18 December 23, 2009

I would guess that we would be having a white Christmas this year! Thankfully, the snow was light and relatively easy to shovel.

If you have a Christmas tree in your home, make sure to check the water level in the tree stand every day. If that stand runs dry, the tree will stop taking up water and needles will begin to fall like rain. If you hate climbing under the tree to add water, there are automatic watering devices that you can set in the tree branches. A hose runs down to the stand and fills the stand as needed. We still have a few in the store.

Poinsettias are a type of plant that does not like to be in drafty locations. Try not to keep them near a cold window or near a door that is opened frequently. Water the poinsettia as the soil just begins to get dry.  If you have a cyclamen, keep the plant cool and keep the soil evenly moist at all times. As the flowers go by, pull the flower stem off from the base of the plant. A sharp snap of the stem should make it easy to remove the stem. This will prevent the stem from rotting. If the stem rots, it can cause the rot to go into the bulb that makes up the base of the plant. Fertilize weekly with a diluted plant fertilizer and you should have flowers until Easter. We have both of these plants available in our store.

For many people, the snow occurred before they had a chance to apply an anti-desiccant spray on the broadleaf evergreens that are growing in the yard. You can still wrap these plants with burlap. The burlap will prevent the wind from whipping through the foliage and drying out the foliage. If the burlap is installed tightly, it can also prevent snow load from breaking off individual branches. The very cold temperatures we have had can make evergreens brittle. When wrapping the plants with burlap, don’t give that extra tug to overly tighten the burlap. There is no sense snapping branches on a plant that you are trying to protect.

I would like to take a moment to thank all of you for taking the time to read this weekly column. Your comments on how helpful the column has been really make my day. The whole idea of this column is to make gardening easier and to encourage you to try new things and to remind you when things need to be done in the garden. Hopefully this has made gardening easier for you.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you next week.