In real estate sales the buzzwords are “location, location, location” and the same is true for healthy houseplants.  After over- and under-watering, improper amount of light is the next leading cause of failure of houseplants to thrive. 

      Many of our indoor plants are tropical plants shipped from nurseries in Florida.  They are accustomed to the bright, warm Florida sunshine and suddenly they are sitting on a store shelf in chilly Wisconsin.  What a shock!  They might look fine for a few days, but then they start to decline, sometimes rapidly.  When you bring the plant home it has to make yet another adjustment.  There is 5-10 times more light in deep Florida shade than in an average Wisconsin living room. 

      Plants are able to adapt to new environments, but it takes about eight weeks. During that time, don’t expect your plant to thrive; just focus on keeping it alive until it adjusts. 

      The first few weeks, the plant may use what seems to be a LOT of water.  Remember, it came from Florida, and no one told it that in Wisconsin it doesn’t need to drink as much, so it is still transpiring (taking up and releasing water into the atmosphere) at the Florida rate.  If the plant doesn’t get enough water during this critical time, it will be unnecessarily stressed.  Monitor the soil moisture carefully during the first several weeks.  Whenever the soil is dry to an inch below the surface, water the plant.  Make sure to cut back on water as the plant acclimates.  You’ll know this is happening because the soil will dry out much more slowly.

      Your plant should come with a tag that tells how much light it needs.  While plants can adjust to different light levels, they will be healthier the closer you come to matching optimal levels.  A south or west window is considered high light, an east window is medium light and a north window provides low light.  While your plant is acclimating to the new light conditions, it may lose a few leaves.  This is nothing to worry about. 

      Before plants are shipped, they are often sprayed with many things.  It is a good idea to wipe the leaves with a soft cotton cloth to remove residues.  Make sure to wipe the leaves regularly – dust on leaves can reduce light by 25%!       

      There are ways to tell if your plants are getting the proper amount of light.  If they aren’t getting enough, they will not grow, leaves will yellow and drop, variegated leaves may lose their variegation and the soil stays wet.  Too much light may cause strange growth, pale leaves, dropping leaves, scorched leaves and dry soil.  Perfect light will produce plants that grow nicely with dark green leaves few of which drop, and will require regular watering. 

            Temperature and humidity are other factors affecting the health of houseplants. Most home temps are fine but the air is too dry.  Misting plants regularly helps them flourish

      Tourism officials in Vermont are concerned that the fall color the last four years has been less than spectacular, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in tourist spending.  Many scientists are attributing the lack of vibrant leaf color to global warming.  “Leaf peeping” isn’t quite as big a business here in Wisconsin, but this year’s fall color definitely didn’t measure up to past years.

      In mid-September I traveled through the arrowhead of Minnesota.  The fall color was amazing and I looked forward to the same around home a few weeks later.  But this year the spectacle never arrived, at least in the places that I frequent.  There were a few nice red or orange maples, but for the most part, the leaves went from green to dull to the ground, skipping their brilliant performance in between.

      We didn’t get the cool nights necessary for the bright colors to put on their show.  I was also disappointed this year in the fall color of my ‘Gold Flame” spirea that usually rivals the color of trees on any October calendar photo.  Another disappointment came from my pear tree.  Other years it turned a gorgeous red-orange that added enjoyment to my view out the kitchen window as I did the dishes.  This year the leaves went straight from green to brown to down.

      Some shrubs in my yard were able to put on their autumn show despite the lack of cool weather.  The most vivid display was put on by the cutleaf sumac.  The pure reds, oranges and yellows were a bright spot in the back corner of the yard.  Another reliable performer was the burning bush (pictured) which definitely lived up to its name, holding onto its scarlet leaves for at least a month.  The Virginia creeper that grows on the back fence provided a nice tapestry of fall color as well.  Red chokeberry, red twig dogwood, and highbush cranberry also seemed unaffected by the change in climate.  Still pretty but not quite as vivid as in years past, were the hazelnut and serviceberry shrubs.

