DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997                TAG: 9704120072

SECTION: HOME                    PAGE: G2   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: GARDENING

SOURCE: BY ROBERT STIFFLER, GARDENING COLUMNIST 

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

FERTILIZE CAMELLIAS IN EARLY SPRING

What kind of fertilizer should I use on camellias, and when can I propagate new ones from cuttings?

I also started a new bed of strawberries. What kind of fertilizer is best for them?

And where can I get some of the old English bush roses? Also where can I buy one of your books?

Benny Michitti, Carrollton

Camellias should be fertilized in early spring, right after blooming, with a long-lasting camellia fertilizer, available in garden centers. Usually fertilizing once a year is all they need. As to propagating, March is a good month to take cuttings, but I recommend air-layering as an easier and better method to get new plants. I'm sending you an instruction sheet that tells how it's done.

For strawberries, the usual recommendation from state universities is to fertilize them in August with 10-10-10.

The source most often used for old English roses is the Antique Rose Emporium, Route 5, Box 143, Brenham, Texas 77833. Its catalog costs $5. Call (800) 441-0002.

The nearest place you can find my book is Smithfield Gardens on Route 17 in Suffolk.

I have been enjoying your column for 20 years and have learned a lot. I wrote many years ago when I had hundreds of volunteer petunias. It has never happened again.

You may be interested to learn that I had four hibiscus blooms and 13 tomatoes ripening in my den in December. I did not bring them in from outdoors until Dec. 1. I planted three Early Girl tomatoes in the spring. I have never had tomatoes grow for so long a time or produce so prolifically. I had been told I could only grow cherry tomatoes on my balcony, but I have had several the size of small apples and almost all have been the size of golf balls.

Why do I only have 10 blooms on my Christmas cactus? Is 68 degrees too cold for them?

Lenore P. Lavery, Virginia Beach

It's amazing that you can grow tomatoes so successfully where you live in a high-rise on Shore Drive. In that area, plants are buffeted by strong salty winds from the Chesapeake Bay. Early Girl is an early producing tomato that is small but dependable and more people probably should grow it.

As to your Christmas cactus, it needs 14 hours of darkness for six weeks to set buds. An easier method is cool temperatures. Put them outdoors in the shade and keep them there until the threat of a freeze, usually around Nov. 1. By then, they should be full of buds. Then put them in a warm room (70 to 72 degrees) and should bloom. Overwatering will cause buds to drop.

This concerns your answer of Sept. 15 to Mr. Trundle about his problem with trees failing to live after periodic flooding of Crystal Lake. You suggested raised beds. Crystal Lake is a body of salty, brackish water, connected to Linkhorn Bay. It is subject to tidal flooding. Perhaps you know this, and the raised bed solution related to that problem, but I really don't think raised beds would help against saltwater damage.

Paul Kotarides, Norfolk

I am familiar with Crystal Lake, and the flooding that creates garden problems. Some very high tides and plus winds in November and December were some of the worst I've seen. Retired Virginia Tech horticulturist Dan Milbocker has this to say: ``Raised beds are a good answer, but the problem might require salt-tolerant plants as well. Our back yard at Virginia Beach also flooded with exceptional high tides. Native trees such as sweet gum and loblolly pine grew well. Pear trees also survived. Willow did not. The book `Seacoast Plants of the Carolinas' has a good list of salt-tolerant plants.''

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