One of the most spectacular winter blooming plants is the Florist's Cineraria (Pericallis x hybrida). What makes these plants so special is that the deep green, slightly lobed leaves of these colorful beauties are often completely covered by immense clusters of velvety daisy-like flowers for their entire growing season.

These bright and bushy plants have an amazing kick of contrasting colors. The blossoms may be white, pink, red, blue, purple or violet, with blue or white centers and rings of contrasting colors that create a rainbow of hues for any sunny windowsill.

These beautiful plants are native to the Canary Islands off the coast of Portugal. Annuals that can bloom indoors from as early as December to as late as May, they are usually discarded after their blooming season is over. But few plants can beat these beauties for color while they are doing their thing.

Cinerarias do best in a bright room or sunny windowsill. They are fairly thirsty plants, due to the large volume of flowers they produce, and like to be kept moist (but not wet) at all times. They need only occasional feeding while in bloom, with a water soluble plant food.

So, if you need a little help shaking off the doldrums of winter, consider purchasing some cinerarias to brighten up your home today!

Roses must be pruned every year to maintain vigorous growth and to keep them flowering well. The best time to prune is while they are dormant.

Steps in pruning your roses:

• Think about each cut before you make it. All cuts should be at an angle and just above a bud that is facing away from the center of the bush.
• Remove dead branches and canes.
• Remove old canes that produce only twiggy growth. If your bush is old and has only these old canes, save three or four and cut those back to 3 feet.
• The height to cut your canes back depends on the type of flowers you want. If you want the long stems for cutting, cut your canes back to 3 feet. If you want profuse flowers, but you're not concerned about stem length, cut the canes back one third.
• Remove all branches that are thinner than a pencil.
• Pull off all remaining leaves, rake up all debris, and put it in the trash. Do not use this for your compost pile, as there may be overwintering insects and/or diseases.
• Spray the pruned bush with dormant oil spray.

Keeping your houseplants healthy during winter months may seem difficult. Light from windows is reduced, days are shorter and humidity may be lower due to heating. But by making a few changes, you can help keep your houseplants healthy.

Keeping things light

In winter, your plants receive sunlight for less time and in less intensity. Houseplants native to rainforests that are used to lower light will be fine with that, but most plants need more light. Try to move your plants near a brighter window (S/SW exposure) to get them more sunlight.

If you have no brighter windows (due to shade trees or apartment living), you might want to consider the purchase of plant lamps that are designed to provide the full spectrum light your plants need. They can be mounted under shelves, over plants or on specially-designed plant stands. Leave them on about eight hours a day, and they'll give your plants the light they need.

You can also use cool fluorescent bulbs as close as 6 inches from the top of plants.

Temperature

Most plants do not do well when subjected to rapid fluctuations in temperature. Keep them away from hot air sources and cold drafts alike. Run ceiling fans on low if the house is closed up. Fans break up stagnant air; that's healthier for both you and your plants.

Humidity

Some symptoms of low humidity are brown leaf tips and wilting. Low humidity makes your plants work harder to get moisture from the air and soil, as well as keep what they have inside.

One way to give your plants some extra humidity is to mist them two or three times a day. The water will evaporate off the leaves and provide a cloud of higher humidity around the plant. For a less labor-intensive method, put a layer of pebbles in the bottom of a tray and fill the tray with just enough water to cover the bottom of the tray (below the top of the pebbles). Place potted plants in the tray.

Other Tips

Fertilizing should be done less often for most plants in winter.

Give your plants a good washing. Dirt, dust, grease, and other particles can settle on leaves. Dirty leaves can't absorb as much sunlight as clean ones. Gently wipe clean the leaves with a soft sponge or cloth dipped in plain water. Sturdier plants can even be given a quick shower in the bathroom with tepid water.

But the real story is that the psyllid has been found in Mexico, Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and most recently, in California. Infected trees produce green, bitter, misshapen fruit that is unsuitable for sale as either fresh fruit or juice, and most infected trees die within a few years.

In June of 2008, the psyllid was spotted right across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. A few months later, it was detected in San Diego and Imperial counties. HLB is ravaging the citrus industry in Florida, and we all can help to put an end to this scourge by following some basic common sense moves.

Stopping the importation of infested plants is our first line of defense. A quarantine has been implemented on citrus plants and close relatives of citrus such as orange jasmine or Indian curry leaves, that arrive in airplanes, ships, trucks, cars or by mail, shipped from other states and countries.

Believed to have originated in China in the late 1800s, citrus greening disease shows the following symptoms:
• Blotchy mottling of leaves, and yellowing of leaves on a single shoot or branch
• Small, lopsided, bitter fruit that remains green even when ripe
• Twig dieback
• Stunted, sparsely foliated trees that may bloom off-season

Government and industry are taking steps to stop the spread of citrus greening and the Asian citrus psyllid that carries it. They are ramping up inspection of host plants at international ports, state lines, airports, and mail-sorting facilities.

Many areas in the United States have been put under quarantine, including Florida, Louisiana and Georgia. When infected trees are found, they are removed to prevent the spread to healthy trees. And there is a serious implementation of awareness campaigns at the national and state level to educate the public about this very real threat.

You can help by not moving citrus out of areas under quarantine for citrus greening disease. Do not buy host plants online unless you can guarantee that the plant is not from a quarantined area. If you own citrus plants, inspect them on a regular basis for the disease, and the psyllids themselves. Look for eggs, often nestled in crevices of unfolded leaves. Twisted and curling shoot tips, sooty mold, and white waxy deposits on the leaves are all signs of psyllid damage. And if you detect the insect, or an infected plant, report it. Act fast.

