HERE WE ARE, the last Sunday in February. The lion and the lamb are jockeying for starting position Tuesday as March begins.
Along with this, the last several weeks of wind storms, torrential rains, gorgeous sunshine and ice-forming temperatures have come to pass — and certainly now that February is almost a fleeting memory with springs arrival a few weeks away, let’s not dally another moment and get to one of my infamous “13 things-to-do-list.”
Remember that the last day of winter is March 20.
1. Blowing in the wind. Prune away bent, cracked splintered or mangled plant parts after storm damage. Left unkempt, those damaged areas cause problems. They provide the perfect habitat for disease and insects.
2. Cold to the Bone. Frost damage is another concern. If the recent cold weather killed buds or disfigured leaves, cut them out immediately because this lush, succulent material is highly prized by molds, mildews, diseases and insects as a perfect breeding ground.
3. Don’t leave the old stuff. With heavy rains, cold temperatures and longer daylight, old leaves, perennial stalk’s and last year’s organic material are rotting away. If this festering goo is touching living plant material or is on top of newly emerging growth and sprouts, then that new growth will also start to rot away due to contact with it. So clean up ornamental beds.
4. A tuberous aptitude. These next several weeks are perfect time to buy fleshy root, corms, bulbs and tubers for indoor forcing only. Items like canna lily, dahlias, calla lily, tuberous begonias, tuber roses, caladiums and elephant ears all suffer by being long finishing crops, meaning they take 70 to 90 days for good flower production. They also need warm soil conditions to grow robustly, and that takes until July 4 around the Peninsula. Start them indoors now, so by June 1 they are already 90 days developed. In fact, go buy them this week or get them out of storage. Next week’s column will be a pot-forcing summer bloomers 101 article.
5. So sweet. If you truly want to get today’s value out of this column, go buy sweet pea seed right now. Place the seeds overnight in a jar of lukewarm water mixed with compost or some old decayed mulch (this inoculates the seed for dramatically increase germination) and plant a row along the fence, arbor or mailbox pole. Do this again in two weeks. Then, sit back and admire for months the heavenly-scented floral display— superb as cut flowers, too.
6. Eat your vegetables. And don’t stop with the sweet peas, because our weather is ideal for cool crop veggies and greens. Sow edible peas, swiss chard, radishes, carrots, beets and seed onions during the next several weeks. You can germinate indoors as well.
7. Roses are red and very short now, too. Time to prune away your climbing roses (not ramblers) as well as the grandifloras, floribundas, hedge, English and miniature roses. Clip climbers down 60 percent or more. Your hedge roses as well as miniature roses, English roses, and even patio and tree roses, thin 30 percent. As to your cut flower floribundas and grandifloras, take them down to a height of 12 to 16 inches.
8. But that’s not all folks! Since the clippers are are flying, visit your aggressive vining plants and go at them as well. Thin your evergreen clematis right after blooming and reduce your vining honeysuckle to only a few feet tall.
9. Lay into the lawn. For one of the last times this year, cut your lawn as low as you can go, then immediately fertilize with a bone meal 50/50 mix at 40 lb./1,000 square feet. After a rain or two, over-seed that prepared area with a nice grass seed selected for your usage and light conditions. This seed will germinate now in the bare spots it finds or weeds will later.
10. Here a lime, there a lime. For all your non-acid plants, let the lime fly! Acid lovers, by the way, are rhodies, evergreens, camellias, hydrangeas, etc. Your flower bulbs, perennials, vines, lawn, orchards, decorative shrubs, deciduous trees and veggie plot will love a heaping dose of lime. Use at 40- to 50-lb. per 1,000 square feet area.
11. Bulb care; avoiding the banquet. As spring approaches, your spring bulbs are already emerging. Crocus, iris, snowdrops and miniature daffodils are already bursting forth with vibrant color. But beware — the slug eggs, mice, deer and gophers are ready as well to scurry forth. Watch for the early arrivals in spring and take whatever precautions you choose, keeping in mind to not poison or pollute what is not yours.
12. Beautifully bare. Bare-root plants are less expensive, heel in and grow better. They are many times bigger in size and more abundant in variety than their potted counterparts, and mother nature will water them for the next 90 days.
13. Vow to buy a “Wow, look.” Since you will be going to nurseries and greenhouses quite often over the next few months, why not look around as spring heralds in. Many people’s favorite blooms are those of spring flowering plants. Make it your goal to find a plant somewhere that wows you this spring, then buy and plant it in your own yard. This year we all need to be wowed at home.
And please, you need to … stay well all!
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
