DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709270093

SECTION: HOME                    PAGE: G3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: GARDENING QUESTIONS

                                            LENGTH:  130 lines

OVERWATERING, BAD DRAINAGE HURT CAMELLIAS

My camellias bloomed in April but then turned brown and wilted. It seemed like they retained water although we had not had much rain for a week. I applied a fertilizer for acid-loving plants, but that did not seem to help.

Please send me an instruction sheet on air-layering to get new camellia plants and can this method be used for plants other than camellias?

Have you had any luck growing kiwi plants? I had three, and they died.

Leslie A. Cunningham, Greenbush

It sounds like your camellias may be drowning because you overwatered, and they are planted in an area of poor drainage. Camellias must be planted shallow in a well-drained area if they are to be healthy. Some good growers put broken bricks under a camellia when planting, so they know it has bottom drainage. Also never fertilize a plant when you suspect it's sick.

For your kiwis, they must have full sun, and you must have both a male and female to get fruit. Often in harsh winter weather they may die out. I'd try again in a protected area, with full sun, making sure you have plants of both sexes.

Your book, ``Gardening in Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina,'' is the best I have found for this area and has become my bible for gardening. The monthly format gives me an easy-to-use checklist.

My question is in reference to dormant oil spray. I applied Sunspray Ultra-Fine, year-round pesticidal oil to the holly-type shrubbery around my house in January as suggested in your book. I also sprayed two oak trees in my front yard that had a severe scale problem. That product was recommended to me by my local nursery when I asked for dormant oil spray to control scale.

Your book says that one oil spray a season is sufficient. I am now confused as to when to apply dormant oil spray, because I have found further instructions in your book for applying oil spray in February, March and April. Please clarify your instructions.

When I inspect the holly I sprayed in January, I found some small scale on it. They seem to be alive, because they are gooey when squashed.

Reid J. Woodruff, Virginia Beach

My book was read by better horticulturists than me before it was published in an attempt to avoid errors. Virginia Tech authorities say it is correct as published, but you should spray oil at least twice. The reason you spray at different times is to smother different insects. February is the ideal time to spray holly.

There are a number of species of scale in our area, some better controlled in certain months than others. Repeated applications are also good in that no control is 100 percent effective. The effectiveness of oil is influenced by temperature and precipitation.

The later sprayings are for scale, when they're out and crawling. Originally, oil sprays were recommended to be used only once a season. Now most authorities recommend a fall spraying, another in February and sometimes a third in March or April. Horticultural oil sprays can be used almost anytime except during hot weather.

Before spraying, check to see if you have insect problems and need to spray at all.

Enclosed is a plant I found growing as a wildflower near Harrisonburg. It appears to grow alongside the roadways and other places. I dug a few from the roadside and have planted them. Can you identify it?

Charlotte W. Dase, Carrolton

Your plant is Hesperus, more often called Dames Rocket. It is lilac colored and grows 3 to 4 feet tall. It is a native plant. I bought one in the spring of 1996 at Winesett Nursery in Virginia Beach. They warned me it might not come back year after year, but this spring it was larger and more beautiful than ever. What I particularly like is that it blooms a month or more.

I have a Chinese maple that thrived until last summer, at which time it developed a blight or was strangled to death. By that, I mean the plastic chains wrapped around its trunk, attached to a post to hold it up, may have choked it. They were so tight I had to cut them away. I don't know if the tree had a blight of some sort. The leaves dropped off before turning brown with a blood red center. The tree leaves never turned their pretty shades as usually they do in the fall.

I called the city and was advised to spray the tree with something that I purchased at a nursery. I sprayed the tree, but this spring it did not put out leaves until late April. What should I do?

I also have a lilac that must be 7 years old and has bloomed only once. The first and last time was three years ago. It seems to be healthy but doesn't bloom. It gets lots of sun. What should I do?

Annette Birdsong, Virginia Beach

Your maple appears to have normal problems for this area. The chains on the tree are meant to stretch and break, but too many are left on too long. Usually after six months, they can be removed and should definitely be taken off at the end of a year. Leaf edges of maples like you have burn in summer. Also could your tree be planted too deeply? Does it have good drainage? Poor drainage will slowly kill ornamental maples.

As to your lilac, horticulturist Bonnie Appleton at the Hampton Roads Research Center asked if it has borers. Cut it way back and see what happens next spring. Remember also that lilacs are difficult to grow in this area.

The Tidewater Arboretum at the research station has a lilac that does well and blooms every year.

There was a recent article in The Pilot about a device called Thirst Alert. I tried but could not locate the item. There was a toll-free number (888) THIRST ALERT which I tried but was unsuccessful. Can you help me on this?

For Christmas, I received a potted Norfolk Island pine. Please tell me how to care for it and if it can be put outdoors?

Sidney T. Teska, Norfolk

I'm sorry, but I can't help you on the Thirst Alert problem. I don't recall such a product appearing in my column, but it might have. I've tried playing around with the number you listed but got nowhere. If there is a reader who responded and knows the right number, please write.

Your Norfolk Island pine can be put outdoors in summer but must be kept indoors in winter. It likes much light but sometimes will ``sunburn'' in full sun. The critical problem is watering. If it gets too much water, it drops its limbs. If it gets too little water, it does the same thing. I tried to grow several earlier in my life but decided they were too fussy for me.

I am asking for advice on how to get rid of slugs. They start coming out in April and by summer when I go out in the morning, there are slug trails all over our sidewalk and driveway. They get on my vegetables and sometimes even my newspaper. I have pine straw and wood chip mulch around my house in flower beds. This is where they seem to hide out overnight. Also I have some bricks stacked in one area and there seem to be a few that hide in those bricks.

Can you offer help to end this problem?

Benny L. Jackson Sr., Norfolk

You are providing slugs a grand hotel. They like damp dark places. They are hiding under the mulch or in the bricks in the daytime and coming out at night to eat their hearts out.

I believe in the benefits of mulch, so I don't like to suggest you remove it. Instead I would use one of the slug baits available in garden centers. I prefer one called Deadline that squirts out of a bottle like toothpaste. Surround the area you want protected with a line of Deadline and you should soon eliminate the slugs. I would move the bricks to another area and that will help.

There are many organic controls, diatomaceous earth being one. It sounds like you have so many slugs that I'd get going with Deadline right away. 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.

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