The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be on Wednesday, April 19. at 7:00 p.m. at SIGN on North Street. Our special guest speaker will be Warren Crossman talking to us about 鈥淥rnamental and Native Grasses For The Local Area鈥�. Grasses add a beautiful, airy element to our gardens, and give wonderful new textures to our plantings.聽 It will be great to learn about grasses that will do well here! Everyone is welcome!
A while ago, someone was telling me about their Christmas cactus, and said it wasn鈥檛 blooming. I know we talked about this before, so I thought we could review why this might be happening. First of all, we have to cut down on watering. We should water only when the top one inch is dry. By giving the plant less water, we are encouraging it to become dormant, and it needs that 鈥減lant vacation鈥� in order to bloom.
Next, we will have to move our plant to a cool spot where it will get at least twelve hours of darkness. This helps buds to form. Then during the day, give it bright, indirect light. This special treatment should be continued for six to eight weeks. Once we start to see buds forming, we can move the plant to a sunny area (but not direct sun).聽 We must also remember that the plants don鈥檛 like a draft. Plus, they like being cozy in their pot 鈥� no need to put them into a big spacious pot.
And speaking of plants that like to be pot-bound, the beautiful hoya falls into this category. Getting a hoya to bloom requires the right conditions. It likes bright, indirect sunlight; we could give the plant a balanced fertilizer, but not during the winter months. The hoya likes humidity, so we could mist our plants three or four times a week. We must remember not to deadhead the plants, because new blooms will come back from these same spots.聽 And hoyas like to be potbound 鈥� that feeling of coziness prompts them to flower. Remember, too, that some varieties of hoya do not flower until they are three or more years of age.
Only 61 more sleeps till the May long weekend 鈥� it鈥檚 hard to believe how our gardens will transform in that short space of time, from being snow-bound to bursting forth with the tender buds of spring! If you have been keeping notes in your garden journal, you might review last year鈥檚 notes and see what things you really liked and what you might want to change.聽 Now is the time to think about that, because once you and I start visiting greenhouses, our garden resolutions often get forgotten when we see all those beautiful new plants!
We probably all have a list of 鈥渕ust-haves鈥� for our gardens or containers. And let鈥檚 also make a firm resolution to try something new! I鈥檝e heard it said that things stick around because they are consistently good and reliable; and that鈥檚 true to a point. But it doesn鈥檛 mean we can鈥檛 find a new favorite as well. So let鈥檚 make a gardener鈥檚 pact: at least one new thing in our gardens or containers!
Any maybe this year, in honor of Canada鈥檚 150, we might want to do one special planter in a red and white theme. We can stretch our gardening imaginations to see what interesting plants we can find in red and white! With gardening there鈥檚 always something wonderful to think about!
Happy garden planning 鈥� have a great week!
