It
’s the last of the month, which means garden questions and
answers again! You may e-mail me questions at: ga********@*ps.net.
Or you can mail me questions in care of this newspaper. For a
faster, personal response, please include a self-addressed, stamped
envelope.
It’s the last of the month, which means garden questions and answers again! You may e-mail me questions at: ga********@*ps.net. Or you can mail me questions in care of this newspaper. For a faster, personal response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Q: I continually have problems with my ficus (benjamina) tree. This beautiful indoor tree is constantly dropping leaves. Sometimes the leaves turn yellow before they drop, and sometimes the leaves are still green when they drop. Either way, I am constantly picking up after them. What can I do? – C.F., Morgan Hill, via e-mail.
A: Ficus benjamina, also known as weeping fig, is one of only many houseplants in the ficus family. Unfortunately, the benjamina is notoriously finicky. Personally, I much prefer the Ficus elastica and the Ficus lyrata. The former is better known as the rubber plant, while the latter is known as the fiddleleaf fig. Both of these types of ficus are much easier grown.
Of course, that’s not going to help you and your benjamina. Low light, improper watering and severe temperature swings are the common causes of leaf drop on ficus benjaminas. If you can find a spot in your house it likes (usually next to a sun-lit window) and then forget about it, they can thrive. These types of ficus should not be overwatered. Usually once every couple weeks is sufficient. However, different light conditions plus different types of potting mixes can also cause otherwise identical plants to need different watering schedules.
Suffice to say, there is not pat answer. All you can do is experiment with different locations, watering schedules and hope for good luck! Of course, now I know I’m going to get correspondence from readers who have easily grown benjaminas for years!
Q: I have a privet bush that has outgrown its location. My question: how do I transplant this rather large shrub to a better location? Would it be worth my time or should I just dig it up and throw it away? – M.S., Prunedale, via e-mail.
A: Well, I never favor digging up a perfectly good plant and disposing of it. The best time to transplant and move plants is while they are dormant. This means fall or winter. The worst time to move most plants is during the summer because plants’ metabolism is at a seasonal high. This time of year your chances are probably about 50-50.
The key is to dig and try to lift as large a rootball as possible. Only sever roots if absolutely necessary. The chances of survival depend mostly on your luck in getting most of the rootball out of the ground intact. I suggest you lay a tarp nearby so that as you lift it out of the ground, you can transfer it to the tarp and drag it to your new planting site. Make sure to water the transplanted shrub well, and don’t let the soil dry out. Good luck.
Q: I have two questions about poinsettias and Christmas cactus. What do I do with them now that they’ve just about stopped blooming? – K.D., Morgan Hill.
Great questions, especially this time of year! I know my poinsettias are still blooming, but I’ll have to do something with them soon. Poinsettias can be re-potted and placed outdoors once danger of frost is over. You should also cut them back to four to six inches once they are through blooming. You can even plant them outdoors in a frost-protected spot. However, and this is a big however, don’t expect them to ever bloom again unless you go through a whole lot of trouble.
That’s because poinsettias are forced by greenhouse growers to get them to bloom. Starting at around Halloween, one must subject poinsettias to about 16 consecutive hours of complete darkness a day in order to force them to turn color. Most gardeners don’t have the fortitude to keep at this darkness regime. Put another way, those $7 poinsettias are quite a bargain.
Regarding Christmas cactus, also known as Zygocactus, these old favorites bloom dozens of purplish-red flowers around the holidays. They can be grown indoors or brought outside once frost is over. Unlike most cactus, Christmas cactus like to be watered frequently (but not kept soggy). They prefer rich porous soil, with plenty of leaf mold and sand. They can be fed with liquid fertilizer as often as every seven to 10 days. Like most cactus, they also prefer their roots to be a bit on the crowded side.
Q: A follow-up to one of your garden answers a couple months ago. There were a couple questions about suckers. I remember a product that you spray on plants to prevent sucker growth. Is it still available? – W.J., Gilroy.
There is a product called Sucker Stopper, a plant-growth regulator. Suckers are those annoying shoots that grow out of the base of many plants, including olives, redwoods, aspens, crabapples, pomegranite, sycamores and many others. If you cut the suckers off, they grow right back. Sucker-Stopper is sprayed on emerging shoots, and inhibits suckers for about three months. Admittedly, three months is not a long time and Sucker-Stopper also isn’t cheap. It runs about $32 for a 22-ounce bottle.
Sucker-Stopper is sold through Monterey Lawn and Garden. Check out their web site at: www.montereylawngarden.com/
Keith Muraoka lives and works in Gilroy. His award-winning column has been in this newspaper since 1984. E-mail him at: gardendude@ jps.net, or write him in c/o Morgan Hill Times, P.O. Box 757, Morgan Hill, CA 95038.
