Know it Grow It
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistSeptember 27, 2022We are in late September, and if you have had house plants “vacationing” outdoors for the summer, I have a few tips to help them acclimate to their indoor location. First, make sure there are not hitchhikers coming in with the plant. Insect pest populations are kept in check to a degree by outdoor weather and predator insects. That potential is eliminated indoors. Three primary pests to eliminate…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistSeptember 13, 2022September is the time to get your lawn in shape for winter and the next growing season. If you are a “do it yourself” person, now is when to tackle perennial weeds like dandelions and similar broadleaf weeds. Those little seedlings are busy storing nutrients in their roots so next spring they can put on a spectacular growth spurt and impress with their robust energy. Spraying with a broadleaf…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistJune 21, 2022I need to remind you that now is the time to prune lilacs, weigela, mock orange, and snowball viburnums. These are all spring-blooming plants, and cutting them back now gives the new growth time to mature and develop buds for next year’s flowers. I recommend pruning to eliminate the old stems to encourage new growth from the base of the shrub. When I looked at my potato crop last week, I noticed…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistApril 26, 2022Each year I tell you about a fantastic product call Systemic Rose Care. This is a granular product I apply to the soil at the base of a rose bush in the next week and just let the rain dissolve it. That product has the best formulation of rose fertilizer I have found, and the systemic part indicates that it contains an insecticide that is absorbed by the roots and moves systemically through the…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistAugust 03, 2021August is the month to thin or transplant German bearded iris and peonies. Dividing fern leaf peonies is a bit more complicated than regular peonies in that they have a “neck” between the eye of next year’s growth and the tuber. Just cutting into the clump with a spade will often ruin a lot of the potential new divisions because of the way they intertwine. The safest way to divide fern peonies is…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMarch 16, 2021It’s Monday and I am thinking of all the pruning I got done last week. Now I’m looking at a blanket of the whitest and heaviest snow we have seen in awhile. But hey, the frost came out of the top layer of soil so this will be wonderful moisture to help replenish the deficit from last year. So, we get a couple of days off but we do want to get the pruning done whenever we get the chance because…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMarch 31, 2020A couple of days of 60-plus weather has certainly inspired me to get to work cleaning up my flower beds. While working, I noticed the daffodils are already poking through … that was encouraging but also a reminder to get the work done before I would be damaging them by my cleanup activity. Every year I remind you that the first plant on the cutback list should be the tall ornamental…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistSeptember 10, 2019So here we are in September, the best time to do lawn seeding — renovation, if necessary — and the best time to rid your lawn of weeds. If you are seeding a new lawn, as the ground temperature drops, most weed seed will not germinate; however, the grass seed germinates better in cool soil so the weeds are not competing with the grass. The new grass has plenty of time to get established before the…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistAugust 27, 2019Vegetable gardens are at their maximum production and that quantity of fresh produce can be almost overwhelming, but this is the vision for every gardener. Beans are being produced in quantity, and you may get tired of harvesting. But if you don’t keep picking, they stop producing, and beans produced late in the season are amazing. Onion tops have kinked over, indicating that they are finished…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistAugust 13, 2019My trees are dying!!!! I’ve had a few people question the leaf loss of their trees, and most often the trees they are alarmed about are flowering crab trees. This year is exceptional for infection of a fungal disease called scab. The infection starts mid spring, and the first symptom is a black spot on the leaf which most people don’t notice. Later the leaf turns yellow and drops, and that is…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMay 21, 2019This is the right time to prune any plants in the pine family. The new growth emerges as what we call a candle, and to keep the evergreen compact and full, we cut 1/2 to 3/4 of that individual candle off. When the cut is made this early in the growing season, the cut edge will have time to develop new growth buds for the next growing season, so instead of a long space between tiers of branches,…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistSeptember 19, 2016I regret admitting that summer is over. So now we prepare for what autumn means for gardeners. First of all, fall is the perfect time for planting. The extreme heat of summer is past but the ground remains warm, thus stimulating root growth and development. If you want to move or plant perennials, I’d get that done in September to ensure enough time for them to become established before winter.…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistJune 27, 2016I have many clumps of daffodils that have been growing for several years, and I noticed this spring that it is time to lift those bulbs and thin them. Any type of spring-flowering bulb reproduces by dividing, and eventually those clumps become too dense. Consequently the flower production is limited because of the competition. Moving or lifting the bulbs can only be done after the foliage begins…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistJune 20, 2016The weather forecast for this summer was hot and dry. We have already had the hot, but I’m appreciating the frequent rain that has prevented the dry. Weather isn’t something we can control, but we can work with it to make the most of our summer garden experience. The wind we had on Friday evening totally wrecked my beautiful tall blue delphiniums, so now I’m cutting them back to 4 inches to…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMay 31, 2016On April 18 I mentioned applying systemic rose care granules to my shrub roses to both feed them and protect them from sucking and chewing insects. That application is repeated at six-week intervals, so it is time to give them another shot of energy. The difference this product makes in the amount of fresh new growth the plant produces is phenomenal. I’ll be its biggest advocate because I have a…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMay 09, 2016Mother’s Day last weekend probably gifted many of you with outdoor hanging baskets or planters, and I want to stress the word “outdoor.” These annual plants require a lot of sunlight to produce the energy they need to keep the flower buds developing. Keeping them indoors to “protect” them is not a good plan. If the temperature is expected to drop to freezing, setting them in overnight is OK, but…
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