Gardening With Tony

UNITED STATES—Seasonal pruning is just as the terminology implies, seasonal. It might seem as if it all happens in winter. Most of it begins after cooling autumn weather initiates dormancy. Most of it is completed before warming spring weather stimulates vascular activity and resumption of growth. That is why most seasonal pruning is referred to simply as winter pruning....

UNITED STATES—Cool season vegetables will replace warm season vegetables during autumn. Also, cool season annuals will replace warm season annuals. Neither simple task is easy for warm season plants that continue to perform too well to remove. Conversely, some finish early. Autumn annuals may compensate until cool season annuals become more seasonable. Summers here are long, dry and somewhat warm....

UNITED STATES—Crocus, daffodil, hyacinth, tulip, freesia, anemone and ranunculus will not bloom until the end of winter and early spring. They are spring bulbs or early bulbs. Crocus and daffodil, including the various narcissus, will be among the first to bloom. The others as well as a few types of iris will bloom a bit later. After they finish,...

UNITED STATES—Very few arborists in America condone the extreme pruning techniques known as pollarding and coppicing. Both techniques essentially ruin trees, and deprive them of their natural form. Affected trees likely require such procedures to be repeated every few years or annually. Otherwise, they are likely to succumb to resulting structural deficiency. Restoration of such trees is rarely practical. Pollarding...

UNITED STATES—Everyone is from somewhere. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be from California. Most of the various plants in our gardens, even if grown locally, are descendants of plants that were collected from all over the world. Most houseplants are from tropical regions. They perform well as houseplants primarily because they tolerate the sort of partial shade that...

UNITED STATES—Frost was something of a non-issue for some of us this winter. For those of us in milder climates, it rarely is. Those who limit selection of what grows in their gardens to species that are resilient to frost need not be concerned with it. Those of us who enjoy gardening a bit too much are more likely...

UNITED STATES—Wildflowers have been quite a fad. Relative to most fads, they are not so impractical. For some situations, they are a good excuse to waste less effort and resources on unrefined parts of the garden. Of course, they all require some degree of effort and resources. Most are neither as wild nor as natural as their marketing suggests...

UNITED STATES—It might seem like autumn color is a bit early this year. In the wild, where there is no irrigation, native box elders, and maybe some of the cottonwoods and sycamores, are already yellowing. The box elders are already dropping some of their foliage. However, this is not caused by an early chill. It is caused by late...

UNITED STATES—With few exceptions, plants dislike confinement of their roots. They prefer to be in the ground where they can disperse roots freely. Houseplants stay potted because of a lack of other soil inside. Some plants live in pots for portability. Some plants just happen to look good in pots. Plants in hanging planters conform to any combination of...

UNITED STATES—Many popular annual bedding plants have potential to be perennial if they get a chance. Cyclamen commonly perform as a cool season annual, only until replacement with warm season annuals. However, after summer dormancy, their tubers can generate foliage and bloom again for several following winters. Replacement is just easier than maintenance. Real annuals complete their entire life cycles,...