We are already looking ahead to spring. Former disappointments are forgotten, and they should be, except insofar as they keep us from repeating the same mistakes. Soon, the flower catalogs will be arriving.
Although we know very well that we won’t grow all the intriguing things they offer, nor really believe all the glowing descriptions, it’s still pleasant to sit before the fire on a January evening and dream.
Despite many letdowns, growing new and unusual in flowers and vegetables can be an adventure. This year plan to grow some lesser-known annuals and a greater range of vegetables under a variety of conditions. Seedlings will be sent to friends for testing and the resulting information will be passed on to you.
Poinsettia
When all the leaves fall from a poinsettia plant and nothing remains but the red bracts, cease watering, cut the stems to within a foot of the soil and put the plant in a cool, dark place until May.
Then plant it outdoors for the summer. The Christmas begonias, varieties of Begonia socotrana, do not fare very well, but the semperflorens, or bedding type, will thrive. Should the plants become leggy, cut them back.
You will be lucky if your gardenia plants, reared under warm, moist conditions, maintain their foliage in dry, heated rooms. Flowers, if you have any, will be an added attraction. Set these plants outdoors, too, next summer.
African Violets
African violets are successful house plants only when given the proper care and conditions. Lacking these, the plants can be a disappointment.
A native of tropical Africa, the African violet needs a warm temperature but not direct sunshine. An east window seems to be its favorite spot.
Water should be room temperature. Cold water on the foliage causes spots and a low temperature results in brittle leaves. Watering is best done by setting the container in about 2 inches of water until the soil is moist.
The most shapely African violet plants are grown to a single crown, which is formed by the removal of all side shoots as they develop.
Their worst enemy is the cyclamen mite, which can hardly be seen with the naked eye. Their
presence can be suspected if the plants are dwarfed, or if the leaves are small and cupped upward or rolled downward, with areas of the leaf surface covered with dense white hairs.
Flowers are deformed, buds fail to open and finally flowering ceases. Start with clean plants. Then once or twice a week, spray them with Neem Oil 1 teaspoon to a quart of water.
Using a good hand sprayer, throw a fine mistlike spray into the air over the plant, so that the spray settles on the foliage.
If you want to increase African violets by leaf propagation, there are several methods to follow.
Start with mature leaves of healthy plants. Perhaps the simplest way is to cover a glass of water with waxed paper held on by a rubber band; insert the leaf stem through holes punched in the paper so that the end of the stem reaches into the water. Keep the glass in a warm light place.
The tip of a petiole (leaf stem) of a healthy leaf may also be inserted in damp sand or vermiculite until a small plant forms. The leaf stem may then be cut off! above the new plant and rooted again.
Another method is to take a leaf with one inch of stem and insert both stem and leaf base in pure sand or a coarse grade of vermiculite. Water thoroughly to compact the medium around the cutting.
When the cuttings sprout from below the surface, transfer them to flats filled with soil and leafmold. Do not use fertilizer. When the young plants have formed, pot them individually in small pots in a bagged African Violet mix.
Propagating Cuttings
There is no better time for rooting soft cuttings than the first two months of the year, even if you do not have greenhouse facilities.
- Coleus
- Geraniums
- Fuchsias
- Rex Begonias
- Petunias
- Lantanas
… are all favorites.
Cuttings must be made from active growing shoots, not woody or watery ones. The secret of successful propagation lies largely in selecting growth at the proper stage. Don’t use long cuttings – short, stocky growth is better.
Make the cut through a node (where the leaf joins the stem).
Remove the leaves’ from an inch of stem and insert it in moist sand.
Keep the sand moist at all times until roots form.
Now is a good time to study your shrubs and trees with an eye toward winter effects and attracting birds to your garden. Landscaping is generally so much concerned with flowers and foliage effects that all too often the winter picture is not considered because planning and planting are done in the spring, when winter is forgotten.
