It’s a sure bet that we will have more ice, snow and rain during February, but remember also that spring begins in February for the Southern gardener. Delaying now will bring regrets later;
time wasted now cannot be made up. There are many gardening chores that should have already been done. The good gardener already has sent in his seed order and has them on hand so that as soon as the soil and weather permit he can plant seeds of hardy vegetables and flowers.
Planted now, they will be able to get a good start before the weather gets hot. Cold weather encourages the roots to go deep into the ground before making the top growth. This results in healthier plants and finer blooms, especially important when the weather becomes hot and dry.
Before planting anything, you must look at the soil.
Whether it is a heavy clay soil or a light sandy one, it probably needs humus. If you are smart, you plowed or spaded the soil last fall. If you failed to do so, you can scatter peat moss, compost, rotted manure or other soil conditioners on top of the ground now and be ready to spade it under as soon as the soil is dry enough to work. The freezing and thawing will mellow the soil and give it a better structure. If your soil is on the acid side, apply limestone to make it neutral. Most vegetable and flowering plants need a neutral soil. Be careful not to allow the lime to get around acid-loving plants such as camellias, azaleas, hollies and other broadleaf evergreens.
It’s Time to Prune
Another chore that can be done now is pruning. The
“Encyclopedia of Gardening” notes that “Pruning is an old, important and much misunderstood garden art. Many amateurs make the mistake of supposing that all, or nearly all, trees and shrubs need this attention regularly and cut out branches and
shorten them back indiscriminately. There are serious errors.
No cut should ever be made without good reason and without an understanding of what the results are likely to be”. One type of pruning that may be done without fear of making a mistake, and that can be done at any time, is the removal of dead or diseased wood. This should be done promptly and effectively. Besides being unsightly, dead branches harbor destructive pests and diseases. In removing live branches it is imperative to use tree-wound paint over the exposed surface, as this is a vulnerable place for insects and diseases.
There are two major factors to be considered when pruning a shrub or tree. First, consider the typical growth of the species.
Second, consider the use, or purpose, for which you planted the tree. To prune a young tree or shrub one should know something about its habit of growth so that you can help it to grow to maturity in its natural pattern and not in the tortured shape we often see later in the season. Two of my pet peeves are the flat-top treatment and the bowl-shaped pruning. Soon the early flowering shrubs will be blooming and you will notice many examples of this type of pruning. It is more noticeable on blooming shrubs, especially forsythia. Instead of a fountain of gold, one sees a mass of stubs trying to bloom among the leaves. Better not to prune at all than to do this type of pruning. People who share their blossoms and Christmas greenery do not have many pruning problems.
Now is a good time to spray with lime-sulphur, the clean up spray for all dormant plants. Try to choose a day when there is little or no wind and the temperature is moderate. If you have trouble with scale, this is an ideal time to get rid of this pest, especially on camellias (use a complete oil-emulsion spray).
If you have not ordered summer flowering bulbs, do so now. Most of us wait until ready to plant before ordering. The first planting of gladiolus should go in the ground now. These bloom earlier and are usually lovelier than the ones that come along in hot weather. It will soon be time to plant the more tender bulbs
— caladiums, tuberoses, Peruvian daffodils, tuberous begonias, etc. I find that the ones I start in flats indoors about a month early do better. It pays to get a head start!
Remember to feed the pansies; they will soon be blooming and will reward you with their smiling faces.
Planting on Valentine Day
February 14, Valentine Day, traditionally has been considered as planting time in the South. This is when the gardener planted the seeds of the cool-season vegetables. These include English peas, lettuce, mustard, spinach, radishes and turnips. Plants of cabbage, onion sets and asparagus roots should be planted at the same time. Unfortunately, the weather does not always cooperate with the gardener and he has to wait until the ground is in proper condition to be worked. This is especially true of a heavy soil which is slow in drying. Plowing or digging in heavy soil will cause it to form hard clods that take years to break up. Usually the second half of February gives us better planting weather.
Petal blight on camellias and azaleas is a serious threat throughout the South. Too long we have tried to evade the issue;
now is the time to begin a rigid control schedule. Dr. Fred Nisbet advised a good clean up job now. Clean up remains of all fallen flowers and spray the ground with ferbam (Fermate) or Acti-dione RZ. When the flowers open, spray at three five-day intervals.
Pick up and burn all fallen blooms; this is an everyday job. To be effective the spray must cover all blossoms as they open.
Remember these instructions because if you do not have petal blight now, you probably soon will. This disease covers a large area since the blight is airborne.
You need to spend a few hours now cleaning out chickweed and other hardy weeds. Many of them bloom and set seed while the weather is still cold. This is a favorite place for insects to hibernate and multiply. I noticed that my German iris bed is pretty well covered with this pest. As you clear out beds and borders, it is a good time to apply fertilizer and scratch it in around the plants.
