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Dear Berta:
will you be trying to grow Purple Perilla this year? I was late
ordering seeds and am considering not ordering the seeds. I
suspect old seeds will be harder to germinate that fresh! (I
bought a heat mat for starting seeds so am using it on old seeds
but there is no sign of life!
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In live in Mesa, AZ
and wonder how do you plant cucumbers in trays? Do you use the
vacuum method of seeding your trays? Thanks.
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I am anxious to start
my flower garden again this year, last year was my first time
planting. It seemed to grow good in every spot, except the area
closest to the house seemed to produce no results. Do you know why
that is? I really do not know a thing about gardening or planting
and I want to start getting rid of last years stuff and start
preparing the soil for this year. Could you recommend any tips I can
use for preparing my soil this spring so that it will be in the best
shape for growing and producing great flowers? We basically get sun
in our yard all day long so it tends to get rather hot & dry in the
summer. I'm in Wetaskiwin & plan on coming out to see Arber
greenhouse soon. Thanks for your help!
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Our property seems to
be built on an anthill. I have been told that rancid margarine
might work to get rid of the ants and other garden pests. What can
you suggest.
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I
have two Hoyas, both healthy, but neither one blooms. One is full, maybe
18 inches across and hanging down about three feet. It is several years
old and when I inherited it three years ago it had one dried flower. The
younger Hoya is only three years old and is a combination of two Hoyas,
both from cuttings of blooming plants. I have tried different locations
in the house, but all I get is new growth.
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We
planted grape vines (this is the third year) and have not pruned
them at all. They grow well and produce some fruit. When is the best
time to prune them and how far back should they be cut.
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Hi
Berta, My school is looking to purchase a 8- 10 foot flowering
deciduous tree. We would like for it to be purely ornamental ( no
fruit, suckers etc.) Is there one that you can recommend? Also if
you could give me the cost. We're also looking for 2- 4 foot spruce
replacement trees. Cost for those as well. We're also hoping that
because they're being purchased for a school we may be able to
obtain a discount of some kind. Thank you in advance for your help.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Q. We planted grape vines (this is the third year) and have not pruned
them at all. They grow well and produce some fruit. When is the best
time to prune them and how far back should they be cut?
Grape vines: There are now 2 or 3 very hardy grapes
for our climate and yours at 3 years should be starting to produce
well. Look at your vine now and try to determine any winterkill on
the smaller 'branches' and trim them back. You can also, at this
time, trim some of the side vines to keep the plant manageable,
leaving the main vine alone. Most of the fruit clusters set fairly
close to the main vine.
Enjoy a great crop this season!
Q. I have two Hoyas, both healthy, but neither one blooms. One is full,
maybe 18 inches across and hanging down about three feet. It is several
years old and when I inherited it three years ago it had one dried
flower. The younger Hoya is only three years old and is a combination of
two Hoyas, both from cuttings of blooming plants. I have tried different
locations in the house, but all I get is new growth.
Hoya plants: Hoyas have such lovely and
fragrant waxy flowers but sometimes they are reluctant to bloom.
Often it is a case of you being too kind. Hoya plants like to be
quite pot bound and take care to allow them to dry out very well
between waterings. Fertilize once a month between March and
October; they use very little fertilizer during our short winter
days. They like a bright area but do not require direct light.
I know of one customer who claimed that her hoya
would bloom only if it was growing up (as on a trellis or on a
hoop). I'm not sure of the science of this but it may be worth a
try. Also the flowers come on the newer growth so don't cut your
plant back very often. Good luck!
Q. Our property
seems to be built on an anthill. I have been told that rancid
margarine might work to get rid of the ants and other garden pests. What
can you suggest.
Ants/Deterrents:
Your question regarding the use of 'bad'
margarine to deter ants - this is a new one to me! However, here are
some of my thoughts. There are ants that are attracted to fat while
others are attracted to sugar. That is why some homemade ant baits
suggest using both a fat and sugar as an attractant. Most margarines
have preservatives in them that greatly slow down the rancidity process
so it may take a long time for you to have margarine that is 'bad'
enough to repel insects or mice.
Here are a couple homemade deterrents:
you can make an ant bait in a yogurt type container by mixing icing
sugar with borax and create little ant doors in the container.