Worthwhile Shrubs
The range of these attractive shrubs extends from Ontario, Canada, to the Mason-Dixon Line:
- Alternate-leaf dogwood, which is especially attractive to birds
- Green-stemmed and red-stemmed dogwoods
- Cotoneaster horizontalis and C. acutifolia
- Snowberry
- Winged euonymus
- Winterberry or Christmas berry (Ilex verticillata)
- Bayberry, which requires both male and female plants for fruiting
- Inkberry
- Regels privet (Ligustrum obtusifolium regelianum)
- Gray birch and sweetbrier (Rosa eglanteria) are hardy from New England south.
- Trifoliate-orange (poncirus)
- Elaeagnus pungens grow from Philadelphia southward
Winter Protection
Although winter protection was discussed at some length in the November and December Pointers, it must be remembered that in regions around New York City and to the south of it many herbaceous plants need not be covered until January.
Christmas tree branches make excellent covering. They afford the plants protection from sun and wind while permitting some circulation of air so that the crowns and foliage do not stay wet.
Chrysanthemums should be given their final covering now, too. The mildness of an early winter from the previous year can be fatal to many plants. For example, cushion chrysanthemums sprouting in January were caught in a February freeze, where 90% of them were lost.
A slight covering in January might have saved many of them. Late winter is the danger period.
If you have not already made pruning plans, make notes now of the plants which you intend to prune and the amount of cutting and thinning that should be done. Hedges often are too long neglected. After a time they become too wide and too high for efficient shearing.
Those in poor shape can be rejuvenated by hard pruning. This, of course, refers to deciduous, not evergreen, hedges. It matters little where you prune. The objective is either complete rejuvenation, when you can cut back as low as you please, or merely a reduction of the hedge’s dimensions. In either case, a hedge benefits by pruning.
If you have facilities for giving your plants an early start, you can sow som seeds in January. In the North this means having a greenhouse supplemented by cold frames. In other parts of the country an electrically heated hotbed and cold-frames will do.
Sowing seeds indoors at this early date is impractical, if you are thinking of raising annuals. The plants would become unmanageable long before you could put them in a coldframe. You could, however, sow a few seeds of the bedding and tuberous begonias.
Tuberous begonias are more difficult to grow, although both require a high temperature for germination. Do not cover the seeds except with a piece of glass over the container. Just press the dustlike seeds into a moist surface of vermiculite or a mixture of 1/2 sand and 1/2 fine peatmoss.
Coldframes
In many parts of the northern area, coldframes are covered now with a blanket of snow. Just leave them this way. Where there is no snow but extreme cold, you must adjust the protection of your coldframe to what you are growing.
Pansies in a coldframe would be better off with the sash completely covered with hay to simulate a snow blanket. Left uncovered, the interior of the coldframes will heat up during the day to the detriment of the plants at night.
Such a covering may be used in storing stock plants such as chrysanthemums. However, after a spell of wet weather, lift the sash on a dry day and let the interior dry out. Molds may form on plants when conditions are cold and moist and cause serious loss through soft rot.
Greenhouse
Although the greenhouse is a pleasant place to be in January, watering and ventilating your plants require real care. When watering pot plants, use a watering can instead of a hose and give each plant a sufficient amount and no more.
Cinerarias, marguerites, geraniums and primulas will take more water than pelargoniums. Cacti and succulents, of course, take very little. Down-drafts of cold air, due to the sudden opening of a ventilator, may be fatal to many plants and may injure others.
The end of this month will find the season on the turn. Indoor work will increase – repotting, seeding and propagation. Better plan now for your early spring operations, for space, as usual, will be at a premium. Right now you can sow seeds of begonias, periwinkle, Vinca rosea, for summer flowering and snapdragons for early cutting outdoors.
One difficulty you may experience is the damping-off of some of your seedlings. Vermiculite, or the sand and peat moss mixture mentioned above, is a good medium. But since neither of these mixtures contain plant nutrients, seedlings must be transplanted as soon as the true leaf appears (the seed leaves come first).
If you plan to keep them in the sowing medium much longer than this, feed them by dissolving a tablespoonful of a fertilizer such as 5-10-5 in water and applying weekly. Apply the more concentrated fertilizers with more caution. Study the directions for use on each packet.
Get ready for highly successful gardening year!
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