Garden Talk: Can heat mats wake up my plants this spring?

These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: How can I move my rhubarb plants to a different province (British Columbia)?

A: As soon as the frost is out of the ground, you can dig it up and then pick up a little pot, even if you go over to one of the garden centers and get a nursery pot. With rhubarb you might need a bigger pot or you can actually split it and then you put it into three or four pots. You have to plant it in a raised area that has good drainage. You might have to actually dig a big hole and put some crushed rock at the base, or something like that, and somewhere where it can drain away, because it rains a lot there, so it’ll just rot the rhubarb plant out.

Q: How would you recommend planting Ranunculales bulbs?

A: Start them inside during the last week of March or beginning of April. Put them in a pot, get them started, get them growing and then plant them outside. And then, remember, Ranunculales is a summer bulb, so you’ll need to lift it up in the fall again. You could even start it right now and enjoy some of the flowers indoors, and then plant it out once the risk of frost is gone.

Q: Do heat mats help canna lilies wake up?

A: Heat mats help everything wake up. Bottom heat makes plants grow, it’s just a fact. That’s why a lot of people will do raised gardens because they just do better because of the heat that they get.

Q: I have an apple tree and some of the apples produced wide cracks and had brown cork like spots inside, but the rest of the tree was normal. What could have caused this?

A: It depends on the moisture conditions that can lead to different deformations. But that cork like spotting inside was likely caused by an apple maggot. If you have apple maggots, you got to pick the fruit before it ripens, and then get rid of it so you can break the cycle. If you notice some little holes or brown spots on the top, or even bigger brown spots inside, you’ll just need to cut one of them open and check whether you have the fly which comes out at the end of June, beginning of July and then the eggs hatch and they drill into the apple itself.

So you can put up some lure apples, even some lime green tennis balls with some tanglefoot on them. And I always like putting a little mesh around them. The flies can lay their eggs on the on the fake apple or tennis ball, or whatever you want to use.

And then also making sure that when you fertilize apple trees, you only fertilize them once in the spring, because that also effects fruit and use a fruit and berry fertilizer which is low in nitrogen.

Q: My Amaryllis just finished blooming, do I cut down the middle stock?

A: Wait until it turns brown. You want the energy to go back into the bulb. If you cut the green stem, it’s just flowing with juices. So wait till it turns kind of a brown color and starts kind of leaning over, and then you can trim it off.

Q: What’s the best time to plant tomatoes indoors from seed?

A: Already. But it depends on the package too, so look at the package. But most tomatoes, you need to get them started now.

Q: My German wine rhubarb grew well the first year, but then didn’t come back the following season. I do put leaves on top, but it seems like they must get winter damage or something. How can I avoid that problem?

A: In the winter that’s one thing to watch for that things don’t get too wet in the winter. They like heat, but they also like to be left alone.