An organic commercial product that helps
greatly with ants are products using diatamaceous earth as an active
ingredient. We have also had good feedback from customers on house and
garden type residual sprays.
Mice Deterrents: For mice an effective way to use mouse
bait is to put it in something like a 2" PVC pipe or similar. Mice like
to go into safe places and quietly eat. A few of these placed around
the property line greatly reduces the population. This is a technique
used by tree nurseries to control the mice in their growing fields.
I hope this helps with your pest
problem.
Q. My school is looking to purchase a 8- 10 foot flowering deciduous
tree. We would like for it to be purely ornamental ( no fruit, suckers
etc.) Is there one that you can recommend? Also if you could give me the
cost. We're also looking for 2- 4 foot spruce replacement trees. Cost
for those as well. We're also hoping that because they're being
purchased for a school we may be able to obtain a discount of some kind.
Small Flowering Tree: There are very few
flowering trees that are between 8 and 10 foot in height. For a
single stem tree there are grafted varieties such as lilacs that are
grafted on to a trunk and don't grow beyond 8 to 10. These are
somewhat costly compared with other trees, and for a school yard are
perhaps on the riskier side. There are a number of flowering shrubs
at the appropriate height including lilacs, nannyberries, double
flowering plums or viburnums, as examples. Most shrubs are
available in 2 gal. pots and our 2008 prices are $26.99. We can
offer a 15% discount for the school.
Spruce Tree: We carry very few spruce
but if you order early enough we can sometimes arrange a special
order - the cost in 2008 (if available) would be about $28.00 for a
white spruce in a 5 gal. container and about 4' tall or in a 2 gal.
container and about 2" tall for $16.00.
Hope this gives you some guidelines.
Q.
I am anxious
to start my flower garden again this year, last year was my first time
planting. It seemed to grow good in every spot, except the area closest
to the house seemed to produce no results. Do you know why that is?
I really do not know a thing about
gardening or planting and I want to start getting rid of last years
stuff and start preparing the soil for this year. Could you recommend
any tips I can use for preparing my soil this spring so that it will be
in the best shape for growing and producing great flowers? We basically
get sun in our yard all day long so it tends to get rather hot & dry in
the summer. I'm in Wetaskiwin & plan on coming out to see Arber
greenhouse soon. Thanks for your help!
Regarding your question about the area near your
house that did not perform well for your plants. The first thing
that comes to mind is too little light, however you indicated that
your entire yard has good sunlight.
So, let's look at
soil conditions; here are a few
thoughts:
- often the soil close to a house still has a high
proportion of poor soil remaining from the digging of the basement.
Many contractors don't put a good thick layer of quality topsoil for
gardens and lawns.
- if there has been work done on the house such as parging, the soil may be contaminated.
I suggest that you dig a spade depth of soil and have
a good look at it and feel it to check for good organic matter. If
there is a high amount of clay or foreign matter dig in compost,
peat moss or rotted manure to improve the health of the soil. Another thought is that if is under the eaves it may
not be receiving adequate rain water.
Hope these thoughts help you to diagnose the problem.
Q. In live in Mesa, AZ
and wonder how do you plant cucumbers in trays? Do you use the
vacuum method of seeding your trays? Thanks.
Hello in
Arizona!
Regarding your
question about how we plant our cucumbers - yes, we
do plant cucumbers in packs ready for transplant. Since it
is not a very large number that we do we just plant them by
hand using a vibra seeder. We retail all our bedding plants
so we plant only what we expect will meet our customers
needs.
Otherwise the
majority of our planting is with a mechanical air seeder.
We used to use a vacuum seeder but find the air seeder more
versitile, faster an more accurate.
I hope this
answers your question.
Q.
Dear Berta:
will you be trying to grow Purple Perilla this year? I
was late ordering seeds and am considering not ordering
the seeds. I suspect old seeds will be harder to
germinate than fresh! (I bought a heat mat for starting
seeds so am using it on old seeds but there is no sign
of life!
Hi Linacr e,
Thanks
for your email. We have tried growing Perilla from
seed in the past but find that the germination tends
to be poor. Last year we started Tri-colour Perilla
from cuttings and found that they performed very
well. Though these are a beautiful ornamental plant
they are also edible. We have the cuttings started
and they look great -they will be available soon and
for sale in a 4" pot.
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