Search: When to plant catnip in Texas

Someone found my site while searching for information on when to plant catnip here.

As far as when to plant seeds, Maas Nursery recommends springtime. I have some seeds that I'll probably plant right after this next Easter.

As I noted in previous posts, I planted some catnip (Nepeta cataria) plants late last spring--they were easy to get at Home Depot. These did pretty well, until heavy rains and poor drainage took their toll. The plants appear to be barely clinging to life at this point, with the occasional green leaf here and there. Containers or raised beds are strongly recommended. Chances are, spring would have worked out great, if I had provided better drainage for my plants.

Also, according to this, catnip likes slightly alkaline soil.

Come cats enjoy catmint (Nepeta mussinii) as well. :)

Click here to see my catnip posts so far.

Avocado Searches.

I'm getting a lot of hits from people with avocado (Persea americana) questions. Here's some of what I've seen so far, including what little information I can provide, being a person with lots of questions about Houston avocado growing, myself.

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Hass Avocado Hardiness Zone
According to Floridata, the Hass avocado is a Guatemalan variety, and "Guatemalan types are intermediate, hardy to 24 F (-5 C) or so." That would put it roughly in USDA zone 9b. To find your USDA hardiness zone by your zip code, click here.

To give you an idea of the ideal conditions are for this Avocado, this variety is frequently grown in California. Many of the ones I buy from my local grocer are grown in Michoacan, Mexico.

Young and/or unestablished Haas avocado trees need to be sheltered well during freezing temperatures. See this page at Purdue University for a chart that includes cold hardiness information for various Avocado "races" Other avocados, usually Mexican varieties, can be hardy to zone 8.

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Growing an avocado tree blogs
Hello and welcome. Here are all of my avocado posts so far.

Also, check to see what Google BlogSearch has to offer. Avocado growing was the most useful query of the several I tried.

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Growing an avocado tree fantastic
"Fantastic" Avocado
Yes, avocados are fantastic.

Oh, you meant the cultivar. :)

Urban Harvest lists this one as particularly cold hardy, and also particularly tasty! Unfortunately, I can't seem to find anything else on the internet about this variety. It is not listed in my copy of the Western Garden Book. However, as it is a Mexican variety, as are Wilma and Opal, it would probably have plenty in common with others from the same part of the world.

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Hass Avocado blooming season

According to my copy of the Western Garden book, the fruiting season is April-October. This can vary, of course, depending on the exact climate conditions in one's region.

This Purdue University page states that Guatemalan varieties of avocado such as Hass bloom from March-April, with fruit maturing from September-January. The Purdue page is worth looking at, because it lists other differences among the three "horticultural races" of avocado.

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Hass Avocado growing Texas
It's not easy, with the blasts of arctic air we get down here during the winter. See my link above to my posts on Avocados. I also highly recommend seeking out locally published gardening books for your region of Texas.

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Nursery Houston Avocado trees

I don't know of any particular nurseries myself. However, if I wanted to find out, I would call or go to the nearest good local nursery available (I mean the mom-and-pop type places where the people working there know everything about plants and love to talk about them all day long) and ask. If they don't have them, they will probably be willing to point you in the right direction. Also, watch local fruit tree sales.

This website lists current grower inventories of many trees, including the Avocado. At the time of this post, they list Brazos Citrus nursery In West Colombia, TX as a grower of three avocado varieties. They are a wholesale seller only. Click here for a list of retail nurseries that sell their products.

In Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers for Metro Houston, Dr. Bob Randall recommends purchasing trees from nurseries that stock plants from Treesearch Farms.

November is for Strawberry planting!

Get those strawberry plants ready! It's time to put them in the ground! (Or the pot, in my case).

Urban Harvest recommends planting strawberry plants from late October through the end of November, with early November being the ideal Time.

Texas A&M Extension recommends planting them between late September and the end of October. They do not specify whether they prefer seeds or plants at that time of year.

I also spoke to a fellow over at my local nursery a few days before Halloween, and he said this is indeed a good time to plant them, but noted that they are difficult to find at this time of year. That particular nursery did not have them in stock at the time, but he said the might be able to obtain them.

