Loudoun County Master Gardeners
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Loudoun County Master Gardeners |
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Winter Alerts: The tradition of taking plants as gifts to friends and family is part of the holiday season. With modest effort you can keep these plants in tip-top shape for weeks to months. Poinsettias Of all the traditional holiday pot plants, the poinsettia is probably the most well known. Treasured for its colorful bracts (modified leaves), poinsettias can be found sporting red, white, pink and yellow leaves with most variations in between. Grown in the tightly controlled environmental conditions of the greenhouse, poinsettias can give you months of enjoyment with some simple care. First, the Do's: Do water the plant regularly. Allow the soil to dry to a depth of about 2" (the pot gets very light at this stage), and then water the pot thoroughly. Do fertilize with a complete fertilizer, though modestly - at about ¼ strength - with every other watering. Do keep your plant in fairly bright natural or artificial light. And do try to keep room temperatures in the 70's during the day and the 60's at night. Then the Don'ts: Don't expose your poinsettia to drafts - they can cause leaf drop. Don't expose the plant to frigid temperatures for prolonged periods while transporting them. Don't allow the plant to actually dry out. And don't keep the plant in dim light. Adherence to these few tips will prevent leaf drop and enable you to enjoy the colorful leaves and blooms of your poinsettia for many months. Christmas cacti. Rapidly becoming the second most popular holiday pot plant (behind poinsettias), Christmas cacti require relatively little care to maintain their luster and bloom. The blossoms of Christmas cacti will retain their color and last longest if kept in a moderately cool room (~60-68ºF) in bright light. The soil should be kept lightly moist - staying on the dry side rather than wet. Cyclamen. Cyclamen have some of the most attractive flowers and foliage of any of the "traditional" holiday plants. Their marbled foliage sets off the satiny sheen of red, pink and white blooms like few other garden or pot plants. Like other pot plants, over watering can cause yellowing and shorten plant life. Keep the pot slightly moist and fertilize with a complete, houseplant fertilizer at ¼ strength every other watering. Cool temperatures (~50ºF at night) and bright light are essential for an extended display of color. Amaryllis. The real do-it-yourself plant of the season, an amaryllis is an excellent choice for the budding gardener (no pun intended). Available in red, white, striped, single and double flowered forms, the amaryllis is available already budded and blooming or as a dormant bulb that you plant-and-grow in the pot. Fertilized modestly with a complete, houseplant fertilizer at ¼ strength with every other watering and placed in a bright window or room, the amaryllis will dazzle you with its large, vibrant blooms. A cooler room with bright light will yield a shorter, more compact plant. As with most plants grown indoors, excessively warm indoor temperatures will shorten the flowering life of the amaryllis. These are just a few hints for the proper care of a select few holiday gift plants. Rosemary, ivy or myrtle topiaries; paperwhites, kalanchoe, and ornamental peppers expand the gift palette even further. For a personal introduction to the wonderful variety of potted plants available this holiday season visit your local nursery or greenhouse. Your family and friends will thank you for it. A fact sheet on the proper care of many holiday gift plants is available online at the Virginia Cooperative Extension website at http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-101/426-101.html. If you can have questions contact the Loudoun Master Gardener Volunteers at their Help Desk Office, Monday - Friday, 9 am - 12 pm, at 703-771-5150 or ex107mg@vt.edu. Winter Care of Your House Plants House plants do better inside if grouped together. This helps increase humidity around them when they are grouped. You could also place the pots on waterproof trays with pebbles and water in order to increase humidity. Winter Care of Trees and Shrubs Is it Winter Damage? Many plants have protective mechanisms that should not be confused with winter damage. Some will shed leaves (nandina, privet); some will position their leaves flat against their stems (fatsia); some will roll their leaves downward or the margins inward (rhododendron); while others will have wilted-looking leaves all winter (viburnum). In addition, the red, purple, bronze, and brown winter color of some evergreens (juniper, arborvitae, cryptomeria, boxwood) should not be confused as winter injury. Removing Snow Proper removal of snow from shrubs and trees - fluff it up and off; do not try to remove ice becuase stems will be brittle and may break. Clean up any breakage caused by ice and snow by trimming off damaged parts and making clean pruning cuts. Rodent Damage Mice may cause serious damage to trees or shrubs. They chew off the bark at ground level or below and can completely girdle a tree, causing it to die. Most of this damage takes place during winter. Keep mulch pulled away from the base of the tree, and examine it frequently for the presence of mice. Winterizing Proper watering can is a critical factor in winterizing. If autumn rains have been insufficient, give plants a deep soaking that will supply water to the entire root system before the ground freezes. This practice is especially important for evergreens. Watering when there are warm days during January, February, and March is also important. Also, mulching is an important control for erosion and loss of water. A 2-inch layer of mulch will reduce water loss and help maintain uniform soil moisture around roots. Although it is unattractive, small evergreens can be protected by using windbreaks made out of burlap, canvas, or similar materials. Windbreaks will help reduce the force of the wind and shade the plants. They can be created by attaching materials to a frame around a plant. A complete wrapping of straw or burlap is sometimes used. Black plastic should be avoided as a material for wrapping plants. During the day heat builds up inside, increasing the extreme fluctuation between day and night temperatures and speeding up growth of buds in the spring, making them more susceptible to a late frost. If plants require annual protection measures to this extent, move them to a more protected location or replace them with hardier specimens. Heaving Frost heaving occurs when alternate freezing and thawing of the soil pushes small, shallow-rooted plants out of the ground. This prevents the plants from having firm contact with the soil and exposes the roots to wind desiccation. Mulch acts as a buffer to the soil. It reduces the amount of alternate freezing and thawing of the soil which causes frost heaving. If a plant has been heaved from the ground, replant it as soon as the soil thaws. Unless the root system is small enough to be pushed easily with the fingers into the soft soil, dig up the plant, retaining as much of the root system as possible within a soil ball, and replant it.
For more on managing winter injury to trees and shrubs see: http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-500/426-500.html#L6
Snow shoveling can be very dangerous. Exercise experts say shoveling heavy snow requires as much energy as running 9 miles per hour! In addition, breathing cold air, and being exposed to the cold all make the heart work harder. If you are over 45, sedentary, smoke, have elevated blood pressure, are overweight, and/or have a heart condition, play it safe and get someone else to do the shoveling. Experts warn that snow shoveling is not the exercise to use to start getting in shape. To prevent injury:
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