Jesse Jenkins

The past couple weeks, several customers have brought in pieces of Ruellia (Mexican Petunia) with worrisome white splotches on the leaves. At first glance, it could appear to be a fungal issue or even a chemical or paint residue, but that’s not it… Here’s what to look for and our recommendation for treatment.

The white funk is actually a type of growth distortion called erineum caused by tiny mites called eriophyid mites (Acalitus ruelliae). So that means fungicides would be a waste of time and money to solve this issue. We recommend treating organically with All-Seasons Oil Spray (a horticultural oil). Repeat the treatment every 5 to 7 days for a total of 3 treatments, wait until Spring, then cut the plants down to ground level. This should kill the mites and the plants should grow back out and look beautiful again. Another approach would be to use organic Spinosad soap or Bee Safe 3-in-1 Spray to treat the mites, then cut to ground level in Spring and wait for clean regrowth.

-DeAnna

Making your list, checking it twice, hoping the gardeners in your life, have been very nice! Come take a stroll through our garden and do a little stress-free shopping. Here are 10 gift ideas that gardeners will love.

North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits

Grow your own Shitake, Blue Oyster, Pink Oyster, Golden Oyster, and Lion’s Mane mushrooms. Indoor spray and grow kits are easy and produce a lot. If you’re more adventurous, try a log kit. Comes with instructions and spawn to inoculate a log and grow tons of Shitakes outside!

Flower and Herb Hang Dryer

Great gift for those who like to cook with fresh herbs or make homemade tea blends or pressed flowers.

Mossify Bendable Moss Pole

Great option for houseplant lovers. These bendable moss poles allow you to stake up your favorite climbing plants in any fun shape you like.

Wind Chimes

Lots of different tones for relaxation. Our favorites are Music of the Spheres chimes made in Austin, TX and hand tuned to various musical scales. Or these new iron bell chimes imported from Japan.

Custom Planted Pottery

Creative combinations of flowers and herbs, succulents, or tropical houseplants. So many possibilities. Grab one that we have ready to go or create your own!

Something for the Birds

Birdbaths, feeders, houses, seed, and native plants to attract birds to your loved one’s yard. Watching birds is better than TV!

Natural Stone Planters

Hand-carved boulders with space to plant something nice and a hole drilled for drainage! Peaceful and dramatic at the same time. Yes, they’re heavy but we can deliver.

Poinsettias

THE classic holiday décor and centerpiece for holiday meals.

Plant a Tree

You will remember this holiday as you watch your tree grow. You’ll remember it even more vividly if you dig the hole yourself! Or we can take care of that part for you.

When in Doubt – Gift Cards!

Fits nicely into a stocking 🙂

Thank you for trusting Gill’s with your gardening and landscaping needs this year. From all of us to you – HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

2021 has been a year for the record books in so many ways. Big challenges, big lessons, and lots of gardening to help us all stay centered and move along. As we reflect, we wanted to share 2 big things that happened this year at Gill’s that have nothing to do with any viruses or freezes!

Part 1: New Partnership

James and I were in our mid-twenties when we decided to go into business together back in 1978. Immediately upon hiring our first employees at Gill’s, James and I felt a very strong sense of responsibility and purpose to our employees, and to you, our customers. That feeling has lasted 43 years and is still going strong. Overwhelmingly, we feel thankful for the many people that have worked with us at Gill’s to bring the best plants, garden supplies, and services to you. And that you’ve trusted us to be your go-to source for gardening.

A few years back, James and I hired Jesse Jenkins, a public policy consultant from Austin, Texas. Jesse was looking for a big career change and his love of nature and interest in plants and design attracted him to Gill’s. Within months, we felt Jesse had the desire, the intelligence, and the ethical fiber to lead Gill’s into the future. He is thorough, steady, and constant. He is honest and respectful to everyone. He is willing to make the tough calls and take responsibility, always with the welfare of our team, our customers, and our community as his top priorities.

Jesse has been our General Manager for over three years and is now our partner and part-owner of Gill’s. He is working closely with James and me and all of our staff, several with decades of experience at Gill’s, and an exciting and enthusiastic group of Millennials and Gen Z-ers. James and I have all the confidence that Jesse will lead our team into the future, evolving as we must to serve you. Thank you for your trust and support!

-Sally

Part 2: Young Retailer of the Year Award

One of the first people I met at Gill’s (aside from Sally and James) is Wyatt Page. Three years ago, he was a star employee in the garden center, quickly learning and taking on more responsibility. So, we decided to promote him to Garden Center Assistant Manager to work closely with DeAnna and help build up our team.

Early in 2021, one of the many green industry publications that we read and study, Green Profit Magazine, announced that they were seeking nominations for their ‘Young Retailer of the Year” award. The award “recognizes young professionals under 30 in the horticulture industry who have inspired others with their leadership qualities and are hardworking, passionate, creative, and innovative.” That sounded just like Wyatt to me, so I wrote a nomination letter. To both of our excitement, he was selected as 1 of 3 finalists from across the country!

Over the Summer, Wyatt and I traveled to Columbus, OH to attend the Cultivate ’21 green industry conference. After 4 intense days of educational seminars, meeting new plant growers, and visiting some amazing garden centers, we attended the final event where the winner of the Young Retailer award would be announced. Wyatt was up against some very impressive competition, but sure enough, he won! What a celebration!

Read the full cover story about Wyatt and the team here. One of the judges told me that the deciding factor was Wyatt’s passion for learning and teaching others. If you’ve spent any time with him here at Gill’s, that passion is obvious and inspiring.

