Garden letters

Editor's Notebook

There are so many things to do to get ready for the holidays-baking cookies, checking the eggnog for salmonella, using caller ID to avoid phone calls from that annoying collection agency, and remembering exactly what your wife said she wanted for Christmas on Tuesday, July 16 at 9:31 p.m. But there is one more vital detail you must address-how to buy a beautiful poinsettia with blooms that will last until your visiting sister, her husband, and every one of the screaming banshees they call children have packed their minivan and headed home to Little Rock. To do that, you must realize that the brilliant red, pink, or white things you call poinsettia flowers aren't blooms at all but colorful leaves called bracts. The true flowers are tiny, budlike, and bunched at the top of the stalk. Choose poinsettias with true flowers that are tightly closed or just beginning to open. They'll stay colorful longer than those with fully open flowers. Well, here's hoping you have a nice Christmas. As for me, just pray my wife can't remember what she asked me for on July 16 either. (Not a chance.) -STEVE BENDER

My Norfolk Island pint has grown steadily over the years and is now an inch from the ceiling. I have no other place to put it. Can it be pruned?

NANCY GROVES - LAWRENCEVILLE, GEORGIA

Sure. Just cut out the top at the height you want. New growth will sprout near the point of the cut. Of course, this isn't the only solution. The fine folks at PETAH (People for the Ethical Treatment of All Houseplants) prefer you to raise your ceiling or lower your floor.

I have two beautiful potted bromeliads that are growing in partial sun and will not bloom. Any ideas?

KATHY GAUTREAUX

HOUMA, LOUISIANA

Well, at the moment we are pondering the theoretical possibility of black holes leading to parallel universes, but that really has nothing to do with your question. One way to encourage recalcitrant bromeliads to bloom is to seal them inside a bag with a couple of apple slices. Ripening apples give off ethylene gas, which causes bromeliads to bloom. A bromeliad flowers only once. However, offshoots or "pups" that form at the base of the mother plant will bloom when they get large enough.

My 6-foot-tall sago palm has developed multiple heads. Instead of the typical sago form, it looks more like a shrub. Can anything be done to restore it to an orderly appearance?

EARLENE CALO

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

A sago palm (Cycas revoluta) naturally produces multiple crowns. Offshoots form at the base and grow into larger plants unless removed. A plant with a branching trunk is rare. You can cut off one of the trunks, or wait for the plant to produce an offshoot and then cut off the entire mother plant. But, either way, you stand a good chance of ruining your sago's appearance. Our advice is to let your palm be and learn to love it.

Our Norway spruce was 2 feet tall when we planted it in 1985. It's now at least 50 feet tall and smothering the six English heathers I planted around its base at that time. Should I dig up and move the heathers? Would that damage the spruce? Or should I remove some of the tree's lower branches?

PAULINE ANDERSON

RADFORD, VIRGINIA

Heathers don't have deep roots, so you could probably move them during the dormant season without harming the spruce. Or you could remove the spruce's lower branches all the way up to head height. This won't hurt the tree but will give the heathers the room and light they need. Prune off the branches at the trunk during winter.

Tip of the Month

I drink herbal tea and save the bags. Once a week, I steep the old tea bags for several minutes in hot water, let it cool, and then water my potted plants with it. My plants are green and glossy, and they grow like mad.

CLARA NULL

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

Tips of the Month are ideas readers say work for them. We do not test them. Submit tips on a postcard with your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address to Garden Tips, Southern Living, P.O. Box 523, Birmingham, AL 35201 or by e-mail to southernliving@customersvc.com. For each published tip you will receive $25.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Dec 2002
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