Whatever fall month you plant them in, strawberries appear to be high-maintenance annuals around here, requiring vigilance when it comes to watering, fertilizing, and pest control. I figure I'll try anyway. :)



The question is, what type to plant?

Dr. Bob Randall recommends Sunrise, Sweet Charlie, and Earlibelle varieties for their high quality flavor. He recommends mail-ordering plants, if you can. For more of his tips on strawberry cultivation, see his book.

Dr. Larry Stein recommends Chandler and Sequoia. Chandler is sold commercially, so expect flavor similar to grocery store strawberries. Sequoia, he says, is more readily available in nurseries.



For growing, Brenda Beust Smith recommends hanging baskets in her Lazy Gardener's Guide. I may try these, as well as the strawberry jar I recently obtained, depending on how many plants I decide to grow.

To find plants locally, start by going to a good local nursery. If they don't have them, they may be able to point you to someone who does.



For a little bit of Houston area history involving the strawberry, read this article from the Houston Chronicle, which explains why Pasadena, TX has a strawberry festival every spring.

Related Links:
Fruit Gardening in Texas (Texas A&M Extension)
Fall Planted Strawberries by Dr. Larry Stein.
Chronology of Strawberry Varieties in the United States
Fragaria species native to North America
Strawberry Pest Management Guidlelines (University of California, Davis)

Double Knockout Roses kick Lantanas' butt!

So when we moved into our home, there was a lot of landscaping already in place, most of which appeared to have been there since the house was built.

This included a little patch of rambling dwarf lantanas.

I eventually discovered that these things die back in the winter to the point of extreme ugliness. They would need to be pruned back almost to the ground in the spring.

Oh, yes, and they give me a rash when they touch my forearms.

So I started looking for something to replace them. Something with pretty dark green foliage that would keep its looks in wintertime.

Something with a long blooming season, and a profusion bright, red flowers

Something that could handle soil that stays wet for along time after it rains, but wouldn't shrivel up if things got a bit dry.

Something that wouldn't catch some nasty plant disease and die while I wasn't looking.

I finally settled on some Double Knockout roses. They are not antiques, but they are bred to be tough, even in lousy clay soils, and since I can't raise this existing bed to a height that would be good for an antique rose, Double Knockouts seem to be the best option in the rose department. They are supposed to be resistant to blackspot (unlike the Martha Gonzales roses I previously considered for this same location), and also tolerant of a wide range of temperatures and soil conditions. Being more compact than their sister, the original Knockout rose, these were appropriate for the limited space I have in this particular bed.

They will require significant pruning eventually, to keep them down to the size I want, but from what I have read, and from what I am told, they can handle that, too.

Oh yes, and did I mention that they are suitable for places as cold as USDA zone 4? That means they can survive temperatures down to -30 degrees Farenheit! (Though they need protection below 20 degrees, according to Floridata).

And the flowers are beautiful.

Those lantanas are toast.


Related:
An online fact sheet from the company that breeds these roses. Includes information on growth habits, height, width, water and soil requirements, blooming, hardiness zones, and so on. They have a downloadable fact sheet available as well.


Didn't find what you needed? Try my other posts on Double Knockout roses, or use the search box in my sidebar.

Basil Update

My basil is still growing rapidly. It is in great need of thinning. Hmm.

I guess I'll have to do lots of cooking with it this week!

And I'll still have plenty left to use for Thanksgiving cooking!

Minimal pest trouble so far, though I'm starting to notice brown spots on some of the lower leaves of the larger plants.

Occasionally I'll find a clear, watery, mucous-like mass around the central stem, underneath leaves. I have no idea what that might be, and my Google searches have revealed nothing. It doesn't look like the typical snail trail I'm used to seeing (or was used to seeing in California).

To be honest, I don't think I've seen any actual live snails since I moved here. I have been told there are snails in Houston, though.

