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Jill and Rick Van Duyvendyk answer all your gardening questions in Garden Talk on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Here are some questions and answers from the Nov. 16 show:
Read more:
- Garden Talk: Can I plant organic garlic from the grocery store?
- Garden Talk: How to protect your precious potted peonies over winter
- Garden Talk: Tips to help your Christmas cactus bloom
These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: What do I need to know about grow lights?
A: Grow lights are almost a must if you want to keep a house plant thriving indoors in winter.
A window only supplies an indirect light, so if a plant needs bright direct light and you have the sun shining through a window, it’s already indirect. Some modern glass windows cut UV light down and triple pane windows also limit the light.
Having a full spectrum light is really important. Have it sit about 12 inches above your plant or move it closer if you are growing seedlings.
Variegated plants require a little bit more light. Watch your plant and see how it’s reacting, if you notice it’s getting a little bit of browning on the leaves the light may be too close.
Set the light on a timer for 12 hours minimum a day, and 14 hours would be ideal. If you want the plant to go dormant in the winter, like ome geraniums in a basement or something like that, have the light on 6 to 8 hours.
There are many neat grow lights that you can get, and they can look quite aesthetically pleasing. You can get a grow light on a stake with a ring on the top of it and you stick it into your plant and it hovers above it.
Grow lights can brighten up a darker corner of a room and add a bit of ambiance as well.
Q: My peony’s main stem was bent by snow. What can I expect for this plant
long term?
A: Peonies are perennial. So that means they’re going to die back down to the base every year and then come back from the crown at the base.
If you transplant it, you transplant it at the same level and not any shallower. Cut the branches right down to ground level.
If you get lots of snow, you could keep the branches to catch a bit more. If you don’t want to do the cutting back now, you’re can do it in spring.
Q: How do I keep a newly planted honeysuckle and spirea over winter?
A: Both of those shrubs are very hardy. So there’s not a whole lot you need to do as long as they’re going to get good snow cover for the wintertime. If the snow blows away from the spot where they are planted, throw some snow over top of them.
If the ground’s still not frozen, you can just take a pail of water and give them a shot of water right now, and that’s really all you need to do. If they are planted on the south side of the house where the snow melts very quickly in the spring, and you are getting freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw conditions, just throw some extra snow on them while they’re getting rooted in.
Q: I’ve sprouted three avocado seeds with grow lights. How tall can I expect those plants to get inside?
A: Avocado plants grown in the house can get to about six feet tall.
Q: Can I transplant strawberries to northeast garden bed?
A: You’re going to get lots of green leaves in a northeast location and not very many strawberries. A south or west exposure would be ideal for a strawberry patch if you want strawberries, and that’s the whole point of having them.
You might get a few flowers but you’re going to get lots of lush leaves in that location. Make sure you do some trimming so that if leaves get larger because they’re trying to catch light and it can still get into where the strawberries are to ripen them better.
Strawberries like heat and lots of sunlight. Commercial growers plant in an open area which has well-drained soil, and mulch them with the base with some straw so that they keep the moisture around the plant.
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