February Gardening in the South

Gardening in February within the Southern United States

By J. Lester

ROSES planted this month will give regular and uninterrupted bloom from April to December. Get the very best vegetation you could find. Low cost inventory is nugatory and to not be thought-about in any respect. Two-year vegetation in primary grade from a dependable Rose grower in sorts of Hybrid Teas, Teas, Australians, Polyanthas and Floribundas provides you with the richest returns out of your plantings.

Pink Roses of appeal and perfume are Etoile de Hollande, Essence that’s sweetest of all, Ami Quinard the darkest purple, Christopher Stone the brightest. Hollande leads the checklist for hardiness, steady bloom and freedom from illness. Different price whereas purple Roses could also be your selection, however plant not lower than 5 of 1 variety in an effort to have mass flowering within the borders and reduce flowers for the rooms.

Accenting perfume, Dame Edith Helen leads the pink checklist. Briarcliff, Editor McFarland, Pink Daybreak and Columbia go away different pink Roses far behind.

By no means failing flowers are discovered on Edith Nellie Perkins, Talisman, President Hoover, Margaret McGredy and Condesa de Sastago. The 2 final ones, nonetheless, present black spot persistently.

Mrs. Jules Bouche and Caledonia are essentially the most passable white Roses. Mrs. Pierre S. du Pont and Golden Daybreak the very best of our yellows, although Soeur Therese and Sunburst are dependable and flower properly in spring and fall.

A couple of novelty Roses, added annually; will convey new pleasure and sweetness and provides a lot needed expertise. Strive them out in common gardens with common care and be sure you report in your success or failure to the American Rose Society, of which you might be, after all, a member. Each Rose grower and lover ought to be.

Success with Roses, as with all vegetation, means cautious preparation as to soil, publicity to solar and air, fertilizer and mulching. The well being drawback will likely be simply taken care of if the three-in-one sprays are used frequently.

All of the conifers reply properly to planting at this season. Now can be the time to offer them their semi-annual tip-shearing.

End the dormant spraying as early as attainable. Quickly the buds will likely be swelling and the lime-sulfur sprays, even 1 to 40, will burn.

Fertilize lawns with a chemical fertilizer, ideally with one, which has been prescribed after a soil take a look at. Use compost on the remainder of the backyard, together with shrubs, timber, Roses and all over the place besides on the bulb beds.

Hotbeds and coldframes ought to be seeded with the tender flowers for early transplanting. Petunias, Verbenas, Snapdragons and wonderful Nierembergia hippomanica ought to be sown directly. Use rustresistant Snapdragon seeds. Strive the brand new Purple Gown Nierembergia, which is a Bronze Medalist.

Nierembergias are priceless for low lots of shade in rock gardens or borders and for edgings. They bloom via spring, summer season and fall and the vegetation are evergreen with tender feathery foliage.

Annual seeds sown within the fall will quickly be blooming. Broadcast, now, seeds of Gypsophila, Nemophila, Virginian Shares and Linaria so as to add weeks to your season of bloom. Phlox drummondi may also be sown once more, however no others.

Greens. Sow within the open floor seeds of collards, radishes, celery and kohl-rabi. Begin tomatoes and peppers in chilly frames.

Almost all the lengthy checklist of shrubs and timber could be planted till April. Hollies, Tulip Bushes, Camphor, Dogwoods and Anise are a fan of spring plantings.

Gardenias or Cape Jasmines, as they’re referred to as within the South, are modern once more. They’re speculated to be temperamental, to require deep shade and an acid soil and even then they develop poorly with annual assaults of sooty mildew and San Jose scale. Can we coddle them an excessive amount of and provides them much less mild and air than they want? It will appear so.

The best Gardenias seen in a very long time had been not too long ago discovered rising and cared for by a neighbor who adores flowers. Her vegetation had been 6 ft vast and as tall. They grew in sand and nearly in full solar and had by no means been sprayed. The blooms had been very-fine and had been steady over an extended season. Final yr a buddy introduced us with a Trailing Gardenia, which is as uncommon as it’s pretty. The plant was set out in a nook the place the solar comes robust and within the midst of a making an attempt yr the small Gardenia was forgotten. Now, despite all, the small leaves are vivid and inexperienced and canopy the plant with a promise of tiny aromatic blossoms for an additional yr. Much less care and extra solar stands out as the reply to rising Gardenias.