-Jesse

Welcome to 2022! January is the planning month for South Texas gardeners. Time to think about what/where/when/how, and most importantly, why to plant! Here are our top January to-do’s to set you up for a fun and successful Spring.

Check out our January Garden Guide for more tips and remember that trees, shrubs, and perennials can be planted 12 months out of the year! The only difference is the amount of water they need depending on temperatures and wind!

1. Set Your Gardening Intention

What are your reasons for gardening this year? Could be for stress relief, exercise, improving the environment, growing and cooking delicious food, attracting birds, or just enjoying being outside. Think about why you want to garden first, then use the month to plan your new garden spaces, clean up beds, and prepare your planting areas.

2. Keep Planting – But Watch The Weather

Our South Texas Spring is only about 45 days away! Pleasant weather brings the itch to start planting everything, but January weather is quite unpredictable, and temps can drop suddenly. January is a perfect time to plant trees & shrubs, greens & herbs, and cool weather flowers, just hold off on the tender tropicals.

3. Fertilize Your Citrus Trees

Use organic Citrus Tone by Espoma once you’ve finished your harvest. This helps your citrus get ready to bloom this Spring and produce a bumper crop next Fall-Winter. Reapply in June. You can feed in between with organic Hasta Gro.

4. Plant Climbing Roses

Our favorite climbing rose, the Peggy Martin variety, are blooming like crazy right now. Climbing roses benefit from being planted now and should not be cut back until after they have totally gone out of bloom. Other shrub roses should be cut back late January/early Feb to promote new growth and more Spring blooms.

5. Houseplants – Find a Good Spot

The key to vibrant and healthy houseplants is often just finding the right spot. A good starting point is to place near windows that get good indirect light for at least some portion of the day. Be sure to keep houseplants away from A/C and heat vents, which will dry them out. This Pilea is happy on a high shelf about 5 feet from a Western-facing window that gets indirect/dappled light through the trees outside.

6. Lawn Care

This Winter we’ve been diagnosing and treating fungal issues in lawns including the dreaded Take-All Root Rot. Check out our tips for prevention which include applying Peat Moss and making sure that you are not overwatering. For weeds, Bonide Weed & Crabgrass Preventer will help stop weed seeds from sprouting. Weed Beater Complete kills existing weeds and helps stop new weeds from sprouting.

Start Veggie Seeds Now for a Spring Harvest

Spring in South Texas starts around February 15^th– only 31 days away! We may have a couple more cold snaps ahead of us, but it’s time to start planning our Spring projects and planting veggie seeds. The first day for planting Spring seeds is January 15th give or take a few days – aka RIGHT NOW!

Simple Method for Starting Seeds

I’ve tried a few different methods for starting seeds but have been most successful using a damp paper towel, then folding the seed inside the towel and placing it in a sealable bag or dish. This will create a “mini greenhouse” effect and will help the seed germinate. I leave them in the bag for no longer than 24 hours, then put them into soil. When planting, I make the hole about a fingernail’s depth, gently place the seeds in the hole, and cover lightly with soil. Check out my video demo of this process – quick and easy!

We also carry seed-starting trays, peat pots, and special cutting/seedling soil if you’d like to skip the wet paper towel method. Either way, a good rule of thumb is that once the seedlings have made their first true set of leaves, they are ready to be transplanted into a larger container or directly into the garden bed.

Seeds to Start in January

Tomatoes!
Cold Crops and Greens: broccoli, cauliflower, kale, swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, and mustard greens
Root Crops: onions, carrots, beets, and potatoes
Herbs: parsley

Check out our full Spring planting guide here.

Pro Tip: When planting new seed be sure the soil is wet at the time of planting and always water with a light sprinkle. This will prevent your seeds from floating/washing out of the soil.

-Wyatt

Fun! Welcoming! Whimsical! And most of all, Positive! Eco-Jardin Tematico “El Explorador”, in Boquete, Panama was a wonderful discovery last summer. Sally and I went up and down trails, through arbors and under bowers and out into the sunshine again. Lovely tropical plants, cute and quirky scenarios made from “found materials”, many with uplifting phrases attached. We were loving it! But when we got to the bonsai collection, we discovered (were discovered by) the diminutive dynamo behind this avalanche of creativity, a sweet little lady.

No telling how many years she has put into this garden, or how many thousands of smiles she has earned with her hard work. Not by her hand alone, of course, her grown sons are obviously devoted to her and help in her mission. An admirable mission: gardening with skill, personality, and a sense of humor, to uplift and delight visitors from all over the world!

-James

Citrus Trees

Fertilize your citrus NOW for more blooms, May/June for better fruit set, September/October for nutrients.

For citrus trees, we recommend fertilizing with Espoma Citrus-Tone – all organic

Meyer lemons on left with fertilizer, Meyer lemons on the right without!

Knock-out Roses

We like to cut knock-out roses by the end of January or first week of February, even if they’re covered in blooms. We prefer to cut before roses have made their first big flush of Spring growth. Just like the hybrid tea roses, knock-out roses benefit from a hard trimming, usually down to 24”. Begin fertilizing mid-February.

We recommend fertilizing roses with all organic Rose-Glo. Works great for lots of other blooming plants.

Ornamental Grasses

Trim your ornamental grasses straight across (no “cupcakes”) to 3”-4” from the ground sometime in January. Follow up with a small amount of fertilizer late February or early March. Be stingy – too much fertilizer speeds up the growth, making the foliage flop over instead of stand up.

Next week, my grasses will be cut back and ready for a new growing season.

For ornamental grasses, Plant Tone, Medina Growin’ Green, or HastaGro are all great organic fertilizers. Just remember – not too much!

-Sally Gill