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| Q. What can I do about bloom drop on
my gardenias? |
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A. It’s hard
to resist a gardenia for its incredible fragrant and lustrous flowers,
but it can be tough to grow in Austin. Many things contribute to
rot and bloom drop.
Too much moisture causes a fungus that rots the flowers. Watch
the water and avoid wetting the foliage.
Too dry or too wet causes both gardenias and hibiscus to drop their
flowers. It’s the same thing with fertilizer—too much
or conversely too little—contributes to the problem. Find
a happy compromise to water and food. Some gardeners feed half strength
with each watering.
Finally, thrips can be feeding inside the flowers, causing the
edges to turn brown or not open at all. Horticultural oil or a Neem
product can help.
Generally you’ll have better success with gardenias if you
plant them in containers with a rose-type soil. When it comes to
hibiscus, the double flowered varieties seem to be more prone to
bloom drop problems.
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<<view past Questions of the Week |
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 Batface
Cuphea (Cuphea llavea)
Native to Mexico, batface cuphea does very well here as an annual.
The flowers are tiny brilliant spots of color that resemble
a bat’s face. Its prostrate growth can get about a foot
high and several feet wide, and is great for hanging baskets,
containers, and flower beds. In a sunny location, it blooms
from spring to frost. It is not prone to insect or disease problems.
Batface cuphea needs some moisture to do well, but is drought
tolerant once established. A little extra water and some fertilizer
will keep it blooming all summer. In fact, I guess bat guano
would be a good choice of feeding!
In most winters, it is not cold hardy. But except in very
hard freezes, it will survive if protected.
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<<view past Plants
of the Week
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- Spider mites are here for summer! If you see foliage losing
its green color, getting pale with speckles, or even turning bronze,
you may have spider mites, tiny insects on the undersides of the
leaves. The easiest way is to blast them off with water. Direct
your spray upward from underneath the plant at least once a week.
You can also spray summer oils, as well as horticultural oils—not
dormant oils—and insecticidal soap.
- Since it’s out of season for lettuce and spinach, get
your greens with amaranth, a leafy green that likes the heat.
Malabar spinach, a vining plant not related to spinach, is also
tasty and easy to grow. It can grow so thick that some gardeners
use it as a screen or to cover a teepee-like structure.
- Finally, watch for stink bugs on your tomato plants and elsewhere
in the garden. If you don’t stay ahead of these, they can
really ruin a good crop quick. They’re not too difficult
to control if you get out early in the morning when they’re
kind of sluggish. Hand pick and squish or drop into a bucket of
soapy water.
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<< more Planting Tips |
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