By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
What bug is this on my oak tree?
Why are my flowers dying?
How do I manage this weed in my vegetable garden?
Local Interest
By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
Of all the holiday plants, the amaryllis boasts some of the largest flowers and can be one of the easiest to grow for next year’s re-bloom. Bulbs received as gifts can be planted right away and their fast growth will amaze everyone, even those with brown thumbs. Hybridization has greatly expanded the red-flowered offerings of the amaryllis, with flowers of pink, white, salmon, fuchsia, the softest of yellows, striped, narrow-petalled, double blooms or miniature. Any way they are enjoyed, amaryllis can be an exciting gift for novice gardeners as well as the skilled.
By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
In the realm of gardening questions, answering “When can I prune my hydrangea?” can be the most complicated. This is because of the number of hydrangea types that grow in this region, requiring an understanding on our part before the pruning saw is even employed.
By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
Kicking back to consider next year’s garden, let benefitting pollinators be one of your considerations. Of course pollination is important to us because we like to eat—one-third of our food supply exists because pollinators pollinate. Pollinators, specifically native bees, are real work horses of the pollination world—just 250 native bees do the work of thousands of honey bees.
By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
As flowering plants give way to autumn, it’s the fruit that many produce that add interest to our landscapes. It’s hard to beat the berries produced by purple beautyberry, Callicarpa dichotoma. At a time of the year when fruits highlight the reds, yellows and golds of autumn, it’s nice to see the show-stopping lustrous purple-violet fruits of beautyberry. The fruits are small, just 1/8 of an inch across, but the numerous clusters along the stem make it a standout.
Beautyberry should not be confused with beautybush, which is an entirely different plant with a whole other set of flowering and fruiting characteristics.
By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator in Dodge County
If you’ve grown garlic before, you know that the cloves for planting are found readily in the spring. What many do not know is that fall planted garlic produces larger cloves than spring-planted ones. Using this opportunity to plant now means it’s not too late to reap the benefits of fall-planted garlic.
In selecting a site to grow garlic, choose one that gets 6 or more hours of direct uninterrupted sunlight daily and has a well-draining soil. In dense soils, garlic can rot, so amending the soil with compost first ensures a good crop. Garlic needs a nutrient-rich soil, so sandy soils will also benefit from the addition of compost.
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The “Engaging Agriculture” articles are written weekly by and for Engagement Zone 1 Nebraska Extension Educators, who cover the 11 counties in the Panhandle.