Food-Gardening Lessons From A Wartime Victory Garden

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Author: JESSIE KEITH

Plants are the lens Jessie views the world through because they’re all-sustaining. (“They feed, clothe, house and heal us. They produce the air we breathe and even make us smell pretty.”) She’s a garden writer and photographer with degrees in both horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities. Her degrees were bolstered by internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society. She has since worked for many horticultural institutions and companies and now manages communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. Her joy is sharing all things green and lovely with her two daughters.

Why Didn’t My Cannas Bloom?

“This year, I didn’t get many blooms on my cannas. Any ideas?” Question from Gloria of Morgan Hill, California

Answer: I’m sorry to hear that your cannas did not bloom well. Let me cover everything that they need to grow and flower to their fullest, followed up by some danger areas, and you can troubleshoot from there.

What Cannas Need to Grow Well

Cannas (Canna species and hybrids, Zones 8-11) are lush, tropical to subtropical perennials adapted to full to partial sun, and rich moist to average soils. Providing a boost of continuous-release fertilizer formulated for flowers always encourages good blooming. They originate from warm regions of the Americas where climates are humid and rainy. When growing conditions are ideal, they will flower with no trouble. If they are not hardy where you live, dig their rhizomes in fall and store them in a cool, dark place through winter.

Conditions that Discourage Canna Flowering

Here are several suboptimal growing conditions that will discourage blooming cannas: too little water, too little light, low humidity, and too little fertilizer.

There are also several viral diseases that will discourage growth and flowering in cannas. These include the Canna yellow streak virus (CaYSV) and Canna yellow mottle virus (CaYMV), among others. Plants with these diseases show abnormal leaves with browning or yellowing streaks of mottled patterns. If your canna leaves exhibit either, dispose of the plants immediately and replace them with certified virus-free stock (specialty growers are usually the most reliable source). Be sure not to reuse the potting soil, if your plants are in containers.

I hope that this helps!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

How Long Should My Pineapple Top Stay in Water Before Planting?

How Long Should My Pineapple Top Stay in Water Before Planting?

“How long should I keep my pineapple plant in water before planting?” Question from Daniel of Omaha, Nebraska

Answer: It is always fun to start your own pineapple plants from tops! And, if you give them the right care, they may even produce fruit for you–even more exciting! You will know that your top is ready to plant when it has developed roots that are 2 to 3 inches long or longer. To plant it correctly, follow these steps.

How to Plant and Grow a Pineapple

  1. Prepare your pineapple top for planting after it has developed roots that are 2 to 3 inches long or longer.
  2. Choose a pot that has drainage holes at the bottom and is at least 8 to 10 inches across.
  3. Use a fast-draining planting mix suited for bromeliads, like pineapples. Black Gold Cactus Mix is a good choice.
  4. Fill the pot with soil until there are 4 inches of headspace at the top. Place the pineapple top in and cover its roots–being sure to leave 2 inches of space at the top of the pot for watering.
  5. Water your pineapple until water runs through the pot and fills the saucer at the bottom.
  6. Place your pineapple in a sunny spot indoors. Water it every three days or so.
  7. After one week, feed it with a water-soluble fertilizer formulated for bromeliads. From there, feed it monthly.

Pineapples grow best in warm rooms (65 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit) with good humidity. Occasionally spritzing the leaves with bottled spring water can be helpful. Once your plant begins to grow and fill out, it may take several months to a year before it sets fruit.

Happy gardening!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

How Can I Remove Spider Mites from My Adenium?

“Help!  My 4-year-old Adenium has always thrived.  Last year it put out 6 seed pods and this year the blooms were massive overpowering any green.  When the blooms finally stopped all the older leaves turned yellow and dropped.  But new ones were coming out.  Now the new ones are all curling and while green on the top the bottoms have brown spots.  It’s in the sun all day long and while we had a wet spring (before the blooms) the summer has been dry and hot.  When the leaves started turning yellow (over a month ago) I noticed spider mites so I sprayed them with an insecticide soap for 2 weeks and they are gone but now the leaves are all curled and brown spots on the underside only.  How can I save this plant?” Question from Julie of McKinney Texas

Answer: The good thing is the succulents like Adeniums have lots of stored energy, so once you totally rid them of the spider mites, they will bounce back quickly. To truly eradicate the mites, you will have to spray more than just the foliage.

