Radio Show: Good vines and bad vines

This week's radio show was a continuation of the newspaper column about a thorny, invasive vine that is one of the varieties of Smilax. We talked about good vines for your garden and ones you should avoid.

Thorny Smilax vine nothing to smile about

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: I have an invasive vine in my yard that is very thorny. It has long runners and breaks when I pull it up by hand. How can I get rid of this thing?

A: From your description, it sounds like smilax, a nasty customer indeed. Also known as catbrier, deer thorn and blaspheme vine (very appropriate!), it has a long tap root with small bulbs that form around it, so pulling it up really doesn’t work. Some types of smilax have heart-shaped leaves, while others have elongated narrow leaves.

If you can catch it in early spring, your best bet is to dig it out. Make sure you get the entire mass of roots. Gloves are must because once it has sprouted, those thorns are wicked. Smilax particularly likes azalea bushes, so prune them once they’ve finished blooming so you can get under the branches to dig out the smilax root.

You can spray smilax with a weed killer for brush and woody vines, but chemicals tend to run off instead of soaking in because the leaves are glossy. Plus, it’s too easy to hit nearby plants with the spray. I have used a small foam paint brush to “paint” the leaves with herbicide, which knocks it back for a couple of months but doesn’t kill it. Another one of those bulbs simply takes over. I suppose if I kept at it at regular intervals, I might eventually kill the thing.

Walter Reeves, host of the Gardening in Georgia show on Georgia Public Television, suggests the following method:

Using Roundup concentrate, make up three gallons of solution following label directions in a five-gallon plastic bucket. Lift the long vines off your shrubbery, flowers and wherever else they have deposited themselves and drape them into the bucket. Let each vine soak about 15 minutes, so it can soak up as much poison as possible. Be careful when you lift out the vines that you don’t sling poison on nearby plants. Lay the soaked vines on the ground and let them dry.

You can strain the trash out of the leftover Roundup in the bucket and reuse it. Take an old strainer, line it with a coffee filter and pour the solution into a pump sprayer.

Radio Show: Gardening in a heat wave

With much of the Southeast, including the Florida Panhandle, experiencing a heat wave with high temperatures topping 100 every day, we talked on this week's show about how to get your gardening chores done without putting your life and health in jeopardy.

Plants need relief during heat wave

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: This heat wave is really brutal on my garden, and it's especially bad on my plants in pots and my hanging baskets. Do you have any suggestions on how I can keep my plants from drying out so quickly?

A: Summers generally are hot here in the eastern Florida Panhandle, but day after day of temperatures hovering around 100 is unusual, even for us. And extreme heat stresses plants as well as people.

When you water your garden, do it in the early morning hours, while the temperatures are still relatively low, to minimize evaporation. Make sure you water it deeply, applying at least an inch of water, so that the moisture sinks down to the root zone. Light, superficial watering might perk up the foliage, but it also encourages shallow root development, which makes the plant more vulnerable to dry spells. This time of year, when the days are at their longest here, you also can water in the evening but try to do it early enough in the evening that foliage can dry before dark. Dampness encourages fungal growth.

Use a thick layer of mulch to retain moisture and keep the soil surface cool. The sun baking on the soil heats it up so it dries out faster. You also might want to think about a shade cloth for your garden; it can lower temperatures by several degrees.

Having a watering system also can help. Not only is it exhausting for the gardener to have to drag around a hose, a system lets you target the water application to the plants' root zones. There are a variety of systems, some quite simple that gardeners can easily install themselves, ranging from soaker hoses to drip irrigation and micro-irrigation systems to fancy sprinkler heads on timers.

There are also watering bulbs available at garden centers, which are particularly good for plants in pots. You fill them with water, stick them in the dirt upside-down. As the soil dries, air pockets are formed and gravity pulls the water down from the bulb into the soil. You also can find pointed spouts that fit on the end of 2-liter soda bottles that do the same thing. I bought some a few years ago at the Home Show at the Civic Center but you also can find them on the Internet.

A gallon plastic milk jug with three holes poked in the bottom is a cheap option for a big pot or for a plant in the yard or garden that's really suffering and you want to save. Set the jug in place and fill it using a narrow-spout watering can. Your neighbors might think it looks goofy, but it's an effective temporary measure.

Move potted plants into the shade. Even full-sun plants can take a vacation for a few days in light or dappled shade. Potted plants tend to dry out faster than plants in the ground, so you might need to water pots twice a day until this heat wave breaks.

