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Spring Gardening Tips for a Flourishing Garden
As the vibrant colors of spring burst forth and the air fills with the sweet scent of blossoms, it's the perfect time to roll up your sleeves and tend to your garden. Whether you're a seasoned gar...
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These fall-flowering, fragrant varieties started opening in September
This season, Christmas camellias arrived early. Fortunately, there still are plenty to brighten our Sacramento holiday season.
Thanks to (mostly dry and warm) weather conditions, Camellia sasanqua started blooming locally in September. Several white-flowered bushes lining the K Street side of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament were in full bloom two weeks after Labor Day. By October, many heritage bushes in Capitol and McKinley parks starting blooming, too.
My own trio of Yuletide camellias started opening their flowers in early October and are still going strong. That’s more than eight weeks of flowers, and counting.
A close cousin to the February-blooming Japonica camellias, Sasanqua camellias usually blooms anytime from October to December. That’s also earned this species another nickname: Fall-blooming camellias.
Another plus for Christmas camellias: They’re intensely fragrant. (You can’t say the same for most Japonicas.) Supporting beneficial wildlife, these fall and early winter blooms also provide food to bees and hummingbirds when fewer flowers are available.
With a reputation for hardiness, Christmas camellias can thrive in spots where Japonicas struggle. They can tolerate drought conditions and colder temperatures. Although they prefer filtered shade or dappled sunlight, Christmas camellias also can take more full sun than Japonica camellias.
Once cold rain begins to pelt the flowers, Christmas camellias start dropping their flowers in bunches. Pick up and dispose of those fallen flowers to help prevent petal blight, a fungal disease that turns camellia petals prematurely brown. Otherwise, those spores will hang around and infect the Japonica camellias getting ready to flower in February.
As landscape plants, Christmas camellias are long-lived (often several decades) and easy care. After flowering, they need little if any pruning; just remove dead wood and gently shape if necessary.
Then, feed Sasanqua bushes with an acid-type fertilizer formulated for camellias, which prefer slightly acid soils.
But don’t feed your Japonica camellias until after they finish blooming in March. Feeding while camellias are in bloom (or about to bloom) may cause them to drop unopened buds.
Thinking about a gift plant? Christmas camellias can be found in bloom now in local nurseries. These bushes can be transplanted after they finish bloom and will continue to bring smiles for many years to come.
For more about growing camellias locally: https://www.camelliasocietyofsacramento.org/
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Garden Checklist for week of May 19
Temperatures will be a bit higher than normal in the afternoons this week. Take care of chores early in the day – then enjoy the afternoon. It’s time to smell the roses.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. If you haven’t already, it’s time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Don’t forget to water. Seedlings need moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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