Citrus fruits ripe on the tree
Senorita Rosalita has proven its adaptability across the country
Question: We would like to pick the fruit off our grapefruit tree before it blooms. Will the fruit ripen after they have been harvested?
Answer: Citrus fruits of all types ripen on the tree. The flavor and sweetness of your grapefruit do not improve after harvesting. Actually, grapefruits should be their best at this time of the year. Fruits left on the tree may become a bit sweeter and can be left on the limbs until you are ready to use them. Often, grapefruit remain on the trees and very edible through May.
Q: A gray mold is covering the lower stems of our hibiscus plants. Is this of concern and should it be controlled?
A: Lichens which are the combination of a fungus and algae are likely the growths living on the surface of the stems. They cause no harm and are normally found on many landscape plants. An abundance of lichens may indicate your plants are not growing as vigorously as they should. Check your watering and fertilizing program to makes sure the hibiscus plants have what is needed for good growth. Where lichens are annoying, a copper fungicide can be applied, as labeled for your plants, to help reduce their growth.
Q: Leaf miner insects affect my tomato plants each year. How can I control these insects before they cause squiggly lines in the leaves?
A: Every tomato plant has a few leaf miner trails streaking through some of their leaves without causing major harm. But when lots of the leaves are affected, a treatment may be needed to control the insects that lay eggs to produce larvae that tunnel within the leaves. You probably won’t see the fly-type insect as it lays the eggs, but if you look closely, the larvae in the tunnels are evident as they feed.
Where only a few leaves are affected, one control is to pick them off, but the leaf miners may affect others. An effective natural control is to use a spinosad-containing insecticide found in the Bonide, Fertilome and Southern Ag product lines at independent garden centers when insect damage is first noticed. Ask at the garden center for a product that contains this specific insecticide and follow the label instructions.
Q: We are installing sod where we treated for a chinch bug infestation several times and it still declined. Do we apply another control before we add the new sod?
A: Delay the chinch bug control until after the sod is becoming established. Removing the old sod and tilling the soil usually disturbs any remaining chinch bugs. Also, more chinch bugs may move in from neighboring untreated turf. When your new turf is established, about four weeks after sodding, apply the chinch bug control to all turf old and new. Since your previous treatments were not effective, it is time to switch products.
Alternative control to the common synthetic pyrethroids commonly sold for lawn insects include Arena and Dylox found at local garden centers and pest control product supply stores. Follow the label for the pesticide selected or have a professional lawn care company make the application.
Q: Our three-yearold pink tabebuia tree produced a few blooms the first year and none since. How can I encourage more blooms?
A: Normal care is all that’s needed for your reluctant bloomer. Some pink tabebuia trees need more time to reach maturity. When first planted, the root system of your tree was likely cramped, which encouraged blooms, but now it has been making growth and needs more time to mature. Give it a year or two more to become a good bloomer. Do not apply lots of fertilizer, which encourages growth at the expense of blooms. Fertilizer applied to nearby lawns and shrubs should be adequate for a tree of this age.
Q: We have a geranium in a container with stinky orange growths coming from white balls in the soil. What is producing these smelly portions?
A: Gardeners find these little stinkers in many places in the landscape. Use the nose to direct you to these colorful but horriblesmelling mushrooms called stinkhorns pushing up through the soil to release their spores. Actually, the mushrooms have a plan of using the odor to draw in insects that move the spores about.
Dig down in the soil when one is found to locate more of the white, round balls of mushroom growth. The only easy control is to disturb the soil and prevent the mushrooms from maturing. Also, keeping plants too moist may encourage growth, so only water as needed. Many stinkhorn mushrooms grow during the rainy season, when sites are naturally wet.
A quinceanera is a celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday, with its cultural roots in Mexico and throughout Latin America. While I am not exactly sure of the birthday, it was 15 years ago that our girl of the plant world Senorita Rosalita cleome won her first award. Today she has won 237 of the top awards in the country and forever changed the world when it comes to using the cleome in the landscape.