      The lack of impressive color in the trees has forced me to look for color elsewhere.  The shrubs I’ve mentioned have provided some sparkle, and so have some flowers.  ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum keeps its deep burgundy flowerheads long after other flowers have turned brown.  Annual flowers like calendula and marigolds can stand a light frost and continue to bloom in bright golds, oranges and yellows.  If protected from frost, cheerful red geraniums still look great, as do bright gold nasturtiums.

      In the absence of dazzling fall colors in the trees we have to look downward to our shrubs and flowers.  And instead of expecting a show of crayon box red, orange and yellow we will have to learn to look closer and train our eyes to appreciate the more subtle hues like burgundy, honey, coffee, wheat, rust, cinnamon and sand.

Garden supply stores have row upon row of handy tools for the gardener and mail order companies have whole catalogs of gardening tools.  But if you need a tool to do something right now and don’t have the time or inclination to run to the store to buy it or to the internet to order it, you improvise.  Many of the items I use to in the garden were never meant to be used the way I utilize them. 

      One of the handiest items is a five gallon bucket of the type that sealant for asphalt driveways comes in.  It is useful for mixing soil, carrying sand, hauling tools, and toting weeds to the compost.  A rectangular plastic kitchen dishpan works for many of the same tasks and is also useful for carrying produce from garden to kitchen.

      Instead of filling the bottoms of container plantings with heavy stones or gravel for good drainage, use styrofoam packing peanuts.  For very large containers, fill the bottom with empty pop cans, then packing peanuts, then potting mix.  This makes containers much lighter and easier to move and saves money on potting mix.  Place a coffee filter in the bottom of the pot before planting so the soil doesn’t wash out the hole. 

      Yogurt cups are perfect for starting pepper seedlings; my tomatoes get their starts in cut off half-gallon orange juice cartons.  Plastic gallon milk cartons have many uses in the garden.  Cut the bottoms off and cut a slice out of the top of the handle.  Poke a stake through the handle and into the ground next to tender seedlings in spring.  When frost threatens or on windy days, flip the container around the stake and over the plant to protect it. 

      Plastic milk cartons are also useful to hang in apple trees to prevent damage from coddling moths.  Cut a hole a few inches square somewhere in the top half of the carton.  Mix 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup water and a few tablespoons of molasses in the carton and hang it by its handle in the apple tree right after blossom drop.  The solution will attract moths away from the apples.  Check periodically and refill when the solution evaporates.

      A third use for plastic milk cartons is for watering.  Punch holes in the bottom and bury the carton up to its neck next to tomato plants.  Fill the container with water and it will trickle out the bottom to reach the plants right where they need it – at their roots.

      Thick layers of newspaper can be used as mulch to kill grass for a new garden bed or between rows in a current garden to suppress weeds.  Wet it down and cover it with a heavier mulch to keep it from blowing away.

      I have knives intended for use in the garden, but what I reach for when I need to trim away roots to repot or divide a plant is a sharp kitchen knife.  It works better and is always handy.

      And for what do I use the great knee pads my mom got me for Christmas to wear for weeding?  Kneeling to scrub the kitchen floor!

      Need a ground cover?  A shrubby hedge?  A small tree?  There is a variety of cotoneaster (pronounced co-TO-ne-as-ter) that fits whatever your requirements.

      Cotoneasters are members of the rose family and are native to China.  Some varieties may be evergreen in warmer climates, but they are deciduous in Wisconsin.  Most of them have tiny white to pink flowers in late spring followed by red to black berries that look like baby apples and are properly called pomes, just like apples.  The berries persist all winter and look like a pretty Christmas decoration when snow covers the branches.  Birds will eat the berries in spring when they have few other choices.

      Cotoneaster’s leaves are small, waxy and dark green and grow along the stems.  In fall, the leaves turn a spectacular dark orange or deep red.  The branches have an arching habit, whether the variety is a ground cover, shrub or tree.  The shrubs have a look similar to bridal wreath with flowers all along the stems.  When the flowers turn to berries and the leaves turn their fall colors, the branches are striking additions to fall floral arrangements.

