Monthly Archives: December 2024

Trimming a Rosemary Christmas Tree

Rosemary is a popular indoor herb plant used for culinary purposes and to enhance the décor for the holiday season. Thanks to their upright growth and needle-like foliage, these fragrant herbs make perfect miniature Christmas trees, but how can you help your plant keep its shape and be a beautiful home accent all year round?

Buying and Growing a Rosemary Christmas Tree

Rosemary herb plants are easy to find during the holiday season, and are the ideal size for trimming into tree shapes. We carry the healthiest selection of rosemary bushes, including varieties of rosemary that can be difficult to find elsewhere. Another option is growing your own rosemary from a smaller plant, starting several months before you want to decorate the miniature tree – making this an ideal spring or summer project too. Choose a proper pot, ensuring it has plenty of drainage, and use nutritious potting soil to nurture the young rosemary. Provide it with proper lighting and good air circulation to minimize the risk of powdery mildew or other problems, and water it appropriately for lush growth. A small stake may be necessary to encourage straight, upright growth to ensure a tree-like shape, and regular pruning will be needed to coax the plant into a preferred form.

Pruning Rosemary

Pruning rosemary into a tree form is no more difficult than clipping fresh herbs for use, but you do need to have the proper tools for clean, safe cuts. A small pair of pruning shears or set of floral clippers is ideal. Clean them between each pruning so there are no bacteria or fungus that can be transferred around the plant, and it may be wise to reserve the pair only for your rosemary bush for extra protection, especially if you plan to give the shaped plant as a gift or use it as a holiday centerpiece.

To achieve the cone-like shape typical of a Christmas tree, leave the base of your rosemary plant full and bushy, while gradually tapering toward the top of the plant to create the pyramidal structure. If you’ve started with a smaller plant, it will be necessary to let several larger branches grow, then choose the strongest, most upright specimen to be the “trunk” of your rosemary bush. Trim all the other sprigs away, allowing that central section to thicken and grow so it can support the bush’s shape. Over time, additional branches will grow – trim the very bottom sprigs away several times before allowing them to reach out and form the bottom of the tree shape. More frequent pruning will encourage a fuller, thicker shape, while pruning less often will give your bush a more open structure. Both styles can become lovely decorations, but bear in mind the types of decorations you want to add to your rosemary tree so you can prune and train it accordingly.

Decorating a Rosemary Tree for Every Holiday

Rosemary bushes look lovely as holiday decorations if they are simply shaped and accented with a festive foil cover or bow on the pot. Canvas or decorated cloth covers with ribbons are other easy options, but many people want to jazz up their plants even more. Adding a miniature string of light-weight fairy lights, a few tiny ornaments or even a small strand of beads are easy ways to give your rosemary bush extra holiday flair, but you don’t have to confine your decorating excitement to just the Christmas season. Why not cut out felt triangles to create a jack-o-lantern face on the bush for Halloween, or stick pheasant feathers or mini pinecones into the pot to give it a harvest look for Thanksgiving? Red, white, and blue ribbons or streamers are a great Fourth of July option, and festive plant picks are available for any holiday. You can even create a small fairy hut or miniature scene in the pot with your rosemary to give it a whimsical touch all year long.

Rosemary trees may be most closely associated with the holiday season, but you can make every day a holiday when you trim your own rosemary and decorate it for any special day you wish.

Rosemary Tree

Stuff a Gardener’s Stocking

Stocking stuffers don’t have to be useless, jokey items that are quickly forgotten after the holidays. Instead, choose the appropriate stocking stuffers with a gardening twist, and even the smallest stocking will be filled with gardening fun for that special gardener in your life. No matter what type of gardener you want to buy for, we’ve got the right stocking stuffers for their green thumb!

Your gardener will love:

  • Weather stations, rain gauges
  • Window thermometers or barometers
  • Quality hand tools such as bulb diggers, trowels, pruners, and cultivators
  • Fresh gardening gloves
  • A soil pH reader
  • Soft wire and garden tie tape
  • Watering cans or wands
  • Whimsical wind chimes
  • Fairy garden accessories – new just came in!
  • Interesting  varieties of succulents
  • Garden gnomes and pink flamingos
  • Themed stepping stones or small garden statues
  • Bird feeders and ornate houses
  • Bird foods such as suet cakes or hummingbird nectar
  • A squirrel corn cob feeder
  • Songbird suet

No matter what type of gardener is on your shopping list this holiday season, there are plenty of stocking stuffer options to meet their gardening style. Stop in and finish off that shopping list today!

Tulips: Spring Starts Now!

Tips for Planting Tulips

Tulips are an easy care addition to any landscape, and they are easier to plant than many gardeners realize.

  1. Choose only top-sized bulbs without any bruises or obvious damage. Bigger bulbs generally indicate better quality and bigger flowers.
  2. Plant bulbs as soon as purchased or store in a cool, dry location.
  3. Choose a sunny (or part sun) location with well-drained, rich soil.
  4. Plant 2″ deeper than recommended to promote re-blooming each year.
  5. Apply bone meal 3 times a year – in fall when you plant, in spring as bulbs emerge from the ground and after flowering has finished. This will provide food for the foliage and bulb growth for next year’s flowers.
  6. Mulch and water the bed thoroughly after planting.
  7. Plant before the ground freezes.
  8. Deadhead flowers after they have faded, but leave the foliage to die back naturally. Do not cut off the leaves until they have turned brown, or else they will not develop large enough bulbs for a good show the next year.



