Home And Garden

If your lucky bamboo is healthy, you'll notice that it quickly outgrows its original shape. Instead of maintaining the nice, twisted corkscrews or interlocking patterns, the new shoots tend to grow straight up. Attractive at first, they will quickly result in an unbalanced plant. Fortunately, lucky bamboo is easily propagated. Taking cuttings. The first step is to take a healthy cutting. I usually take cuttings after I've trimmed the mother plant. Make sure the cuttings have at least one leaf joint, and preferably more. Trim excess leaves away to expose the growth node. Lucky bamboo can be rooted bare, or you can use a rooting hormone. Under normal circumstances, rooting hormone shouldn't be necessary because the plant readily roots. However, if you have several failed attempts, a rooting hormone might increase your chances. Rooting lucky bamboo in water. This is the preferred method. Take trimmings that include at least one leaf joint and put them into distilled wate...

Description Impressive size, graceful aspect, durable toughness, and spectacular flowers all combine to make pampas grass one of the most recognized plants in the landscape. The leaves are narrow, 1/2 to 3/4 in (1.3-1.9 cm) wide, and up to 10 ft (3 m) long. They are arranged in dense fountainlike clumps that are up to 12 ft (3.7 m) high and 6 ft (1.8 m) wide. The real show starts in midsummer when the flowers, spectacular 1 ft (0.3 m) tall white plumes, suddenly erupt above the foliage. The show continues well into winter as the feathery plumes persist and the foliage turns golden brown when touched by frost and cold weather (see photo below). When using the species you'll probably want to select female plants as they have prettier flowers - the males' are thinner, more elongated and not as full. This garden beauty commands attention wherever it is used. Many varieties of pampas grass are available for use in the landscape. There are dwarf varieties ( C. selloana  'Pumi...

Family:  Myrtaceae Genus:  Callistemon Species:  rigidus Category: Trees Height: 10-12 ft. (3-3.6 m) Spacing: 6-8 ft. (1.8-2.4 m) Sun Exposure: Full Sun Danger: N/A Bloom Color: Red Bloom Time: Late Winter/Early Spring Mid Spring Late Spring/Early Summer Foliage: Grown for foliage Evergreen Other details: Drought-tolerant; suitable for xeriscaping This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds Soil pH requirements: 6.1 to 6.5 (mildly acidic) 6.6 to 7.5 (neutral) 7.6 to 7.8 (mildly alkaline) Patent Information: Non-patented Propagation Methods: From semi-hardwood cuttings From seed; direct sow after last frost Seed Collecting: Unblemished fruit must be significantly overripe before harvesting seed; clean and dry seeds

Garden centers and lawncare services often advise applying gypsum  (calcium sulfate) to your lawn to “decompact” a hard soil. This is supposed to accomplish softening by improving the structure of the compacted clay soil. With the exception of the arid western United States and our coastal areas (where sodium can be high and clay soils may be common), adding gypsum as a soil-softening amendment is not necessary in nonagricultural areas. Urban soils are generally mixtures of subsoils plus native and nonnative topsoils. In home landscapes, high levels of organic and inorganic chemical additives are common. They may also be highly compacted and layered, and gypsum does not work well on layered soils. In such landscapes it is pointless to add yet more chemicals in the form of gypsum unless you need to increase soil calcium. Adding gypsum to sandy or nonsodic soils ( low in sodium) is a waste of money and natural resources and can have negat...