THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502030110
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: GARDENING
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Last spring I planted a Georgia free-stone peach tree in my yard in West Ghent. Will this tree bear fruit in the absence of pollination? If not, how should I provide pollination?
Edward L. Ryan Jr., Norfolk
Occasionally I have some good news for gardeners. Peach trees do not need a sex-mate. Your tree is self-pollinating. It should bear some fruit this spring. Check the trunk regularly for borers and remember that it needs spraying at least seven times during the growing season.
My hydrangeas had only three blooms last summer. I bought the plant at a nursery three years ago, and it had eight to 12 blooms. It is now 3 feet wide and almost as tall and appears to be healthy. What can I do to make it bloom?
Grace Yung, Norfolk
Last winter was severe, and it may be that bloom buds were frozen, which meant fewer blooms in 1994. Another and more likely possibility is that it was too severely pruned. Hydrangeas bloom on this year's growth that comes from last year's stems. Pruning too severely will destroy or diminish blooms. Fertilize it lightly next month and do no pruning for a year or two. It should then give you plenty of blooms.
Is there such a thing as an Eleagnus berry? My husband insists he ate the berries from this bush as a child. His mother confirms she made jelly from them, and they came off an Eleagnus tree in their yard. Are they pulling my leg?
Debra Gillespie, Chesapeake
No, they're not pulling your leg. All Eleagnus has berries, and they are edible, according to Virginia Tech authorities. They also say that cherry Eleagnus are grown as a commercial crop in China. I've grown Eleagnus for years, but I'm not about to eat the berries. They are red and scaly. Although they are edible and apparently jelly can be made from them, you have to be more daring then me to eat them.
I have four crape myrtles, and all have the same problem. They have white powdery residue on top of the leaves. What is it, and what can I do to correct this ugliness?
I've been reading your column for a long time but never have read about an old-fashioned snowball bush. Its bloom is a round ball of white, blooming in late May.
Iris M. Vann, Suffolk
Your crape myrtles have powdery mildew. Several sprayings of a fungicide will prevent this. It might be smarter to yank them out and replant some of the new mildew-resistant varieties.
Your snowball is hydrangea paniculata Grandiflora, which often has a cone-shaped flower. Another name for it is Peegee hydrangea or P.G. hydrangea.
Gardeners have veered so far to the pink, purples and blues in hydrangeas that one seldom sees the pure whites. They may be old-fashioned, but they're still wonderful. by CNB