Gulf Coast Greenie

Time for Propagifts

Gardeners are accustomed to planning ahead for future seasons. Many of us have recently placed bulbs and wildflower seeds in the ground as deposits for spring blooms. Even so, one season can sneak up on us if we get carried away planning for spring: The holiday season.

I try throughout the year to gather presents to give during the holidays, but there are always some on the list that slip by me. And I always need extras for last-minute reciprocation, etc. Plants are ideal to keep on hand as back-up gifts (if not primary gifts) because you can never have too many for yourself, right?

Horticulture Magazine has a great article by Pam Baggett about propagating and gathering plants to give. She suggests potting bulbs and taking cuttings from succulents.

If you have outdoor plants that do well wintering indoors, consider sharing some of them too. Tom MacCubbin of the Orlando Sentinel has good suggestions for preparing them for the change.

I have found coleus to be a festive plant for holiday decorating and usually bring in cuttings from my favorites anyway, in case we have a freeze. They will root in water alone, but I've found they stay healthier in soil. If they happen to get spider mites, I wash the leaves thoroughly in the sink.

Mixing red and green succulents together would be pretty too.

I'd love to hear your gardening gift ideas. Please write them in below.

Hot Volcanoes in Clear Lake!

I recently came upon a devastating scene in my neighborhood: The unnatural occurrence of hot volcanoes in a suburb on our beloved coastal prairie.

I present them here in my own rendering to preserve the anonymity of the property owners.

Fresh wood chips flow inexplicably from tree to tree, piled against each trunk as high as two feet

The "tree volcano" is not a new phenomenon, and I am not the first to refer to them as such. Before seeing those depicted above, I had already heard of the unfortunate practice but had not seen them created with hot mulch.

Hot mulch is mulch that has not decomposed sufficiently, that might pose a chemical danger to desirable plants. My (most-likely unwitting) neighbors used freshly chipped wood of another tree to create pyramidal stacks of potentially toxic material around their beautiful trees. To what purpose?

Last year, The Chronicle's Kathy Huber responded to a poignant letter from a resident of a sister community who wrote, "Houstonians are enthusiastic mulchers and have a 'style' of mulching trees. The mulch [. . . is] piled against the bark at the base of the tree. Doesn't this practice rot the bark?"

Her reply aptly begins, "It's not wise [. . . ]" (Read Kathy's full response here.) Carol Brouwer, PhD, of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service - Harris County seems to agree with that summation and teaches residents to use partially decomposed mulch that is placed wide rather than deep (2"-4" deep).

Young trees should be mulched to the drip line, which is as far as the outermost leaves reach, because trees compete with other plants for moisture and nutrients.

In this time of drought and bark beetle threats, it is particularly important that we give trees what they need rather than what we may want for our turf.

Below is my depiction of what a turf lover with mature trees who waters the tree roots adequately during a drought might be able to get away with:

The mulch is only wide enough to protect from a lawnmower, but it is not too deep. The root flare is visible, and nothing clings to the trunk.

If that doesn't look good to you, and you have mature trees you care for properly otherwise, there is another option: The natural one.

Whatever you do, please keep volcanoes out of the Gulf Coast. Hurricanes are quite enough.

Let me know your thoughts.

Sometimes a Nanny is Best

I fell in love with Hibiscus schizopetalus (aka Chinese lantern, Japanese lantern, fringed rosemallow, waltzing lady, and skeleton hibiscus) when I saw it in the pre-Ike Moody Gardens rainforest pyramid several years ago. I read up on it before ordering one online and found that it's not very cold hardy, so I decided to keep it as a house plant. After all, I saw it thriving indoors at Moody Gardens -- who needs a rainforest pyramid when you have love?

After a year of attractive foliage but no blooms, I decided it probably wasn't getting enough light where I initially put it and moved it to our very sunny breakfast room. After another year, I realized its soil wasn't consistently damp. I had been watering it every week or so, but it always seemed dry by the next watering.

Another year went by before I seriously started looking for help. That may sound like a long time, but the plant was otherwise healthy, so it didn't seem urgent. I didn't want to rush it, so deep was my respect for the plant.

First I tried the blown-glass waterers. They either gave out the water too fast or, outside in my garden's clay, not at all. Then I got some good advice from Harris County Precinct 2 Master Gardener Louis Mickler, who teaches gardeners to use miniature terra cotta pots as inexpensive plant sitters. He uses them to help with propagation of cuttings. The terra cotta lets out just enough moisture to keep the soil appropriately damp.

Shrimp-plant cuttings in soil minded by a terra cotta insert.

If you can't find really small terra cotta pots at nurseries or home-improvement stores, you might be able to find them at hobby stores, according to Louis. The trickiest part is stopping up the hole in the bottom. It takes something that will not only hold up in water but also adhere to the terra cotta, like sticky tape for pond equipment. You'll also want to cover the top to keep mosquitoes out.

The little pots have worked great for me when I'm able to refill them every couple of days. When I go out of town, however, a more expensive option has helped me out. I bought a set that includes a terra cotta sheath and conical bottle top that slides into it. I use old club soda bottles with it, and, depending on the pot and the plant, a liter can last a month or more.

My beautiful schizopetalus finally bloomed for me, with a little help from the nanny. Now I'm making big plans for spring propagation. Hopefully by next fall I'll have a number of little schizopetaluses so I can keep some outside too, where they probably belong.