Newsletter - February 2008

Have you been enjoying the rain? I think it's the perfect weather for staying inside and going through seed catalogues. My favorite company is "Thompson - Morgan". They offer everything from the latest introductions of annual flowers and vegetables, perennials, ferns and exotics. The booklet is full of color pictures and planting information too. "Park's" and "Burpee's" are always a good read, but then the "King's" catalogue arrived from the town of Gault with this year's chrysanthemum selections. I have so much more desire than money, room, or time. I'm always trying to convince my neighbors with extra space to try things for me.

February is the month to begin choosing summer flowering bulbs such as lily, gladiola, freesia, ixia, ranuncula, and sparaxis. If you like tropical plants add cannas now too. These easy care plants return every year and really add color to summer gardens. If you need color right now, visit a nursery and look for some of these plants. Are you into purple? Hardenbergia violacea, or Lilac Vine is a sun loving evergreen vine that also handles our wind. It is covered right now with dainty sprays of purple flowers. Just tie it to a fence, arbor or trellis for support -- someplace where you can see it from inside the house. Two other good sources of purple flowers come from two 2-foot tall perennials. The first is Erysimum linifolium, or Purple Wallflower. It has silvery, evergreen foliage and an erect, rounded shape. The other is Geranium sanguineum, the Purple Cranesbill. This shrublet has cut, circular green leaves and a relaxed mounding growth habit. Both bloom for almost three months.

My favorite winter yellows come from a small garden tree and a perennial shrub. The tree is Acacia baileyana, or Bailey's Acacia. The evergreen foliage is gray right now (but the summer new growth is lavender) and the stems are loaded with tiny flower buds. Sometime this month, the skies will be the same color as the leaves, but the blossoms will transform the tree into a mass of gorgeous "sulfury" yellow. The visual impact is tremendous, but be aware that most of the yellow is pollen and may irritate allergies in people working outside. The shrub I like is Euryops p. 'Green & Gold'. The foliage is clean, dark green and lacy and the overall growth is upright and sturdy to about three foot high and wide. During the winter months, this sun-loving shrub is covered with bright yellow, daisy type flowers. Euryops Daisy is cheerful and easy to grow, so you understand why it's a favorite of commercial properties.

For red, pink and white colors, look in the shade section of the nursery. Here you'll find Camellia japonica coming into full glory with large, showy, but scentless flowers. Camellias are addictive to gardeners -- the blooms are very satisfying in size, form and color. Some are even striped, or freckled. They absolutely steal attention from everything else growing in a shady spot. Camellias are shrubs spreading about four feet, but slowly growing to 12-15 feet high with glossy green leaves. They require some acidity to their roots, but they grow easily in clay. Just top-dress with peat moss once a year. They are quite beautiful with ferns and also with two of my favorite old-fashioned perennial flowers. First is Dicentra spectabilis also called "Bleeding Heart". A lacey-leafed, two-foot tall, winter visitor with heart-shaped pink and white flower sprays that bloom for about six weeks, then slowly dry away for summer. The second is evergreen Bergenia crassifolia, or Winter Bergenia. The leaves look like green beaver tails and the medium-pink flower spikes stand above the leaves. I must warn you though that Bergenia is aggressive and spreads all over the ground into very thick, solid clumps. If you introduce it to your garden, control it.

If you have a need for winter garden color, I hope this helps. Prune fuchsias in February. They bloom on new wood, so prune hard as you would roses. If you are growing peaches or nectarines, be certain to apply lime-sulfur this month to control peach-leaf curl and begin watching for the "pop-corn" stage in pears and apples to control moths. I'm also using a spray-on herbicide to combat cool-season perennial weeds in my garden. If you have annuals, just mow them to prevent flowers and seed and they'll go away. Then, at the end of this month, plan on attending the "Pacific Orchid Exposition" at Fort Mason, San Francisco - Feb.28 - Mar 2. It's always fantastic and if you're not growing orchids now, you'll be convinced to try by the end of your visit.

Have a good month.