Question.
    What do I do with this GERBERA DAISY? My boss gave it to me for Secretary's Day. It's very pretty but I have no idea if I should plant it outside or what? May I have your advice please?
Kathy

Answer.
    Your Gerbera daisy can be planted into a larger container for the patio, but not in direct sun. Or it can be planted in the open ground where direct sunlight is not a problem. If you live in a frost free zone they can be left out, otherwise they are not frost hardy, having originated in South Africa. Gerbera are beset by many problems, so don't be too hopeful.

Question.
    After using old fish netting and other items for climbing peas and beans I would like to use galvanized chicken wire (will last longer) but I am concerned that the zinc will be a deterrent to the young plants. Is this a problem?

Answer.
    A lot of gardeners use chicken wire without problem. The only snag is clearing the vegetation out of the wire at the end of the season.

Q.
    We live in Grand Rapids, MI and are having a terrible mole problem. Our fertilizing company will spray for grubs in June. Is there anything I can do now to get rid of the moles? We have about 1/2 acre and our neighbors are experiencing the same problem. I am concerned about a lot of poison because I have a small dog. Thank you, Becki

A.
    At the present time there is a worldwide shortage of the poison used for mole control. Farmers are unable to control moles on their land and the moles are expanding into private gardens and parks and causing serious problems. There are various types of traps available at garden and agricultural outlets, some more humane than others, so it's up to you to choose what action you may wish to take.

Q.
    Do you have any suggestions on how to get rid of the roots of creeping fig that are left stuck to your wood after removing the vine?
Gina

A.
    We use an engineers wire brush for such jobs. If a polished surface, a stiff nylon brush may be the answer.

Q.
    About 8 weeks ago, I was given some AMARYLLIS bulbs. I have kept them in a cool environment for 8 weeks and would now like to plant them in my New England garden. I understand that they can bloom again in about six weeks. Can you please give me advice on how to plant them and if you think they will bloom again?
Winnie

A.
    The Dutch hybrids bred mainly for pot culture can make good garden flowers in the South, but not so much in New England. There are garden versions of the amaryllis plant and these are hardier. The bulb as sold in the pot sometimes has a smaller younger bulblet attached to the main bulb, this often flowers later. Plant as you would a daffodil or tulip.

Q.
    Hi,
We have a small back garden that has been used by two dogs as a washroom. What do I need to do to the soil so that it will support healthy plant growth?
Sandy

A.
    Treat your garden with a generous amount of garden lime too purify the soil. If you can obtain it, cow manure or horse manure dug into the soil will will make a rich loam capable of maximum production.

Q.
    Could you tell me how to remove UNWANTED GRASS invading my perennial garden, without having to dig up plants and redo the entire bed?

A.
    You can make up a small amount of any systemic grass killer and paint the solution onto the grasses with a small paintbrush, carefully avoiding your chosen plants.

Q.
    Could you please let me know if there is a substitute for the spray I used to use after I had cut my hedges. It used to slow the growth down a great deal it was called Cutless, they took it off the market for some unknown reason?
Hoping you can help me on this sir. Yours gratefully Mr J.M.

A.
    'Cutless', containing Flurprimidol, along with a large list of other garden chemicals, appears to have been taken off the market because of the medical profession's fears of possible carcinogenic effects. The withdrawal of these chemicals and garden products that contain them, is purely a precautionary measure. I am afraid I do not know of any alternative products to serve your requirements.

Q.
    Hello and hope you have an answer to our problem . . . we have two beautiful and healthy HONEYSUCKLE VINES that we planted on the trellis fence several years ago. It blooms prolifically all during g the summer, bright green leaves but the problem is that it reaches to the trees or anything else nearby. In the fall we were going to trim back some of the 'fingers' but the leaves were still green.

Now that it's Spring we trimmed a big bunch off in hopes that we didn't kill the poor thing as it's hard to see dead wood from green. When is the proper time to try and control this beautiful vine or should we just let it go and go?

Second question is with our snowball bush . . .we took a cutting from a huge bush, placed it in the ground and it took off . . .. It's huge now with lots of flowers. Should I have cut it back last fall or now in the spring? The dried flowers lasted on the bush all winter but does this affect the new growth?

