by Larry Hurley, Perennial Plant Buyer

Or, perhaps we should say Tuin Up; I believe Tuin is Dutch for garden. By mid-summer, much of your garden is feeling a little dragged out. Hot days and warm nights are tough on plants as well as people. A little pruning back can be just the ticket to rejuvenate annuals and perennials. I’m not your guy for vegetable garden hints, I have a shady yard.

Let’s start with hanging baskets. A couple of things happen over time, both a factor of the concept that, if a plant is still alive, it’s trying to grow. (That which doesn’t kill it, makes it longer.)

Hanging Baskets: Basket plants should be sheared or selectively pinched to keep them in proportion to the pot. Petunias, for example, will trail down the side of the pot, growing and flowering from the ends of the stems, until you have flowers at the end of 18 inch long stems with few leaves or flowers at the top around the basket.

The best thing to do is selectively cut off about 20% of the stems each week or two right at the edge of the basket. As those stems recover and start to grow and make flower buds, you cut the next 20%. Over time, you keep the plant to a manageable length and it never looks like it was cut back. For an upright plant, do the same thing–just pinch random stems back from say 12 inches long to 4 inches long, once every week or two.

As the basket ages, the plants roots slowly fill the soil in the basket. The soil settles, washes out of the pot, decays…at some point you have more roots than soil. Roots don’t hold water like soil does. If you find you are watering a couple of times a day, it may be time to put the plant into a larger container– maybe no longer hanging– or in the ground.

Echinacea Trial garden

Perennials: The best reference is The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, by Tracy DiSabato-Aust. She tells you how and when to cut back or shear plants in your perennial garden in order to control height, or to prepare the plant for another surge of bloom if it’s a rebloomer like most of the summer-blooming perennials are. Tracy is a landscape contractor in Ohio, and the book is written from practical experience and for the average gardener.

Annuals: Cut off old flower heads to encourage rebloom (deadheading) or cut back the plant part way to encourage bushiness and branching (and eventually more flowers). If you are happy with how they look, don’t do anything. Vinca and Supertunias probably don’t need any attention at all.

Herb Container. Photo by Larry Hurley

Herbs: Continue to pinch off the ends of the stems to encourage bushiness. With basil, remove flower buds by pinching out the flowering stems. If you have a few strong stems that have not gone to flower, take a 3-inch- or-so long tip cutting (the end 3 inches of the stem) and put it in a glass of water so that the bottom inch or so is in the water and the top is in a sunny window. It should root in about 10 days. In two or three weeks, you can plant it back outside while your older basil flowers and declines. The water glass should be dark; dark colored, or wrap it in foil. You can do that with coleus, too.

Weeds: Pull them out, they are just going to get bigger and meaner.

By Elizabeth Olson, CPH

‘Tokyo Gokaku’ okra - Photo courtesy of Kitazawa Seed Company

NEW THIS YEAR! Limited quantities of heirloom okra in 2-inch pots will be available starting Friday, June 4, 2010, only at the Behnke’s location in Beltsville.

Okra thrives in warm to hot weather and thoroughly warmed soil, and these cultivars are ready to grow in your garden.

Okra pods can be prepared in many ways, from grilling to pickling. The plants are decorative and have beautiful hibiscus-like flowers.

The heirloom okra cultivars include ‘Clemson Spineless,’ a great all-purpose cultivar; ‘Silver Queen,’ great baked or grilled; and ‘Tokyo Gokaku,’ for curry dishes, tempura, and stir-fry.

These heirloom okra cultivars are open-pollinated and are excellent for seed saving.

Gardening Basics Simply Put – Hanging Baskets

Hanging baskets, they’re not just for hanging anymore. By all means, do hang them, but consider that basically, it’s a big pot full of colorful flowers or tropical foliage. You can remove the hanger, and set it on a pedestal for an instant “container” plant, or if it happens to be upright instead of trailing, you can set in on a table for a centerpiece.

Another option: take it out of the basket and plant it in a decorative container, or even in the ground for an instant specimen plant. For most basket plants, this will be fine. This works for anything I can think of except for fuchsia. Basket fuchsias are trailers; upright fuchsias, sold in standard pots, are better for planting out.

Basket care:

Light: shade plants will flower better with a couple of hours of early morning sun. Sun plants will do better if they get some shade in the hot afternoon. This is more to keep the pot cooler than for any aversion to sunlight. Hot pots dry out faster and the roots on the sunny side of the pot may heat to the point of partial dieback.

Water: Big plant, small pot.

Your basket will be fine initially, and your primary responsibility is to check daily for water needs. Just lift the pot; if it’s heavy, it’s good for a day. If it’s light, water it. Remember that with any container, that if the plant gets very dry (very light) the potting soil will shrink away from the side of the pot, and most of the water you are applying is just running down the side. In that case, set it on the ground and water it thoroughly several times, 10 minutes apart. Or, set it in a pan of water for an hour.