How to Treat Plants for Spider Mites

Here are the steps I would take to completely remove spider mites from an Adenium.

  1. Remove damaged, yellowing leaves.
  2. Wipe down the base of the plant and stems.
  3. Wipe down the pot.
  4. Remove the top 2 inches of potting mix, and replace it with a quality cactus mix, such as Black Gold Cactus Mix.
  5. Fertilize with a water-soluble fertilizer formulated for flowering plants.
  6. Spray all plant parts with insecticidal soap or Neem oil.

The white-paper test is my favorite way to further test for mites. Take a clean piece of white paper, hold it beneath the leaves, then tap the leaves onto the paper. If you have mites, tiny specs will fall, and eventually, they will start crawling around. These are spider mites. Continue to do the tap test and gently wipe down leaves and stems and spray them until healthy new growth appears and remains undamaged. It may take time, but you can overcome spider mites.

Happy gardening!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

What Florida Garden Plants Like Shade and Wet Soil?

What Florida Garden Plants Like Shade and Wet Soil?

“Can you tell me of a good, hardy plant that can survive in a shady spot that gets wet frequently here in SW Florida? It’s along my house facing North but floods when we get lots of rain, but the flooding never lasts more than a day?” Question from Colleen of Englewood, Florida

Answer: There are a number of attractive landscape plants suited to shady spots with intermittent flooding where you live in Florida. Here are just a few.

Florida Garden Plants for Moist Shade

Canna Lilies (Canna hybrids) grow well in partial shade, have beautiful leaves and flowers, and thrive in wet and average soils. I like the manageability of dwarf varieties.

Florida Gamma Grass (Tripsacum floridana) is a tidy, grassy perennial native to your region that will grow in partial shade. It will tolerate both bouts of drought and standing water.

African Iris (Dietes bicolor) is a groundcover for shade that tolerates periodic wet soil and has attractive iris-like yellow flowers.

Elephant Ears (Colocasia spp) thrive in moist soils and shade, come in many sizes and colors, and have beautiful big, bold leaves.

Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema commutatum) is a house plant up north but grows beautifully in the landscape down in Florida where it can take moist soils and shade.

White Begonia (Begonia popenoei) is a large-leaved, shade-loving begonia that does not mind wet soils now and then.

For more plants suited to your moist-shade location, reach out to your local Florida extension agent (click here to find yours).

Happy gardening,

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

When is the Best Time to Transplant Roses?

When is the Best Time to Transplant Roses?

“When is the best time to transplant roses?” Question from Betty in Omaha, Nebraska

Answer: It is always better to give roses a full season to establish roots, especially in colder zones like yours, USDA Hardiness Zone 5. Many roses are just hardy to where you live, another reason to plant or transplant them in spring. The more established a plant is, the better able it is to withstand harsh, cold winters.

When you do transplant your roses, be sure to dig around the root system and wrap the rootball in burlap to keep the ball intact and disturb as few roots as possible while moving it. Have a hole ready and waiting to plant it in. Be sure to feed your new rose with organic alfalfa meal and mulch around the base. Black Gold Garden Compost Blend makes a great mulch that also feeds the soil. Water it deeply twice weekly, in the absence of rain, until it becomes well established. I encourage you to watch the video below to get more tips on growing roses to perfection.

Happy rose growing,

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

What Caused My Azaleas to Suddenly Die?

What Caused My Azaleas to Suddenly Die?

“I have many azalea bushes in my yard, and this year, I had three suddenly die off. I couldn’t detect any pests or that type of issue. They were around a tree, and all four lost their leaves very quickly. One has sprouted green. One seems quite dead, and the other two are still bendable and not dead, but have no leaves. Any thoughts on what caused this? Also, do you feel the others that are bendable may come back?” Question from Mary of Longwood, Florida

Answer: There are several fungal diseases that can cause stem dieback and/or sudden death in azaleas. All become more pronounced when there is excess moisture, humidity, and the soil is not sharply drained. Here are the top three possibilities.