Our WISTERIA vine is healthy but no blooms even though we have planted another vine in hopes we now have male and female. We try to control it from climbing nearby trees by training it on ropes in between support. We heard you shouldn't fertilize the vine but it gets plenty of water.
Thanks for listening and any advice would be appreciated. Enjoy your spring, BJ

A.
    Honeysuckle is usually trimmed in the fall after the seeds have ripened; there is always some fresh growth up to the frost, best to trim to a general good shape.

Your SNOWBALL BUSH, it is usual to trim to a neat shape to stop the possibility of wayward branches, heavy with flowers, splitting the tree open. The seed heads are not a problem, but can be trimmed off if you desire.

Wisterias are a law unto themselves and will flower when they want to. One point here, the blue wisteria is grafted on to the rootstock of a white wisteria. Sometimes shoots from the white root appear at the base below the graft and quickly kill off the blue by outgrowing it. This white variety is very vigorous and rarely flowers.

There is also a rampant non-flowering version that is banned in some warm zones of the U S A.

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Question.
    About four years ago, we planted nearly 30 Nellie R. Stevens HOLLY TREES to border/hedge a portion of our property. We chose this particular tree because everything that I read stated these are the fastest growers in the south.

Are the leaves supposed to turn yellow? Not all the leaves but quite a number of them have yellowed and fallen off. Also, do we need to do anything to encourage dense growth within the individual trees? These seem to be airy and not very dense. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Connie.

Answer.
    Holly has very fine roots that sometimes have difficulty taking hold in certain soils.

I suggest spreading a generous amount of garden peat around each bush, lightly forked into the soil. Also yellowing leaves would suggest an acid soil, correct this with a generous amount of garden lime (powdered). You can affect this remedy immediately.

Question.
    Hi...recently I transplanted a hibiscus tree and now it is looking saggy and the leaves are yellowing. I live in southern Florida. The temperature is hovering to 90 and I have been watering the tree daily for about 30-45 minutes slowly running the water into the soil.

Am I overwatering/underwatering? Is there some food I can give it? I really don't want it to die. Thanks for any help.

Answer.
    HIBISCUS always suffers transplanting shock and the leaves go yellow. In colder areas the hibiscus is grown outside in large pots, then moved indoors, still in the pot, for the winter. This yellowing of leaves almost always occurs from the shock of the move.

New buds should appear where the yellow leaves have been. It is best to water at night, watering in the day the water travels through the plant and evaporates, at night the water builds up in the plant, and encourages root growth. Feed with a general purpose fertiliser, but wait until the plant has established itself.

Q.
    All my perennials are beginning to sprout. Should I be putting something on them now to encourage good blooming? Not sure what and when to apply. I have tons of lilies, daisies, sedum, veronica, ornamental grasses and hydrangeas. Thank you for assistance and for any advice you may be able to give me.

A.
    For your PERENNIALS feed now, use a low nitrogen, high potash, high phosphate, fertiliser; this encourages flower growth without too much leaf growth. Feed again in late summer with the same mixture to build a strong root system for winter.

Q.
    I'm looking for some new ideas in planting my WINDOW BOXES. I am located in Long Island and in need of some designing ideas of different flowers that look good together. Something with some height in the background with a very overflowing look. Any suggestions?

A.
    Suggested plants for window boxes. Upright geraniums, double begonias and antirrhinum nicotiana, for the back. Salvia, nemesia, impatiens, fibrous begonias, upright petunias, ageratum, F1 hybrid marigolds, for the centre. Trailing lobelia, trailing petunias, trailing begonias, trailing geraniums, million bells, surfinia, trailing verbena, trailing antirrhinum, trailing helichrysum, trailing sweet pea, nepeta, diascia, variegated ivy and even trailing tomatoes, for the front.

Q.
    My cordilyn is about 12 feet tall and just about to flower, will it die after it does?

A.
    Cordylines live for many years and I have not heard of them dying after flowering. Severe frost will kill them.

Q.
    Can you suggest what plants I can grow in CONTAINERS IN MY FRONT PORCH? It is VERY hot in there in the summer as it is in full sun most of the day. Helen

A.
    Some plants worth considering. Upright and trailing geraniums, fibrous begonias, double begonias, trailing begonias, impatiens, golden and silver helichrysum, swan river daisy, gazania, dwarf sunflowers. I would advise investing in an automatic watering system if you are away at work all day. These are quite cheap to buy, easily installed and are widely available at garden outlets.

