An emailer has a few questions....

1. My lawn is primarily a tall fescue mix. I'm switching over to your lawn care plan and put down Turf Trust® this weekend and plan on feeding with Turf Tone® in the spring. What do I use for the summer feeding and when should I put it down?

2. I will be aerating and over seeding with Black Beauty in the spring (didn't have chance to get it done this fall). Do I over seed before or after the aeration? I also have some crabgrass (not terribly pervasive yet) that I was going to treat with Dimension™ but from what I see, I wouldn't be able to over seed...what do you recommend? Also, can I treat for wild ivy with Confront if I over seed?  Thanks for your help!

Answer:

1. We use Espoma 100% Organic® Lawn Food at the end of August (Some seasons when the spring is long and wet we use the same product at half strength in May).

2. You cannot use Dimension or Confront® and also seed next spring. I suggest you hold off seeding until the end of August and get the crabgrass and weeds under control next spring.

You can aerate in either spring or fall--in the spring before you apply the Dimension and Confront. When over seeding I put down the seed first and then aerate. That way, the little cores partially cover the seed and less of the seed falls to the bottom of the core holes where it's too deep to germinate.

Question: I always force Paper whites for Christmas. Do you have any left and if I plant them this weekend will they bloom in time for Christmas?

Answer: I believe the paper whites we have in the store will bloom in time for Christmas if you pot them this weekend. You can always speed up paper whites by keeping them warmer and slow them down by keeping them in a cool, but not sub-zero, place.

Question: Leaves on my evergreen azaleas have turned bright yellow and are dropping off. I fed them with Miracid a few weeks ago because I heard on your radio show that late fall was the time to feed azaleas.


Answer: Miracid was not the fertilizer to use for late fall feeding. Miracid is a water-soluble liquid and will wash away with a couple of heavy rains. You need an organic, slow-release fertilizer that will remain available all winter long, whenever the soil warms, and into the early spring. However, I doubt Miracid caused the yellow leaves on your azaleas. On many varieties of azaleas the oldest foliage turns yellow naturally before it drops off in the fall. The brightness of the yellow is determined by the season; some years the yellow is much more noticeable than others. Incidentally, some “evergreen” azaleas retain a greater percentage of their foliage than others and the remaining foliage on some stays bright green, while others turn maroon.

Question: I saw a tree that was covered in pink blooms on Thanksgiving Day. I know that spring blooming plants like azaleas, forsythia and magnolias occasionally have some flowers in the fall, but this tree was in full bloom. It was absolutely gorgeous. Do you have any idea what I could have seen?

Answer: I believe you saw “Prunus Autumnalis”, a Japanese cherry that blooms in the fall as well as again in the spring. I regard it as the most spectacular of all late fall-flowering plants.

Question: I read in the newspaper that there is a fragrant Amaryllis and Carroll Gardens was listed as a source. Yet when I called, no one there seemed to know anything about fragrant amaryllis. What’s going on?

Answer: There was a newspaper article on all kinds of amaryllis, including reportedly fragrant amaryllis, which listed Carroll Gardens as a source, which we appreciate. We have a large selection of amaryllis, but to my knowledge none of them are fragrant. We checked with our sources in Holland and they believe selling any amaryllis as being fragrant is an exaggeration. They say there are 1 or 2 varieties that have a very faint fragrance under some circumstances, but the fragrance is barely noticeable at best. Has anyone actually grown amaryllis that is truly fragrant?