Monthly Archives: May 2020

How And When Do You Control Bagworms?

Alan: Another thing, especially late May that you want to remember, is that, you don’t see them yet, but there are little baby insects out there ready to sprout and start to devour your plants or your trees. One question we get normally after June is what are all these bags hanging off of my evergreens.

Well, they’re bagworms.

But the time to take care of bagworms is late May and early June. And you want to spray because the bags that are there, each one can have up to 300 larvae in it. And they come out of that bag and they just spread and then they go and start making bags with their own.

You may have gone out and you didn’t see anything, it’s all clean. And the next day you go out and look and you got bags hanging all over your tree. So the product you might consider if you do it early enough is bacillus thuringiensis, it’s hard to say that last word. But that’s a natural spray, and it’s a bacteria. But it works as long as the larvas are small.

Once you get into the larger sizes, if you didn’t spray and it gets into June or even July, it’s too late to use that. Because it’s just not going to be effective on larger larva that size. It’s good to do that in late May. And then that could take care of any problem that you’d have developing the bags later because you’ve taken care of it. Later than that, you’re going to have to use another insecticide.

And if you wait till August, then it’s too late. If you spray, they’re going to seal themselves in that bag and you can’t spray them after that. It’s just a matter of going out and picking those bags off. I’ve done that before and spent a lot of time picking bags and think I’ve got it. Then next thing “Oh, there’s another one. Oh, there’s another one. Oh, there’s another one.” It’s a never ending job.

What Is Part Sun? What Is Part Shade?

Alan: Another question we get a lot in May, because that’s the busiest time of the year for us and for gardeners, is that people will ask, Well, what can I plant in this much sunlight?

Well, what is full sun?

What is part sun?

What is shade?

Well, obviously, shade means it’s not not getting any direct sunlight. But when you look at a plant tag, and it says, this is for part sun, what does that mean? It’s generally accepted that part sun means around four hours a day or less. But it does get direct sunlight. Full sun is considered anything that gets six more hours of sun a day.

So you really need to know your own gardens, your own house.

And people come and say, Well, my house space is this way. And so they think that’s enough information to know how much sunlight something gets. Well, does your neighbor have a tree across the street that’s huge that blocks part of that sun? It doesn’t matter what direction your house faces if there’s something blocking the sun. And people will sometimes not realize that they’ll put a plant in that’s not for that area.

Now, I’ve heard quite a few people plant a lilac and say, my lilac never blooms. Then I’ll ask how much sun does it get? Well, it gets a little bit in the morning. That’s not enough. A lilac needs at least six hours. Preferably more. So if you plant a lilac, somewhere that it’s not getting enough sun, you’re not going to be happy with it. So you need to know how much sun things get.

And if you’re looking at it in the wintertime, it’s going to get less sunlight in an area because the sun rotates and it moves. So when you want to know what light you’re getting, look at it during the growing season.

And time it.

Because that makes a difference. Some people think it gets all afternoon sun. Maybe it doesn’t maybe you just assume that. So it’s good to know because if you plant shade things in sun, they’re going to burn up. If you plant some things in the shade, they’re not going to bloom.

Kevin: Another thing you said was the time of day is it. Is it six hours of morning sun or is it four hours of afternoon sun?

Alan: The intensity of the sun makes it makes a difference and how the plant is going to tolerate it.

How To Keep Hanging Baskets Beautiful

Alan: Well, a popular item for Mother’s Day are hanging baskets.

Kevin: Butterfly bush.

Alan: Butterfly bush? Maybe. Depends on your mom. But most normal moms are going to really appreciate a beautiful hanging basket or a container combination pot. These things are already grown. They’re already beautiful when you buy them.

And at Dill’s Greenhouse, we have a huge selection of many different sizes. We have eight inch, we have 10 inch, 12 inch, 14 inch, we have moss baskets, a big container with a spagnum moss around the edge of it and much more soil volume so you can have different plants in there that end up with a huge basket that can actually be grown because there’s enough soil to grow it.
Taking care of hanging baskets.

Now, when we sell a basket we put, as you’re carrying it out the door, will put a slow release fertilizer on it. That helps fertilize the plant through the summer months. The fertilizers that we use is a five to seven month fertilizer. It doesn’t take care of all the fertilizer needs. You’re going to want a couple of times a month at least to put some Miracle Gro or some kind of water soluble fertilizer on that. And especially some plants that are heavier feeders like petunias.

Petunias, they like a lot of fertilizer, so you want to take care to make sure to put those things on there because if you don’t, it could start looking straggly, not the beautiful plant that you bought. And then you’ll think what’s wrong with this.

Another thing to consider is, as the plants get really big and start to hang down too low, just prune it. If you prune a basket, well, one time through the growing season, it’s going to make that basket stay beautiful throughout the whole summer.

And the other thing to remember with a hanging basket is to water. You have this ball of soil up in the air with the plant growing in it. It doesn’t have the ground to protect it. It’s going to dry out a lot more than the ground is. So you want to make sure that you keep adequate water on it. You don’t want to keep it soaking wet. But let it dry down to where the plant has not started to wilt yet, but that you can be picked up that basket and feel that it’s lighter. If you can feel that, it’s time to water. Then water until it takes up all the water it can, it’ll start to run out of the bottom of the basket. Then don’t water it again until it’s dry again. So you don’t wanna keep it wet.

But now there are times in the summer, you’ll have to water every day, especially the smaller the basket, the more often you’ll have to water it. And there are several plants that you can buy that vinca, portulaca, they do a lot better if you’re one who neglects watering, and get home from work and notices, oh, no, it’s already wilting. Those things can recover really fast and they just don’t need as much water as other plants.

So if you’re really good at watering, then go ahead and buy a fuchsia. Fuchsias are beautiful, but they will dry out on you. And if you let that happen too many times they’ll recover but they lose their blooms. So you don’t want to lose all your blooms. That’s why you have the basket.

Spring Has Sprung. Annuals And Perennials.

Alan: Spring is sprung, it’s finally May. This is what we’ve all been waiting for. The time where you can actually get out in the yard and plant all the beautiful flowers and vegetables that was just too cold to do earlier. So this is the time to put in vegetables and herbs and all the tender annuals, a virtually unlimited list of things that you can plant in May.

Kevin: We’re still receiving trucks on a very regular basis. Trees and shrubs are really in full swing right now. As well as perennials. In our nursery, we might carry a particular item in four or five different price points. I’d like to say from from very small, somebody that just wants to be very budget conscious and has the time and energy, and wants to watch it grow and mature. To something that looks very mature, when somebody needs something very instant. We have three or four price points in between on some of the more popular things. So really something for everybody’s budget.

Alan: Okay, you keep taking the conversation back to the nursery. You’ve had your chance in late March and April. This is the time. This is May. This is when you want to get the stuff that I produce that I’m the grower.The vegetables and the herbs. This is what we’re looking at for May.

Kevin: People like to plant it once and be done.

Alan: Hanging baskets. No one’s going to buy their Mom a perennial. That’s already done blooming.

Kevin: They might buy a rose bush for Mother’s Day! A butterfly bush.

Alan: This is the time to buy hanging baskets

Kevin: Hydrangeas.

Alan: This is the time to buy potted plants. It’s the time to buy…

Kevin: Camellias.

Alan: A lot of things you can do now that you couldn’t do earlier when the nursery people had their chance. Yes, it’s still good time to plant nursery products but

Kevin: Tomato, tomahto.

Alan: Just as long as they come to Dill’s Greenhouse to buy it.