How To Take Care Of Rose Plants During The Winter Season

There are a few things you need to do to properly take care of rose plants during the winter season. Roses are considered as being hard to care for, and indeed, some roses require more work than other plants. However, roses grow well under difficult conditions and bloom almost persistently from summer to frost. Going into winter, almost all rose plants will need extra attention. Here are a few tips on how to care for roses during this season.

Discourage New Growth

Before the beginning of winter, coax the roses into dormancy. In early autumn or at least months before the first annual frost date in your area, stop fertilizing and pruning. Fertilizing encourages roses to produce tender new growth that will most certainly not survive the cold.

Water, Clean, Wrap

Water the soil around the rose bushes after the first frost. Once the ground has frozen, the plant will have to take care of itself, so make sure that you give it a good soaking going into the season. Clear the ground around the bushes of fallen leaves and insects. This will prevent diseases and insects from overwintering.

Climbing roses need special care because they are at risk from strong, drying winds. To protect them, you can wrap the canes with straw for insulation. Alternatively, you can remove them from the trellis, bundle them together, and fasten them to the ground with landscaping pins. Cover them with a layer of mulch for added protection.

Protect the Graft Union

To protect the roots and the graft union, mound 6 to 12 inches of compost on all sides of the base of the plant. The graft should be at the surface or just below it. During milder winters, you can surround the rose with wire and fill the cage created with mulch. When temperatures reach ten degrees below zero, the mound made should be about a foot tall. For added protection, the whole plant can be covered with burlap or a heavy cloth.

Provide Extra Protection

Some roses, such as Bermudas, Noisettes, Grandifloras, Teas, and Hybrid Teas, are not able to adapt well to colder winters. For these plants, extra winter protection must be provided. You have three options: (1) bury the plant, (2) build a protective cage around the plant, or (3) transplant into a container and store indoors.

Mulch

It isn't the cold that kills rose plants during winter. It's the repeated thawing and freezing that puts a strain on the plants and kills the roots. Also, the winter sun and the dry winds sap moisture from the canes and cause winter damage. Mulching using peat moss, straw, or other materials is a recommended practice except in the extreme south, where temperatures do not get cold enough to warrant extra protection for the plants. The mulch controls the soil temperature and moderates the effects of constant freezing and thawing. After the first frost, pull the soil up around the plant while taking care not to damage the roots. Mulch after the ground is frozen.

Tips For Growing Tulips Indoors

As the gray skies of late Autumn and Winter threaten your joy, you probably want to turn to gardening. What better to brighten your drab Winter than pots of Tulips? Growing tulips indoors can be difficult, but with attention to details you can do it. Although they are a forgiving plant, they require a fine balance of quick draining soil and moisture retention. Mixing the right soil and choosing the right pots will take you most of the way toward balancing these critical requirements when growing your own Tulips indoors.

Choosing tulip bulbs in early Autumn, you should select those without blemishes, bruises, or soft spots. Remember that large flowers are produced by large bulbs. Some species can grow quite tall, requiring staking to keep them upright. If you want shorter species, try Tulipa batalinii and Tulipa humilis at only about 6 inches tall. If you want tulips indoors that put out a large blossom and come in many colors, then you should turn to Triumph tulips. They are quite easy to grow inside.

Your Tulip bulbs should be stored in a dark, cool location, approximately 35-45F, for 3-4 months. Ideally, you should keep them cooler for the first 4 weeks and then warmer for the last few weeks. Try putting them in the crisper in your fridge or an unheated shed. Do not keep them near either fruits or vegetables that might be ripening, since there will be ethylene gasses. Ethylene will destroy your Tulip bulbs.

Once your bulbs are ready, find a container that will allow for adequate drainage. Choose flower pots, wooden boxes, baskets, but not clay pots. Clay containers will suck the water out of the soil too thoroughly, drying the bulb out. The pot should have drainage holes. The ideal size is about 8 inches deep and 10 inches in diameter. Three bulbs can be planted together in this size of pot.