Holiday “Cactus” (Schlumbergera varieties)

Have you noticed the odd-looking plants with neon bright flowers blooming since Halloween? You may know them as Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas cactus or Crab Cactus. Whatever you call them, they’re certainly bright and cheerful, and bring a bold bloom of color indoors during the winter months.

These plants don’t resemble their cactus cousins. Native to forests and jungles rather than desert regions, these plants are generally epiphytic, growing on trees or rocks. Distinctly flattened claw-like joints approximately 1″ long form the arched and hanging stems. The 2.5 – 3″ tubular blossoms emerge from the stem tips.

In case you’re wondering, the Easter cactus is a close relative but a different genus. However, in addition to blooming in the spring, another difference is the blossoms also form at the stem joints. Hybrids now bloom at different times of the year and new introductions create a wider variety of colors including pink, reddish, white, orange, purple and even multicolored blooms on the same plant. You can actually create a blooming rainbow effect over the entire year, with proper care and diligent upkeep.

The Christmas cactus usually begins flowering when night temperatures are around 55° Fahrenheit. After the buds are set, night temperatures of 60-70° Fahrenheit and slightly higher during the day are ideal. Many people summer their plants outdoors in a shady location and bring them indoors after bud set to enjoy during the holidays.
Caring for Holiday Cacti

Holiday cacti are as easy to grow as most houseplants. These easy instructions can help your Christmas cactus become part of your holiday traditions for years to come.

  1. Use general all-purpose container potting soil and a pot with sufficient drainage to protect the roots.
  2. Keep the soil moist while the cactus is blooming and allow it to become mostly dry while resting before watering again.
  3. Fertilize “weakly, weekly” while flowering. Otherwise, water every other month without fertilization.
  4. Place the cactus where it will receive bright indirect light for 6-8 hours a day. Avoid direct sunlight that can burn the plant.
  5. Transplant the cactus to a larger container when roots are very tight and blooming is less vigorous.

A holiday cactus can be a fine addition to any winter decorations, or by itself it will brighten any room for weeks with its bold, colorful blooms. With proper care, you’ll enjoy your cactus for many holiday seasons.


Birdscaping

As wildlife habitats are threatened by development, the creation of a bird-friendly environment that provides food, water and shelter is crucial to the existence of our wild bird population. Caring for our feathered-friends is an educational and enjoyable activity for the entire family that brings beauty and song to our lives.

Benefits of Wild Birds

Birds are great guests to have in your yard, garden or landscape, and they provide more benefits than many homeowners and gardeners realize. Wild birds can…

  • Control insects by feasting on both flying and crawling insects, as well as spiders, slugs, snails and other creepy-crawlies.
  • Pollinate plants by flitting from flower to flower as they seek out insects or eat seeds, taking pollen along between blooms.
  • Manage weeds as they consume copious amounts of weed seeds before the seeds ever have a chance to sprout.
  • Control rodents when raptors visit the yard in search of mice, rats, gophers, voles or other unwanted pests.

Attracting Backyard Birds

Fortunately, it is easy to attract a wide variety of backyard birds when you offer them what they need most – food, water and shelter.

Food for Birds

Wild birds rely on both natural and supplemental food supplies so it is important to consider both when birdscaping. Feeding the birds is most important in the winter when natural food is scarcer, but they will visit feeders at any time of year. Migratory birds require additional food in the spring and fall as they pass through the region and nesting birds will utilize feeders in the summer.

Tips:

  • Provide a variety of natural foods for birds by planting berry bushes, seed-bearing flowers, nectar-rich flowers and sunflowers. Leave windfall fruit on the ground for birds to nibble. Minimize pesticide use so birds can feast on insects as well.
  • Add supplemental feeders to your yard, such as birdseed feeders, suet feeders and nectar feeders. Clean feeders weekly to avoid mold that can be dangerous to birds, and be sure feeders are full when birds need them most.

Water

Improve your backyard bird habitat by adding water. Birds require a constant supply of clean water for drinking and bathing. This is especially important in late summer, when water is scarce, and in the winter, when it is frequently frozen.

Tips:

  • Place bird baths in a protected location safe from predators, and keep the baths filled at all times so a fresh supply of water is constantly available.
  • Scrub off algae as soon as it is appears and thoroughly was the bird bath each week to minimize feces contamination or other messes in the water.
  • Provide motion for greater attraction by using a bubbler, wiggler, dripper or fountain. Birds will see the sparkles of the moving water and will hear the splashes from great distances, so more birds will visit.
  • Use Mosquito Dunks to safely prevent mosquito larvae in warm weather. A clean bird bath with moving water will also harbor fewer insects.
  • Add an outdoor-safe submersible heater to the bath in winter to keep the water liquid instead of frozen, or consider using a fully heated bird bath during the coldest months.

Shelter

It is important to offer safe and comfortable shelter for your wild birds to nurture their young, protect them from predators and shield them from the elements. Planting evergreen trees and shrubs and providing bird houses, along with roosting boxes and pockets, are all beneficial additions to your birdscape.

Tips:

  • Choose both deciduous and evergreen landscaping trees and shrubs to offer birds different types of shelter in all seasons.
  • Minimize pruning to give birds denser, more secure shelter to take advantage of when they feel threatened.
  • Plant in layers and create thicket-like pockets or corridors in your landscape so birds can move around freely without feeling exposed.
  • Supplement the shelter in your yard with good quality bird houses, winter roost boxes or nesting pockets to give birds even more options to stay safe and secure.

When you meet birds’ needs for food, water and shelter, your birdscape will soon be home to a fun and friendly flock of backyard birds.