WISE WATERING . . . IS YOUR PLANT FOOLING YOU? . . .  

OR DO YOU HAVE THE WRONG PLANTS?

  

BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH

This intense heat may have us pouring more water than necessary on our plants.

It's hard to ignore drooping shriveled leaves. But they may not indicate thirst. They may be the plant's way of protecting itself.

Wilting leaves are sometimes the plant's way of reducing loss of moisture. Surface space is reduced. Less evaporation can take place.

The plant is already in a weakened state. Its energies are focused on retaining as much water as possible. Overwatering at this point might do just the opposite of what you want it to do. It may further weaken the plant.

How do you tell the difference between intentional wilting and a cry for more water? It's hard, I admit.

If the wilting takes place in the hottest part of the day (3-5pm), wait until morning before watering. If the plant is fine early in the morning, then it was probably deliberate, intentional wilting.

If the plant is still wilted in the morning, then it might need water.

How you water during these heat spells is even more important. Overhead sprinklers can lose up to 50% or more of the water to evaporation during the day. Night can be almost as bad.

Even worse, unless you leave them on for hours, chances are they are only going to moisten the top soil layers. What happens then? Plants begin sending roots up into those top layers where the only available moisture can be found. The top layers dry out first. Roots growing in those upper layers will suffer heat far more quickly than those deeper in the soil.

If overhead sprinklers are your only choice, try to water as early in the wee hours of the morning as you can.

The best watering source these days is a soaker hose, aimed downward right at the base of the plant. A slow, steady flow - dribbles if you can - for an extended period. You want the water DEEP so roots to grow downward to reach moisture. Focus on that mental picture and it will help.

Do this deep watering once a week. Ideal is a hose laid next to the plant and allowed to dribble for an hour or so.

Get to know your plants and their water needs. Some, like those pictured here, will do fine on one good soaking every two weeks. Others need more. The more you water, the more dependent your plants will become on watering. So you need to see which ones can go the longest without and which won't. (In my yard, this is a sign from above that these plants don't belong in my garden.

Above all, MULCH! Leaves and pine needles will do the job. So will purchased mulches. Mulch keeps soil cooler and helps it retain moisture. As the mulch decays, it will help replenish organic matter in the soil. A win-win all the way around. A few newspaper layers over the soil before you put the mulch on will help retard weeds.

 

Better yet, plant things that don't need regular watering. I am always so grateful for beautiful street-view plantings that help take the sting out of our often horrible traffic. A tip o' the towel to whoever created the beautiful planter combo at left above. Swing by the 1700 block of Binz to see this cheerful grouping of, left to right, blue plumbago, yellow lantana and coral fountain plant.

If you have recommendations of plants you can totally and completely ignore (water-wise) all summer, do share!

       L to r: Smilax bona-nox, horseherb (stagger daisy) and common oxalis a weed by any other name...

* To Anna Wygrys' listing of noxious weeds last week (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs172/1112503958110/archive/1121587953437.html), reader a gardener in the Heights wants to add smilax (Smilax bona-nox), left above. This thorny little green vine likes to set deep roots right next to treasured plants, and then wind its way up the borrowed stalks.

* Pam Hasker notes that stagger daisy is also known as horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis) and sometimes the term "weed" is in the eye of the beholder. She uses it in low-growing groundcover in areas that don't get enough sun.

* I have to agree. I love the common pink oxalis, center above, that most gardeners consider invasive. They cover my gardens in the spring when other plants are just starting to come out. And then they disappear until next spring. Works for me!

TIPS O' THE TROWEL TO . . .
* THE GARDENER IN THE 1700 BLOCK OF BINZ responsible for this delightful planter trio at right above. Great choices for our hot, dry summers, l to r: blue plumbago, yellow lantana and orange coral fountain plant (Russelia equisetiformis).

* URBAN HARVEST'S CHRIS LACHANCE who has been named 2015 Educator of the Year by the national Organic Horticulture Benefits Alliance.

*  *  *

GARDENING IS LIKE MAKING STEW.  Every successful cook/gardener has his/her own recipe and they all taste good/work.  And where you put your focus usually depends on very personal reasons, which is fine as long as you keep in mind our big picture, including our water challenges, which are only going to get worse as the shortages increase.

Below, Baxter Williams is sharing his take on watering, especially on roses, in this week's Spotlight. Baxter is a multiple award-winning American Rose Society Master Rosarian and continual Houston Rose Society officer, who has been successfully growing prize-winning roses in his Pasadena garden (500+/- plants now) for almost 50 years.

Baxter has been instrumental in establishing and overseeing many rose gardens around town, including the All American Rose Garden that was such a treasure at the old Garden Center in Hermann Park, and AHS's official Gardens of American Rose Center in Shreveport, LA. *http://www.rose.org/our-gardens/gardens-of-the-american-rose-center/)

If you've never visited these gardens (so close!), you've missed a real treat. Houston Rose Society is the largest chapter in the nation. Email questions to Baxter at bxtwms@att.net 

* For a free sample page of this month's TO DO chores from Brenda's "LAZY GARDENER'S GUIDE ON CD" - a when-to-do-what gardening-book-on-CD (PDF file) for Greater Houston area gardens, email Brenda at lazy gardener@sbcglobal.net

 THEY WON'T WATER THEMSELVES! 

by BAXTER WILLIAMS 

Houston Rose Society (www.houstonrose.org)

The three most important additives for roses are water, water, and water.
 
If you haven't noticed, IT IS SUMMER! And the rains have come, and gone, and the plants need water. It's as simple as that.

Friends, for maximum bloom production put the water on the bushes any way that you can - on the flower bed mulch with a garden hose, or with an impulse sprinkler, or with a "whirly-gig" spinning rig, or an overhead oscillating sprinkler, or all of the above - again, any way that you can.

* Have you been told watering at night will cause a fungus? Wrong.

* Were you told that droplets of water on the leaflets will "burn" the plant? That's rubbish.

Do it early in the morning, or at noon, or in the heat of the afternoon, or evenings, or at night. Or go sophisticated and install an irrigation system.

To give you a reference point, a fully-foliaged Hybrid Tea rose needs approximately 5-gallons of water each week in July-September.
A top notch rose grower in Pasadena "plants" an empty cat food can at ground level in the rose bed, and when it is full that is just the right amount.
 
There are low-care varieties available, known as "Earth Kind" varieties, and how they are tested with no care except watering to prevent death during droughts. The Earth Kinds don't need as much water to not die, but they are so much healthier when given water.

NOTE: UPDATED LINK TO POPE'S ENCYCLICAL
John Ferguson's July 10, 2015 column on Pope Frances' Papal Encyclical on the environment include a link that has since been changed. The new link is:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html