Time running out for planting tulip bulbs: Dan Gill’s advice | Home/Garden

Backyard columnist Dan Gill responses readers’ thoughts every single week. To send a question, email Gill at [email protected]. 

I have about 80 tulip bulbs that I procured in early November, and they have been in my additional fridge chilling. I however have not planted them due to the fact we have experienced this kind of a moderate winter. Have I skipped the window to get some excellent success this 12 months? — Sarah Caranelli

No, you have not skipped the window of option to plant, but you have to have to plant them as quickly as feasible (even with the gentle spell). The blooming tulips typically glance very best planted in teams or drifts fairly than extensive rows. Plant the bulbs about 5 inches deep and 5 inches apart. Tulips typically bloom someday in March listed here, while some might linger into early April.

You could plant some of the bulbs in pots for display indoors. Plant enough tulips bulbs in a pot of potting soil to fill the pot with out the bulbs touching. Plant the tulip bulbs with the flat facet going through the rim of the pot. The initial leaf of every single bulb will mature out going through the outside the house, creating a much more beautiful planting.

The strategies of the bulbs really should demonstrate when you complete planting the pot. Then water thoroughly. Position the containers in sunny location outdoors and maintain the soil evenly moist. When the flower buds commence to show color, you could transfer the pots indoors to appreciate or leave them outside.

Right after the last freeze, my hydrangea has lost all it leaves and requires to be trimmed again. Will I be chopping off following year’s blooms? Which is if it isn’t lifeless. Also, I have a chook-of-paradise that has bloomed with two flowers last calendar year. The blooms acquire so very long to open up, and when they do, they glimpse fifty percent lifeless. Is there a thing I can do or does the plant have to get a small more mature? — Elizabeth O’Connor

I’ve gotten a astonishing quantity of thoughts about chilly problems to hydrangeas. Hydrangeas are very hardy, and it will never get chilly enough listed here to hurt them, considerably fewer eliminate them. So, your bush is undoubtedly continue to alive.

Hydrangea bushes are deciduous, and they naturally fall their leaves in winter season. Your bush did not get rid of it leaves because of to the cold for each se, but basically because it is the time of year that they drop their leaves. Most of the shrubs we develop are evergreen, keep their leaves and glimpse eye-catching by the wintertime. But if you want hydrangeas, you simply should take how they look in winter.

Any pruning you do now will clear away some, most or all of the flower buds, and I know you wouldn’t want that. If you make your mind up you do have to have to prune the plant to manage its sizing or condition, the time to do that would be in late June or July following the flower heads fade to green.

Your bird-of-paradise plant seems usual. The boatlike construction that retains the bouquets has quite a few flower buds in it. Each and every flower opens independently and rises out of the “boat,” and this continues above an extended interval. As new bouquets rise and open up, old flower are pushed down and convert brown.

To retain matters looking wonderful and clean, remove the brown bouquets as you see them (pinch them off with your fingers or little scissors). When all the orange bouquets have been generated and it all appears brown, slash the flower stalk back again to where it emerges from the plant.

I harvested a awesome cauliflower from my back garden bed yesterday. I am just curious about the purplish tint I see on the curd. I have a couple of other individuals that are a bit lesser that also exhibit the tint, and other individuals correct upcoming to them that are completely white. Is this anything at all I need to be concerned about? — Keith Windhorst.

This can come about when the head is uncovered to mild throughout enhancement. It is completely harmless and does not have an impact on the flavor or excellent of the cauliflower.

To cut down pigments in the head, you can pull the biggest leaves up about the head when it is about the sizing of a silver greenback and fasten the leaves with a clothing pin. Continue to keep the head lined from the sunlight, checking it from time to time, till you are completely ready to harvest. This is termed blanching and is usually completed with cauliflowers due to the fact we favor them white.

Back garden tips

ROSE Care: Plan to prune your repeat-flowering roses the final 7 days in January via the to start with couple of months of February. Pruning roses encourages vigorous new growth that will deliver a lot of bouquets. Pruning is also finished to shape the shrubs, eliminate dead wood and to control their dimension. Pruning roses at this time will get them prepared for the fantastic blooming season that takes place in the moderate climate of April to early June. Roses are pruned once more in late August or early September to get them in fantastic form for the fall blooming period from Oct to December. Repeat flowing roses bloom as a result of the summer, but the top quality of bouquets is not as excellent when the weather conditions is scorching. Do not prune when blooming roses till midsummer right after they end blooming.

SPRING BULBS: The foliage of spring-flowering bulbs has been up and rising for a selection of months now. The foliage is really hardy and will not be bothered by freezes. The bouquets are much more inclined to cold damage, and open bouquets should really be lower if temperatures below the upper 20s are predicted. Place the slice bouquets in vases and love them indoors.

PLANTING SEEDS: Seeds of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants ought to be commenced now by early February less than lights or in a greenhouse for transplanting into the garden in March and early April. Quite a few gardeners do not have the facilities to thoroughly increase transplants from seed. Furnishing more than enough light-weight is the most prevalent restricting aspect.