Strawberry Jars

November, according to the newsletter I get from Urban Harvest, is the ideal month for planting strawberry plants in the Houston area. Accordingly, I went out and prepared myself by obtaining a strawberry jar.

Then I stopped and said to myself, I've never actually used one of these before.

Thanks to the wonders of Google, I have rectified my ignorance. Here is a webpage with step-by-step directions for filling one of these things.

Strawberry jars can also be used for other plants with shallow root structures.

For pictures of how these can look when they are full, see this post by Angela at Plants Bulbs and Garden, who put together a strawberry jar with her 2 1/2 -year-old son. Apparently, this is a fun gardening activity that kids can do too!

Incidentallly, for you who love trivia: the strawberry is actually, technically a vegetable, not a fruit. (But tomatoes are fruit!) Don't believe me? Click here.

Preparing for cooler weather:

As I have mentioned before, my grandfather is a tropcial plant lover. Even though he lives in Southern California, he still has to contend with temperatures that many tropical plants aren't too crazy about--even the occasional frost.

Here in Southeast Texas, we also have to shelter some of our more tender plants. As the nighttime temperatures start to cool down, we start to think about possible methods.

Here is a relatively inexpensive idea from my grandpa for how to do this:


I took this picture last June when we went out for a visit.

If you like to drink juice, save those big plastic jugs, wash them out, fill them with water, and use them to insulate smaller plants from frigid temperatures.

Catnip as Mosquito Repellent?

I found an article from 2001 on ScienceDaily.com describing a study that suggested that Catnip oil works as a mosquito repellent--allegedly even better than DEET-based repellents.

My question... if you smell like catnip, what is your cat going to do? (Assuming your cat is one of the 50% of cats that react to the stuff).

Another article from 2002 on the same site discusses tomato-based repellents, which again appear to be more effective than DEET

I myself have tried using a lemon-Eucalyptus repellent when in the garden. It seems to work. At least, I haven't been bitten yet while using it. I can say it definitely smells better than DEET or Picaridin. (By the way, there is some kind of little biting gnat or something around here that responds better to DEET than to Picaridin, in my experience.) However, since the label does not say anything about its effectiveness on chiggers or ticks, I probably won't use it if I am going someplace where I should be concerned about either of those.

But, don't get too excited. Another 2002 study suggests that DEET is better than plant-based repellents.

Whatever.

I guess I'll just have to stick to what seems to work for me.

Seasonal Allegy notice:

My doctor tells me that Ragweed (ambrosia artemisiifolia) is really bad right now.

Keep those antihistamines handy!


Informational websites:

Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
USDA Plants profile for ambrosia artemisiifolia

Growing Avocados in Houston

It's a lot easier to grow Avocados in Coastal California. The winter temperatures are generally milder. That might explain why some commercial growers choose to produce their crops there. It would probably also explain why so many of the varieties listed at this Purdue University website originate in California. Perhaps not surprisingly, the other state that shows up frequently in the list is Florida.

Despite the challenges this region's climate presents, when I had a seed from a store-bought avocado (presumably Haas variety) volunteer in my kitchen sink some months back, I figured I might as well plant it in a pot, keep it watered, and see what happened.

And it grew.

Now I have this cute little avocado seedling. It's getting so big, I think I'll need to find a larger pot for it soon. The good news is, it's small enough that I'll be able to keep it indoors during the winter. Haas avocados (especially when young and tender) do not appear to have a reputation for doing well around here.

So, just in case something happens to this one (or I feel like getting a second Avocado tree), I've been looking around for infomation on growing Avocados around here.

Being in Zone 8b, I would probably have an easier time with a more cold hardy variety, ideally one that can handle temperatures as low as 15 degrees F.

Urban Harvest recommends the following varieties of avocados for our region:

Opal Avocado Originated in Uvalde, Texas. The medium size pear-shaped fruit is very rich tasting. The skin is green in color.

Wilma Avocado Originated near Pearsall, Texas. The fruit is large in shape and has a good flavor. The skin is black in color.

