Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
In the garden
QMy wife and I have been to your classes so we know not to
“murder” our crape myrtles.
I keep them fertilized and pest free. Two weeks before the frost they were coming out beautifully, but the frost killed all the leaves and they aren’t coming back out. What can I do, if anything?
AI think you just need to be patient. I cannot imagine that you got cold enough in Hot Springs to kill crape myrtles. They were nipped and then we had low temperatures for a bit after the frost. But now that we are getting up in the upper 70s to low 80s you should see some rebounding soon. Once you see new foliage, give them a little fertilizer to speed them along. In a worst case scenario, they would have a little top kill but will still sprout out.
QI have some 2-year-old swamp sunflowers that were up this spring about 18 inches to 2 feet in height and spreading, to my delight each year. Today my husband’s horse was out in the yard grazing, and he “topped” about 90 percent of the stalks … trimmed 3 to 4 inches off of them. Do you think they will still have blooms later this year?
AYou may actually thank the horses when you have bushier, shorter plants with more flowers. I don’t think there will be a problem with them blooming this fall. I would make sure the cut edges are nice and
clean, not jagged. I think they will branch out, and as long as you can keep the horses from re-feasting, I think you will still have blooms later this summer.
QI have two types of monkey grasses in my front beds, the striped and the solid green. In one bed the solid spread and now occupies all of one end. Last year I dug up roots and all, but it came back even thicker. Can it be killed totally without using a poison of any kind? Would vinegar help? I just want it gone — all of it.
AThere are two main types of liriope or monkey grass, and the difference is more than being variegated or green. There are clumping forms and spreading forms, each of which has variegated and
solid green plants available. The spreading form is Liriope spicata and is quite invasive. You can dig up as much as you can, watch what sprouts from remaining roots and spray those sprouts with a glyphosate product (Roundup). It will take a few seasons before you are monkey-grass free.
QI have a fairly large rose garden that came with my house. Over time I notice more and more bushes doing what I call going wild (they have a nice old-fashioned bloom once a year; otherwise they just grow and are often spindly). My guess is that they have lost their hybrid (if that is what they were) and once this happens, there is nothing that I can do except choose to accept, or remove and replace? An additional question is whether there is anything that I’m doing wrong, or should do differently? I’m fairly good at caning and dead-heading, but otherwise I probably don’t do enough.
AMany roses are grafted plants — a desirable variety is grafted onto a wild rose root stock. This gives the plants more vigor with pretty blooms. If something happens to kill the top grafted variety, or you prune beneath the graft union, then the wild rose root stock is given free rein to grow. They typically have small, not-showy flowers. I would suggest doing a revamp of your rose garden, adding some new varieties and some that are grown on their own root stocks and don’t need as much care as hybrid tea roses.
QMy peonies have plenty of buds, but they are very late. Will the peonies still bloom?
AWe are having a very late spring this year. Just be patient. The flowers should still open and do well. Consider adding some perennial stakes around the plants to help hold them upright. Peony blooms are large, and if they get filled with rain or take a heavy wind, the blooms can fall over.
Janet B. Carson is a horticulture specialist for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. Write to her at 2301 S. University Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72204 or email her at
jcarson@arkansasonline.com