Dear Helen: Would it be a good idea to remove the beige and brown flower heads on my bigleaf hydrangeas now? Is there any reason for leaving them on?
M.M.
The faded flower heads are commonly left on the plants until late winter, when most of the coldest weather is over. The large flower clusters, though faded, offer a bit of frost protection to the growth buds directly underneath them.
I’d leave the faded flower heads on for a little longer. Wait until after mid-February, or even longer if hard frosts are predicted. February weather is notoriously unpredictable. We may face more snow and freezing weather before we’re done with winter.
Green growth buds starting to swell on bigleaf hydrangea stems this month seem to signal that it’s time to clean the shrubs up for a clear path to new spring growth, but that potential new growth could also be vulnerable to damage from hard frost.
Dear Helen: Communities in Bloom Canada has named 2022 as the Year of the Garden. We are encouraged to plant red flowers to demonstrate “91原创 garden pride.” Can you suggest a few easily grown red-flowering plants?
J.C.
So many gorgeous red flowers — roses, poppies, geraniums, sweet peas, but to be specific, here are a few of my favourites: Maverick Red geranium is showy and easy from seed. There are red impatiens varieties for shade. Tidal Wave Red Velour petunia and Profusion Red zinnia are both All-America Selections and Fleuroselect award winners.
Honey Melon sage (Salvia elegans ‘Honey Melon’) is a perennial that blooms through summer and into late autumn. The blooms are hummingbird magnets. It is a pineapple sage, with wonderfully scented foliage.
Dear Helen: After a Lonicera fragrantissima has bloomed, should it be pruned back fairly drastically?
C.D.
Wait until spring to prune your winter-flowering honeysuckle shrub. Mid-March to early April is an ideal time period for the pruning.
Begin by removing around one-third of the older (thickest) wood at the base of the plant to encourage its ongoing renewal. Then remove weak growth. Finish by making any cuts needed to retain a pleasing form while retaining the shrub’s natural vase shape.
The descriptive term in the botanical name indicates the flowers’ intense fragrance. Common names for L. fragrantissima are Sweetest Honeysuckle and Winter Honeysuckle.
Dear Helen: I’m eager to start planting, but as a novice gardener I’m not sure about how early to start. What are the first seeds you plant, and when?
J.P.
The first seeds I sow directly outdoors are broad beans, in March or earlier if soil and weather conditions are suitable. I’m noticing that the heavy rains have left even my fast-draining, sandy-textured soil a little too wet and muddy to work in productively. When the soil has dried enough to become crumbly again, and if a period of fine weather is predicted, I’ll try for an early broad bean sowing, this month. At the same time I’ll make my first seeding of snow peas. A second, summer sowing gives me snow peas will into autumn.
In March I sow a “block planting” of beets and carrots, in a space 120 cm across so that I can cover the bed with floating row cover to bar access to the carrot rust fly and leaf miner (beets). I seed my first, four-metre double row of shelling peas in March as well. If conditions, and time, permit, I may try for an earlier seeding of shelling peas, beets and carrots, this month. In March, calendula, sweet peas and annual poppies can be sown outdoors.
I begin indoor seedings about now, with onions and leeks, then early cabbage and compact tomatoes for growing in pots on the patio. Now is my preferred timing also for indoor sowings of violas, pansies, snapdragons and sweet peas.
HCP hours. The , 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is now open Thursday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Charlotte & The Quail cafe will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9 to 3. The public is invited to stroll through the gardens, take in plants of interest in the Doris Page Winter Garden, and have a treat made with produce from local farms at the . Admission $12 adults, students and seniors $9. HCP members enjoy free admission.
