you if you’re looking for a great garden. Sorry.

Good luck if you go ahead anyway – just be prepared to order extra flowers in.

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I'm in a zone 2-3 and have purchased several hollyhocks this year in all different colors, some single some double. I've just noticed some are biennials rather than perennials. They are not going to bloom as it's going to freeze here soon. Will they come back even if they don't flower and reseed themselves? Also, the grasshoppers have ate my delphiniums right off at the ground, will they come back without the seeds? thank you, Seanna

A: All hollyhocks are technically biennials. And they’ll all bloom next year. Some – if started very early in January – will give you a small bloom in the first year.

Delphinium – if the grasshoppers ate it this summer and it didn’t resprout – it’s toast now and will not come back.

A zone 2-3 is pretty cold for these guys but we’ll both hold our fingers crossed for the hollyhocks.

From My Garden To Yours

The snow isn’t on the ground yet and a good friend told me there were only 120 days until spring. So who’s counting? I’m not yet because I just got the first of the seed catalogs last week and I see I have a lot of very tempting seeds to fend off in the next few months. Either that, or succumb as I normally do and try to grow everything. But there are a few small things to do between now and then that you might want to think about.

If you have tender rhododendrons or other plants you’re going to try to overwinter, you might want to do this simple trick on the next day it’s not freezing solid out there. Get some anti-desiccant and spray the plant’s leaves and bark with this material. It’s a liquid plastic-type substance (often sold as Christmas tree preservative and it should be in the shops now) that prevents leaves from losing moisture. If you have a browning problem on evergreens, spray with this stuff. If you’re on a windy lot, spray.

The trick to keeping many of the evergreens and broadleaf evergreens (plants that have leaves that don’t drop over the winter) alive in cold climates is to stop them losing moisture from the leaves on sunny days or having the wind suck the life out of the leaves. A very thin layer of anti-desiccant helps tremendously in this.

The film (spray it on the top and bottom of the leaves if possible) will only last a few months before it wears off so you might have to spray again on a warm day towards the end of January or mid-February (if we have any of those).

It is also a great little product for helping to keep the needles on Christmas trees as well in that it stops them from losing moisture. I know my tree sucks up more water than I can remember to give it and this material stops that and doesn’t detract from the look of the tree at all.

Is Your Garden Fragrant Enough?

If the ground isn’t quite frozen yet, you can still plant bulbs. Yes, do check the cupboards for bulbs you forgot to plant and get them into the ground. The great little gardener’s trick here is to plant the bulb and then thoroughly soak the area with water afterwards.

In this case, we’re not trying to stop the squirrels from digging up the area; we’re trying to make it a little tougher for the ground to freeze solid around the bulb for a few days so the bulb will have a chance to send out roots.

The water will hold a little more heat in the ground and act as a brake for freezing temperatures. Even if the ground is a little crackly on top, if you can get through that frozen skin, you can plant those leftover hardy spring-blooming bulbs.

Speaking of bulbs, do check the summer-blooming bulbs that you’ve put in storage. Ensure they’re well and truly dry with no rotting. If you catch a bulb rotting now, you can remove it and save any others that are nearby in the sack or storage area. Get rid of the bad apple so to speak. If you do find some rot and you absolutely must save that individual bulb, cut out the rotting part and dust the wound with sulphur. That will stop the rot. Do not however put that bulb back into the storage bin with the rest of the bulbs; store it separately.

Run the lawn mower around the lawn one more time to chew up any leftover leaves and then put it away. Don’t forget to use a bit of winterizer in the gas to keep the seals and other moving parts free of gunk over the winter and top up that gas tank to avoid condensation in the tank. Water won’t help the engine start next spring.

I’ll be taking my mower deck apart this year to replace the bearings and blades so I can tackle what appears to be an acre of lawn in the new place. You might want to consider doing a new mower blade replacement or at least a sharpening as it will save fuel, labour and engine wear next spring. Besides everybody needs an excuse to spend some time in the shop over the winter.

You know, I normally sit down at the keyboard and write about what I’m doing or thinking in my own garden and as I reread what I’d written, I realized I really was saying goodbye to this gardening season. The fall mums are tossed out, the pansy containers are now being composted, the fall grass combinations are planted in the garden where they may or may not survive the winter. All the pots are stacked up waiting to be moved to their new home. And this garden and garden year is history.

So now it is time to do the best part of gardening. It’s time to dream on next year and what the garden is going to do – what it’s going to look like. I can read all the catalogs that have started coming in and dream on the season to come and the plants I’m going to grow. I can read the latest (and oldest) in gardening books and learn a few new tricks to try next year. I can sit in front of the woodstove, with my feet firmly warming, and watch winter swirl around my dreams. Between the woodstove and the dreams, I think I’m ready for the next 120 days.