Remember that the better the drainage, the better you will avoid rot. Yet, you do not want your bulb to dry out. So choose a soil that drains well, but avoid the ceramic pots that sap water from your soil too quickly. Your soil should be a combination of potting soil, compost or manure, and sand, in three equal parts. Fill your container up with the mixture, leaving only 3 or 4 inches to the top. Lay the bulbs on top of the soil with the pointy side up and not touching each other at all. Be careful not to press the bulbs down. The roots must be able to easily penetrate the mixture as they grow. Turning the flat side toward the outside of the pot, the first leaves will end up growing out and over the edge. Fill the pot to the rim with more soil mixture, so the bulbs are covered and you can only see the tips peeping through.

The pots need to be kept in a cool, dark place. You can put them in your basement or garage, but make sure it is dark enough and cool enough (approximately 40-45F). Water very little, weekly, discarding any water in the bottom drainage tray.

As the leaves begin to show, in the form of young shoots of about 2 inches (in about 10-12 weeks), haul the pots out to a place with low light. The temperature should be a bit warmer than 50F, even as warm as 60F. Move the pots a little at a time toward a window with very bright sunlight, but not direct sun. If you will rotate the pots as you move them, the growth of the stems will be quite even. You should start to see the flowers after only 2 or 3 weeks.

Caring for forced tulips is quite similar to caring for any other indoor plants. Feel the soil to see if it is dry. Then water it. Tulips use a significant amount of water, so check the soil often. Keep your Tulips out of direct sunlight and away from any kinds of drafts. However, keep them as cool as you can in order to extend their time of blooming.

As far as humidity is concerned, Tulips require normal levels. Add fertilizer biweekly, diluted to half the potency. Maintain a pH between 6.0-7.0. Once the flowers of your Tulips are spent, you should not allow the foliage to die down into the soil. This will poison the bulb. So remove the bulbs before this happens. Allow them to dry on their own. Store them in a cool and airy place for planting the following season.

Know About All The Knowledge About Lavender Flowers

I believe that there are a lot of people love lavender flowers very much, because of their fragrance and pure color. Did you ever visit a lavender farm? It is the most beautiful place in the world. Last week I had the pleasure of doing just that-visiting a lavender farm in New Jersey. It was a wonderful and fragrant experience.

Lavender flowers and their essential oil are very versatile and can be used in many ways, the most common lavender flowers are English and French lavender. There are about 39 species all over the world, including some hybrids, of lavenders in the mint family lamiaceae.

Although the flowers tend to lose their vibrant color upon drying, they dry very well and still have their fragrance. Cut lavender make lovely bouquets and wreaths for decorating spaces. The dry buds can be used in sachets, eye pillows, teas, cookies and other baked goods. You may want to make some sweet lavender butter. Additionally, you can also purchase lavender honey and chocolate from most gourmet stores. Lavender hydrosol can be used in skin care products and to mist the face.

Lavender is noted for its relaxation properties and distinctive color. Did you know there are white, red and yellow lavender plants and that the flower of Spanish Lavender has large flowers and a dark lavender color? Grosso Lavender is the most fragrant.

Although I learned a lot about different species and varieties of lavender while studying to become a certified aroma therapists, there is still much to know; such as cooking with lavender, the uses of lavender in clinical practice, the proper distillation of lavender, the chemical properties of various lavenders. I purchased a Lavandula x intermedia Alba plant so I’m going to soon find out if I can grow it indoors. There nothing like actually seeing and smelling the plants growing outdoors!

The Dogbane Is Perfectly Adapted To The Butterfly

Dogbane has thin reddish stems that grow in spindly clumps up to three feet tall. When dogbane is cut, the stems ooze a thick, milky liquid.

The leaves of Apocynum cannabinumgrow opposite from one another, and sometime three or more leaves grow in from one place.

Dogbane leaves are shaped like a spear-point, and have smooth edges. On the top the leaves are smooth and waxy, underneath they have downy white hairs.

