texas

That first cool front in September sure does feel good. And with the new season comes new flowers and time to get back outside and garden. In south Texas September and October is the best time to spread wildflower seeds. With the prediction of a wetter and cooler fall, this is a perfect time to start planning that little bed or large meadow of spring blooming wildflowers. Texas Bluebonnets,(the state flower), Alamo Fire, (the maroon bonnet) , Texas Paintbrush, Indian Blanket, Black-eyed Susan or Lemon Mint are all excellent single varieties to be planted. We also carry a wildflower mix which includes Coreopsis, Indian Blanket, Black-eyed Susan, Lemon Mint, Drummond Phlox, Cornflower, and Corn Poppy for a mixed show of spring color. There are also low growing varieties or a Butterfly/hummingbird mixture. For shady areas, we have a shade mix and also a water wise mix. Pick a spot in the yard, a flowerbed, or the easement strip and go wild this fall. It will reward you with beautiful blooms come spring.

-DeAnna

Pop Quiz! How often should you change the nectar on a hummingbird feeder? Is red food dye good or bad? How are you supposed to clean it? Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers. We’ve got you covered. A hummingbird feeder is a great supplement for nectar-rich plants like Turk’s Cap and Firebush, but if you don’t take care of them properly they can do more harm than good. South Texas is hot, and bacteria love to grow in warm sugar water, so make sure you take down your feeder, clean it and replace with fresh nectar every 1-3 days. To make fresh nectar, boil 1 cup of water and add ¼ cup of granulated sugar (not artificial sugar please!) then let it cool and Voila! Now red food dye is controversial. Some experts say it is harmful, and there are some specific kinds of dye that are. Honestly, most hummingbirds will be attracted by the flowers painted/molded on your feeder, not the color of the nectar, so don’t bother with it. Cleaning is a breeze if you have the right tools, like a bottle brush and a port cleaner (like a clean mascara wand). You can use weak vinegar or bleach solution to disinfect your feeder after it air dries. Keep your feeder clean and fresh, and your hummingbirds will be sure to thank you!

-Marta

This sign outside a Dublin flower shop reminded me it’s time to plant my favorite flower, Sweet pea! Sweet peas are the official flower for April and very easy to grow. Just remember to plant seeds in September or October in South Texas and ignore the package directions to plant in spring. My dad started me planting Sweet peas when I was a little girl. He put nails in the fence slats so I could wrap twine over each nail in a zigzag fashion to support the fast-growing vines. The result was a solid fence line of colorful, fragrant flowers to snip and arrange in little bouquets indoors. I was thrilled to find Sweet peas in almost every garden I visited in Ireland. They usually adorned the veggie/herb garden, twining on a variety of supports such as bamboo pole teepees and iron arbors. If you want to try growing these beauties buy seeds now and find a sunny spot in the garden where you can provide support for the vines. Work good compost into the soil. I use Nature’s Blend. Then, fill a shallow pan with enough water to cover the seeds and soak them overnight. Next day, remove the seeds from water and roll them in inoculant powder. Plant at depth and spacing per package instructions and water regularly.

-Kathy

Whether you call it Texas Tarragon, Mexican Mint Marigold, or Tagetes lucida, I call it an absolute beauty for fragrance, flavor, and color every South Texas Autumn! Known for its liquorish anise flavor, it makes the perfect sub for true tarragon that struggles to grow in our area. I love it just as much for the golden flowers that attract many butterflies and honey bees. Their bloom is best and most showy during the Fall season. Trim them early spring to keep tidy. Full to part sun average soil and water. No bugs or diseases. They are a breath of fresh sweet air every morning in my courtyard.