Azaleas Diseases that Cause Sudden Death

  1. Phytophthora Root Rot (Phytophthora cinnamomi) is a common, fast-acting, deadly disease of azaleas, and excess soil moisture and warmth encourage its growth and spread. Some infected plants will wilt and die very quickly. Others will grow slowly and may have poor-looking living branches, but infected plants typically succumb to death pretty quickly. To identify this disease, look for discolored, reddish-brown roots that are dead or dying. Badly infected plants will show the same discoloration on the lower stems. Remove all infected shrubs and dispose of them away from your garden. Sadly, this disease remains in the soil, so consider raising the soil in your beds to encourage better drainage, and plant something different in the spots. (Click here for good information about the best Florida landscape plants.)
  2. Phytophthora Dieback (Phytophthora cactorum) is the most common azalea disease that causes dieback. It is also a disease caused by poor soil drainage. The first symptom is wilting with leaves that curve inward. One difference from root rot is that the roots look blackened and pull up easily. The stem will often show brown discoloration at the base near the soil surface. Treat as you would for Phytophthora root rot.
  3. Rhizoctonia Root Rot (Rhizoctonia solani) is a deadly disease that behaves like the others, but the plants exhibit severe brown and black spots on the leaves, so I don’t think that this is the disease that took your azaleas.

When removing any diseased plant material, rake away and remove any dead leaf or stem material that may be contaminated with disease-causing spores. When pruning your surviving azaleas, avoid cross-contamination by cleaning your pruners in a 10% bleach solution when making cuts from one plant to another. Adding additional topsoil and amending beds and new planting areas with fertile organics, like Black Gold Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, will help any future azaleas that you plant.

Underwatering Azaleas

Azaleas properly planted in well-drained soil need regular water. One other less likely option is that your shrubs dried up due to lack of water. If this could be the cause, I suggest laying drip hose around the remaining azaleas, applying mulch, and irrigating the shrubs once or twice weekly in the absence of drenching rain.

I hope that this helps!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist 

What Hardy Roses will Tolerate Partial Shade?

What Hardy Rose will Tolerate Partial Shade?

“What rose will tolerate dry partial shade in zone 5b?” Question from Trish of Newton, New Jersey

Answer: Most roses are full-sun shrubs that require 6 or more hours of sun per day and average water, but there are a few that can take partial shade (4 to 6 hours of sun per day). Amending the soil with peat moss, applying a 2-3-inch layer of quality mulch, and providing them with drip irrigation are simple fixes that will overcome dry soil troubles.

Roses Tolerant of Partial Shade

Most shade-tolerant roses are contemporary varieties of antique shrub roses. Some of the best have been bred by the English rose breeder, David Austin (click here to view 6 David Austin roses for partial shade that are hardy to your zone). Another for partial shade is the apricot-flowered shrub rose Roald Dahl, which I have growing in my garden. The ever-blooming shrub rose is quite fragrant and easy to grow. If you are interested in a climbing rose for partial shade, try the French antique rose, ‘Zéphirine Drouhin‘. Its large, rose-pink flowers are fragrant, and its twining stems are thorn-free–another bonus.

To learn more about how to grow roses, I recommend watching the video below.

Happy rose growing,

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

Do Blueberries and Strawberries Need to be Fertilized?

Do Blueberries and Strawberries Need to be Fertilized?

“Do blueberries and strawberries need to be fertilized?” Question from Melanie of Holton, Michigan

Answer: Absolutely! Fertilization will encourage better growth, flowering, and fruit set. Each berry type has different needs when it comes to fertilizer.

Fertilizing Blueberries

Blueberries grow best in more acid soils (pH between 4.5 and 5.5) and require a specialty fertilizer formulated for acid-loving plants and/or berries. I generally fertilize in spring with a continuous-release fertilizer, but how you fertilize will depend on the product you choose. Follow the manufacturer’s application recommendations. There are many types of blueberry shrubs. To learn more, watch our video all about choosing and growing blueberries.

Fertilizing Strawberries

Strawberries like soils with a more neutral pH, and are less fussy. To encourage berry production, choose a specialty fertilizer formulated for strawberries or berries. There are many on the market. If your strawberries are June-bearing then I recommend fertilizing them in early spring and again later in the season, depending on what fertilizer you choose. If your strawberries are everbearing, then I would fertilize them with a continuous-release fertilizer in spring as well as a water-soluble fertilizer that will encourage them to produce berries through summer. For more information about growing strawberries watch this video.

