articles and tips

Daylily and Bearded Iris Planting Guide

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:06:25 -0600

Author: Tom Collier, Collier’s Garden, Lawson MO.

1. Choose a sunny place in a well-drained garden soil. Daylilies and irises need a half day of sun to grow and bloom. A full day of sun is better for rebloom. A raised flower bed using landscape timbers, stones, bricks or just make an elevated grass trimmed edge. Prepare the flower bed by digging the soil with a garden fork (potato fork) about 8” deep, then add and work-in with a tiller, 2 inches builders sand and 4 inches well-rotted manure or compost and other ingredients if desired, into the garden soil.

1. Plant the daylillies and irises about 18” to 24” apart, then dig a hole about 10” deep with a round point shovel putting the soil into a wheel barrow. A 39 oz. coffee can of builders sand and a 39 oz coffee can of well-rotted manure or other ingredients can be mixed with the soil in the wheel barrow.

In the bottom of the hole add: “We tend to forget about the trace
minerals a plant needs.”

Rotted Manure = (1) 39 oz coffee can
Epsom Salt = (2) Tablespoons
Alfalfa Pellets = (1) 8 oz cup
Bone Meal = (2) Tablespoons
Greensand = (2) Tablespoons
Granular Garden Lime = (1) Tablespoon (Iris only)
Granular Garden Gypsum = (2) Tablespoons
Wheel Barrow Soil = (2) 39 oz coffee cans

Mix all the ingredients together with your shovel in the planting hole. Firm the soil down to keep the plant from settling. Fill the planting hole with wheel barrow soil. Remove and place the vinyl shipping name tag into the planting hole, in order to remember the name later when you dig it up for division in five years. Top-dress after a year with 6-24-24 fertilizer in the spring, when the plants start growing.

1. DAYLILY: Make a cone shaped mound in the center of the hole, then make a line with a black felt tip pin 1” above the crown or the place where the roots stop and the foliage begins, that line should be the top of the soil surface. Spread the roots over the cone mound and firm the soil on the roots up to the line on the foliage, then water the daylily thoroughly. Water the daylily deeply once a week (if it does not rain). A black soaker hose with a timer is a good way to get 1” of water down to the roots, where it is needed. Then mulch around the plant with 3” to 4” of oat/wheat straw or chopped up leaves to keep the moisture from evaporating and to control obnoxious weeds (remember to water your plants in the winter months).

1. IRIS: Make a saddle shaped mound in the center of the hole, then place the iris rhizome on top of the mound and let the roots go down in the holes on each side of the mound. Firm the soil on the iris roots up to the top of the iris rhizome, where the foliage starts. Water and mulch the same as the daylily.

1. When planting late in the fall, the plants may not have enough time to establish an adequate root system and they may heave out of the ground with freezing and thawing. Daylily: To keep it from heaving, place a hand full of straw on each side of the plant and then place (2) house bricks on top of the straw. Iris: Place a hand full of straw on top of the iris rhizome and then (1) house brick on top of the straw to keep the iris rhizome from heaving.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:58:18 -0600

If you’re tired of watching your canine companion unintentionally kill your shrubs, flowers, and lawn, try these tips from the Turf Resource Center and Lawn Institute:
• Keep dogs away from taboo locations with strategically placed motion-activated sprinklers, available at many garden centers.
• Train your dog to eliminate in a specific part of the yard. This area should be landscaped for the dog’s use, with a ground cover such as pea gravel and a marking post of some kind.
• Take your dog to the spot on a leash, and give him praise and a treat every time he urinates there. You’ll need to keep up the routine for 2 weeks to several months, depending on how fast Fido learns.
• Dilute your dog’s urine by increasing water intake; add water to canned or dry food.
• Think twice about commercially available dog repellants. Some odor repellants may encourage dogs to “overmark” the strange new scent with their urine. Others discourage dogs from eating plants, but not from urinating on them.
• When you see your dog using your prized peony as a potty, water the spot immediately to dilute the urine. When diluted enough, the nitrogen in urine can actually be a beneficial fertilizer for plants.

Whiteflies

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:57:20 -0600

Whiteflies are small, triangular, white-bodied insects that love to take up residence on houseplants. They are an annoyance to plant owners and can cause the leaves of your plants to yellow and drop off.
Here are some control measures:
• Use yellow sticky traps.
• Use soap spray at five to ten day intervals.
• Alcohol spray: 4 parts water to 3 parts rubbing alcohol. Add a squirt of liquid soap.
• Remove and destroy all leaves that are more than 50% damaged
Alcohol spray is a safe alternative to chemical insecticides that is effective against mealy bugs, scale, spider mites and whiteflies. For maximum effectiveness, use the spray at 5-10 day intervals. To make alcohol spray, combine 4 parts water with 3 parts rubbing alcohol.
Add a small amount of Ivory Snow. Make only as much as you can use in a few days.

