This Week: left to right, Happy Birthday to the Azalea Trail, 

time to shop for African violets and a bit of avocado hanky-panky!

AZALEAS . . . AFRICAN VIOLETS . . . THE SEX LIFE OF AVOCADOS. . . 

BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH

This year marks a true milestone in a great Houston tradition - the Azalea Trail. It's the 80th birthday of this incredible gift to this community by the River Oaks Garden Club. Never doubt the amount of thought, energy and financial investment that goes into this annual trek through some of Houston's most beautiful gardens.

Left to right, Houston historical treasures and their incredible gardens open for the Azalea Trail: Rienzi  (http://www.mfah.org/visit/bayou-bend-collection-and-gardens), Bayou Bend (http://www.mfah.org/visit/bayou-bend-collection-and-gardens) and the River Oaks Garden Club Forum of Civics (http://www.riveroaksgardenclub.org/site/Forum.cfm)

But, the Azalea Trail is so much more than that. It's an opportunity for all of us to benefit from the advice and solutions to landscaping dilemmas faced by the most talented (and expensive) landscapers in our area. We all face these gardening challenges:

* Hiding unsightly views

* Choosing plants for tiny (or huge) spaces

* Areas too low, areas too high

* Planting sites around pools or ponds

* Coping with too much shade; too much sun

For example, the Forum of Civics (above right) is planted with the inner city urban gardener in mind. This National Register of Historic Places site (it was built in 1910 as a schoolhouse) offers a special focus on native plants, seasonal color and achieving privacy in an urban setting.

With your cellphone camera, or pad and paper in hand, you can search out vignettes or sites similar to those with which you are coping at home. The good news is that docents at each stop on the Trail are well informed, they can tell you the names of all the plants you'll be seeing.

At the Tupper Lake residence, left, look for this great kumquat planting, center. At the Briar Ridge residence, right, check out the terraced gardens creating a truly beautiful pool setting

Good example, this very effective, very productive planting of kumquats in such a tiny (roughly 2' x 18") site surrounded by concrete. Obviously they are doing quite well. Look for some spring color plantings at the base for the Trail. This is at the Tupper Lake house in Tanglewood.

This year four private homes and gardens will be open along with the historic Forum of Civics, Rienzi and Bayou Bend. You can "Ask the Experts" for gardening advice at the Forum, which will be open free to all visitors.

Tickets for all six Trail stops are $15 before March 1, and $20 after. Single admissions (available at each site) are $5. Complete details: http://www.riveroaksgardenclub.org/site/AzaleaTrail.cfm. Proceeds help fund River Oaks Garden Club's many civic projects. (http://www.riveroaksgardenclub.org/site/CivicContribution.cfm)

Now what was that about the sex life of avocados?

Susan Wood is one of several readers who reported getting avocado trees from grocery store fruit to but no fruit. Susan's is now around five years old and 12 feet tall. She wants to know if having two trees to pollinate would help? Or can she hand-pollinate to get the common grocery store-sold Haas avocados to bloom?

Have to admit, the thought of hand pollinating all those avocado flowers boggles the mind! But don't get cross-eyed yet. Save that for Angela Chandler's fascinating response to Susan in our spotlight below. Angela's "The Garden Academy" website is a must-read website for anyone gardening in the Greater Houston area.

Before we jump to that, however: one plea, one delight and two important upcoming events want to make sure you mark your calendars. Our calendar below is loaded with more.

* PLEA - STOP CREPE MYRTLE MURDER! You're just creating problems for yourself and being very ugly to this incredibly hardy tree. I've written about this so often, I'll let Greg Grant do it this time. This is from the current Buchanan's Native Plants newsletter: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/publications/stopthecrape.html

* A DELIGHT FOR FRIENDS AND FANS OF JERRY SEYMORE AND JERRY'S JUNGLE GARDENS (http://blog.chron.com/lazygardener/2011/04/treasure-trove-of-tropicals). What a void Jerry has left for us gardeners when he retired his incredible semi-annual sale. Good news! Thanks to Jerry's daughter, Bobette Baker, treasures from his Jerry's tropicals collections are now available at Baker's Back Yard in Old Town Spring. Bobette is having a birthday party for her dad on March 28 at 1 pm, and all his plant fans/friends are invited. www.bakersbackyard.com

* Sat.-Sun., Mar. 14-15L Spring Branch African Violet Club's 35th Annual Show and Spring Sale at Judson Robinson Jr. Community Center, 2020 Hermann Drive. (Sat.: Show 1-5pm, Sale 9am-5pm. Sun.: Show & Sale

10am-3pm.) Details: Karla Ross, 281-748-8417, kjwross@yahoo.com

* Sat., Mar. 14: City of Houston's STAR Master Composter Program. This one is

a ways off, but you need to register early: http://www.greenhoustontx.gov/gbrceducation-2015spring.pdf

We all need to applaud and thank our city officials when they offer ecology-conscious events. This 20-hour, 10am-2pm Master Composter Program will meet on alternate Saturdays through May 9 at the City of Houston's Green Building Resource Center, 1002 Washington Ave.

John Ferguson of Nature's Way Resources is one of many area experts who speak at the City of Houston's Green Building Resource, left. Right, don't forget to check out the green roof.

I particularly wanted to draw your attention to the City of Houston's Green Building Resource Center. Officially launched on Earth Day 2009, this project is devoted to encouraging more Greater Houston area residents to "Go Green." It would make a great field trip for any school, club, church, etc., children or adult group. Over 50 displays of recycling ideas, a library and free green material samples. If you are planning a new home or building, this is a Gold Level LEEDs Building. Details on the building or the course above: http://codegreenhouston.org/

Now, on to Angela and the sex life of avocados!

AVOCADOS "...SLIGHTLY CONFUSED

ABOUT THEIR SEXUALITY"

BY ANGELA CHANDLER

www.thegardenacademy.com

www.facebook.com/pages/TheGardenAcademy/118766921485456

Avocados have a somewhat complicated pollination cycle. They are slightly confused about their sexuality! Their flowers are perfect (male & female parts), and so should be self-fruitful, right?

Two complications:

1. the flowers have a 2-day life cycle in which the male and female parts are not accessible at the same time.

2. there are Type A and Type B trees, and their sexual cycles are different.

A simplified explanation: In Type A, flowers open as females during the morning of Day One, close, then open as males the afternoon of Day Two. In Type B, flowers open as females in the afternoon of Day One, close, then open as males the morning of Day Two.

Type A females would benefit from the Type B males every morning and Type B females would benefit from Type A males in the afternoon.

Since not all of the flowers are the same ages, there should be some females open at the same time as some males on the same tree regardless of type. However, females are only receptive to pollen for about 2 - 4 hours, which narrows the pollination window.

A lot of texts stop there, and leave the impression that in a perfect situation, one would plant a Type A and a Type B for the best pollination and would have little chance of pollination otherwise.

But temperature changes things. The seemingly strict rule of sexual cycles only applies in tropical locations where temperatures are consistently above 70 degrees. In our climate, where cool temperatures can persist during the bloom time, the female and male cycles can become irregular, creating MORE of an opportunity for overlap. This results in having enough receptive females and

pollen-shedding males open at the same time for pollination, regardless of type.

Of course, a mature avocado may present hundreds of thousands of blooms, where only a few hundred will be successfully pollinated and produce fruit, but that is what we are looking for; 200 - 400 perfect, organically grown, creamy avocado fruits.

For the record, Haas is a Type A. Mexicola and Mexicola Grande are also Type A. I have had almost no luck finding out the type of the "found" Mexican varieties. But since we benefit from the irregularity of the sexual cycles due to the avocados blooming during our cool winters, we should still have good crops from them, even if we plant only one type.

The problem with a seedling grown Haas is that it may be 10 - 15 years from seed before it will bloom and produce. It is also not a terribly hardy cultivar. So, all things considered, if we don't have a harsh winter for the next 5 or 10 years, she may have fruits from her Haas. In the meantime, I would plant one of the hardy Mexican varieties as an insurance policy.

If you have more questions, email Angela at: achandler@thegardenacademy.com