Question:
What time of day, in this South Texas heat, is the best time to water my St. Augustine grass and trees?
Answer:
You do not say, how you water your landscape; with automatic sprinkler system or by hand. The main thing that you want is to minimize the evaporation. If you have a sprinkler system, I recommend that you set it to water in the very early morning hours (3 am to 8 am). If you are doing it by hand, do it when it is most comfortable to you but preferably before noon or after 8 pm. The grass or trees really do not care. Most irrigation systems do not provide sufficient moisture for the trees. Therefore hand watering or use of a soaker hose at the dripline of the tree is recommended.

Question:
Early in the season I had my foundation plants, Red Tip photinia, cut back because they were blocking my front windows. Now they look washed out, burned leaves and spindly. I can’t afford to lose them because I live on a slope and have a very big foundation to hide. What can I do to get them back into health? I’ve used various organic methods and made sure they were well watered. There is good drainage due to the slope. I trimmed all of the burned leaves off so now I have a lot of bare sticks. What’s left is washed out new growth except in a few spots – I know I need to apply chelated iron for them but I don’t know how to properly protect them from the scorching sun.
Answer:
Red Tip photinia have given us so much trouble because of their susceptibility to Entomosporium leaf spot and their tendency to show chlorosis from iron deficiency that we no longer recommend them for planting in this area. I see from the image you sent that this plant is showing iron deficiency. It will show itself mainly in the new growth and your cutting them back stimulated a lot of this. I suspect that the leaves that you have removed started with this symptom also. The “burn” that you describe is attributed to the severe iron deficiency and is not sun burn. The drought has certainly exacerbated the problem. I fear that there is little that you can do to correct it. If you can find a chelated iron product such as Sprint Fe-138 it may help. The bottom line is that you may have to replace the Red Tip photinia with something more adaptable which will also stay within the size bounds that you need.

Question:
My Hibiscus plant looks healthy and has many buds, however, these buds don’t ever open. They turn brown and fall off just before they open. This plant is in a pot on the patio which receives 6-8 hours of sunlight. I give it Miracle-Gro every once in a while. Why won’t those buds open up?
Answer:
There are many possible reasons for a hibiscus dropping buds. Probably the most common is a small insect called thrips. These get into the buds causing petal damage and the bud not to open. To check for these, cut some of those unopened buds in half and tap them sharply on a piece of white paper. If present, you will see tiny, slender insects crawling on the paper. Spraying with an insecticide containing acephate will control them. Other possible reasons for bud drop are extremely high temperatures, allowing the plant to get too dry, or spraying with the insecticide malathion.

Question:
With the help of this hot weather, cut ants ate all the leaves from my six crape myrtle plants about a month ago while I was out of town. Leaves are sprouting back very slowly. What can I do to increase leaf growth? I see other crape myrtle shrub/trees blooming around town and I wish mine were exploding with color.
Answer:
Very few crape myrtles in South Texas are ‘exploding with color’ because of our extended drought and high temperatures. I recommend that you apply a good lawn fertilizer such as 19-5-9 at a rate of a pound per inch of trunk diameter around each tree at the drip line and watering it in well. Then you should, using a soaker hose or something similar, allow water to slowly soak at the drip line for several hours once a week until the plants recover.

Question:
My Pride of Barbados plant doesn’t seem to grow nor does it bloom. It is in a 3 gallon pot on the patio.
Answer:
Make sure it is getting full (or near full) sun. Fertilize it with Osmocote slow release fertilizer and with a dilute solution of Miracle-Gro each time you water. The Osmocote only needs adding to the container about every 6 weeks. You probably need to water it every other day in that size container.

Question:
I am looking for an orange lily, broad leafed, that will grow well in partial sunlight in the San Antonio area. Any suggestions?
Answer:
Most lilies have narrowed strapped leafs. You might try a plant called Kaffir Lily (Clivia miniata) which, as you can see from its botanical name, is not a true lily. However, it is also not cold hardy here so you would need to grow it in a container to protect it from freezing in the winter. There are many orange daylilies but they do not have the wide succulent leaf as the Kaffir Lily. They also need at least six hours of sun each day.

