Gardening Tips   

Click on the appropriate month to read how to care for your garden at that time of year. 

Click on the appropriate topic above for specific information.  
Below are tips and information submitted from our garden club members.

• Bacterial Crown Gall
  

• Summer 2008 Rose Care
  

• South Coast Farmers Co-op and Farmers Market Information

  • Co-op 

  • Basket Contents

  • Farmers Markets

• Spring 2008 Rose Care
  

• Horse Manure - well composed, very affordable
  

  Serrano Creek Ranch
  25201 Trabuco Rd.
  Lake Forest, CA 92630
  768-5921
  SerranoCreekRanch@msn.com

   

• Worm farming supplies can be purchased at:
  
  Orange County Farm Supply
  1826 W Chapman Ave
  Orange , CA 92868
   
   (714) 978-6500
  

• Roses - Winter Care  (Courtesy of CGCI)

• Edible Flower Gardening - (Courtesy of Karen England)

• Lending Library (Compliments of Rose Society of Santa Margarita)

• Worm Composting

• Fuchsia Care

• English Gardens for Southern California
  

• Pest Management
  

• Tropicals
  

• Rose handouts from Carla Fuchs, guest speaker at the January meeting.

  • 2007 AARS

  • Aphid Antidote

  • Rose Pruning
    

• "California Natives"  This was the seed source handout given by Chris Barnhill, Living Collections Curator from Fullerton State University Arboretum during out October meeting.

• Not sure where to plant those bulbs? Do what Jean Rogers does, plant your bulbs in a peat pot and when they're well established plant them where they look best.  Move them around until you find just the right place.  As time goes by, the peat pot will disintegrate and you'll have a perfectly placed flower!

• Sweet Pea Success - Sweet Peas are one of the easiest and most rewarding flowers to grow in Orange County.  They should be planted in late September through December and if you would like December blooms you must plant early and choose a variety that is labeled 'Early', 'Mammoth' or 'Spencer.'  Be sure to follow instructions for maximum bloom.

1. Soak seeds over-night in warm water.
2. Dig a trench one foot or more deep and six to right inches wide.
3. Fill the trench halfway with a good topsoil and mix well with the soil in the ground.  A garden fork works well.
4. Mix more topsoil and a small amount of pre plant fertilizer with the soil taken out of the trench.  Back-fill the trench with this mix leaving one inch of trench open to plant your seeds.
5. Plant the seeds one inch deep and about two to three inches apart. Cover with an inch of soil you have left over or use potting soil.
6. Water thoroughly and as often as needed to keep the soil moist at the seed level.  Over-watering, especially in the warm weeks of September is the most common cause of seed failure.
7. Tall growing varieties will need a five to six foot support.  It is best to provide the support when planting rather than waiting until the plants are sprawling on the soil surface.  Eight foot stakes are best as one to feet will be in the ground.  Space the stakes four to six feet apart and attach a trellis or netting to them.
8. Protect the new seedlings from snails and slugs using your preferred method or product.
9. Thin plants when they are five or six inches tall and space them out to six inches apart.  Pinch the tips of the remaining plant which encourages them to branch.
10. Continue to water as needed and fertilize every two weeks.  
11. Never let spent blooms turn into seed pods.  Cut them off as you see them.  For maximum bloom, cut the flowers often for bouquets and enjoy the fragrance.
    

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Succulent Swag:

• shade cloth sewn into a tube
• stuff with green moss mixed with potting soil - soaking wet
• cut holes
• poke holes open with a pencil and insert succulents
• always keep moist

• Dried Flowers: Capturing a blossom at its moment of perfection and preserving its beauty can be a rewarding project.
  
  - You can dry certain flowers by removing their leaves, tying a bunch together and hanging them upside down in a cool, airy place out of direct sunshine.  Make the bouquets small enough to dry well, but large enough to look full and colorful.  Roses, hydrangea, baby's breath and yarrow respond well to this method.  Everlastings such as strawflowers, statice, acroclinium and globe amaranth (whose petals are already nearly dry) hold their shape and color well when dried this way.

- Another method of drying uses sand or silica gel.  They are desiccant - drying mediums  that draw the moisture out of flowers.  Use a container large and deep enough to hold the desiccant and the flowers you want to dry. Put a one to two inch layer of sand or silica in the bottom of the container.  Remove the foliage from the blossoms and arrange them on this base.  Carefully begin to "rain" the desiccant over the flowers until they are covered.  Cover it tightly as silica absorbs moisture from the air and place it in a warm dry location.  The flowers will feel crisp when properly dried, usually after one to two days. Gently remove each blossom and dust it off with a small paintbrush.  The flowers may be sprayed with a flat lacquer or left natural.

Flowers to dry using desiccants:              Flowers to dry upside down:

 - Bachelor Buttons                                    - Acroclinium
 - Chrysanthemum                                     - Baby's Breath
 - Cosmos                                                - Bells of Ireland
 - Daffodil                                                - Chinese Lantern
 - Dahlia                                                  - Globe Amaranth
 - Day Lily                                                - Honesty or Money Plant      
 - Pansy                                                   - Rose
 - Rose                                                    - Starflower
 - Stock                                                   - Statice
 - Zinnia                                                   - Strawflower

©2006 Canyon Crest Garden Club

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