Meet Mike on Oct. 4 and 5 at the Leesburg Home Expo at the Douglass Community Center on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and on Sunday at noon.
The time to bring tender plants inside is now
Mary Jane in Potomac writes: “I have a beautiful hibiscus on my porch that’s been blooming all summer, and every night I wonder if I should be moving it inside now that temperatures have hit the low 50s. I also have a little orange tree that has spent all summer in my back yard. It seems happy, and I’m wondering the best time to move it inside.”
The sooner the better, MJ. Tropical and semi-tropical plants like these suffer when temperatures drop below 50 degrees. And they’ll take the shock of moving back indoors much better if they haven’t been stressed by cold nights beforehand.
Just be sure to blast the leaves and branches of both plants with sharp streams of water first to dislodge hitchhiking pests — especially aphids, which just love to sneak inside on hibiscus.
Perennial poinsettias
Elaine in Stafford has a question about bringing poinsettias in for the winter. She writes: “I have had four plants for a number of years now. I put them out on the deck in the spring and bring them back in when the nights get below 40 degrees. But they always wind up dropping about a third of their leaves when I bring them inside. Can you recommend a schedule that would be less stressful for the plants?”
Absolutely, Elaine — you’re leaving them outside much too long. Poinsettias are tropical plants from Mexico that should come back indoors while nights are still in the 50s. That alone will lessen the leaf drop. In addition, make sure their indoor location isn’t in a drafty area or near a cold window or heat source.
Bonus: Elaine already knows the secret of getting these now-all-green plants to turn red in the center! She writes: “Starting in September I cover them at night to give them at least 13 hours of total darkness and the leaves (at least the ones that remain on the plants) are colorful red by mid-December.”
You are correct, Elaine. Poinsettias simply need equal times of light and dark every day for about three months to get those central bracts to turn red. Nice work.
Compost makes the best mulch
Dana in Bethesda writes: “I just read one of your articles saying that it’s better to lay down compost rather than mulch. When is the best time of the year to do so? And how often? Is once a year enough?”
Don’t be deceived by the marketers of chipped-up wood trash, Dana. The word “mulch” has nothing to do with wood or bark. In fact, it doesn’t refer to any specific substance. Mulch is anything you spread on top of bare soil to prevent weeds and retain soil moisture.
And a 2-inch layer of yard waste compost (made from shredded fall leaves) makes the best mulch. In university studies, a mulch of beautiful black compost suppressed weeds just as well as two inches of shredded bark or wood — without the negative effects the wood mulch had on plants (it made them sickly and/or dead) and homes (staining them with impossible-to-remove artillery fungus spores).
The best time to apply your compost mulch is when you can get the nicest finished compost. (Which is often now, at the end of the season, when it’s been cooking for almost a full year.) And a 2-inch layer applied once every year is all your landscape needs.
Late fall is a great time to move a tree
Mike in Laurel writes: “I’ve been offered a young redbud tree. When is the best time to transplant it to my yard? And does it need full sun? Or can it take full to partial shade?”
Redbuds will always put on their best springtime show in full sun, Mike. They’ll survive nicely in partial shade, but dense shade is pretty much for moss and hostas only.
The best time to move the tree is right after it goes fully dormant — about two months from now. Dig the new hole now, while soil is still nice and workable. Then, when it’s time to move, get a couple of burly guys with shovels to dig a complete deep circle around the tree a good foot or two from the trunk, and then have them lift it out with lots of soil still packed around the roots.
Place that big root ball on a tarp for ease of carrying, and don’t transport it in an open truck to the new destination. Don’t improve the soil in the hole