Baskets that typically need less frequent water include geraniums, trailing geraniums, portulaca, fuchsia, petunias (when the basket is new). Lantana and impatiens dry out pretty quickly.

As the weeks pass, and the plant grows, something funny happens. The roots slowly replace the soil. Some of the potting soil decays further, and some gets washed from the pot with the frequent watering. The plant’s roots don’t hold water like soil does. The result is that you will find yourself watering more frequently.

At that point, say mid-summer, you should either repot it to a larger container, or plant it in the ground. Or, go on vacation and blame the neighbor who was supposed to water your plants while you were gone. [To make life easier for the helpful neighbor, take the baskets down and place them on the ground in light shade, preferably near a water source. That way, the baskets won’t need water as frequently.]

Pruning/Pinching:
As it gets straggly, cutting it back selectively will make the plant more attractive. What I mean by “selectively” is cut back the shoots to different lengths, not straight across like bangs. That way, when it starts to grow again it will look more natural. If you cut back a couple of shoots every two weeks or so you should be able to maintain it without it ever looking like it has been trimmed.

With the frequent watering, your plant’s foliage will yellow after a couple of weeks if you don’t fertilize. I would use Miracle Gro or a similar product occasionally, or Osmocote. Follow label instructions but better to err on the low side. You want to keep the plant green, but it’s not the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The more growth you push with fertilizer, the sooner you will confront the “too big for the pot” problem discussed above.

By Elizabeth Olson, CPH

Mixed savory and sweet peppers fresh from the garden can be used to make delectable pepper sandwiches.

Each pepper plant will produce many peppers, and pepper sandwiches are a great way to utilize the pepper harvest.

Pepper plants are easy to grow and make decorative additions to any garden.

Behnke’s savory and sweet pepper selection includes:

• ‘Banana Supreme,’ a long, tapered, thin-walled wax pepper. The pepper color changes from light green to red as it matures. It can be harvested when it is yellow-green to red, but still firm. All-America Selections winner in 1941

• ‘Carmen,’ an Italian-style bull’s horn (corno di toro) pepper that ripens to carmine red. It has thin skin and thick walls. Harvest it when it is mature, but still firm. All-America Selections winner in 2006

• ‘Cubanelle,’ a thin-walled, long, lobed pepper that matures from light green to yellow-green to red. Best picked when yellow-green

• ‘Giant Marconi,’ a long, tapered 2- to 4-lobed pepper matures to a deep red. Harvest it when it is either green or mature, but still firm. All-America Selections winner in 2001

• ‘Jimmy Nardello,’ an heirloom Italian frying pepper that matures to a bright red. This long, slender pepper has a small seed cavity. Harvest it when it is mature, but still firm

• ‘Mandarin,’ an extra-large, thick-walled, lobed sweet pepper that matures to a brilliant orange-red. Harvest it when it is mature, but still firm

For a rich and tangy flavor, include ‘Holy Molé,’ a long, slender pasilla pepper that matures to a deep chocolate brown. It should be harvested when it is deep green or mature, but still firm. This cultivar was named an All-America Selections winner in 2007.

Select several different types of peppers. Cut the peppers in thin slices, being careful to remove stems, pith, and seeds. Peeled, thinly sliced sweet onions can be added to the mix. Add enough olive oil or grape seed oil to lightly coat the pepper and onion slices. Gently sauté the medley until the slices start to soften; test for flavor.

Spicy heat can be added at this time with a small amount of either ‘Cayenne’ or ‘Super Cayenne II’ peppers that have reached maturity and that are red in color. It is highly recommended to wear gloves when handling these peppers. Most of the heat is located in the tissues that hold the seeds. Only add a small amount of either of the Cayenne peppers and their seeds, then stir and test for flavor. Repeat this step, as necessary, until you obtain the desired amount of spicy heat.

Continue to sauté the peppers and onions until the slices are tender. The medley can be served warm or chilled as a sandwich filling.

By: Elizabeth Olson, Certified Professional Horticulturist
Behnke’s Vegetable Expert

Sweet 100's photo from Burpee Seed

Cherry, grape, and pear tomatoes are the tomatoes for “garden candy”. They start fruiting early in the season, continue all summer, and are the last tomatoes in the garden in the middle of autumn.

Sun-drenched, delicious, and easy to handle, frequently these tomatoes never make it to the house as kitchen gardeners are increasingly eating them straight from the vine.

Behnke’s selection includes:

‘Juliet,’ a large red grape tomato that is crack-resistant.
‘Santa,’ a medium-sized red grape tomato.
‘Sungold,’ a medium-sized golden-orange cherry tomato with a sweet, tangy flavor.
‘Sweet 100,’ a medium-sized scarlet cherry tomato that is high in vitamin C.
‘Yellow Pear,’ a small light yellow, open-pollinated heirloom that is wonderful fresh as well as pickled or used to make tomato preserves.

Need more help with your vegetable garden? Meet Elizabeth in the Vegetable and Herb section at Behnke’s in Beltsville, this Saturday (May 15th, 2010) from 10 to 4!