Let us watch. Bees, flies, moths, and butterflies, especially the latter, hover near. Alighting, the butterfly visitor unrolls his long tongue and inserts it where the five pink veins tell him to, for five nectar-bearing glands stand in a ring around the base of the pistil. Now, as he with-draws his slender tongue through one of the V-shaped cavities that make a circle of traps, he may count himself lucky to escape with no heavier toll imposed than pollen cemented to it. This granular dust he is required to rub off against the stigma of the next flower entered. Some bees, too, have been taken with the dogbane's pollen cemented to their tongues.

But suppose a fly call upon this innocent-looking blossom? His short tongue, as well as the butterfly's, is guided into one of the V-shaped cavities after he has sipped; but, getting wedged between the trap's horny teeth, the poor little victim is held a prisoner there until he slowly dies of starvation in sight of plenty. This is the penalty he must pay for trespassing on the butterfly's preserves!

The dogbane, which is perfectly adapted to the butterfly, and dependent upon it for help in producing fertile seed, ruthlessly destroys all poachers that are not big or strong enough to jerk away from its vise-like grasp. One often sees small flies and even moths dead and dangling by the tongue from the wicked little charmers. If the flower assimilated their dead bodies as the pitcher plant, for example, does those of its victims, the fly's fate would seem less cruel. To be killed by slow torture and dangled like a scarecrow simply for pilfering a drop of nectar is surely an execution of justice medieval in its severity.

Very small white or yellowish white flowers are in clusters on the top.

The flowers are shaped like a cup in nature.

Dogbane lives in moist areas, along rivers or creeks, and may also be found in swampy areas such as ditches or fields that are being watered.

It can be found from New England to Texas and California.

The flowers appear in late spring throughout the summer, and are pollinated by small wasps, flies and bees.

A naturally occurring cardia stimulant, called cymarin can be found in the plants roots, and is listed in a medicinal text in an early pharmacopoeia from the forties and fifties in the US.

The sap can cause the skin to blister when it is directly applied to the skin.

For Its Poisonousness The Scotch Broom Should Be Under Control

The Scotch Broom (Scoparius) is generally described as a perennial shrub. This is not native to the U.S. (United States) and has its most active growth period in the spring and summer . The Scotch Broom (Scoparius) has green foliage and inconspicuous yellow flowers, with an abuncance of conspicuous black fruits or seeds. The greatest bloom is usually observed in the spring, with fruit and seed production starting in the spring and continuing until summer. Leaves are not retained year to year. The Scotch Broom (Scoparius) has a moderate life span relative to most other plant species and a rapid growth rate. At maturity, the typical Scotch Broom (Scoparius) will reach up to 7 feet high, with a maximum height at 20 years of 7 feet.

There are several methods of controlling Scotch broom and most are suitable for agricultural situations.

Herbicides are effective but expensive and only provide short-term control. Grazing by sheep and goats can prevent further spread, but this type of control is inappropriate for conservation and forestry areas.

This species is intensely beautiful in bloom but is nearly leafless on green stems the rest of the year. The tiny leaves are borne on stiff straight sticks that make wonderful brooms. But it was a hand-held whisk broom known as a "bisom" that made the plants essential to the baker's craft. In the days of brick ovens, the cooking surface had to be swept out between bread bakings. Dry broom would ignite immediately. Green broom bisom dipped in water resisted burning long enough to do the job. Clearly a baker required a good deal of living broom growing nearby to ensure a plentiful supply. So did the whiskey shipper.

Mature Scotch broom produces a large, upright shrub. (SHNS photo by Maureen Gilmer / Do It Yourself)Today there is a great struggle to stop the steady advance of broom. Aided by runoff, animals and even insects, broom's encroachment is alarmingly rapid where conditions are right. For homeowners in these areas, broom can disfigure surrounding wild lands, resulting in a monoculture. Wild plants distributing seed into the cultivated landscapes make it a pernicious weed.