May Bursts into Bloom
After months of pondering and planning, followed by the April campaign of digging, cleaning, and pruning, which set winter-lazy muscles protesting, we find ourselves thrilling anew to the full glory of color, fresh fragrance, and abundant bloom that is Maytime in the garden.
Learn By Seeing
Now comes the unrivaled opportunity to see, appreciate and learn, not only from our own and other people’s gardens, but also from arboretums, test gardens, nurseries, and seasonal flower show where time-tried and novelty varieties alike bear their proper labels.
The month is for comparisons and copious notes on blooming dates, color combinations, and plant groupings of all the ornamental flowering trees and shrubs, bulbs, and early perennials.
Care Justifies The Price
But with all this knowledge-getting, we must be sure to see that any new hardy plants selected receive their due prompt attention and care if they are to repay us for their purchase price with garden beauty.
Packages should be opened upon receipt, and the contents checked for the possible omission, damage, or poor condition, which ought to be reported immediately.
Those plants that pass inspection may be planted in previously prepared locations.
If the bed is not ready, they should be set separately into a temporary spot to keep them moist and fresh until planted permanently.
Wilted plants will revive after several days in such a place if well watered.
Also, shading for a short time under overturned berry baskets, or the like, will help to give young plants a better start under strong sun.
Time and Thought Tell
Trees and shrubs, especially those starting into leaf and blossom, should be balled, burlapped, and hardened off in the cool shed of the nursery before being delivered.
If perchance, carried in your car or truck, these plants need protection en route from hot, whipping winds and bright sun, although some fresh air is necessary through a window lowered a little or a trunk cover slightly ajar.
Naturally, care in packing and handling pays dividends in protecting the shape of the specimens chosen.
They appreciate an all-over syringing and prompt planting in ample, well-prepared places upon arrival.
A good watering then and repeatedly in long drinks through the first year will assist these newcomers in establishing themselves sturdily in your garden.
Plants that stand around for days, then are stuffed into cramped quarters and forgotten can never do themselves or the catalogs justice.
For The Sake Of Appearances
Here are some of the tips you can do:
- Pick faded blooms of pansies to encourage new ones.
- Clip the tops of edging plants like arabis, anchusa, and aubrieta for new growth and a second flower crop.
- Cut last year’s lilac heads to enjoy the beauty of this season’s blossoms.
- Partly prune Spring flowering shrubs now to get the added value of blooming branches in flower arrangements.
- Make dull corners bright by planting tuberous begonias, primulinus gladioli, annual dahlias, cannas, caladiums, tuberoses, summer hyacinths, and montbretias for the summer effect.
- Pin down, braid, or bend out of sight the yellowing foliage of bulbs past bloom in the perennial border and seed the bare spots with phlox drummondi, California poppies, sweet alyssum, portulaca, verbena, or candytuft, according to color scheme.
To Keep The Garden Healthy
Follow these steps:
- Conquer Iacebug on rhododendrons, azaleas, and pieris in early June by spraying the undersides of leaves with one and one-half teaspoons nicotine sulfate and one ounce of soap per gallon of water, applying later sprays if control is not complete.
- Rid plants of lice, or aphids, using pyrethrum, a malathion, or neem oil preparation. Be sure to hit the pests and smother them, as they can’t be poisoned.
- Dust or spray roses early to head off mildew and blackspot attacks.
- Discourage the hatching of oyster shell scale on lilacs the last of the month by applying a neem-soap spray.