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- As
a gardener you may have heard of ethylene. It’s the gas that apples and
lots of other flowers give off in storage and it effects the plant hormones
and makes bananas ripen quickly if they are stored nearby. It’s why
greengrocers don’t store their apples and bananas in the same cold store
or they would ripen too fast.
- Native
orchid growers use rotting banana skins to prompt their terrestrial orchids
to flower, in the same way that those orchids would after a bushfire, when
loads of ethylene is released from the burnt soil. This ethylene gas is also
produced by car exhausts, cigarette smoke and
from a range of cut flowers and it damages potted plants and indoor plants in
particular, causing leaf yellowing and flowers to be shed.
- Commercial
flower growers currently treat their flowers in transit with silver
thiosulphate (STS) to prevent the effects of ethylene on their stock, but
it’s expensive and not very responsible environmentally, due to the heavy
metal residues. There is
however new hope in a product to be tested soon in Australia, by Colourwise
(a large plant wholesaler in NSW) that has proven to be both effective and
environmentally safe to use in US trails. Let’s hope it works, as it will
greatly help to clean up the cut flower and nursery industry.
- It’s
a good time right now to cut back herbs such as thyme, oregano and marjoram,
whether in pots of the ground. These can be pruned to bare stems and they
will re-shoot, but leave the basil to run to seed. It will often self seed
if grown in a good aspect. If in pots move to your sunniest aspect.
- In
fact most pots can be moved into a sunnier aspect right now. The sun
although abundant in recent times is not all that hot and most plants will
benefit by a move. If you have large pots a small hand truck for $30-40 at
your local hardware store makes a light task of it. Cheaper than
Chiropractic bills too!
- If
you potted cyclamen are on the move and have started to bud, it’s time to
start feeding them in earnest. Use a high potassium fertilizer, not a
controlled release, as the low soil temperatures over the next few months
slow that form of nutrient release right down. Water-soluble tomato
fertilizer is fine. That assures a long succession of healthy flowers.
- There
is still plenty of time to plant some of our best spring flowering bulbs and
ranunculus corms are certainly worth considering. They are probably the
cheapest flowers you can plant, but make sure you plant them so that their
little finger like rootlet on the corm all point downwards. They are planted
with the top of the corm just 2cm under the soil. Preferring sandy loam to
clay in full sun they will thrive.
- The
ranunculus also makes the ideal potted plant too. That’s where the free
draining mix is perfect for them. They flower their heads off and there are
some lovely dwarfing forms. If you feel that corms take too long to flower,
buy a punnet of seedlings in two weeks time. The best cultivar locally is
‘Bloomingdale’ with big bright flowers.
- A
stunning pansy mixture I saw recently was ‘Song Song’ blue, with huge
blooms in a range of blues with some white bits for contrast. It is from a
series of pansies that have proven to be very hardy in this area, so that
they keep flowering in late spring.
- All
the hype on planting bulbs is at the start of the season, but most bulbs can
easily be planted at any time over the next two months, however hyacinths
seem to appreciate longer in the soil than other bulbs.
- If
using the ‘stratifying method’ to get your tulips and daffodils to
flower early in the season, they will need at least 6-8 weeks in the crisper
of your fridge before you plant them, so they will need to be acquired
pretty soon. I stress crisper, not the freezer! If planting into pots or
tubs the recommended planting depths need to be modified, so that where a
tulip is suggested to be planted with its base at 16cm, in a pot 10cm is
adequate, with at least 15cm potting medium below the bulb.
- The
depth of potting medium below the bulb in a pot is more important than that
above. Make sure the media you use is very free draining and that’s where
I avoid the premium mixtures, because they hold too much moisture in winter
for bulbs. Get the cheap pine bark mixture and make sure there is no
fertilizer or any organic pellets in contact with your newly planted bulbs,
even if you have to use a thin layer of sharp sand as a barrier, or your
bulbs will rot off.
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