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 crops yow will discover. Low cost inventory is nugatory and to not be thought-about in any respect. Two-year crops in primary grade from a dependable Rose grower in kinds of Hybrid Teas, Teas, Australians, Polyanthas and Floribundas will provide you with the richest returns out of your plantings.
Pink Roses of attraction and perfume are Etoile de Hollande, Essence that’s sweetest of all, Ami Quinard the darkest pink, Christopher Stone the brightest. Hollande leads the record for hardiness, steady bloom and freedom from illness. Different value whereas pink Roses could also be your selection, however plant not lower than 5 of 1 type in an effort to have mass flowering within the borders and minimize flowers for the rooms.
Accenting perfume, Dame Edith Helen leads the pink record. 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, nevertheless, 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 nicely in spring and fall.
A couple of novelty Roses, added every year; will convey new pleasure and sweetness and provides a lot needed expertise. Attempt 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’re, after all, a member. Each Rose grower and lover ought to be.
Success with Roses, as with all crops, means cautious preparation as to soil, publicity to solar and air, fertilizer and mulching. The well being drawback shall be simply taken care of if the three-in-one sprays are used repeatedly.
All of the conifers reply nicely to planting at this season. Now can be the time to provide them their semi-annual tip-shearing.
End the dormant spraying as early as attainable. Quickly the buds shall 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 check. Use compost on the remainder of the backyard, together with shrubs, timber, Roses and in all places besides on the bulb beds.
Hotbeds and coldframes ought to be seeded with the tender flowers for early transplanting. Petunias, Verbenas, Snapdragons and beautiful Nierembergia hippomanica ought to be sown directly. Use rustresistant Snapdragon seeds. Attempt the brand new Purple Gown Nierembergia, which is a Bronze Medalist.
Nierembergias are priceless for low lots of coloration in rock gardens or borders and for edgings. They bloom via spring, summer time and fall and the crops are evergreen with delicate 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 will 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 record of shrubs and timber will be planted till April. Hollies, Tulip Timber, 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 alleged 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. Will we coddle them an excessive amount of and provides them much less gentle and air than they want? It might appear so.
The best Gardenias seen in a very long time had been just lately discovered rising and cared for by a neighbor who adores flowers. Her crops had been 6 ft extensive and as tall. They grew in sand and virtually 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 beautiful. The plant was set out in a nook the place the solar comes sturdy and within the midst of a attempting yr the small Gardenia was forgotten. Now, regardless of all, the small leaves are shiny and inexperienced and canopy the plant with a promise of tiny aromatic blossoms for one more yr. Much less care and extra solar stands out as the reply to rising Gardenias.
