When and How to Propagate Jasmine Plants Jasmine originated in the tropics, so it will grow best when transplanted outdoors once the weather approaches summer temperatures. Find out when your local temperatures will average 70 F (21 C) during the day and count back from then to determine when to start your jasmine seedlings. Jasmine seeds Start jasmine seeds indoors about three months before your outdoor planting date. Soak the seeds for 24 hours before planting....

Garden centers only carry a few varieties already sprouted and growing, but you can find petunia flower seeds for different sized plants in almost every color of the rainbow. Starting Petunia Seed Plants The most important point to remember when learning how to start petunias from seeds is that these are summer, heat-loving plants. It does them no good to plant early in the garden, as they’ll just sit and sulk or rot....

When to Plant Seeds in Zone 7 The last frost date for zone 7 is usually around mid-April. Keep in mind that while USDA growing zones and last frost dates provide helpful information for gardeners, they are merely guidelines. When it comes to weather, there are never any guarantees. To complicate matters even more, last frost dates can vary considerably. Before starting seeds in zone 7, it’s a good idea to check with your local cooperative extension office regarding frost dates specific to your area....

About Strawberry Free White Peach Strawberry Free white peach trees reach mature heights of 15 to 25 feet (5-8 m.). If you have a small yard, Strawberry Free also comes in a semi-dwarf version that tops out at 12 to 18 feet (4-5 m.). These peach trees are easy to grow, but they need 400 to 500 hours of temperatures below 45 degrees F. (7 C.) in order to trigger springtime blooms....

Crabapple trees produce beautiful spring blossoms and small, apple-like fruit. The resemblance to apples ends with the flavor, which is quite tart. Crabapples are best used in recipes with some sugar. They make excellent preserves or may be added to any recipe in which you would use apples. And in the right zone, crabapples are easy to grow, producing prodigiously. Are Crabapples Edible? The crabapple is a small tree up to large shrub....

Gardeners in other places can add types of blue bonnets to the spring landscape by planting seeds of the various types of blue bonnet flowers. Blue bonnets are of the Lupine family. Lupinis perennis, the Sundial lupine, provides a blue bonnet specimen for Northern gardeners. When to Plant Blue Bonnets Depending on how southern the location, Texas blue bonnets usually bloom from February through April from seeds that are planted the previous autumn....

Texas Star Hibiscus Info There are at least 200 distinct species of hibiscus in the world, which means there should be one for every gardening need. So, what is a Texas Star hibiscus and what sets it apart? The Texas Star species (Hibiscus coccineus) is native to the southern United States and pacific coast. It is hardy in USDA zones 8 to 11, though it will die back to the ground and regrow in the spring in colder areas, sometimes as cold as zone 5....

How to Use Boysenberries Boysenberries are a cross between a raspberry and a Pacific blackberry. As such, you would assume that not only does boysenberry have all the same uses, but the same benefits as well. You would be correct. Boysenberries can be used for everything raspberries and blackberries are. Eaten fresh, sprinkled into yogurt, turned into smoothies, tossed into salads, added to salsa, blended into drinks, made into cocktails or wine, and even cooked down into sauces and purees to accompany meat and fowl dishes....

Identifying Cabbage Maggots Cabbage maggots and cabbage maggot flies are most often seen in cool, wet weather and most commonly affect gardens in the north. The cabbage maggot feeds off the roots of cole crops like: cabbage broccoli cauliflower collards Brussels sprouts The cabbage maggot is the larva of the cabbage maggot fly. The larva is small, about ¼-inch (6 mm.) long and is white or cream colored. The cabbage maggot fly looks like the common housefly but will have stripes on its body....

Tom Thumb Lettuce Facts Tom Thumb lettuce plants are a unique variety of butterhead or bibb lettuce. These plants produce crisp buttery leaves which form a loose head. Reaching maturity in around 45 days, the most unique characteristic of these plants is their diminutive size. Small 4 to 5 inch (10 to 15 cm.) plants are perfect for a wide range of garden applications, including its use as a single serving’ salad....

