In the garden

— Q I have a smallish garden spot (4 feet wide by 20 feet long) that receives mostly shade during the summer with about three hours of intense sunlight in the afternoon, say 1 to about 4 p.m. Will potato or onion plants be successful in this spot?

A No, even though it is intense sun, they both need more than three hours of sunlight. Plus,both are cool-season vegetables that should be planted now through early April.

For early planting, try lettuce or greens, which don’t produce a fruit, and herbs such as oregano, pennyroyal or fennel in summer.

Q I received a Christmas cactus two years ago from a friend when she was replanting one. I received another slip from her plant this fall. Neither one of them has ever bloomed more than one to three blooms.

Some people say to water weekly, some whenever it is dry.

Some say keep it in a window on the east side of the house and some say it doesn’t matter. Some use fertilizer each time they water, and some have never used fertilizer - and all have success with blooming. I am wondering what is the best care for my plant.

A Christmas cactus needs to be chilled to set flower buds.

If your plant stays inside year-round at a constant temperature, you will probably never see many blooms. If you move it outdoors for the summer and leave it out through cool weather in the fall, it will set a copious amount of flower buds. Once the buds are set, bring it indoors and enjoy. If you have a cool room in the house, you can move it there. It needs several weeks of temperatures in the 40s to low 50s to initiate buds.

While they also like bright days and dark nights, temperatures more than anything will help with flowering. Water when dry, not necessarily on a schedule, and never fertilize every time you water. Once or twice a year is sufficient.

Q We planted red tips as a screen along a fence line in our backyard years ago. This is not something that we would do again. The ice and snow storm over Christmas was not kind to them, to say the least. We now agree with your feelings about these shrubs. What would you suggest as replacements?

A Photenias not only took a hit by winter storms, but have been plagued with disease for years. Remove them and consider your options.

Several hollies, including lusterleaf, Foster holly or Nellie R. Stevens, will grow nicely. Little Gem magnolia makes a more formal screen, while Bright and Tight cherry laurels can be nice too. You can also plant eleagnus, standard loropetalum, cleyera and cryptomeria. Visit your local nursery and see which you like best.

Q When is the proper time to trim these old nandina shrubs? Last year whenever we trimmed them was wrong as we didn’t have our beautiful red berries at Christmas as we usually did. They add to our outside decor and we really missed them this year.

A Nandinas are cane-producing plants which should be thinned at the base if they need pruning, not pruned at the top. Taking out up to one-third of the old canes at the soil line will reduce size but leave plenty of mature canes to flower and produce berries. Top pruning can reduce blooms, but it also makes the plants full at the tops while they get woodier and woodier at the base - not a good look for the plant. I like to prune as they are losing their winter red color.

Janet Carson is a horticulture specialist for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. Write to her at 2301 S. University Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72204 or e-mail her at [email protected]

HomeStyle, Pages 33 on 02/23/2013

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