THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9512290114
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G3 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: GARDENING
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: Long : 177 lines
I have rooted Daphne for many years. Tell A. Higginbotham, the reader who wanted to know how, to use new growth. Take the cuttings in August. I take cuttings as long as possible. Remove the lower leaves. Dip in Rootone and put cuttings in the soil. Leave 3 inches of leaves. Water well and mulch around the cuttings. My cuttings are in a bed on the north side of my house. The area stays damp most of the time. I water them for a while and leave them alone. Usually more than half the cuttings will root and bloom the next spring. When they are 1 to 2 years old, I plant them where I want them or pot them and give to friends. If your reader wants to talk more about it, I can be reached at 429-9219 or 539-7030.
Mary R. Warner, Suffolk
As is usual, reader helps reader when it comes to gardening. Here's another method from another reader.
In reference to the question by A. Higginbotham of Portsmouth about rooting Daphne, the best way to accomplish this is by air layering. This should be done during March and April. The new plant will be ready to cut off the mother plant in 90 to 120 days. Ira Hefner gave me my first Daphne a few years ago. It was an air layer. I have air layered many plants from the original and never had one that would not root.
Mel Stallings, Chesapeake
Mel Stallings and Ira Hefner are camellia experts and active members of the Virginia Camellia Society. They air layer camellias and many other plants, year after year.
I have a problem I don't know how to handle. I planted two grape vines and know nothing about taking care of them, except wiring them on four poles. I also have three peach trees that need thinning. A late-bearing variety has leaves that turned yellow and fell off early. Please help.
Harvey E. Kilmon, Exmore
Virginia Tech experts say you may have your peaches in a poor location. Peaches need sandy soil. To thin them, in late February prune out the center of the tree so it looks like a champagne glass. This allows sun to enter and the wind to blow through the tree. At least seven sprayings are required for healthy peaches.
Grapes need a pollinator, so you're probably going to need another of a different variety. Pruning grapes is a complicated processes to explain, I am sending you illustrated literature. Grape experts don't agree on methods, so pick and choose what you like best.
Every Sunday when I open the Home & Garden section, I vow to write in with my complaint. Today is the day. My grievance, and I'm sure I'm not the first to complain, is that real estate advertisements encroach on your writing. You're doing a wonderful job, limited only by space deprivation.
My problem is a fungus that grows gruesomely in my shrub bed. The first summer there was one, but this past summer there has been a gang of them. They're red, slender tubes 4 inches long. Each tube is slathered with a brown feces-looking substance. If the sight of them doesn't move you to nausea, the smell will. They reek a sickly-sweet stench. After constructing a make-shift gas mask, I dug under the mulch to investigate. I found that the tubes originated from an innocent grouping of white mushrooms. What are these offensive freaks of nature?
Susan Perna, Chesapeake
Authorities at the Hampton Roads Research Center say you have Stinkhorn Fungi, sometimes called mushroom fungi. The only solution is not to use mulch, because that is what they grow in. I've had many complaints this year about mulch. It's often damp when bagged, resulting in various fungi that spoil the looks of a garden.
I fought a losing battle with brown spot in my lawn this past season. I overseeded the previous fall with a mixture of Rebel II and Titan fescue seed. It was my understanding that the Titan was a more drought-resistant variety. The lawn was fine until July when the brown patch started to take over. I have been treating the lawn with the fungicide Daconil 2787. It didn't seem to do much good. Is there a more effective treatment? How can I prevent the disease from coming back next year? Is there a better seed that would be more resistant than what I have been using?
David R. Burgoyne, Chesapeake
Yours is a common problem for people in southeastern Virginia. This area is called the ``transition zone,'' which means it's too far south for northern grasses and too far north for southern grasses. Fescue is the best bet and Rebel II and Titan are both good varieties. Your option is to go to a warm-season grass such as bermuda, zoysia or centipede if you have plenty of sun. They're resistant to brown patch. Centipede would be my choice.
If you stay with fescue, fertilize and water it less. Start spraying early in the season with a fungicide, which won't prevent the disease but controls spreading. Spread new seed every fall, after you rake out the dead grass.
Brown patch starts with wet grass and hot, humid nights. Alost everyone who grows fescue gets brown patch at least once in their lifetime - usually more often.
What is the best way to winter-over tropical hibiscus? I have 11 in 14-inch plastic pots that have been on my fourth-floor roof deck all summer. The plants are 3 to 5 feet tall. In the fall, I move as many as can fit into my small, south-facing, second-floor glass enclosure. I'm guilty of not watering them enough in the winter. They always get white fly or spider mites over the winter and must be cut back severely every April. Also how are they propogated?