-Debbie

“What smells so good in the kitchen?” my family asks. “Just sautéing the onions.” I reply. Funny how the pungent tear evoking root awakens our noses and our stomachs that something incredibly good is bound to come from of it. Its onion planting time and the first ones are here and ready to plant…just in time for the holidays! Onions need lots of sun, good drainage, fertilizer, and time if you want larger bulb onions. Harvesting green onions is just a month or so of growing, plucking and eating. Because onions are a root vegetable, they can rot in our hard clay soil but planting them in raised gardens or large pots to help soil moisture makes it easy and more successful. We grow short day onion varieties in South Texas and our favorites are Bermuda White, Southern Belle Red, and the famous 1015Y Texas Super Sweet . See our Garden Guide on growing onions in South Texas. You’ll soon be hearing…” What smells so good in the kitchen?”

-Debbie

Fruit trees such as peaches, plums and avocados are easy to grow in South Texas. Peaches and plums require colder weather for fruit production and with our mild winters we have to look for low chilling hour varieties. Somewhere between 100-250 hours is best. We make sure the varieties we sell are self pollinating so you do not have to buy two different varieties to insure fruit production. Citrus is a winner all the way around.

In December and more in January, Sally’s been harvesting lemons from her parent’s Meyer lemon trees by the bucket load and shipping them all over the country. We think they are the juiciest, best flavored lemons ever!

Several varieties of citrus can also be grown in pots if you have limited yard space. Mexican Limes and Meyer Lemons are the two most common.

Many Satsuma Oranges are considered dwarf varieties and are very cold hardy and great container trees as well. Avocado trees can be a little harder to grow, but once they become established they are easy to maintain. We have a great selection of all fruiting trees and now is a great time to plant.

-DeAnna

In the plant world, the most common way to win the game of life is “grab the sunlight before your neighbors.” The tips of the branches produce a hormone that suppresses sprouting of side buds further down the stem, so plant resources are directed to make the tips grow up taller and faster.

That may serve the purpose of the plant in the wild, but we would rather see our plants full and bushy, with more tips full of blooms rather than fewer but taller tips. So this is the prime time of year to remove those tips (and thus free the side buds to sprout) to create the plant aesthetics we desire. A perfect example would be a hibiscus plant that is maybe 6 feet tall, but has dropped a lot of leaves and is looking a little bare and stemmy. By cutting just 4” to 6” off the ends of the branches now, you will increase density and number of shoots and blooms. If you need to control overall size, you can certainly prune back much further and achieve the above benefits as well.

Many other ornamental plants in our gardens would benefit by this treatment now, such as Texas sage, Mexican heather, most salvias, ligustrum and viburnum hedges, esperanza (if you prefer a bush over a small tree) and many more. But please do not prune tall growing crape myrtles this way. Most horticulturists consider a graceful sinuous branching pattern to be a more desirable aesthetic in the tall varieties of crape myrtle, valued over increased blooming, with the exception of the dwarf varieties.

If you have pruning questions (or other questions), please give us a call, or email us a question and a photo to helpatgills@gmail.com or post a photo and question (or a brag!) on our Gill Landscape Nursery Facebook page.

-James

This weekend I gave a “Bring Home the Butterflies” talk at the Airline store. Here’s a recap for those who missed it! We are lucky enough to have almost 400 butterfly species who come through Texas, such as the Monarch, Gulf Fritillary, Swallowtail, Sulphur and Red Admiral butterflies. Each has its own host plant, which they use to lay their eggs on and eat as caterpillars. Some favorite host plants are Milkweed (Monarch), Rue (Black and Giant Swallowtail), Mallow (Painted Lady) and Dutchman’s Pipe Vine (Pipevine Swallowtail).

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Dutchman's Pipe Vine — Dutchman’s Pipe Vine

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And don’t forget the Passionvine, which is the host plant for our city’s most common butterfly, the Gulf Fritillary. Make sure to plant plenty of nectar plants for adult butterflies like Native Lantana, Gregg’s Mist Flower and Porterweed. And last but not least, keep it all pesticide free. In no time you’ll have plenty of happy, beautiful butterflies fluttering all over the garden! Milkweed and Gregg’s Mist Flower are discounted in our stores right now!

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Gregg's Mist Flower — Gregg’s Mist Flower

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-Marta

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