As for hanging baskets, they're even more vulnerable than potted plants because the drying heat surrounds even the bottom of the pots. Water morning and night and consider moving them, too, to the shade temporarily.

And don't forget to take care of yourself as well as your plants. Drink lots of water and avoid strenuous work during the hottest part of the day.

Radio Show: Gardening and condominiums

This week we chatted with Becky Button of Louisville, Ky., about gardening in a condominium community. Part of the appeal of condominium living for many people is the consistent look of the community. Becky, who has lived in her condominium for 17 years and served on her condo's board of directors, explains the rules and how there is still room for creativity, within bounds.

Overwatering drowns shrimp plant

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: I bought a shrimp plant that was in beautiful condition and planted it in a pot. At first it was getting full sun afternoons, and I had it sitting under one of my hanging ferns, which needed to be watered every day. Then it dawned on me that I was drowning the shrimp plant, so I moved it and started watering only when dry. It’s getting part-sun now, maybe two or three hours, and it’s still dying. It was so pretty and now it looks pathetic. What can I do?

A: Both the shrimp plant, Justicia brandegeana, with its overlapping pink bracts that look like a shrimp, and the golden shrimp plant, Justicia lutea, with its white bracts, prefer morning sun and afternoon shade. And like so many plants that do well in our extreme summer heat, they like sufficient moisture but they like the soil to be well-drained so it stays on the dry side. It seems like a contradiction, I know, but think of it as the plants wanting to have a good, long drink of water at regular intervals instead of a steady drizzle.

I suspect the roots started to rot from all the moisture when it was under the fern. Take the plant out of the pot, shake off all the dirt and check for any rotting or dead roots. They'll look slimy and smell bad if they're rotting. Trim the rotting and dead roots off. Repot in another pot – I recommend unglazed clay because the pot will absorb excess moisture from the soil. Be sure to use new soil and cut the plant back to about 3-4 inches tall. Set the pot in a spot that gets morning sun but afternoon shade. You should see new growth within a couple of weeks.

If it keeps declining, pitch it and buy another one for your pot. It was a learning experience.

Internet Radio Show: Ms. Grow-It-All’s Internet radio show on the Free World Radio Network will broadcast live at 6:30 tonight. Go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Ms_Grow-It-All and click on the link to listen live; you can call the number on the site to join the conversation. If you can’t join us, all shows are archived and available for download from my Web site.

Radio Show: Shade trees

This week frequent co-host Stan Rosenthal, Leon County/University of Florida IFAS forester, joined us to talk about shade trees for your landscape.

Vine-covered lattice will block view

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: We bought a home on several acres with spectacular views just a few miles from Tallahassee a few years ago, and all was fine until a trailer home popped up on the adjacent property recently. Although it’s off in the distance, the situation has made us realize that we don’t have the privacy we thought we did. What kind of tree can we plant on our property now that will grow quickly and block the view of our neighbors?

A: That old saying “different strokes for different folks” certainly can apply when people talk about what constitutes a nice view. And it’s hard to know whether your neighbors finally got the money to buy their little piece of heaven or they lost a home in foreclosure and this is their fallback housing.

Whatever the situation, you can be a good neighbor by keeping the focus on what you have on your own property. But don’t think about planting trees right now; it’s the wrong time of year. The heat of summer increases the stress of transplanting, and more water would be required to get trees established.

I suggest you create a temporary barrier. A sheet of lattice attached to two four-by-fours, properly sited, will block the view of the neighbors and provide a framework for vines to grow up. Morning glories and sky vines are good options. So are some of the tropical vines that we treat as annuals. Bougainvillea, in particular, is a good candidate because it won’t need much water once it is established.

In the meantime, think about whether you want an evergreen tree or one that loses its leaves. Also, remember that trees planted in clumps are stronger than solo trees in the middle of a field. Consider planting several trees, but place them far enough part that each has room to grow to its full size.

And bear in mind that many trees that grow quickly lack the strength and strong root system to withstand strong winds. Plan your trees for the long haul. You can take down the lattice when your trees get large enough.

Speaking of trees: Ms. Grow-It-All’s Internet radio show on the Free World Radio Network will broadcast live at 6:30 p.m. tonight. I will be talking with guest host Stan Rosenthal, Leon County forester, about shade trees. Go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Ms_Grow-It-All and click on the link to listen live; you can call the number on the site to join the conversation. If you can’t join us, all shows are archived and available for download from my Web site.