Should I cut them back when I move them in? What other care should I give them? I do not like to use insecticides, and Safer insecticidal soap is messy on the tile floor of the glass enclosure.
Leslie M. Gregor, Virginia Beach
I know of no way to keep white flies and/or spider mites off hibiscus during winter. I think they are marvelous outdoor summer plants, but they're a menace in the house in winter. I used to grow them, but when I brought them into the sunroom each winter, they became covered with white flies or spider mites. Unless you're willing to spray regularly with an insecticide, I'm afraid you're fighting a losing battle.
Supposedly, you get spider mites when the air is too dry. If there were a way to keep the air moist in your glass enclosure, it might help. Watering more often would provide more humidity in winter, which might help prevent spider mites.
No matter what you do, they should be cut back severely each spring, because they bloom on new growth. Most books recommend you prune to keep the plants to no more than 3 feet high.
To propogate, take cuttings from stems or shoots before they have hardened or matured.
My membership in the Norfolk Botanical Garden goes back to when it was located in what is now the zoo and was known as the Old Dominion Horticultural Society. God bless Fred Heutte, Bob Matthews, Wiley Hinson and JoAnne Gordon, all of whom could answer any and all questions conerning botany.
I must disagree with Virginia Tech that Daphne is difficult to root. I root three types of Daphne every year: one white, one pink and one variegated and have no trouble. I root only green, middle green and mature stems. Hermodin 1, 2 and 3 and DipInGro have been very successful for me in rooting.
I have a little hobby nursery with over 1,000 azaleas, many rhododendron, mountain laurel, a paw paw grove of four varieties, a small Chinquapin grove and some American chestnut trees that will bear in two or three years.
W. Chaffin Crockett Jr., Norfolk
There have been readers asking for Chinquapin trees, so here is a local source for them and many other unusual plants. You can reach Chaffin Crockett at 588-6036. He's located at 1956 Bayview Blvd., Norfolk.
I have a plant named Dipladenia I received in May. It was blooming when I got it and since has grown runners at least 12 inches long. It bloomed in July on new growth and grew around a post on my front porch. It gets cold here. Can the plant stay outside or should it be brought in and should it be pruned?
Mary P. Burgwyn, Jackson, N.C.
I had trouble identifying your plant, because it is more commonly labeled Mandevilla. It is a tropical plant, native to Chile. It will usually die outdoors in winter. One reader has said she winters it over in North Carolina with a southern exposure, in a protected area and with heavy mulch. It usually is kept in the house during winter, but often becomes infested with white flies. You can bring it into a cool room with sunlight, prune it back by one-third and hope for the best.
The other option is to let it freeze and buy a new one next year, because it is an excellent summer-blooming vine and not very expensive.
I have a problem with my apple tree. It's 5 years old but only had nice big apples once. Last year it had a few small ones, but they all turned black and dried up on the tree. Last fall I put a lot of fertilizer on it and put dirt around the tree this spring. It has grown a lot and has had a lot of apples that get as big as a tea cup. Then they start turning black and drying.
I don't know what kind of apple it is, because it was on this property when we bought it. The neighbors say it only bore apples one time and they were large apples and good eating. Can you give me some information on what is wrong and what I should do? I also need information about black spot on my rose bushes.
Hazel Bryant, Windsor, N.C.
Apple trees in this area need to be sprayed at least seven times minimum per season to produce good fruit. Yours may have black spot, a disease that defoliates red-flowered apple trees. Don't add more dirt around the tree but do fertilize in the fall with a tree fertilizer. Begin spraying early next spring with a fruit tree spray, available in garden centers.
As to your roses, most hybrid tea roses get black spot and must be sprayed weekly with a fungicide such as Funginex. Additional literature is being mailed you.
I've enclosed a vine which I think is a morning glory. It is taking over my flower garden. I've pulled and pulled and can't get rid of it. Is there some spray I can use to kill it without hurting my roses and flowers? I've thought of digging everything up, but the area is too large and too full of flowers to do that.
Chris Ballance, Hatteras, N.C.
Your weed is field bindweed, which looks much like morning glory. It's in the same family. Best way to eradicate it is to use Roundup but spray only the vine. Some gardeners, rather than spray, use a paint brush dipped in Roundup and paint the undesirable weed so the Roundup gets on nothing else.
by CNB