Fantastic Avocado Green, paper thin skin, most cold hardy of all the Mexican avocados. The fruit has a creamy texture with fantastic flavors. Eat skin and all. It is a vigorous growing beautiful tree.

Their website also has tips for caring for your tree. Apparently the little ones can get sunburn! Rumor also has it that Wilma and Opal avocado trees have been known to survive temperatures as low as 14 degrees Farenheit!




Harris County Cooperative Extension has a fact sheet available online which recommends these varieties (in addition to those suggested by Urban Harvest:

Joey. Found in Uvalde County where it has been producing for more than 25 years; medium
size black fruit; ripens in late September.

Pryor. Original tree is in Uvalde and is very old; smaller size green fruit; good flavor.

Pancho. Cold tolerant; may be difficult to find, but worth having if available.

The Pine Island Nursery website (Which I found using Google) lists the following cold-hardy varieties, with temperatures they tolerate:

Brogdon (22-25 F)

Hall (24-26 F)

Lula (24-26 F)

Monroe (24-26 F)

The links will take you to profiles of each of these avocados on the Pine Island Nursery website. This nursery appears to be located in the Miami area.



Here is another website that profiles several avocado varieties, the most cold hardy of which (Bacon) is supposed to survive temperatures as low as -5 degrees! Climate information for the others is vague at best, however, so it's worth doing research before selecting any of those.



Fuerte avocados are not recommended for regions with wet summers (I guess that's us!) because the summer moisture will cause the fruit to rot.



If you are interested in growing avocados from seed, but don't feel like leaving the seeds in the bottom of your sink for several days, here is a Google Search page, with several results that will help you.

Martha Gonzales Rose and Blackspot.

These are pretty plants, but they are VERY vulnerable to blackspot. I brought three of these home several weeks ago, and within days they were already showing signs of fungus. The plants are holding up relatively well, but the stress seems to be keeping them from blooming as well as they might.

I have tried using a sulfur-based Safer brand fungicide. No Dice. I guess neem oil is the next option, until I have a convenient opportunity to get my hands on some compost tea.

According to what I have read, most other antique rose varieties are resistant to fungus, which is why they generally survive pretty well in our humidity. It figures I'd pick one that isn't. I'm not giving up yet, though.

Oleander

Species: Nerium Oleander
Growth Habit: Large evergreen shrub--to 20 ft. Can be trained into tree form.
Soil: Tolerates many soil types
Moisture: Tolerant of drought and heavy rain
Light: Bright sun-part shade
USDA Hardiness Zone: 8-10
Nativity: North Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean
Flowers: Summer. white, red, pink, salmon, light yellow
Propagation: Cuttings. Seed is difficult.

This plant is everywhere around here. Residential gardens, municipal gardens, neighborhood gardens. Not only is it everywhere around here, they are also quite common in Southern Calfiornia.

Now, any plant that can thrive with little maintenance in both semi-tropical and semi-arid climates must be pretty tough!

The pink specimen in the picture below is growing in my Grandfather's garden. My husband likes the white ones. So far, I like red best, and I'm hoping to integrate one of each color into our landscape someplace.


Please note that this plant is toxic when ingested by people and pets. Do not inhale the smoke from burning Oleander plants either.

For more information on these shrubs:
International Oleander Society

Elaeagnus Pungens

Light: Part to full sun.
Hardiness: USDA Zones 7-9.
Propagation: Propagated by softwood or hardwood cuttings and by seed.

This is one tough plant. There are a few on our property that came with the house. I don't do anything to them (in terms of water and fertilizer), and they grow just fine. It also appears that whoever planted the bed these plants are in did next to nothing to the native "gumbo" soil. This does not seem to prevent them from growing well.

This plant also appears to do well in the clay soils along the coast of Southern California. This is my grandfather's. He has allowed his to grow in its natural shape:


This one is mine.



When we moved into our house, it was shaped into a box hedge. This works ok, except in the summer, when the plant sends up long, vertical canes very rapidly. Last year, I pruned these off aggressively. Then I heard that these plants have fragrant flowers in the fall. Wondering if I had prevented it from blooming, I decided to let it go this year, and see what happens. So far, no blooming.