When daffodils and other early flowering bulbs start sending up foliage, it is a good time to fertilize them. This feeding will not affect this year’s bloom which formed last year, but it will help next
year’s bloom, which will begin to form after this year’s blooms fades. Give the same treatment to other spring-blooming bulbs.
Prune Fig Trees
This is the time to prune the fig tree and take cuttings for new ones. These new bushes make welcomed gifts to others.
These new trees, rooted from an established tree, will grow and do better than ones grown in a different section of the country.
Take cuttings from last year’s growth. They should be about one foot long. Select a protected place, push them down about four or five inches in a moist soil and they will soon take root.
Nothing gives a greater show of color than the phlox Drummondii. If you did not plant seed last fall, do so now. They will not bloom quite as early as those planted earlier but will drop seed and come back next year. I have kept a pink variety for more than 20 years. These seeds germinate better in cool weather.
As soon as possible get the early vegetables planted.
Potatoes do much better if planted early. If you wish to hasten them even more, spread them out in a warm, well-lighted place and they will start sprouts. This also will increase your yield.
Sow beds of parsley if you failed to get a good stand last fall. It is a good time to get chives started. If you have large established clumps, lift them now and divide with friends and fellow gardeners. They take up little room and can go right in with the flowers if you have no other space.
Planning Your Garden
In planning a flower garden, most people think first of the visual beauty of the garden, and secondly of the ease or difficulty of maintaining the garden in this age of high-priced labor. Few people today consider fragrance when they build their gardens. If their planting contains any of the trees, shrubs, and plants, they were selected probably because of their eye-appealing factors.
This was not true of the gardens of the Old South. Southerners have always been known as romantic and sentimental people.
The ones who planned and planted the early gardens were much more aware of the value of the fragrant flowers and foliage than today’s gardeners.
Fragrance adds a charm to a garden that nothing else can.
It can change a person’s mood, bring romantic dreams to the young, and recall pleasant memories to the aged. To a child, a fragrant flower is pure delight — something no one over 10 can feel. Fragrance means different things to people of each age group.
Also, the six different types of fragrances affect people differently.
To understand this, one must know in which category the different flowers belong. Then, and only then, can one understand why certain fragrances affect them as they do.
Perfumes are impossible to describe, yet when one learns the six basic types — all of which come from flowers — they are easily recognized. The perfume manufacturers and their advertising agencies have long been aware that the basic lure of fragrance is sex. This is illustrated by the trade names by which some of our finest perfumes are known. The Creator used sex to further His plant life just as He did the animal and human kingdom. All three are so interdependent on each other that no one can survive without the other. Many of our big problems of civilization today are the direct results of man’s wanton disregard of God’s plan.
Types of Fragrances
Group l. Aminoid: This group is best typified by the hawthorn, pear, spirea, and elder — a rather limited group. Many other groups have a whiff of this odor, but none of them is either sweet or heavy. Flowers in this group are spring flowering and fertilized by various species of flies and never by butterflies or night-flying moths.
Group 2. Heavy: This is a large group of extremely sweet smelling flowers, some of which are so overpowering that people complain that the scent makes them sick or remind them of death. The typical odor is the jasmine, mock-orange, many lilies, tuberoses, lilacs, jonquils, narcissus, gardenia, and
honeysuckle. The reason that this scent is disturbing to some is that they all contain indol, which is also found in the end-product of animal putrefaction. This group should be used with restraint when planning the garden, and also in arranging flowers for the house. These flowers are fertilized by butterflies, and the ones whose fragrance is strongest at night, by night-flying moths. It is interesting to note that the fragrance of the flower is matched by that of the male insect visitor.
Group 3. Aromatic: This fragrance is a lovely spicy scent of cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, and anise. It is typified by the clove pink and carnation. Many of the flowers in this group contain odors found in Group 2. However, none of this group contains indol and their scent may be heavy but not disturbing. Hyacinths, heliotrope, night-scented stock and Nicotiana all have some properties of the Heavy group. Other flowers in the Aromatic group which are not heavy are certain species of rose, many pinks, primrose, some clematis and many tropical orchids. The last three groups are much less complicated.
Group 4. Violet: A rare perfume found only in the violet, a few species of iris, faintly in mignonette and a few tropical acacias. It is an elusive odor which has a way of fading out.
Group 5. Rose: Typified by the fragrant rose. It should be remembered that the rose fragrance is not found in all roses.
The famous Attar of Roses used by perfumers comes from the damask rose and a variety of rose alba grown in Southern France.
Two species of peony, a few iris and the Oregon grape have the rose fragrance.
Group 6. Lemon: Typified by the four-o’clock, citrata is the dominant compound which gives this group its pleasing odor.
Lemons from Italy have an abundance of this fragrance. The magnolias are noted for this odor, especially the swamp magnolia, magnolia grandiflora, and the star magnolia. The leaves of lemon balm, a herb, belongs to this group.
