February 2002

Ornamental

Buy miniature red rose plants for Valentine's Day. They can be planted outside later and are much cheaper than a dozen red roses.

Watch for signs of growth in early spring bulbs. When foliage is one inch high gradually start removing mulch. Cloudy days are best for the initial exposure of leaves.

Don't remove mulch from perennials too early. A warm day may make you think spring is almost here, but there may be cold weather to come.

Prune summer flowering trees and shrubs. Do not prune spring flowering shrubs until after flowering. Call for a spring pruning guide.

Force spirea, dogwood, cherry, pussy willow, forsythia, flowering quince into flower. Cut branches that have plump buds. With a sharp knife split the cut end one to four inches. Place cut branches in containers of warm water and recut one inch from base of stem. It will take one to eight weeks for blossoms to open. The closer to their natural bloom time you cut the branches, the sooner they will bloom.

Water evergreens if soil is dry and not frozen.

Start geraniums, begonias and impatiens from seeds.

Dormant oil can be applied to ornamental trees and shrubs to kill scale insects and overwintering insect eggs if temperatures will be above freezing.

Build a wooden sunflower frame. Call for plans and step-by-step directions.

Edible

Build a cold frame and plant lettuce. Call for "Building Coldframe" factsheet and free lettuce seeds.

Start vegetables indoors. Most vegetables need to be started at least six weeks ahead of the expected planting date. Allow eight weeks for slower growing vegetables like tomatoes and peppers. Call for seed starting guide.

Use cool-white fluorescent bulbs for growing seedlings. The bulbs are brighter at the middle than the ends. Rotate plants regularly.

Chart your future vegetable garden on graph paper, rotating crops from last year to avoid insects and disease. Plan your vegetable garden around the date of your family vacation. Choose planting dates and varieties carefully, so your garden wonít be ready for full harvest when you are out of town.

To get potatoes to mature three weeks early, put the seed potatoes through the chitting process. Chitting is the green sprouting of seed potatoes for quicker rooting and earlier maturity. Place the seed potatoes in full sunlight or under fluorescent lights three weeks prior to planting.

Grow attractive foliage houseplants from citrus seeds such as grapefruit, lemon & orange.

Indoors

Wash the dust off houseplants. This allows the leaves to gather light more efficiently and will result in better growth.

Allow tap water to warm to room temperature before watering houseplants.