      Cotoneaster grows well in any soil and does very well in the poorest soils.  Full sun is best.  Afternoon shade is okay, but there may not be quite as many flowers and berries.  It needs regular watering while becoming established but after that is very drought tolerant, needing no extra water.

      The ground cover varieties grow from only a few inches to a foot high and the shrub/tree varieties grow up to twelve feet tall.  The taller varieties can be kept in bounds if necessary by pruning in winter or early spring.  If given plenty of space to grow and allowed to develop naturally, little pruning is needed.  The ground covers might occasionally need a dead branch or an awkward upright branch pruned out.

      Cotoneaster lucidus is called hedge cotoneaster and makes a nice full formal hedge that can be pruned to any height from three to ten feet.  It is frequently grown on college campuses throughout the Midwest.   When Cotoneaster multiflorus is in bloom, it looks like a frothy white fountain.  Unfortunately the flowers don’t smell as pretty as they look so the shrub should be planted away from high traffic areas.  This one grows 8-12 feet high and 12-15 feet wide.  It is good for massing or large-area use.  There are some cute little cotoneaster ground cover varieties suitable for rock gardens.  One of them is Cotoneaster horizontalis ‘Tom Thumb.’ 

      You won’t find a cotoneaster sold as a tree form.  You would have to buy one of the taller shrub varieties and keep it pruned to only one stem. 

      There are at least 13 cotoneaster varieties.  The best advice is to find out what is available at the nursery or through mail order and read the accompanying description to see if it will fit your requirements.

      Do you routinely fertilize your lawn or garden?  How do you know you are giving your plants the right kind or amount of fertilizer?  You can save money, improve the health of your plants and protect the environment from fertilizer run-off by doing a soil test that will tell you exactly what your landscape needs.

      The test results will only be as good as the sample you take.  The best results will be from a test that is a mix of soil from at least five different spots.  But don’t combine soil from your lawn, your vegetable garden and your flower beds into one sample.  The plants that grow in each of these areas have very different requirements and the soil is likely very different in each of these spots because of how you’ve treated the soil in the past.  Make a composite sample of five spots from your vegetable garden and separate composite samples from your flower beds and lawn.  You might even take separate samples from your front yard and back yard if the quality of the turf is very different.

      To take a sample, dig down and take soil from about 4 inches in an established lawn and 5-7 inches in a garden or new lawn.  You can use a shovel, trowel or soil auger to get the soil.  From the five separate spots collect a total of one to two cups of soil. 

      The Winnebago County Extension office has wax-lined soil sample bags (or you can use a clean, strong plastic bag) and Soil Information Sheets that you fill out and return with your soil sample.  You need to fill out one sheet for each sample.  The more information you provide, the better the recommendation you will receive.  Return the soil sample to the Extension office or send it directly to the UW Soil and Plant Analysis Laboratory, 5711 Mineral Point Road, Madison, WI  53705.  The phone number is 608-262-4364.  You can also print the Soil Information Sheet from the internet at http://uwlab.soils.wisc.edu.

      Each soil sample tested costs $15.  The test will tell you your soil pH, lime requirements, organic matter percentages, phosphorus needs and potassium needs.  There are additional fees for any special soil tests.  Some of the special tests are for lead, zinc, boron, calcium and magnesium.  Excesses or deficits of any of these in the soil can cause problems with plants.  The fees for those tests can also be found at the website mentioned above.

      Soil samples can be taken any time the ground isn’t frozen, but early spring and late fall are best.  Take the sample when the soil is relatively dry and don’t sample right after applying fertilizer as that will be an inaccurate representation.  Experts recommend that soil samples be taken every three years.

      Have some extra space in your yard?  Elderberries are a great, easy shrub that will provide food for your table or for the birds.