Other Fragrant Flowers
There are a number of fragrant flowers which have not been classified. Five of these are annuals or can be grown as such. The first four mentioned can be sown where you desire.
Sweet Pea: Although all are relatively fragrant, the best and most-honey scented are the purple, blues and crimson colored ones. It is unusual that the white ones are not very fragrant for so many of our most fragrant flowers are white.
Sweet Sultan: A biennial, but it flowers the first year from seed. Remember this beautiful musk-scented flower when you order your hardy annual seed to sow in October.
Sweet Alyssum: A familiar popular edging plant whose white or lavender flowers smell of new-mown hay and is heaviest just after a rain or when drenched in dew.
Blister Cress (Erysimum Murale): The flowers resemble stocks and are golden yellow and have a heavy sweet odor of orange blossoms.
Sweet Scabious: This is the old-fashion pin cushion flower.
There are many improved double kinds on the market today but the single variety is more fragrant.
The next three are very old and favorite perennials and easily grown from seed.
Wall-flowers: This old favorite is not used as much as it should be. It blooms very early in the spring. Its yellow, orange and brown flowers are delicately fragrant.
Musk Mallow: These pink flowers are borne on plants one to two feet high and have a perfume suggesting commercial musk.
Red Valerian (Centranthus Ruber): This bushy herb grows to three feet high with a dense cluster of red flowers in May and June. They have an odor of honey and lemon.
The last two plants are bulbous, one provides fragrance in the early spring and the other in the fall.
Grape Hyacinth: These small, bell-shaped blue flowers are heavily scented with a musky and fruity odor. Planted in masses they make a beautiful, fragrant carpet in the spring.
Winter Daffodil (Sternbergia Betea): A crocus-like plant with yellow, very fragrant flowers that bloom in late fall.
Before leaving the subject of the fragrant garden, we must mentioned some of the plant material for the night, fragrant garden. I shall name only the five I feel would be of interest to the average gardener.
My favorite is nicotiana, sweet tobacco plant. N. Alata grandiflora is by far the best variety to grow. It has long tubular flowers, usually white but some are pink on the outside and a creamy white when they unfold at evening. At this time they give off a heavenly scent. They are a hardy annual and the seed may be planted in the fall.
Night-scented stock (Mathiola bicornis): This plant has insignificant blooms which stay shut tight during the day, but at sundown they open and give off such fragrance that one small cluster will scent an entire room.
Dame’s Rocket (Hesperis matronalis): This old favorite stays open day and night but gives off its perfume only at night.
The tall white and purple flowers are pretty in the border.
Many flowers are fragrant both day and night. This is true of tuberoses, some lilies and roses. Many of our most fragrant flowers are white, and nature’s way of fertilizing them is by attracting the night-flying moths. These fragrant flowers add beauty and romance by night.
Growing Herbs
Growing herbs is an interesting hobby, but few gardeners wish to have a large collection. Most of us are satisfied to grow a few fragrant herbs for sachets and potpourri or restrict our herbs to the favorite culinary ones. Either or both of these groups make an interesting and rewarding venture.
The fragrant herbs remind many of us of our grandmother’s garden, where there were always a few plants of lavender to furnish fragrant dried flowers for the linen closet. Nothing brings sweeter dreams than to sleep on fragrant lavender-scented sheets.
Other fragrant herbs for the spice jars and sachets are: bergamot,
lavender, lemon balm, orange mint, pineapple mint, rosemary, thyme, sweet savory, sweet marjoram, winter savory and anise.
Most herbs are grown for the leaves which are gathered at the end of a hot, dry day before the dew falls. The best way to dry them is to spread thinly on a wire rack in a dry, airy place.
Lavender flowers are gathered as they begin to unfold. This is when the fragrance is the strongest. After drying, all herbs are stored in dry, airtight containers until needed.
Rosemary and lavender need deep planting. Dig the holes deep and soak them for at least an hour before planting these herbs. Lavender is a shrub-like plant that grows about three feet tall. It needs plenty of sun and some lime in the soil to perform at its best. It must have perfect drainage. It is a little difficult to get seed to germinate and is not easy to root cuttings, but one plant makes a large shrub-like plant that will supply the average family’s needs. The entire plant is fragrant — leaves, flowers and stems.
The mint family is possibly the easiest herb to grow. Often it is necessary to restrain the plants by sinking small sheets of metal around the bed. Most of the mint family prefer a partially shaded place with some humus in the soil. Keep the mint cut so that seed will not form. In late fall, cut mint back severely and put a little compost around the roots. In October, or early November, lift the clump and plant in a pot for the kitchen window. It will furnish mint for the family all winter.
Two popular kitchen herbs are parsley and sage. Many people have trouble getting parsley seed to germinate. If the seeds
Two popular kitchen herbs are parsley and sage. Many people have trouble getting parsley seed to germinate. If the seeds