Q.
    I don't get it. I have lived in my home in northern Idaho for 5 years. When I moved in there were no TULIPS on the property. I have planted various tulip patches, mostly in pinks and purples. A couple years back I notice some red tulips and some yellow tulips appearing.

At first, I just thought they may have been old bulbs that were for some reason dormant and had been "stirred up" by my planting, but each year more and more red and yellow are appearing and less and less of the colors I planted. Are my tulips changing colour? I planted three tulips in a certain corner of the garden and they were supposed to be a pale greenish white flower, which the first season they were, now this year all three are yellow!! I don't get it. Is it some sort of pollinating thing or what?

A.
    Your tulips are almost certainly cross breeding and seeding down, the young tulips slowly reverting to basic colours. Some tulips can change colour due to eelworm attack, eelworm is endemic in some soils. If you don't want other colours to appear, remove and destroy the seed heads after flowering.

Q.
    I live in central Florida and have 2 sweet VIBURNUM next to each other. They both looked healthy and were flowering when we arrived here in March. After flowering I pruned them somewhat as we hadn't been here in months and they were too big. Now one still looks healthy but the other has droopy looking leaves and many are turning red/yellow and falling off. I have tried extra water and Miracle Gro with no success. Can you tell me what may be wrong?

A.
    I would say that you have been too heavy handed with the chopper, always prune lightly you can always prune again later. The plant should recover in time, but not guaranteed, meanwhile apply some garden lime too sweeten the soil and some magnesium sulphate (Epsom Salts) to release vital minerals in the soil. Also a mulch of peat or garden compost around the stem to keep the roots damp and protected from the sun, while the plant, hopefully, recovers.

Q.
    I have several CLEMATIS armandii growing on a north lattice fence that gets decent light (lots of other stuff grows in this part of the garden) and my 3 plants are growing well.

However, I seem to have the unfortunate luck of breaking the growing tip off each time I try to train a stem to turn a corner and loop back over the lattice. Will the stems sprout from another point? Have I damaged the plant or just encouraged bushier growth? At this point, I'd like to get lots of length to cover the lattice. The plants have been in the ground since last September and I'm wondering if I will I get more growth this summer? Any tips on training armandii?
Thanks in advance. Dave

A.
    I would suggest tacking some chicken wire on to the lattice; the clematis will be able to wrap itself round this wire much more easily, rather than the awkward shape of the lattice. Breaking off the growing tips will not have damaged the plant, but it will produce bushy growth, not what you want.

Q.
    Hello my name is Rick.
I have a VENUS FLY TRAP; it recently sprouted a long stem with some type of pods on top. Is it ready to reproduce, if so how do I go about this? Thank you Rick

A.
    The Venus Fly Trap does produce flowers on a stem much higher than the traps, these flowers are fertilised by small insects which never fly low enough the be caught in the traps. If seed are produced, which is unlikely in the house, they must be sown immediately after maturity, on wet sphagnum moss. Not really worth the effort, but may be a bit of fun if you wish. The bulb of Venus Fly Trap divide into two or more plants over time, if you have more than seven leaves you are likely to have more than one plant.

Q.
    Dear Sir/Madam, Now that my tulips have lost their petals, they have gone straggly and generally makes my borders look messy. What is the best way to get rid of the unsightly stems? Is it safe to cut them down? Or should I tie them up with string? Or will they die off naturally? Also, the same question to Hyacinths. Should I cut down the stems and leaves? I look forward to your reply. Yours sincerely, Aimee

A.
    Both tulips and hyacinths, cut off the flower stem straight after flowering but not the leaves, cutting off the flower stem stops seed production and allows the plant to concentrate on growing next years flower bud within the bulb, from the suns energy stored in the leaves.

Q.
    Our local garden shop has thousands of fancy garden pots of all sizes and it says on a sign that they are frost proof. Aren't all garden pots frost proof?

A.
    There was some trouble a few years ago with pots imported from countries with a warm winter climate crumbling after a hard winter. This was ignorance on the part of the producers not deceit and since the problem came too light all garden pot producers have a range of frost proof ware in addition too the original specification. So if it says frost proof this is the reason, if you are in a frost-free area the original and much lighter type are quite satisfactory.

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