      Both the flowers and the berries are useful.  Flowers can be harvested to make an herbal tea believed to be a remedy for colds, fever and flu.  You may have heard of the product Sambucol, a flu remedy.  It is derived from the elderberry and takes its name from the Latin name for elderberry, Sambucus. 

      Elderberries like a sunny location with lots of room to spread.  They thrive in fertile, moist soil.  Young plants should be set 6-10’ apart.  Elderberries are more productive if there are at least two different cultivars located within 60’ of each other for cross pollination.

      It is important to control weeds around elderberries when they are first planted.  The roots are shallow, so hand-pulling or mowing is recommended.  Better yet, mulch around the plants to prevent weeds from growing at all.  Do not allow mulch to touch the stems of elderberries, or any other plant including trees, as that promotes stem rot.  Once the elderberries develop into a hedgerow or clump, they will suppress the weeds on their own.

      Elderberries bear large clusters of white or cream-colored flowers in late spring.  The flowers have a sweet baby powder smell.  The flowers soon turn to green berries that ripen to red and then almost black. 

      The berries are higher in phosphorus and potassium than any other fruit we can grow in Wisconsin and are also high in Vitamin C.  Caution however – the berries have a mild cyanide toxicity until they are cooked or processed, and the stems and leaves are also poisonous.  The fruit is completely safe, though, when made into jams, jellies, pies or wine. 

      Berries are harvested in August through September depending on the cultivar.  Remove the entire cluster and strip the berries from the cluster later.  Some people use a kitchen fork to pull the berries from the stems.  If you have a problem with birds getting the berries before you harvest them, cut the clusters a day or two before they are fully ripe and set them in a warm place to continue to ripen.  Use them as soon as they ripen. 

      Because of the shallow roots, winter damage can sometimes be a problem for elderberries.  Here again a mulch comes in handy.  Don’t worry if some canes are lost to the cold – the fruit forms on new growth so even if damage is severe, the crop is seldom affected. 

      The only pruning necessary is to cut out dead canes in spring and to cut out old canes when the bushes become crowded.  An abundance of suckers can be kept in line by clipping or mowing.  Transplant suckers if you want new plants in another location.           Elderberries are remarkably free from disease and insect pests making them wonderful landscape plants.

      Growing your own garlic is easy and there are many more varieties available for home gardeners than you will find in the supermarket.  Garlic is best planted in the fall, right around the time tulip bulbs are planted, in mid-October. 

      You may be confused about the various types of garlic.  Here is a simple lesson.  There are two types of garlic – hardneck and softneck.  Hardnecks are further divided into purple stripe, porcelain and rocambole.  Softnecks are divided into artichoke and silverskin.  Softnecks last longer in storage, mature faster and are more productive than hardnecks.  However, softneck cloves are harder to peel than hardnecks.  Hardnecks offer more color and flavor variety than softnecks.

       Some varieties do better in cooler or warmer climates than others, but we are fortunate to be able to grow any of the types of garlic in Wisconsin.  The unusual thing about garlic is that a certain type can adapt to the conditions where the gardener is trying to grow it in about three years by replanting the cloves yearly.

      You will find good descriptions of garlic offerings in mail order catalogs.  The best thing to do is try several varieties to find out what grows best in your garden and what flavors you like.

      Garlic grows best in full sun in well-drained soil amended with lots of organic matter.  To grow garlic, plant the cloves, the sections of the bulb.  Each clove produces a new bulb.  Place the cloves in a hole or furrow with the flat end down and the pointed end up, with the tip about two inches beneath the soil line.  Fill the hole with soil and top it with 6” of mulch like straw, pine needles or dried grass clippings.

      The garlic starts to grow in the fall.  You’ll see shoots coming up through the mulch in four to eight weeks, depending on the variety of garlic and the weather.  The garlic stops growing over the winter and starts up again in spring.  Leave the mulch in place in the spring to thwart weeds and conserve moisture. 

      Make sure the garlic gets about one inch of water per week either from rain or the hose from when it starts growing in spring until about June 1 when the leaves begin to yellow.  Stop watering then to allow the bulbs to firm up.