Star Jasmine

Star Jasmine (Jasminum multiflorum), also known as Confederate Jasmine, is another plant that seems to like it here on the Gulf-coast. This perennial vine has lovely green foliage all year round, and is covered in snowy white flowers in the spring. Here's a picture of how mine looked during its last blooming season.


It is relatively low-maintenance, assuming you don't plant it someplace where you'll have to trim it back all the time. During the summer and fall growing season, it grows very rapidly. I have one that was planted underneath some trees, before I moved into my house, and I have to frequently trim it back to keep it from climbing into them. Star Jasmine can also work as a rambling groundcover, if you have a large enough space for it.

Here, it blooms in the spring. In the milder climate of my native Southern California, the star jasmine blooms into summer.

The only other difficulty I have had with mine is the occasional bit of powdery mildew, when the humidity starts to go back up toward the end of Spring.

I find, however that this is relatively easy to cope with, using an organic fungicide spray.

What to do with that homegrown basil?

Last month, I planted some basil seeds in a container. It sprouted in two days. Now, I have lots of little basil plants on their way to becoming LOTS of basil. I love basil for cooking, so I have no doubt I'll have plenty of excuses to use it. The question is, what to do when I need to harvest it, but can't use it right away. It's a bad idea to let Basil flower and go to seed, as it diminishes the flavor.

Here are some links to interesting ideas for preserving extra basil:

Freeze it.

Dry it.

Make Pesto.

When to plant veggies.

Some resources:

Harris County Vegetable Gardening Guide (.pdf)

Lazy Gardener's Guide by Brenda Beust Smith.--Straightforward, simple, month-by month gardening tasks and planting tips. I bought my copy at the Urban Harvest office in Houston.

Year Round Vegetables, Fruits and Flowers for Metro Houston, by Bob Randall---If you are serious about having your own veggies, this book is AMAZING!

UrbanHarvest.org

A first time for everything.

The first tropical storm I have ever experienced is approaching. We'll see what happens. :)

"True love and Homegrown Tomatoes"

Homegrown Tomatoes
by Guy Clark (click here to hear him sing the entire song)



Ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin' out in the garden

Get you a ripe one don't get a hard one
Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
All winter with out `em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' & diggin'
Everytime I go out & pick me a big one

Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love & homegrown tomatoes

You can go out to eat & that's for sure
But it's nothin' a homegrown tomato won't cure
Put `em in a salad, put `em in a stew
You can make your very own tomato juice
Eat `em with egss, eat `em with gravy
Eat `em with beans, pinto or navy
Put `em on the site put `em in the middle
Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle

If I's to change this life I lead
I'd be Johnny Tomato Seed
`Cause I know what this country needs
Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cemetary
Out in the garden would be much better
I could be pushin' up homegrown tomatoes


To hear John Denver sing this song, check out the last two minutes of this YouTube video.

Cherimoya

Had a little discussion with my grandfather today about the two Cherimoya trees he has growing in his Southern California garden. He says he grew them from seeds he obtained from fruit purchased in a market.

It would seem that these may not be as hard to grow as some of my reading has led me to believe. I had heard that the only way to get these things to pollinate is to do it oneself.

Now, If I could just find someplace around here that sells cherimoyas, I could get myself some seeds and a little treat all in one!

Eugenia Aggregata--the saga continues

I spoke to somebody today who knows more about Eugenia aggregata (Cherry of the Rio Grande) than I do. She says the seeds I planted several weeks back may take up to a year to sprout. She says that she has found this to often be the case when she has tried to sprout woody, tropical seeds.

That would explain why nothing seems to have happened yet.


Read the rest of my Eugenia Aggregata posts.

Basil

I planted some of it this week in containers with organic potting soil, and kept them watered.

The seeds took only two days to start sprouting.

Wow.

I guess it's easy to grow basil in Houston if you plant your seeds in late August!

Opuntia update--Unexpected aquisition.