Before the arrival of Senorita Rosalita gardeners were concerned about growing cleomes because they have thorns that can be quite painful. They also don’t like the fact that cleomes reseed — A LOT, thousands of seeds! Those two issues kept you many from growing cleome, but that all changed 15 years ago.
Senorita Rosalita is shorter than typical cleomes. It is sterile, which means it sets no seeds. It also does not have thorns, and it blooms all season long. With attributes like that, you would guess it would be an award winner. The list of awards that humbles most other plants, has proven its adaptability across the entire country. This includes the 2009 Mississippi Medallion Award Winner, my last year as an extension horticulture specialist with MSU.
Cleomes are usually planted from young transplants in warm spring soil, which means we will soon be entering the prime planting season. Select a
site that is well drained and receives plenty of sunlight. Morning sun and afternoon shade will also work well.
If the bed is poorly drained, add 2 to 3 inches of organic matter. Be sure and apply a good layer of mulch after planting. This really helps prevent moisture loss to evaporation and deter weed growth, which competes for both water and nutrients. Cleomes are drought tolerant once established. In midsummer, give them a little fertilizer, like a 5-10-5, and you’ll help push them into the fall season
Senorita Rosalita is available in a cheerful lavender-pink color. It can be used in any style of garden and in a wide variety of plant combinations. In the landscape, place Senorita Rosalita cleome to the rear of the border in a bold group. Space them 20
to 24 inches apart. They combine wonderfully with other flowers like petunias, phlox, salvias and vincas. I’ve seen great combinations using them with yellow daylilies.
Their exotic spidery flower structure allows them to also work wonderfully well in tropical gardens with bananas and elephant ears; after all, they do come from South America. To be honest, they fit in cottage gardens just as well and would be exceptional in public areas such as golf courses and parks. They reach close to 4 feet in height, attract hummingbirds and butterflies, and offer both heat and drought tolerance.
By all means if you are looking for the unusual flower as the thriller plant in mixed containers then you could hardly pick a better choice. Your
choices for spiller and filler plants are limitless. Some of my favorites would be Diamond Frost euphorbia or Flambe chrysocephalum as fillers and Goldilocks lysimachia.
The popularity of Senorita
Rosalita has given way to two more exciting selections from Proven Winners. Pequena Rosalita offers the same color but on an even shorter plant reaching only 36-inches tall. Newest is Senorita Blanca with the
same height and blooming powers as Senorita Rosalita but a pristine white bloom.
Your garden can celebrate Senorita Rosalita all summer long; get ready, it may be cold now, but spring is coming.
It’s been a long winter — make that a long year — but spring is right around the corner with a renewed sense of optimism, more sunshine and more fresh air. If you want to get a jump-start on the season, here are a few mood-boosting ways to refresh your home and update your wardrobe.
Yes, it’s time to move past sweatpants, but that’s not such a bad thing and it doesn’t mean that comfort is going away. There may not be a reason to get really dressed up yet, but wearing actual clothes can be a refreshing change — and make you look better on your next Zoom meeting.
For spring, designers kept the comfy vibe going with relaxed, wearable clothes that dress things up just enough. Designer Daniela Gregis’ collection is filled with slightly crumpled linen and cotton pieces in feel-good colors like sunny yellow, saffron and pink — the perfect way to shake off the winter blues.
When it comes to freshening up your home, decluttering is the best way to start. “Take on an area like a bookcase or crowded coffee table,” said Chicago interior designer Todd Haley. “Open space just makes you feel better.”
Next, think about color. A splash of paint in spring colors like pale, sky blue or soft pink can instantly change the vibe. If you want something more dramatic, shake things up with wallpaper. Just remember how much you loved the wallpapered interiors on “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix.
“When you use wallpaper, go bold,” said Haley. “Bold patterns add energy to your space, and larger patterns in small spaces can make it feel bigger.”