Question: I purchased a pot with blooming hyacinth bulbs. The flowers have started to decline. What should I do with the plants?
Answer: Perhaps this is the hardest thing for gardeners to do, but toss the plants and keep the pot. Or you could ship the bulbs to a friend up north to plant in the ground. Hyacinths with attractive pink, purple or white flowers and a sweet fragrance need more cold than Florida can provide to rebloom. Purchased plants make great late winter through early spring flowers to enjoy in the home for about a week before they decline.
Q. Tops of some of our plants like impatiens, coleus and pentas were damaged by cold. When do I prune away the injured stems?
A. Give your plants several weeks of warm weather to determine the extent of damage. Many like coleus are injured much more than it may appear. They continue to decline for several weeks. You could prune now and continue as needed but it may be a waste of time you could use to work in other areas of the landscape. Regretfully some of these plants may die and need replacing during the warmer spring months.
Q. A few years ago we planted a Hawaiian Ti plant in a pot that has grown to be a large, beautiful plant I would like to transplant to near the front of our house. Is that risky?
Plant Doctor: Area neighborhoods in the pink courtesy of blooming tabebuia trees
A. Your Ti plant is colorful and looks to be about 5 feet tall in an accompanying email photo. The container for the plant is small and it is time for transplanting. There should be little to no risk of transplanting into the ground near the home. Keep the plant three or more feet from the home and prepare the ground with compost, peat moss or manure. Since your plant is in a small container, the roots are likely tightly bound together. Loosen the roots some at planting. Keep moist and apply fertilizer in about two to three weeks. Most likely the plant is going to need staking if you desire to keep it at the 5-foot height. Otherwise it can be pruned to a lower height which reduces the risk of blowing over.
Q. Early New Year’s Day there was a fire in my backyard. A portion of my bamboo planting was in flames, apparently due to fireworks set off on New Year’s Eve. It appeared a fire had smoldered all night under the bamboo and burned the root system. Is there anything I can do at this point?
A. Fortunately bamboos are resilient plants. Your photos showed some green of remaining plants but lots of fire damage at the base of others. There were some voids in the ground that can be filled with soil. Roots with buds for bamboo are often well under ground and may have escaped damage the fire. Give the plants mid- to late spring to make some recovery. Then you can better determine what is alive or dead and should be replaced.
Q. I would like to control the weeds in my St. Augustine lawn myself, but I am afraid of damaging the grass. Could a professional service do a better job?
A. Weed control is tricky and just a little too much of an herbicide could produce devastating results. You can perform weed control like a professional but you have to do your homework before applying the treatments to prevent damaging the lawn. Many gardeners like to perform their own weed control work as they can quickly control the unwanted greenery when first noted and only treat the problem spots. If you want to give weed control a try, your garden center has products to use with your St. Augustine lawn. Many of the herbicides are the same ones being used by lawn spray services. Start your weed control program by learning the types of weeds growing in your yard. Usually you don’t have to know them by name, just the categories, that include broadleaf, grassy and sedge type weeds. Then learn the products that control each of these types and how they should be applied for safe and effective weed control. Obtain free lawn weed control bulletins from your local University of Florida Extension office.
Recent days of temperatures near or at freezing in some areas caused severe damage to banana plants. If only the outer leaves are damaged, the plants can recover. (Courtesy of Tom MacCubbin)
Q. Our banana plants suffered greatly during the recent cold and looks bad. Will they recover to produce fruit?
A. A little cold is all banana plants need to look horrible. Recent days of temperatures near or at freezing in some areas caused severe damage. If only the outer leaves are damaged, the banana plants can recover. Regretfully you won’t know for weeks the full extent of the damage. Look in the top of the plants to determine how much the shoots and trunks were affected. If turning brown, the whole trunk is likely to decline. The good news is banana plants have buds at and below ground level that can regrow new plants. Give your plants about a month to determine the extent of the cold damage and then remove affected portions. If the tops of trunks appear dead, the whole trunk should be removed to the ground.
February in the Garden for Central Florida
Q. My fig tree has become tall and in need of some care. What should I do at this time of the year?
A. Late winter is a good time to do a little grooming to remove crisscrossing and congested portions of the tree. Try to keep a somewhat open center to allow sunlight in and good air movement among the branches. Some gardeners like to reduce the height and width of their trees that have made excessive growth. Up to one-third of the limbs may be removed to produce a more accessible tree. Start now to fertilize the tree lightly but frequently. Many use manures applied to the surface of the soil every other month through early fall. Others use a general garden fertilizer or slow-release product following label instructions. Maintain a 3- to 4-inch mulch layer and keep the soil moist to produce a good tree with a bountiful harvest for spring and summer.
Tom MacCubbin is an urban horticulturist emeritus with the University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Write him: Orlando Sentinel, P.O. Box 2833, Orlando, FL. 32802. Email: TomMac1996@aol.com.