I was telling a plant-loving friend of mine that I was thinking of trying to grow a prickly pear, when she told me I was welcome to a lobe of the "spineless" one that she has. So I took her up on it.

The thing looks pretty cute in its container. No obvious signs of new growth yet, but it doesn't look like it is rotting, either. According to this it takes a month for the new roots to form, and I only planted it a couple of weeks ago.

Unfortunately, I do not know exactly which species I have. Maybe when (and if) it gets bigger, I'll take some pictures and post them. Who knows, maybe someone will stumble across the blog and give me some ideas. :)

I can personally recommend handling these with dainty fingers (and gloves, if available). They do not have obvious spines, but they do have tiny little ones that can cause pain, and which are difficult to get out of one's skin, especially if you can't see them very well! I got one in my thumb while transplanting the pad I got from my friend, and it took some careful looking and removing!

Catnip bites the dust. Or the Gumbo. Whatever.

I planted some catnip (Nepeta cataria) outside last spring for two reasons:

One, to encourage our neighbor's free-range cat to frolic in our yard. She likes to hunt.

Two, to see what would happen.

Well the cat disappeared, and the catnip flourished for awhile, even in the black gumbo soil, growing at a dizzying rate. "Hot dog!" I thought. "And without soil amendments or a raised bed or anything!"

Then July came. Rains got heavier, sun got hotter, and the catnip started to look a little peaked.

Now it is definitely on its last legs. It is dying from the roots up, instead of from the top down, like plants usually die (and I've killed my share, believe me). I'm thinking root rot may be the primary culprit, but I'm sure the heat isn't helping.

It'll be raised beds or containers (and hopefully better luck) next time.

Book Review: Botanica

Full Title: Botanica: The Illustrated A-Z of Over 10,000 Garden Plants

This is a massive, encyclopedic volume, containing brief descriptions of almost any plant you could ever want to look up. It also has photographs of most of them. It is highly useful as a reference, and sometimes fun to browse through. When I hear of a species that I think I might like to try out, I usually look it up in this book first.

Being short, the plant descriptions give you just enough information to determine whether or not a plant might be worth growing in your garden. However, if you want detailed information on any particular plant, you will need additional resources. Other downsides include the fact that not every plant is illustrated, and there are some Texas Natives that are not listed in this volume. The information is also very general, so it is worthwhile to cross-check with other resources, especially if you live in a climate as unique as the one we have here along the Texas Coast.

Dioscorea bulbifera

Update (3-1-08): Despite the fact that the Houston Garden book lists them as an option for the garden, I checked the Texas Invasive Plants database, and discovered that this plant is on the list. Apparently Florida and Alabama aren't the only places where this plant can take over. It is also known to spread underground as well as by the builbils. This information was not in the USDA plants database at the time of this original post. Oops. :) And I still have those builbils someone gave me last August!

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Common names: Air Potato, Air Yam.
Duration: Deciduous perennial. May freeze to the ground in winter.
Nativity: South America, Africa, Australia
Light: full Sun
Ideal planting time: April
Growth rate: Fast.
Growth Habit: Vine--requires wire or string trellis for maximum growth.
Soil preference: Acidic-neutral, rich, well drained.
USDA zones: 9-11


According to the Houston Garden Book, these deciduous, fast-growing vines are easy to cultivate. Judging by the fact that I see them frequently in this region, I would venture to guess that the book is correct. They are also supposed to be pest resistant.

This plant seems to be quite at home in the tropical and Sub-tropical regions of the United States with thriving naturalized populations in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, as well as in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, according to the USDA Plants Database. In some places, it thrives too well, and is therefore considered a noxious and invasive weed in Florida and Alabama. It should not be planted in those states.

I recently acquired two bulbils from a very friendly person with an abundance of these (or something in the same genus) in her own Houston area garden. She likes them, and finds that they take little effort to grow. She just tosses the bulbils wherever she wants her plants to grow, and with watering, they will sprout. No digging, no burying.

I will probably start mine in containers, and find a place for them in my garden later.

See the profile and pictures at Dave's Garden.

Note: Dioscorea bulbifera is not edible!