THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9701310061
SECTION: HOME & GARDEN PAGE: G3 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: GARDENING
SOURCE: Robert Stiffler
LENGTH: 159 lines
Even though my yard is old, as am I, I've always been able to keep it weeded. Since I broke my hip, it's hard to do. Oxalis has taken over my flower beds. We used a weed killer, but it just killed the tops and they came back. I went through the dirt with a trowel and my fingers and thought I got all the tiny bulbs, but they came back again.
I want to plant winter pansies but would like to rid the ground of that nasty oxalis first. Do you know how to kill it? I have lots of spring bulbs planted in the same beds, such as tulips, jonquils and lily of the valley. I'd hate to kill them.
Mrs. Elizabeth D'Auria, Norfolk
Because oxalis is a bulb, it's difficult to eradicate. Digging it out is the best way, but I've been told that if you spray the foliage with Roundup and spray again every time you see new foliage, after the third spraying, you can kill the bulb. As long as the foliage of your spring-blooming bulbs is not showing, Roundup won't hurt them, because it has to be sprayed on foliage to be absorbed.
How do I propagate or separate Poet's Laurel (Danae)? How best can I turn an 8-foot diameter meadow into a planting area? What do you do with the grass and weed layer?
Barron Dempsey, Smithfield
Poet's Laurel can be started from cuttings, but an easier way is to let the seeds drop off the plant and, in one or two years, you'll have many small seedlings. As to dividing, take a straight shovel and chop the plant into two or three segments and replant. Best time to do this would be late fall or winter.
For your meadow, spray it with Roundup when it's green and growing. Wait two weeks to make sure you've killed all weeds and grass. If not, spray again. Till the grass and weeds under. They make good organic matter in the soil.
Enclosed is a photo I took of my azaleas in August. They are 9 years old, and I was told they are a rare, late-blooming, old-fashioned type. I have forgotten their name. They are beautiful when in bloom but look skimpy the rest of the year. The foliage is very sparse, unlike other azaleas. I've seen them lose most of their leaves in the fall.
I have always fertilized them just before blooming and again in late August with a fertilizer for acid-loving plants. Is there anything I can do to encourage denser growth? Should I cut them back every year? Or is this just the way these shrubs will always be? I read somewhere that the concrete foundation of a house can raise the pH in the soil near the plant. Is this true?
Judy Roughton, Powells Point, N.C.
A cement foundation can raise the soil pH around azaleas more than they like, but the only way to be sure is to get the soil in that area tested. Then take whatever action is recommended.
Virginia Tech's Bonnie Appleton suggests you cut these azaleas back by one fourth right after they bloom. At the same time, feed them with a high nitrogen fertilizer to promote green growth. If that helps, do it for several years in a row and see if they won't thicken up.
Can you tell me why my 8- to 10-year-old blueberry bushes that are 6 feet tall have not produced one blueberry for two years? They have grown only green berries that turn to red. Three year ago, I was giving my neighbors boxes of blueberries, I had so many.
Ron Mack, Norfolk
I asked three of the most knowledgeable blueberry people I know and none had an answer except that they suspect birds are getting the berries before you do. Ed Borchers, retired director of the Hampton Roads Research Center, who also grows blueberries, said he'd never had such a question. He suggests pruning out all the old canes and dead twigs to try to revitalize the bush.
Horticulturist Bonnie Appleton said she didn't have a clue except for birds. Gordon Griffin, who runs a blueberry farm in Virginia Beach, said the bird give him problems, and that was the only explanation he could offer.
I can find no one who has had this problem, which makes it tough to solve. Net your bushes early next season, and see if that helps.
My False Cape pecan, about 3 years old, is sending up three main stems at 5 feet above ground. Do I let it be or cut one or two stems out?
My second question is about a dwarf bing cherry that is growing, albeit slowly, but has areas around many limbs that appear swollen. When squeezed, sap oozes out. Does it have problems or is that normal?