      If you’ve planted hardneck garlic, it will sprout a flowery stalk called a “scape” in spring.  Remove the scape to encourage more vigorous bulb production and use it to flavor pesto, dip or soup.

      When between half and three quarters of the leaves turn yellow-brown, in late June or early July, it’s time to harvest.  Dig up the bulbs carefully and put them in a shady spot to dry and cure for four to six weeks.  Softneck stems can be braided and hung to dry.  When it is thoroughly dry, trim the roots, being careful not to knock off the outer skin.  Cut the stalks about 1½” above the bulb and store in a mesh bag recycled from onions or oranges.

      One of the many definitions of the word “herb” is “a useful plant.”  It may be useful for culinary, medicinal, aromatic and/or craft purposes.  Often an herb is valuable in more than one category.  Herbs are generally grown more for these useful purposes than for their beauty, as they often lack the splashy splendor of traditional flower garden plants like roses, petunias, marigolds, lilies and zinnias.

      That said, an herb garden can be very pleasing to the eye.  Herbs are so versatile that they can find a home in most any landscape.  They can be part of perennial beds, rock gardens, pathway edgings or the pathway itself, container gardens and vegetable gardens.  Or they can have their own space, an entire garden dedicated to herbs.  The herb garden can be very tidy and formal with orderly plants like calendula, germander, some sages, thyme, basil, parsley, lavender and rue, or more casual and sprawling with big plants like dill, tansy, hyssop, hops, comfrey, angelica and mints.  Or the two can be combined, with any combination of your favorite plants.

      Just like any garden, an herb garden takes a little planning.  Most herbs are native to the poor rocky Mediterranean soils, so they do fine in less than optimum conditions.  In fact, overly fertile or moist soil will cause herbs to grow too leggy and flop over.  However, it won’t hurt to add organic matter like compost, chopped leaves or well-rotted manure if you are starting a new garden.

      Place the tallest herbs in the back and the shorter ones in the front.  Do some research on how tall each of the herbs can be expected to get and how wide they will spread so as to allow ample space between plants.

      Herbs can be annuals or perennials.  Some perennial herbs cannot survive our winters and must be dug up and brought indoors over winter.  Another option is to grow those tender perennials in containers on the deck or patio, or set the pots right in the herb garden for some added interest.  Some herbs, especially those in the mint family, can spread faster than you’d like them to.  Others like tansy and comfrey do the same, so do your homework.  These spreaders should be grown in pots sunk into the ground. 

      Herbs can be started from seed, or from division, cuttings or transplants.  Not all herbs can be started each way.  For example, it is very difficult to start lavender from seed; it is usually started from cuttings or by buying transplants.  Basil and dill grow easily from seed.  In fact, once you plant dill, it is unlikely that you will ever have to plant it again as it reseeds prolifically.

      There are many ways to educate yourself about herbs before you start your herb garden.  The Winnefox library system has hundreds of herb books, the internet is packed with information and there are several herb magazines and herbal association newsletters to which you can subscribe.

      Early blight.  Late blight.  Vertcillium wilt.  Fusarium wilt.  Blossom end rot.  Septoria leaf spot.  Anthracnose.  Tobacco mosaic virus.  Root knot nematodes.  The list of tomato diseases is long and the symptoms of each overlap making it difficult to determine which particular disease has hit your tomatoes.  No matter the disease, the end result is that you don’t have the number of tasty fresh tomatoes you hoped for when you planted them.

      There are many things you can do to prevent diseased tomatoes so you don’t have to spend time trying to determine which disease wrecked your crop.

      Buy plants or seeds that have been bred to be resistant to some of the diseases.  You need not spend time researching this; breeders are glad to tell you right after the name of the tomato.  The label will say, for example, Better Boy Hybrid, VFN.  The capital letters denote which diseases the cultivar resists.  “V” is for verticillium wilt, “F” is for fusarium wilt and “N” is for root knot nematodes.  You don’t really have to know what the letters stand for.  The more letters after the tomato’s name, the more diseases to which it is resistant.