I hope that this information helps!

happy berry growing,

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

Why Aren’t My Pumpkins Fruiting?

Why Aren’t My Pumpkins Fruiting

“How do I get my Pumpkins to get past just flowering?” Question from Marilyn of Roseburg, Oregon

Answer: I am sorry to hear that your pumpkins are not producing! There are lots of things that could keep your pumpkins from setting fruit. Let’s start with what pumpkin vines need to grow and produce fruit.

What Pumpkins Need to Fruit

  1. Full sun (8 hours per day or more)
  2. Fertile, well-drained soil
  3. Regular water
  4. Fertilization with an all-purpose vegetable fertilizer
  5. Space–Vines require plenty of space to grow and branch.
  6. Time–Check the days to harvest for your pumpkin variety. If it is 100 days or more, then it is a late producer and just needs more time.

What Keeps Pumpkins from Fruiting

  1. Lack of female flowers (see below)
  2. Lack of pollinators–Bees pollinate pumpkin flowers, which is essential for them to fruit.
  3. Excessive heat– Very hot days (above 95 degrees F) and warm nights (above 75 degrees F) can stress vines to the point where they do not fruit.
  4. Too little light–Vines lack the energy to produce fruit.
  5. Too little time–If late-producing vines are planted too late in the season, they will not have enough time to fruit.
  6. Pests and disease–There are many pests and diseases that can reduce fruit output in pumpkins. If your vines look healthy, then don’t worry about this possibility.

Pumpkin Flowers and Fruiting

All squash, pumpkins included, have two flower types–male and female. Male blooms appear first on the vines as simple yellow flowers with stamens covered in yellow pollen. Female flowers develop towards the vine tips and have little fruits at the base of the yellow flowers as well as a single, central pistil in each bloom. If your vine has both flower types, then pollination failure could be the problem. Without pollination, developing fruits just shrivel. The solution is hand-pollination. Simply use a small brush to move pollen from a newly-opened male flower to a newly-opened female flower. It’s fast, easy, and will yield pumpkins.

It is quite possible that your vines are healthy and on the verge of producing. Time may be the only factor limiting their fruiting. Many late pumpkins will not start bearing until September. Keep me posted. I would love to hear the end of your pumpkin story.

Happy gardening

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

 

Click here to view my top 10 list of best-tasting pumpkins and winter squash!

Why Did My Pear Trees Lose Their Fruits?

Why Did My Pear Trees Lose Their Fruit?

“I had a pear tree with pears and then before they were ready, bam, no pears. They all fell to the ground. How can I get them to stay on the tree?” Question from Stephanie of Tylertown, Mississippi

Answer: What a disappointment. There are lots of factors at play when it comes to nurturing a fruit tree to production. Let me simply cover what you can do to keep your pear trees happy, and what factors can potentially lead to fruit drop (information derived from the Pear Production and Handling Manual by Elizabeth J. Mitcham, ‎Rachel B. Elkins (2007)). You can troubleshoot from there.

What Pear Trees Need to Produce Fruit

  1. Fertile, well-drained soil
  2. Mild spring weather and good pollination
  3. Average water
  4. Proper fertilization with a balanced fertilizer, such as 10-10-10 (follow the manufacturer’s directions)
  5. Full sun that penetrates into the tree branches
  6. Balanced crop load (thinning small fruits on loaded branches can encourage fruit set and improve quality.)

Causes for Premature Fruit Drop in Pear Trees

  1. Temperatures that are too hot (85 degrees F and up) or too cool (55 degrees F or lower)
  2. High winds and low humidity
  3. Leaf loss due to pests and disease
  4. Excessively wet or dry soils
  5. Heavy crop load

If your trees are missing anything in the “Need” list, or if they experienced any of the negative conditions in the “Premature Fruit Drop” list, the composite caused your trees to lose this year’s fruit. Hopefully, this knowledge will give you what you need to help your trees produce lots of good fruit next year.

Happy Gardening,

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist