Some recent questions and answers taken from other pages on this site.   
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Q. IMPATIENS: Hello, I live in Fremont, CA. I got some Impatiens about 10 days back and I planted about 6 each in 2 window boxes. My first question is how much of sunlight do they require? My patio gets about 6 hrs of sunlight from 9am-2: 30pm. whenever I leave them in the sun they seem to be drooping. Also a couple of them died. Can I take them out and plant new ones? Also how much water do they need? I saw some of them at the store and had so many flowers. How do I keep the plant flowering all the time? PETUNIAS: Regarding Petunias, my question is I got a jumbo pack and just transferred each of them to a bigger pot. As I was transferring I noticed that the roots seem to be tangled in one and other's. Some of them snapped even though I separated them gently. Will this cause any harm to the plant? Also I gave them Miracle Gro after some time. Is that ok? I also got one in Ultra Blue. That doesn't seem to be doing well. Although I treat all of them the same. BEGONIA X TUBERHYBRIDA: I just got a yellow one recently. How long do they bloom and also do they come back next year? Please do advice me on these. Thank you very much. A. Impatiens love water, they also like feed, they like slight shade so your sunlight pattern should suit them. Take out the dead ones and replant; the new plants will soon catch up. Your petunias should have suffered no harm over the roots, some colors of petunias display weak growth at first. Feed well and watch for aphids and snails, major pests on petunias. Your begonia dies down to a tuber, which can be saved for next year. Q. I have beautiful CLEMATIS in the front of my home and would love to start another one. I noticed a small shoot growing at the base of the plant but I'm not sure if I'd get any roots if I tried digging it up. Seems like it is attached to the root of the "mother" plant. This clematis blooms in early June and is pretty much done blooming. My home is located in Minneapolis and I believe we are Zone 3 0r 4. We live close to downtown so I think we tend to stay warmer than the rest of southern Minnesota. Thanks for any advice you can give me. A. Most clematis are grafted onto a more vigorous rootstock, which is more disease resistant. The shoot to which you refer could be from the rootstock and if rooted would not give a satisfactory flower. Indeed these shoots should be taken off or they will overwhelm the chosen plant. If you wish to root a new plant, find a long new shoot slightly further up the plant and carefully bring the tip down to the ground and peg it down with a u shaped piece of wire about a foot from the tip. Cover the wire with a small mound of soil and by autumn you will have a new rooted plant, which you can then sever from the main plant Q. What is the correct way to trim a Rhododendron? I don't want mine to get huge and out of hand. A. Pruning rhododendron. The job must be done now; June. leave any longer and you will destroy next year's flowers. If you want a rhododendron or azalea to be shorter next year or stay the same height, don't preserve the tip growth on the tallest branches. Clip into the old wood, eight or 12 inches shorter than you want that branch to be next year. Then water well and fertilize. New branches will pop out from the leafless wood. Q. I have three KUSA DOGWOOD tree/bushes that were planted at the edge of a paved patio in the fall of 2000. The first spring they were absolutely lovely with plenty of flowers. AT the end of last summer, they were beginning to look "tired" - kind of thirsty. I had a landscaper look at them and he told me they were fine. This spring there were not as many flowers but they remained healthy looking until the summer rolled in. Now they look as though each leaf is burned on the edges. I've looked closely at the leaves to see if there is some kind of tiny bug on it. The leaves do not look eaten by bugs and I don't see anything on them. My landscaper told me water them once a week with a trickle from a hose for 15 minutes. I've been doing that and still the leaves look burned at the edges. Any idea? Also, in the centre of my patio is a Japanese split leaf maple that was also flourishing until this summer. Now the new growth comes out bright red and then it turns to green. This tree is no longer a red maple but an ugly green one. What should I do? A. The dogwood tree is a forest floor tree and needs this type of damp shaded condition replicated. Spread a generous amount of garden peat around each plant, and then keep this peat wet. Also feed with a high nitrogen fertiliser