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Dear $$firstname$$,
We hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving! With the flurry of the holiday season upon us, force amaryllis bulbs now for your upcoming holiday parties. Read on for more ways to ring in the season.
This month, we’ve put together a short survey to get your feedback on the garden club. We want to make it as useful as we can, so please take a few moments to let us know what you want!
HAVE A FRIEND who loves to garden? Feel free to forward this newsletter! If this newsletter was forwarded to you, please use this link to sign up for yourself.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!
--From the editors of your favorite backyard magazines.
READ ON TO DISCOVER...
- Plant of the Month
- Yard Smarts
- Question of the Month
- Newsletter Survey
- Have you found ‘Dottie’ and ‘Webster’ yet?
- Planting Amaryllis Bulbs
- Frugal Gardener Tip of the Month
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Plant of the Month
‘Brandywine’ Viburnum
From early September through February, this easy-to-grow, compact shrub is loaded with colorful berries that start green, turn white and finally end with a blast of bright blue and pink, sure to attract birds.
Botanical name: Viburnum nudum ‘Brandywine.’
Hardiness: Zones 5 to 9.
Size: 5 to 6 feet tall and wide.
Light: Part shade to full sun.
Soil: Moist, fertile soil.
What’s new: The heaviest-fruiting, most colorful viburnum yet. And with its compact habit, it can be grown in small backyards, too.
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Yard Smarts
Building a Better Birdbath
When I put my new terra-cotta birdbath on the patio, a nocturnal visitor knocked off the top and broke it. Its replacement met the same fate. I had to devise a solution.
I bought a jumbo terra-cotta flowerpot saucer and attached a small jar to the bottom with strong waterproof caulk. When the caulk was dry, I simply slipped the jar into the birdbath’s hollow base. Now the top won’t tip—and it’s easy to lift off for cleaning. –Jean Tibbits, Peoria, Illinois
Question of the Month
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Out of Nowhere
Q: These beautiful flowers popped up in my backyard. I would love to have more of them. Do you know what they are? –Mary Tate, Goochland, Virginia
Melinda: These spring bloomers are star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) flowers. You shouldn’t have any trouble getting these flowers to come back in your garden. If you wait a few years, you’ll probably have enough to share with others, too.
These flowers multiply rapidly. They even reproduce by seed, which is probably how they mysteriously appeared in your yard. They are a bit too assertive in the garden, so plant with care. If you’re able to manage them, though, you’ll enjoy the show they put on late spring or early summer. Their bright white flowers light up the garden. They also are tough plants, tolerating full sun to partial shade and even drought conditions.
Newsletter Survey
What do you want to see in future newsletters? We'd like to know! Please take a few minutes to answer these questions so we can make the newsletter better for you. Tell us what you think!
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Where’s Dottie? Where’s Webster?
Have you played our online game yet? These two backyard friends are hiding somewhere on the web pages of BackyardLivingmagazine.com and BirdsandBlooms.com. If you find them, simply click on them to win prizes! This month you can win a skin and body care kit from Nature Zone Gardens. Click here for more details.
Planting Amaryllis Bulbs
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The best selection of amaryllis is available on-line. A quick search will turn up fancy, large-blooming plants, miniature varieties, double bloomers, the unreal Cybister hybrids (with spiderlike blooms) and the newest hybrids on the market.
Once you’ve selected a variety, buy the biggest bulbs possible. Why? The larger the bulb, the more blooms you’ll get! Large, mature bulbs can produce as many as four outstanding flowers per scape, or flower stalk.
Because amaryllis are traditionally associated with Christmas, fall is the best time to buy bulbs. Pick up new varieties in October and November and plant them in clay pots that allow 1 to 1-1/2 inches of space around the bulb. Amaryllis prefer to be pot-bound, with only the top portions, or shoulders, of the bulb above the soil.
About 6 to 8 weeks after planting new bulbs, you’ll have colorful blooming plants all over the house for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
For more information on amaryllis, click here.
Frugal Gardener Tip of the Month
Safe Winter Storage
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To safely store my pole-mounted garden art through the winter, I place a plastic milk crate/storage cube inside a garbage can. I slip the poles through the crate’s grids, which keeps my yard art upright, organized and undamaged.
More from your favorite gardening/birding magazines:
It’s Your Club. As a valued member, tell us what features you’d like to see in your garden club. Click here.
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Step Back to the Victory Era!
The editors of Reminisce magazine bring you Reminisce Through the Decades: The 1940s, a 6-hour-plus, three-DVD set of real-life stories from the ’40s! For more information, go to www.reminisce.com.
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