Finally, which of these plants can be left outdoors all winter - mandevilla, dwarf cavendish banana and dahlias?
David Polaha, Virginia Beach
Bonnie Appleton also is Virginia Tech's tree authority. She says that limbs from crotch angles on your pecan tree, especially if they are at a wide angle, are apt to break in a wind storm. She suggests you prune them off.
Your cherry tree is in trouble. It has borers, which is not unusual in this area. Thiodan is the recommended treatment, applied three times in late summer and fall. It's often hard to find, but Southern States stores usually stock it. Lindane is an alternate chemical recommended.
Mandevilla and bananas need to be stored indoors for winter. Dahlias can be left in the ground in Virginia Beach.
We have three peace lily plants. All originated from a single plant brought from up north several years ago. Each is in a different room but all on the east side. They get identical care as to light, water, misting, fertilizer and soil loosening. All bloom within a week or so of one another. Blooms number from two or three to six or seven. After blooming, they rest.
On the last bloom, one plant had green flowers instead of white. The green-flowered plant just finished blooming and already is showing five green buds ready to flower, but there has not been a significant rest period between blooms. Why green flowers?
Readers have written about tea bags in a garden. For 33 years, tea bags have gone into the flower bed outside my back door or into the humus pile near the my big garden.
George Haertlein, Virginia Beach
Bonnie Appleton says green flowers are most likely caused by a spot mutation in the bud. It may or not be stable, which means they may all be green from now on or they may revert back to white. I've had this happen with a peace lily (spathiphyllum) and then have had the plant go back to blooming white again. I would wait another year to see if it will change back to white blooms.
Regarding tea bags, Ed Borchers tells me he's thrown more than 300 coffee filters onto a compost pile in a year - and never found one that didn't deteriorate. Apparently it's the material from which they're made that determines whether coffee filters and tea bags will break down.
I ordered hanging baskets of strawberries, which were supposed to bloom this past summer. What do you do with them in winter? In the summer, I hung them from tree limbs. Do I fertilize them?
Anna F. Simpson, Bloxom
I hope you brought them in before a freeze. Ed Borchers, retired director of the Hampton Roads Research Center, is also our strawberry expert. He says they should be brought indoors late each fall. Water them well and put them in your garage. You don't want them to grow, but you don't want them to freeze. Fertilize them in the spring when you hang them outdoors again. An organic, slow-acting fertilizer would be best.
I have a Zelkova tree in my front yard. It is 6 inches in diameter at the base of the trunk and perhaps 20 feet high. I believe it's 8 years old. A few months ago, I noticed leaf tips were turning brown, especially on lower branches, but I didn't think much about it. In mid-September, I noted the lower branches became completely brown. Most of the other leaves were also brown. It appears this tree is sick. Can you please help me save it?
William M. Daskivich, Virginia Beach
Virginia Tech tree authority Bonnie Appleton says something is wrong with the tree roots. She says it appears that water is not going from the roots into the leaves. Check around the base of the tree for damage. Your type problem is often caused by roots being constricted. Dig around to see if the roots may be choking one another by growing round and round. Does another tree have roots growing into this tree's roots, restricting ability to function? If you see any such signs, cut through the roots that might be causing the problem.
Enclosed is a sample of Bath's pink dianthus from near the edge of a bed. I think it has been damaged by a lawn service's spraying. Can you comment on the cause? A leaf is enclosed.
Dorothy McNicholas, Virginia Beach
The leaf you enclosed is from a redbud tree, if you were trying to identify it. As to your Bath's pink, I've found that if mine gets too wet, it turns brown and dies out. Perhaps that is what caused the damage to yours. MEMO: No gardening questions will be taken over the phone. Write to
Robert Stiffler, The Virginian-Pilot, 150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk,
Va. 23510. Answers will be published on a space-available basis at the
proper time for their use in the garden. For an earlier reply, send a
self-addressed, stamped envelope.