What is Tomato Fusarium Wilt? Tomato plants can be susceptible to a few types of wilt, but fusarium wilt is fairly common among them. It is caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum. The fungus infects the plants through the rootlets and is not spread through the above-ground portions of plants. Fusarium survives for a long time in the soil and overwinters there. The disease can be spread this way from year to year....

It takes a lot of work to go from seedling to slicing tomato, but the job gets even tougher when you’ve got tomatoes affected by nematodes. Tomato root knot nematode is one of the most common tomato problems in the garden, but you can still get great yields if you catch it early and implement a tomato nematode prevention program for future plantings. Nematodes in Tomatoes Everybody knows about plant diseases and the bugs that can become serious pests, but fewer gardeners are familiar with plant parasitic nematodes in tomatoes....

Transplanting Hawthorn Hedges Hawthorns (Crataegus monogyna) are often used for hedges. A dense hawthorn hedge offers great protection for small wildlife and birds and also does a good job at keeping out intruders. Hawthorns produce flowers in early summer, followed by showy berries. These stay on the shrubs into winter, providing birds with food during the cold months. Although the shrubs are happy campers once they are in the soil, the “thorn” part of hawthorn becomes important if you are thinking of hawthorn hedge transplanting or trimming hawthorns for that matter....

Barley Leaf Rust Info According to barley leaf rust info, these types of fungal disorders seem to be host specific. That means barley leaf rust only occurs on barley and any of its family members. It is a late season disease that can cause crop loss. Historical infections between 1900 and the 1950s infected crops in the U.S. and into Canada. U.S. losses were in the Midwest and Great Plains states....

What is Begonia Pythium Rot? You may have never heard of begonia stem and root rot. If your begonias are infected, you’ll likely want to know more about it. This is a disease caused by the fungal-like organism Pythium ultimum. This organism lives in the soil and can subsist there for long periods of time. It is likely to become active when the ground is very wet and the weather is cool....

Do Luffas Need Pruning? Pruning luffa vines isn’t necessary but it can help young plants send out more vines and promote the sturdiest stems for fruit production. Growing luffa gourds is quite easy provided you have a very long growing season. They take up to 200 frost-free days to mature and can grow numerous stems filled with heavy, up to 2 feet long (61 cm.) fruits. The vines need plenty of training and a sturdy trellis system upon which to grow....

What are Loppers Used for? Almost every gardener owns a hand pruner, also called hand shears. That’s the scissor-sized tool to clip thinner branches or stems, deadhead flowers, and take off soft shoots. So, what are loppers used for? Loppers are super-sized pruners. If a stem is thicker than a larger sized pencil, cutting it with a hand pruner could damage the light tool. When you are using garden loppers, with their long handles, you have a lot more leverage to prune heftier branches....

What Diseases Do Mandevilla Plants Get? Mandevilla disease problems are usually caused by humid, wet conditions and overhead watering. These cultural problems encourage many types of mandevilla diseases originating from fungal spores or bacterial colonies, but if they’re caught early they can often be treated. The most common diseases on mandevilla and their treatments are outlined below. Botrytis Blight Botrytis blight, also known as gray mold, is most troubling when the weather has been cool, but moist....

There are many plants that help soil. Plants can increase porosity, entice beneficial organisms, stabilize soil, and add nutrients back into that soil. What plants improve soil? Both annual and perennial plants can enhance fertility and provide other benefits. Selecting a nitrogen fixing plant reaps that much-needed nutrient. Plants can be used as green manure or cover crops, which are usually planted during the fallow season when crops are not actively growing....

Growing Coleus Under the Sea Plants Coleus is just one of a number of plants in the garden I love to grow. Not only are they easy to care for, but they are simply breathtaking foliage plants with so many color variations and forms that you just can’t go wrong in whichever you choose. Then there’s the Under the Sea™ coleus plants. Under the Sea coleus plants (Solestomeon scutellarioides) hail from Canada, where they were bred by students at Saskatchewan University....