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Greetings!

I hope each of you had your Holiday Wishes come true. If Santa didn't bring exactly what you asked for, you may be able to pick up some bargains now. Check on your gardening equipment needs for the spring season. This may be just the right time to pick up items that will make your spring gardening chores easier to handle this year.

Spring is just around the corner; many "Coastal Gardeners" will be putting out early spring gardens now and preparing other garden spots for a later planting date. You will find in this issue items related to the best time to plant many of your favorite plants and a listing of gardening chores for January. So, button up for cold weather and look for days that you can get outside comfortably to work on some of your plans for the coming spring. Even if the weather doesn't cooperate, there are still chores that can be performed inside.

Don't forget the plants that have been brought in to rest. Keep them watered (moist to touch) and provide them with enough light to continue their growth. Avoid cold or hot air drafts.

Tips for Planting Early Gardens

January is a good time to get an early start on gardening. Coastal Gardeners can plant peas, sugar snaps, onion seeds, head lettuce, carrots and other early vegetables.

Sometimes plants like tomatoes and eggplant can be started in a greenhouse or cold frame, also melons, okra, squash and cucumbers. Use peat or plastic containers to sow your seeds; use a good sterilized greenhouse potting medium; and seed the containers 4 -6 weeks prior to the desired transplanting date. Use only fresh, new 2006 packaged seeds. It is not always a good idea to save seed from last year, particularly hybrid seed; they will lose vigor or may produce plants not true to type. Purchase high quality seed from reputable dealers and garden centers. Request varieties that grow well in your area and select varieties that have resistance to major diseases such as rust or nematodes.

8 Reasons Trees and Shrubs Fail to Flower:

Many trees and shrubs are selected because of their flowering habit and it can be discouraging when they fail to bloom. It is often difficult to pinpoint the cause of the plant's failure to bloom; however, here are some possibilities.

1. The plant was placed in a too-shady location.
2. There is excessive competition from adjacent shrub or tree roots.
3. Plants are planted too deep, preventing flower bud set, and possibly preventing plant survival.
4. The flower buds were pruned away - this is possible if the plant was pruned at the wrong time of year.
5. Excessive sucker growth is reducing or limiting flowering.
6. Some trees don't flower until they reach a certain age; they need time to develop their root system before setting flower buds.
7. Sometimes flower buds are killed by extremely low winter temperatures or a late frost.
8. Sometimes you need to look at the soil chemistry to determine why plants are not flowering.

There is more detail on each of these points on the web site.

January Gardening Chores

• Enroll in classes! Read and study up on ideas you want to achieve this year. Include your New Year's Gardening Resolutions... Thou Shalt Not...
• Continue to plant spring flowering bulbs.
• Think water garden and have it ready for spring. There are numerous sources of information and construction materials for these projects. Garden centers and mass merchandising garden stores handle pool liners, pumps and aquatic plants.
• Continue planting container grown ornamentals. Be sure to loosen the roots and the media before backfilling. For slightly pot-bound roots, cut on 3-4 sides, shake the roots and media to a loose condition and then plant.
• Plant fruit trees. The 2006 seed and nursery catalogs have already started arriving; this will trigger spring fever for many gardeners. We have a "Fruits for the Southeast" handout that provides the best alternatives to those beautiful apples and pears on the cover of the gardening magazines. You can grow apples here, but I would not encourage anyone to go into wholesale commercial apple production just yet.
• Add lime according to soil test recommendations. For best results in home landscapes, till the lime into the rootzone area for whatever plant you intend to grow. Surface applied lime reacts very slowly and not as completely as lime mixed into the soil. The sooner lime is applied in the winter, the more ready you'll be for spring planting.
• Ornamental Grass tops should be cut back now. On old, established clumps, prune back to 2' or so and simply tip back younger planting to remove the brown foliage.
• Rake and discard fallen leaves around rose bushes, as many disease organisms persist through the winter. Covering them with new mulch will not solve your disease problems.
• Pansies are by far the most popular winter landscape annual. Deadhead periodically to ensure more blooms. During active growth in the spring, fertilize them about once a month. A dilute liquid feed of 5:10:10 or 5:10:30 will keep them going and growing.
• Be prepared just on the chance there may actually be some more winter weather ahead. Don't let unseasonably mild temperatures dictate what you do in the landscape.
• Poinsettias' keeping quality depends on several factors. Many home gardeners have no problem keeping a poinsettia attractive through the winter, but bringing it into "flower" in subsequent years is a challenge for the best of gardeners. They are still considered actively growing and will need water, sunlight and fertilizing through February.

Yellow Azalea Leaves

During the past few weeks, calls have been routed to me from folks with landscape questions. Perhaps the most common has been "Why are the leaves on my azaleas turning bright yellow and dropping off?" followed by "What can I do about it?"

No leaf lasts forever. If the leaves turning yellow and falling off are older, i.e., further down the stem, then what you are seeing is probably normal and nothing needs to be done.

Some varieties - such as Delaware Valley Whit and Glacier - have a parent that is classified as semi-deciduous, they are more prone to leaf drop. Some cultivars have leaves that turn pink or red before they drop. Still others may have leaves that turn reddish before falling. This is normal.

There are many reasons for azaleas to have discolored leaves and to possibly see an unusual amount of leaf drop over the winter. These reasons include: drought stress, root injury from flooding or drought, too much fertilizer, voles, insects, disease and fertilizer imbalances among other things. But, the prominent coloring of leaves in the fall in most landscapes is usually nothing to worry about and no corrective measures need to be taken.


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