GARDENING CALENDAR

TEXAS AGRILIFE EXTENSION SERVICE

BEXAR COUNTY  BY DAVID RODRIGUEZ

May 8, 2010

Looking for great gardening Mother’s Day gifts? How about the prettiest pink and yellow roses you have ever seen? Those roses would be ‘Belinda’s Dream’ and ‘Grandma’s Yellow’/Nacogdoches which would make many years of enjoyment for that special lady in your life.

Drought tolerant and low maintenance Texas Superstar plants such as Gold Star Esperanza and Pride-of Barbados will add color to any landscape. Visit the http://texassuperstar.com/ site for more great plant ideas.

Peach fruit should be thinned to six-to-eight inches apart along the fruiting branches which generally leaves about 500 fruit per mature tree. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per spur or cluster.

If you insist on vine ripening your tomatoes then bird netting is not the answer. Consider hanging a few orange or red shiny Christmas bulb decorations on the plants while the fruit is green. The birds will supposedly check out the bulbs and, not finding anything, will lose interest and hopefully pass up the real fruit when it ripens.

David Rodriguez is the County Extension Agent-Horticulture with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Bexar County. For more information, call the Master Gardener “Hotline” (210) 467-6575 or visit our County Extension website at http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu.