DATE: Sunday, November 9, 1997              TAG: 9711080061

SECTION: HOME                    PAGE: G3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: GARDENING QUESTIONS

SOURCE: BY ROBERT STIFFLER, GARDENING COLUMNIST 

                                            LENGTH:  191 lines

REMEMBER TO SPREAD ROOTS BEFORE PLANTING

I just bought a camellia in a one-gallon pot from a local garden center and planned to repot it into a three-gallon pot for later planting. When I removed the container, I discovered the plant had three main roots that wound around in the pot. When I untangled the roots, they extended out from the trunk 24 inches, making it impossible to repot.

I decided to heel it in until I prepared the bed it was intended for. If I had put that plant in the ground without first untangling the roots, I would have had a very unhappy plant.

Unfortunately, girdling roots is a common problem in gardening. This explains why many plants do not do well, especially several years after planting, when the offending roots become large enough to literally choke the plant.

Garden centers often do not provide instructions to spread the roots before placing in another container or in the ground. I think you would provide a valuable service by reminding your readers to do this.

It also would he helpful to remind camellia growers that their plants like a high-phosphate fertilizer, such as superphosphate, applied in the fall. This promotes improved flower development and color and enhances root growth. Many people think plants become totally dormant in the colder months, not realizing that roots continue to grow.

Other plants also like phosphate. I could not get a healthy bouganvillea to bloom for three years, but three weeks after weekly applications of liquid blooming and rooting fertilizer with an analysis of 9-59-8, it began forming bracts and is now beautiful.

T. Winston Gouldin, M.D., Norfolk

Thank you to Dr. Gouldin, who is president of the Virginia Camellia Society. Yours is helpful information for readers. Always untangle plant roots when removing a plant from a container. Cut, if necessary, to free up the roots.

After reading your column and taking advantage of Barbara Long's generosity, I thought ``one good turn deserves another.'' I have some plants your readers might want: blue spiderwort, June-bearing strawberries, which I've been using as a low ground cover, purple cleome seeds and a heap of the standard orange-yellow cannas.

If people are interested, please have them send a postage-paid, self-addressed padded envelope, small box (for more plants) or a regular envelope for seeds. Please mark each package as to what is wanted. I'll appreciate no calls and no visitors. Thank you and a big thank you to Ms. Long.

David Polaha, Virginia Beach

Yours is a generous offer and I hope readers will carefully follow your directions to get the free plants they want. Requests should go to David Polaha, 843 Muth Lane, Virginia Beach, Va. 23462-1113.

You had an article last year about keeping squirrels out of tomato plants. I clipped the article but cannot find it. The squirrels want to finish off my tomatoes, so could you please get me this information promptly?

Also can you tell me where I can purchase your book on gardening?

Polly Hunter, Kitty Hawk, N.C.

Are you sure it's squirrels attacking your tomatoes? Normally, it's birds. Squirrels prefer mutilating peaches and other fruit. I'd use some Agri-tape, the red and silver mylar tape, that scares off birds. Buy some Prevent at a garden center and sprinkle it around your tomato plants. It's a hot pepper powder designed for use in bird feeders but should work around tomatoes.

There is also a hot pepper spray, sold in red plastic bottles, that is an insect repellent, and the bottle says it repels squirrels and rabbits. You'd need to spray it directly on your green and ripening tomatoes and then wash it off before you use them.

Call Steve Brumfield at Manteo Book Sellers (473-1221) and they might have some of my books. It is sold out at most stores but is being reprinted and should be available again around Thanksgiving.

This is my second summer in a new house on a 15,000-square-foot lot that was vacant for almost 30 years. My grass is fescue that is overrun with crabgrass, as well as only a few weeds, thanks to Weed-B-Gon. I would love to poison the yard and start over, but that is too costly.

At the beginning of this season, I spread Sta-Green's Weed & Feed, followed by two applications, two months apart, of Pro Care Premium 10-10-10 all purpose plant food. What is the best way to get a beautiful, full and healthy lawn? Please send me information on what I need to purchase and the best times to apply.

G. Joseph Sprucebank, Portsmouth

A good lawn has three requirements - seed, feed and water. It takes three years to build a lawn you can be proud of, so you've a year to go. Here are my suggestions. Reseed with fescue. It should have been done between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15. Before or on the same day you seed, fertilize with 10-10-10 or one of the many ``starter'' fertilizers on the market. One month after seeding, fertilize with a high-nitrogen turf food such as 35-5-10. Apply the same fertilizer again one month later.

In late October, spray for weeds rather than use weed and feed. Spraying is less costly and more efficient. In early March, apply a crabgrass prevention product, ideally one without fertilizer. If you can find only products that combine fertilizer and crabgrass preventer, you need not fertilize again next spring. If you use a crabgrass preventer only, fertilize in early April with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. If you still have weeds in May and June, spray with a weed killer.

After seeding, and all fall, make sure your lawn receives the equivalent of 1 inch of water per week. Repeat this process every fall and your lawn soon should be one to be proud of, at an affordable cost.

Regarding a question on pussy willows from Betty Jackson of Hampton, I've had excellent luck growing them in Virginia Beach. Mine is now 4 years old. I prune it regularly, because I didn't realize when I planted it how large it would grow. I cut the bush back in February, when buds are just coming out. This year I waited too long and the buds, like Mrs. Jackson's, got to be 3 inches long.

I use pussy willows for flower arrangements. I've started new plants by taking a branch and putting it in the ground. It takes a while, but now I have two more plants coming up.

Karen A. Swiney, Virginia Beach

Thanks for your suggestions on how to successfully grow pussy willows in Hampton Roads. I've never had much luck, and I hope yours live to a ripe old age. I suspect, from observation, that they're short-lived in this climate.

My childhood friend is searching high and low to find the flower described in this letter. The flower was in her family garden all her life but the property has changed hands. She has looked in the yard but to no avail. The yard is covered with weeds.

The flower is baby blue with a ``bunny head'' in the center with two ears and a face. The foliage is very soft, lacy green. You can open the little face with your fingers and that's where the pollen is. Bees like the flower very much as do butterflies. We called it ``bunny head,'' but what is it?

You recently mentioned my favorite rose, Dr. Van Fleet. If anyone ever writes with an offer of a cutting, I would like one. My mother used to grow roses from clippings she placed in the yard under an inverted canning jar.

Carol M. Miller, Virginia Beach, call 420-5780

You stumped Bill Binnie and Kunso Kim at the Norfolk Botanical Garden, as well as me, with ``bunny head.'' Interpretive horticulturist Carol Chewning took a copy of your drawing and called a few days later to say she'd discovered that your plant is larkspur. Seeds are easy to obtain, so you can plant it to grow in your own garden. As well as the blue you described, larkspur comes in white and pink shades.

As to the Dr. Van Fleet rose, if anyone has a cutting, your phone number above should bring results.

Enclosed are photos of a limb on my beloved dogwood tree. Since these photos were taken, the leaves on the limb are shriveling. It seems obvious the tree is in trouble. What do I do?

Eve Stocks, Norfolk

Virginia Tech tree authority Bonnie Appleton examined your photos and diagnosed the problem as dogwood borer. From the looks of the bark that has been lost, Appleton says there is nothing you can spray that will make the tree any healthier. The borer could have entered the tree in an injury made by a weed whacker or lawn mower.

She suggests you plant a new tree in the shade of this one so when the old tree dies, you'll have a replacement already started.

There have been two recipes for organic sprays that you printed this year. One contained dish detergent and one contained cooking oil and dish detergent. That is all I remember. I think they were recommended for roses. Was it for blackspot? Can you repeat the recipes?

Marilyn E. Taylor, Suffolk

The original recipe came from Cornell University as a remedy for blackspot on roses. It was 1 tablespoon baking soda in 1 gallon water. Then someone added 1 tablespoon liquid soap to help the spray stick to the leaves. Then someone else came along and added 1 tablespoon cooking oil to smother insects. So you have a choice of three recipes.

Do not spray any of them in the heat of the day. As with any organic spray, multiple applications are usually required.

Enclosed is a leaf from a gardenia bush. Can you tell me what the problem might be? We watered the plant during dry spells and used Miracle-Gro mixed with the water once or twice. The bush has lots of buds, and we sprayed the leaves this past winter to protect them from cold weather.

We are having a terrible time with moles and wonder if they could cause the problem.

Laura B. Dennis, Franktown, Va.

Bonnie Appleton looked at your leaves and said your gardenia has leaf spot, caused by a fungus for which there is no chemical control. Pick off the infected leaves and destroy them. Appleton says sanitation is important, so make sure to pick up all leaves that have fallen and dispose of them.

Appleton says it's a minor problem and that with a good fertilization next March, your bush should come back strong and healthy.

Enclosed you'll find two photos and a cone and branch from a conifer my grandmother planted in her Eastern Shore of Virginia backyard in the 1920s. Unfortunately, the tree has been damaged by storms. For years I have wondered what kind of tree it is.

I like the way the ends of the branches ``drip'' in a waterfall-like fashion. Any light you can shed on our mystery tree will be appreciated.

Pamela E. Tankard, Groton, Conn.

Your tree was identified by Kunso Kim, curator of the Norfolk Botanical Garden, as Cedar of Lebanon. Many years ago, the Tidewater Men's Garden Club sold it at their annual fall sale. The botanical name is Cedrus libani stgenolcomo.

Donald Wyman in his book ``Trees for American Gardens'' writes: ``It has upright cones on the upperside of the branches, but they require two years to mature. It was introduced to America in colonial times from Asia Minor. The dark green foliage, stiff habit, picturesque and rigidly upright cones, some of which are usually on the tree since they take two years to mature, give this tree popular interest. Frequent reference is made to it in the Bible, and Soloman's Temple was supposed to have been built with its massive timbers.''

It does not produce much shade and is very formal in habit, but apparently it has great popular appeal.

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