When to plant camellias, treat for weeds and caterpillars | Home/Garden

When do we obtain and plant camellias? They present up in the nurseries in November. Having said that, my gardener insists they can be killed by an untimely frost and implies February. By then, camellias are more difficult to find. And are azaleas on the similar agenda? — George Warner

Now is the fantastic time to acquire and plant camellias. Your gardener is mistaken. Camellias are hardy below and are not influenced adversely by winter season temperatures (while, open up flowers can be weakened by tricky freezes).

The wonderful factor about deciding upon and planting camellias this time of the year is that they are in bloom. So, you can see the actual bouquets a cultivar will develop and choose the camellias that make the condition, dimensions and color of bouquets you want.

You could also plant azaleas now. Our primary planting season for hardy trees and shrubs is November via February/early March. The worst time to plant trees and shrubs listed here is in the heat of summer time.

The cooler months, notably drop, are the greatest periods to plant hardy trees and shrubs right here.

Since the freeze previous 7 days, my pentas glance lousy. They nonetheless have some environmentally friendly coming from the roots but barely. As they are about 4 toes off the floor, they are pretty an eyesore. Can I prune them now or need to I wait until finally the menace of a freeze is more than? — Sandy Duhon

Really feel absolutely free to trim the pentas now to improve their visual appearance. You may perhaps minimize them back down to the issue where by you see the environmentally friendly shoots increasing.

Recall, they are not reliably hardy here and may well yet be killed by a worse freeze afterwards this winter season. Due to the fact they will be limited and effortless to deal with, throw some sheets in excess of the crops anytime temperatures go under 30 degrees.

If the pentas survive the wintertime, you may trim them again in the spring to eliminate any additional cold damage. They will expand out and carry out perfectly as a result of upcoming summer time.

Is this a fantastic time to treat the garden for weeds? I see a wide variety of weeds expanding now. If so, what do you advocate? — Frank Jenkins

There is no year for lawn weed command. The time to deal with a garden for weeds is when you see you have a weed dilemma — any time that is.

This time of the calendar year, awesome-year weeds are expanding in our lawns. If there are sufficient weeds rising in your yard at this place to warrant regulate, truly feel free of charge to apply a weed killer now.

Implement garden weed killers when the temperature is delicate and predicted highs are in the 60s or 70s. Make confident to decide on a products appropriate for use on the form of garden you have.

Atrazine is well-known for controlling great-period weed in St. Augustine and centipede. Atrazine controls a huge selection of interesting time weeds, these types of as dollarweed, clover, oxalis, henbit and chickweed.

Do not use a weed and feed product or service. As opposed to weed handle, garden fertilization is seasonal and is completed at distinct times. We will not utilize fertilizer yet again to our lawns until late March or early April.

I have been observing a great deal of black-and-white moths fluttering about my residence this tumble. Do you know what they are? — Alisha Thomas

They are very likely buck moths, which show up in late November and early December.

The women lay eggs on twigs of reside oaks the place the caterpillars hatch following spring and feed on the leaves. Buck moth caterpillars are ready to supply unpleasant stings if touched and pose a hazard for men and women. There is actually no simple manage that can be finished now.

Use binoculars to very carefully check out reside oak trees in March and early April for masses of the black, spiny buck moth caterpillars.

If you see huge quantities, have your tree sprayed before they occur down the trunk and get all in excess of every thing. They can supply a painful sting to you and your family.

Yard Ideas:

PLANT NOW: Now through early January is the time to plant tulip and hyacinth bulbs stored in your refrigerator for at minimum 6 months.

DEADHEAD TIME: Whenever practical, go on to deadhead neat-period annuals these kinds of as pansies, snapdragons and dianthus to continue to keep them blooming through the spring.

PESTICIDE Servicing: Only use backyard pesticides when the issue has been appropriately discovered and they are totally required. There is no have to have to spray an insecticide, for occasion, each individual time you see a bug or insignificant hurt. When a pesticide is encouraged, generally ask for the minimum harmful product that will do the career.

Find IN On the internet: Commence off the new calendar year with fantastic gardening information and facts. Information and facts on a huge assortment of garden subject areas precisely for Louisiana is available on the LSU Agricultural Heart web page, lsuagcenter.com. Simply click on “Lawn &Garden” or “Get It Escalating.” Or, employing your favored look for engine, variety LSU AgCenter and then whatever plant or gardening subject you want information and facts on.

GARDENING RESOLUTIONS: Select more back garden bouquets for indoor vases demonstrate a baby the miracles of gardening read through a new gardening e-book show up at as many educational gardening chances as doable attempt a new plant appropriate landscape difficulties and faults rather than just living with them subscribe to a gardening magazine keep on top rated of weeding this calendar year.

Backyard garden Estimate

“Good pruning is invisible. It looks as if every thing grew to the correct sizing and stopped.” — Cass Turnbull, writer and founder of Plant Amnesty

Back garden columnist Dan Gill answers readers’ concerns every 7 days. To mail a query, e-mail Gill at gnogardening@agcenter.lsu.edu.