Until a treatment or a cure is found, stopping the spread of this deadly disease by halting the movement of plants is our only hope of saving America’s citrus.

Cymbidiums need dividing when they overcrowd their containers or get too heavy to carry.

• Water plants well before dividing them.
• Use a can cutter or sharp knife to cut off the plastic container. If the plants are in a wooden tub, remove the old container with a hammer, and discard it.
• Use a large kitchen knife kept for gardening to cut between the pseudobulbs (the bulblike structures growing above ground) and down through the roots. Aim for at least three productive pseudobulbs and four or five back bulbs per division. (Back bulbs are fully grown pseudobulbs that once bore leaves and flower spikes but now are bare. They act as storage containers for the remainder of the plant.)
• Trim off all roots that are diseased, damaged, or simply messy. In all, you should remove about one-third of the roots.
• Optionally, soak the divisions in a solution of 1 quart bleach to 10 quarts water for ten minutes to kill any fungus or rot. Air dry them.
• To replant, choose plastic containers that have plenty of holes in the bottom and are the next size larger, or approximately 4 to 6 inches wider than the top of the root ball. (Oversized containers slow growth.)
• Hold the plant so that the bottom of the pseudobulbs is level with the top of the container. Fill around the roots all the way to the top of the container with a commercial soil mix recommended for cymbidiums or with a homemade mix, such as 2 gallons pathway bark, 2 gallons ground nitrolized wood shavings, and 1 gallon commercial sterilized potting soil. It's important to make sure the roots are completely covered with soil mix but the pseudobulbs are totally above ground. (If the pseudobulbs are buried, they'll rot.)
• Water the cymbidiums thoroughly after planting, keep them in semishade, and wait two or three weeks before starting to fertilize

Often considered queen of the indoor plants, the African violet was first discovered in Tanzania in 1892. Originally the flowers were limited to shades of blue, white and lavender, but thanks to years of hybridizing efforts many color variations are now available.

African violets also vary in size and form. There are miniature varieties that grow to less than 6” in diameter, standard varieties which average 8”-12” in diameter (but can exceed 18”-24” when grown for exhibition), and trailing varieties which can be grown as ground covers or as hanging plants.

Ideally, African violets prefer the natural light of a south facing window but they can grow well with artificial lighting, too. The key is to provide them with 8-12 hours of light per day. For more even growth, it is helpful to rotate the plants a quarter turn each day. They grow best in temperatures between 65ºF and 75ºF, which will help promote quick flowering cycles and better absorption of plant foods.

It is important to allow the soil for African violets to dry out completely between waterings. When watering, try to avoid watering the leaves, as this can leave behind unsightly stains. We recommend feeding them every two weeks, year-round, with a soluble plant food. This will keep the foliage a nice shade of dark green and help the flowers produce a more intense color.

African violets are one of the most popular houseplants and very easy to grow. With good bright light and regular feedings, they will bloom joyfully all year long! We invite you to stop by soon and bring a few home.

One of the true pleasures home gardeners can experience is growing their own fruit. And with a little planning, it's possible to have an extended harvest season. Even gardens that are short on space can have an extended harvest if the proper planting techniques are used.

The key to an extended or year-round harvest is understanding the ripening times of fruit and citrus trees. Most citrus start to ripen in winter, with mandarins coming first and then followed by lemons, limes and oranges through March and April. But most lemons produce a steady crop of fruit year-round. Thanks to some new Australian and New Zealand citrus cultivars that get confused by the hemispheres, you can have citrus in late summer and fall. Then you can always count on kumquats and limequats for a November to January harvest.

With deciduous fruit trees you can start with early varieties of apricots that ripen as early as mid-May, followed by a crop of cherries in June. The summer months bring in nectarines, peaches, plums and pluots from mid-June through August. After that, apples, pears and persimmons ripen in September and October. Figs will bear fruit from early summer to late fall.

If you are short on space, consider planting more than one variety in the same hole. Just make sure to plant trees with similar growing habits. Apples, cherries and pears tend to be the fastest and highest growers. Since citrus require more sun to ripen than deciduous fruit trees, make sure they get the sunniest locations. Most deciduous fruit trees will produce a great tasting crop of fruit as long as they receive at least 5-6 hours of sunlight during the growing season. Citrus prefer 6-8 hours of sunlight.

The final secret to getting great tasting fruit is to wait until the fruit has ripened completely on the tree. This allows the sugar content to be at its highest level. The problem with most store-bought fruit is that it is harvested long before it is ripe in order to stand up to the rigors of shipping. The fruit never develops the same intense flavor on a shelf as it does on the tree.

Now is a great time to buy fruit trees. We have a good selection of citrus and deciduous fruit trees. If you have any questions, our staff of fruit tree experts will be happy to help you plan your year-round fruit tree garden!

Soil pH indicates how acid or alkaline a soil is. In technical terms, it is a logarithmic function of the hydrogen ion concentration [H+]: pH = -log [H+]. Got all that?

In simpler terms, a pH of 7.0 is neutral. Below that number is acidic, above that number is alkaline. The scale is progressive, too. A pH of 6.0 is ten times more acid than a pH of 7.0; a pH of 5.0 is 100 times more acid than a pH of 7.0, and so on.

You can test your soil pH with a simple pH test kit.

• To modify or correct acidic soils you need to apply lime.
• To modify or correct alkaline soils you need to apply soil sulfur or aluminum sulfate.

Most plants prefer soil slightly on the acidic side of 6. Use a lower pH for acid-loving plants like blueberries, azaleas, and ferns.