plus iron additive. In the wild, dogwoods have developed a symbiotic relationship with the Mycorrhizal fungi, which provides the tree with vital minerals, planted in the garden this fungi is missing. This fungi is available at garden outlets or by mail. Try feeding your maple with garden lime and a tablespoonful of Epsom salts. It sounds as if the soil is too acid. Q. My neighbour is doing massive re-landscaping. A lot of soil is being hauled away. It stinks! Despite the removal of so much soil, all around the perimeter of the house and in the atrium there is a very unpleasant odour from the soil that's left. I can even smell it next door. What can be the cause, and what remedies are there? Thanks! A. This smell could possibly be rotted vegetation and other rubbish buried on a previous landscape job being exposed to the air. If this is the case a good shower of rain should fix it. Q. Hi.... Can you please tell me why all of my Geranium Plants have not bloomed at all this summer? They are all very hardy growing, with good green leaves, but not one Bloom in sight!! They are potted in containers, both indoors and outside in window boxes, fed organically with worm compost..Please help!!!Thanks Philip A. This sounds like too much nitrogen in the soil. Try a high potash low nitrogen fertiliser. Bone meal is excellent if organic. Q. Hello, I live in Washington State and love your website. I have a large yard and it is wooded. I have cedar trees and pine trees. I want to plant flowers and bushes in amongst these. What do you suggest would be good to grow? It is also mostly shaded. I would also like to know if it is okay to make a bench planter around a tree and fill it with soil to put plants in. would it kill the tree if the soil is up high on it? A. Suitable plants for your purpose are as follows; Vinca, Ferns, Gentian, Primrose, Smilacina, Omphalodes, Ajuga, Astilbe, Heuchera, Pulmanaria, Violas. Hosta. Heather's, Ivy, Kalmia, Hamamelis, Pieris, Hydrangea, Rhododendron, Iris, Foxgloves, Lilies. A tree has a defined water line, a certain distance above the ground, corresponding to capillary action. Piling soil above the root level will interfere with the plant's growing system and kill it. Q. My husband has been given a Calamondin plant and it had no instructions with it. We do not know how to care for it and we do not know whether the oranges are edible. Can you help? A. Calamondin need warmth and light plus an acid soil and must be fed with an acid fertiliser as for azaleas, heather's, etc. if you re-pot use a mixture of peat and sandy soil. A yearly application of a tablespoonful of Epsom salts will correct magnesium deficiency, which is a major cause of yellowing leaves and fruit drop. Spider mites, mealy bugs and scale insects are major pests. Place an insect sticky trap, widely available, within the plant foliage to catch them. The fruit is used in oriental cooking, where some other disciplines would use lemons or limes. Q. I have a Willow tree in a large pot, but its leaves have turned brown and fallen off twice this year. It happened once last year so it went into a bigger pot, is this normal? A. Willow need vast amounts of water, in the wild, willows shed their leaves and grow new ones according to the level of the water table. Also willow is host to many pests, which hit the tree from time to time but are rarely fatal. So nothing to worry about, remember regular water is needed. Q. Dear Gardener, I normally have a black thumb, but I received a Philodendron for Christmas and it was flourishing. I recently had back surgery and it's care was left up to my husband...big no-no. He left it outside overnight about 3 months ago and the temperature reached about 50 degrees. It survived but ever since then a few of the leaves are partially brown and wilted. I thought they would fall off or something but nothing has happened. Should I remove the affected leaves? If so, how should I do it? The major problems the leaves are causing are purely cosmetic. I just used to have a beautiful plant and I want it back that way. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated. Someone told me that it may be a 'heartleaf' philodendron, but I am unsure of that. Thanks so much. Nikki A. You should carefully clip off the brown leaves, while doing so check for red spider mite, these tiny mites cause leaves to go brown on exotics. Sprays are available. Philodendrons should be treated like rubber plants, never moved, kept warm and damp and the leaves cleaned occasionally. Some people use water, some use milk, or you can find a branded leaf cleaner at your garden outlet.

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