      The next important disease prevention tool is mulch.  Many diseases are splashed up from soil.  Spread a thick layer of mulch like hay, straw or pine needles starting about two inches away from the stem and cover an area of at least a four foot diameter.

      Clean old tomato cages with a 10% bleach solution especially if you have had disease problems in the past.  Remove any crispy bits of last year’s leaves that may be stuck to the cages. 

      Many disease pathogens overwinter in the soil, so avoid planting tomatoes where you had them last year.  Don’t plant them where you had peppers, eggplants or potatoes either.  Like tomatoes, they are members of the Solanacae family and are prone to many of the same diseases.

      When you water tomatoes, try not to get the leaves wet.  When it rains, avoid touching the plants until they dry.  If you smoke, don’t do so in the garden, and always wash your hands with soap and water before touching the plants.  Tobacco mosaic virus can be transmitted to the plants by smokers.

      Avoid high nitrogen fertilizers.  Excess nitrogen causes too-rapid growth which encourages foliar diseases.  It can also inhibit blossom formation and pollination and delay ripening.

      Keep the area around your tomatoes free of weeds and pull volunteer tomato plants that sprout from last year’s seeds.  If you see signs of disease on the lower leaves, pull them off and put them in the garbage, not the compost pile.  This may slow the disease and allow you to get at least a partial harvest.  Tomatoes harvested from plants with diseased leaves are perfectly safe to eat.

      Perennials are the mainstays of our gardens but many of them bloom for only a week or two and then their show is over for the year.  Coreopsis, pronounced core-ee-OP-sis, is a perennial whose bloom lasts for two or three months.  Coreopsis is also known as tickseed.

      There are two cultivars whose flowers seem to float above delicate looking, yet strong, stems.  The first is Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’ whose 1” soft yellow blossoms are held 1’-2’ off the ground.  The other is C. rosea whose rose-pink blooms have yellow centers.  Both are mounding plants with soft needle-like leaves.  Both cultivars do best in full sun but C. rosea can tolerate partial shade.  A strong rain will knock the stems down but they will pop right back up when they dry.

      There are some coreopsis cultivars with more substantial flowers.  C. grandiflora  ‘Rising Sun’ is easily grown from seed.  The 1”-2” double flowers are bright yellow with mahogany flecks at the center.  Plants grow to 20” the first year and up to 36” thereafter.  C. grandiflora “Early Sunrise” has golden yellow semi-double flowers and C. rosea ‘Heaven’s Gate’ grows 12”-15” tall and sports beautiful 1”-1½” rose-pink flowers with deep red eyes and yellow centers. 

      New this year is ‘Presto’, a neat 10” tall ball-shaped plant that shines from early summer to fall with 2” golden-yellow blooms.  From seed to bloom is just 100 days.  Also new is ‘Jethro Tull’ coreopsis.  The unusual golden petals are fluted and attract butterflies and hummingbirds to the perennial border.  ‘Jethro Tull’ grows to about 15 inches tall and has the mounded shape typical of coreopsis.

      All coreopsis do best in full sun in average soil.  They are drought tolerant once established and do well under stress.  Overly rich soils cause the stems to flop.  Deadheading (which can be quite tedious on ‘Moonbeam’ which produces several hundred flowers) promotes re-bloom for an even longer season.  You may find that the bloom season is sufficiently long without deadheading.

      Coreopsis spreads slowly outward and is easy to divide in spring or fall.  After several years the middle of the plant may die but the edges can easily be dug up and replanted.

      Coreopsis is a good border plant for the formal garden.  The delicate foliage and yellow flowers make a striking contrast with silvery dusty miller and deep violet flowers such as lobelia and salvia, ornamental grasses like purple millet and cheerful Johnny-jump-ups.  On the other hand, coreopsis is versatile enough to combine well with less formal prairie plantings of native grasses, purple coneflowers, asters, bonesets, liatris and other yellow daisies.