Question:
We have mulched our newly planted mountain laurels with red cedar mulch and they are yellowing. Is this due to lack of iron that the mulch is leaching? What can we do about this?
Answer:
This has nothing to do with the mulch. I would suspect either too little water or too much. If you planted the Mountain Laurels in soil that does not drain well and have been watering frequently, it is probably too much. Feel the soil moisture by sticking your finger into the soil of the root ball about an inch deep. If dry, water. If wet, don’t water again until the soil feels dry.

Question:
How is white squash supposed to grow? Does it grow along the ground or is it supposed to grow up a stake like tomatoes?
Answer:
I’m not sure what squash you are talking about. However, all squash should be grown without support as they have no means of clinging to anything and are not strong enough to support themselves. Some squash plants are vining (growing long runners) and others are of the bush type.

Question:
I have two hibiscus plants that get little black and white bugs on the leaves and buds. I’ve used general purpose powders, soap (dawn) & water mixture, Ortho insecticide, and they still keep coming back. What can I use to get rid of these pesky little devils?
Answer:
I suspect these are aphids which have been very bad this year for some reason. Usually they are easy to control but when you let them get ahead of you, they become difficult. This creature can reproduce very rapidly reaching maturity in only a week. However you choose to control them, you must repeat the process every several (perhaps 3) days. First I recommend that you spray your plants with a high pressure water spray, getting under the leaves and on the buds. Then since this is an ornamental (not vegetable) I recommend that you spray them again, getting under the leaves and directly on the buds, with an insecticide containing Acephate. You can use Ortho Fire Ant killer mixed in water one tablespoon per gallon or the Acephate product from Bonide. Repeat the insecticide spray every third day until you get them under control.

Question:
I just built a new house on the South side of San Antonio. I am looking to put a shade tree in the back yard which gets full sun until about 3 in the afternoon. I would like to know, “what is the best and fastest growing shade tree for that area.” I would like a tree that will grow tall and provide adequate shade for a deck.
Answer:
I would recommend Mexican White Oak (Quercus polymorpha), Cedar Elm (Ulmus crassifolia) or Chinkapin Oak (Quercus muhlenbergii). These are all fast growing shade trees. The Cedar Elm and the Chinkapin are deciduous (lose leaves in fall) while the Mexican White Oak holds its leaves until spring and then replace them in a short period of time.

Question:
Is it possible to darken the blue foliage of an established plant by adding milorganite fertilizer or something else?
Answer:
No, it is not possible. You can only get the dark blue by acquiring plants of that cultivar. You know the old saying “what you see is what you get.”

Question:
I have searched everywhere for information regarding my crape myrtles. I have replanted the crape myrtles three times and I am at my wits end. I replanted six dark pink trees along my driveway. The first six bit the dust even though we had rain. It is now “super-hot” and the six that are in now are drying up and look terrible. I am using well water that we could not use for the house; but, I felt it would water my yard and plants okay. Can you help me please? And, yes they were planted correctly and came from an excellent nursery.
Answer:
Now is the worst possible time to try to get plants established. Since the crape myrtles are along your driveway, I feel sure that they are in full sun. And, I am sure that you know how hot it has been lately. Assuming that the water from your well is not so saline that it would harm the plants, the newly planted trees (or any other plant) will have to be watered daily at the trunk sufficiently to keep the root ball from drying out. Equally important is that the tree roots not remain saturated continually.

Question:
My tomatoes are budding and growing, how long does it normally take for the fruit to start to turn red in color, weeks, months? I water them every morning and evening and they have grown very tall and I have about 6 tomatoes that vary in size but they are all still green.
Answer:
During ideal growing conditions tomatoes take approximately 50 days from flower to ripe fruit. I would submit that the growing conditions in your garden have been anything but ideal this spring and summer. And in the heat of summer this ripening process slows down markedly. I cannot give you a time. You will just have to wait and see. When they start turning pink on the bottom you can harvest them and let them turn red on the kitchen counter (or some other place more hospitable than the oven like conditions of your garden).