When to Start Seeds Indoors

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:56:35 -0600

To determine the best time to start seeds indoors, first find the date that you expect to experience the last spring frost in your area.
If you don’t know your last spring frost date, check with your local cooperative extension service. Count backward from that date the number of weeks indicated below to determine when to start your seeds indoors:
12-14 weeks: onions, leeks, chives, pansies, impatiens, and coleus
8-12 weeks: peppers, lettuce, cole crops (brassicas), petunias, snapdragons, alyssum and other hardy annuals.
6-8 weeks: eggplant and tomatoes
5-6 weeks: zinnias, cockscombs, marigolds and other tender annuals
2-4 weeks: cucumbers, melons, okra, pumpkins, squash You may plan to grow your onions from purchased sets or plants, but if you’d like more options in the varieties you grow, consider starting them from seed.
When purchasing plants and sets, the options at most garden centers are limited to “white”, “yellow”, and maybe “red”, however good seed catalogs list as many as 35 varieties.
It takes 110 to 120 days for most onions to mature from seeds.

When Is a Tomato Ripe?

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:55:31 -0600

We’ve all heard of ‘vine ripe’ flavor but does a tomato have to remain on the vine until it is completely ripe? The answer is no. When a tomato reaches a full size and the fruit becomes a pale green, it begins the ripening process which is regulated by an internal gas produced within the fruit called ethylene.
After the tomato reaches a stage when it about ½ green and ½ pink (called the `breaker stage’), a layer of cells forms across the stem of the tomato- sealing it from the main vine. At this point there is nothing moving from the plant into the fruit. At this stage the tomato can be harvested and ripened off the vine with no loss of flavor, quality or nutrition. Red pigments in tomatoes don’t form above 95° F so tomatoes ripened in extreme heat will have a orange-red color.
Tomatoes held at cooler temperatures will ripen slower. You can speed up or slow down the ripening process by raising the temperature (to an optimum of 85° F) or lowering the temperature (to a minimum of 50° F).
Tomatoes develop their optimum flavor, nutrition, and color when the tomato is in the full red ripe stage but this doesn’t have to occur on the plant!

What to Do With Old Seeds

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:54:42 -0600

How can you tell if seeds left over from last year (or the year before that...) will come up if you plant them this season?
Try this germination test:
1. Moisten a paper towel.
2. Count out at least 10 seeds and place them on the towel. Roll it up and put it in a plastic bag then put the bag in a warm (70 degrees F) spot.
3. Check daily for germination. Count the number that has sprouted. If few of them sprout, buy new seeds or plant the old seeds more generously to compensate for the lower germination.

Watering Roses

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:54:18 -0600

For healthy roses, give your plants plenty of water. Plan to water them twice a week with an inch of water in mild weather, and two inches in hot weather.
Water early in the day, and avoid wetting the leaves as much as possible.

Watering

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:52:58 -0600

A really long, slow drink of water every 3 to 7 days is much more beneficial because it allows moisture to get all the way down to the root.
If you are conserving water, it’s best to devote your attention to your most recently planted trees and shrubs. Those planted this spring, and even 2 and 3 years ago have yet to establish a strong root system. Deep soak these plants every 10 days.
Deep soaking can be done with an ordinary garden hose set on a slow trickle. They key is to apply small amounts over a couple of hours. Or you can place a five-gallon bucket with 4 to 5 tiny holes in the bottom near the trunk. Fill the bucket with water and it will slowly drip around the tree over time. You will need to apply 5 gallons for every year the tree has been in the ground, up to a maximum of 20.
A lawn requires 1 1/2 inches of water per week to stay actively growing. If your community is under watering restrictions, you may have to let your lawn go thirsty. Most varieties of grass will go dormant and turn brown, but when rains return they usually recover.

Using Wood Ash in the Garden

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:52:37 -0600

Wood ash is a valuable source of potash. If you were to buy it bagged as fertilizer, the bag would be marked 0-1-8.
Remember that wood ash is very alkaline. Don’t add it to soil used to grow acid-loving plants such a blueberries, and when using wood ash you don’t need to add lime. About 10 pounds per 100 square feet is a good quantity. Work into the top 3 inches or so of soil.
If storing wood ash for use in the garden, use a container so that rain will not leach away the potash. A metal trashcan is a good choice -- never use a flammable container!

Transplanting Mums

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:52:19 -0600

Mums are one of the few plants that don’t object much to being transplanted while in bloom. This makes them an excellent choice for filling in the bare spots in your fall garden.
Water them thoroughly the day before moving them. The best time of day to transplant is early morning or late afternoon while the temperatures are cool. Dig up a generous amount of soil around the plant to avoid disturbing the roots more than necessary, and loosen the soil around the new site to make it easy for the roots to spread.
Water thoroughly after transplanting, and if they show signs of wilting, you should shade them during the heat of the day until they recover.