Ed Hume Answers Your Gardening Questions
Ed Hume cannot answer all of the garden questions he receives, but questions
of general interest will be answered here every month. Email your questions
to HumeSeeds@aol.com. Please
note: we do not accept attachments.
Before submitting a question, be sure to check the index
of previous questions and answers or search our
site using key words. Many questions have already been answered
here on the site.
Other May Links
 I have a mock orange, which
I planted about 6 yrs ago. It has never blossomed. Any advice?
 Yes, sometimes the plants get
too much attention and bypass their flower buds. Feed the plant in March,
April and May…once each month with a Blossom type fertilizer. Read and
follow label instructions.
I planted camellias last year.
They wintered well and put out lots of blooms, but they quickly turned brown
on the edges. What happened?
Brown edges are usually caused
by frost, rain, lack of moisture during the winter or fertilizer burn. However,
a disease can also cause it. Give it another year and see how it reacts next
year. In the meantime, be certain the plant gets enough moisture over
winter…as the broad leaves tend to shed rainfall to the sides and the
plant often gets bone dry underneath.
I dug up my daffodils and
tulips and replanted most of them immediately but had no place for the rest
of them. By the next day, the roots were all dried up but the leaves are
still attached--they were already all wilted and dried out when I dug them
up. So now what to do with them...let them dry with the leaves still attached
and wait until fall to put them in the new flower bed which I will make this
summer or what? Husband says to cut the leaves off and I say not until they
are totally dried out. What do you say?
In research done by the bulb
growers in Holland, they say you can cut off the leaves of Daffodils and
Tulips, 21 days after they finish flowering. The best thing for you to do
is heal in the bulbs you have dug. They are apt to dry out even more if you
try to store them until this fall.
Is it okay to cut peony stalks
to the ground after blooming, or do I have to wait for the plant to dry out
as you do bulbs?
You should wait for the stalks
to begin to die back, before cutting them.
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