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Hi, guys!
The beginning of a new year always brings new trends and “best of” lists that trickle into and inspire all sorts of industries, including gardening.
The Peachy Plants column I wrote last week in the wake of the Pantone Institute’s declaration that peach fuzz is the color of the year is a perfect example because in addition to clothing and home furnishings, we’ll be seeing a lot of peach-toned plants at the garden center this spring.
Similarly, the National Gardening Bureau named 2024 the Year of the African Violet, which, I know, is kind of funny because just last week I told you I can’t seem to keep them alive. Sorry, African violet, it’s not you, it’s me.
Another independent, nonprofit organization, All-America Selections, tests new plant introductions and selects standouts to recommend to home gardeners each year. And so far for 2024, they’ve named 9 plants — 3 new vegetable varieties and 6 new flowers:
Broccoli Purple Magic
I love purple in the garden so I would consider this both an edible and an ornamental. This stress- and heat-tolerant broccoli has tight, uniform heads, bright beads and, reportedly, is sweeter and more tender than ordinary broccoli.
Broccoli Skytree (Regional winner)
Tall and narrow, this broccoli has easy-to-harvest, tender, upright stems. One of the judges called it, "A truly fresh punch of wonderful broccoli deliciousness!" (Winner in the West/Northwest regional category)
Pepper Red Impact
An easier-to-grow Lamuyo-type bell pepper with thick, sweet flesh (even when green). Plants are upright, compact and disease resistant.
Celosia Burning Embers
This celosia has it all: Bronze leaves with purple veins, bright pink flower plumes on long-blooming, well-branched plants, and great heat and humidity resistance. What's not to love?
Geranium Big EEZE Pink Batik
These speckled, low-maintenance geraniums are so unique and eye-catching, aren't they? Plus, judges noted all their flowers were uniformly sized with "an equal amount of pink and white striations."
Impatiens interspecific Solarscape XL Pink Jewel
These impatiens can handle full- or part-sun (hence the Solarscape name) and are highly resistant to downy mildew disease. They work equally well in the garden or containers and bloom nonstop all season long.
Marigold Siam Gold F1
These mounded plants produce large, double, globe-like flowers from spring through fall and never need staking. They make great cut flowers, too.
Petchoa EnViva Pink
What a happy-looking flower! I love its yellow eye and iridescent shimmer. Blooms are large, and the heat-tolerant, trailing plants can be used in the garden, containers or hanging baskets. If you haven’t heard of Petchoa, you’re not alone — it’s a fairly new cross between a Petunia and a Calibrachoa (two of my favorites, by the way).
Petunia Sure Shot White
Not rain, nor heat nor cold of night will keep Sure Shot from pushing out vibrant white flowers. The tough workhorse performs well in beds, containers and hanging baskets -- and would make a great addition to a moon garden. (Winner in the West/Northwest regional category)
📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: My hibiscus plant bloomed beautifully last summer but was covered with a sticky white powder. Do you know what that is and what I can do to prevent it next year? —Barbara Rosemund
DEAR BARBARA: It sounds like your hibiscus was infested with either aphids, mealybugs, scale or mites.
Aphids appear as small dots under leaves and on stems; scale clings to stems and other plant parts. Neither move, so you might not realize they're insects.
Mealybugs are pink and waxy, and they do move, so you would notice them. And if the white substance you found was more waxy than powdery, then it likely was pink mealybug egg sacks, which the insects lay in white wax (see photo).
Unfortunately, their waxy coating protects them from organic or synthetic chemical controls. If there aren’t very many, however, you can easily eradicate them by dabbing them with an alcohol-soaked cotton swab.
Mites can go undetected, but if you hold a white sheet of paper under the plant and shake it, they will fall and appear as specks on your paper.
All of these insects excrete honeydew, which is the sticky substance you saw. A black, sooty mold often grows on the honeydew, attracting ants and blocking sunlight from reaching the plant. The ants are harmless, but the black coating prevents the plant from photosynthesizing so could be fatal.
Applications of Neem oil or horticultural oil should take care of all these insects, except pink mealybugs. Follow package directions carefully.
The white powder you saw was likely mildew. It's unsightly but not necessarily deadly to the plant.
You can apply a solution of 1 tablespoon baking soda and 2 1/2 teaspoons of summer oil (available at garden centers), diluted in a gallon of water, to affected leaves once a week to combat it.
To prevent a reoccurrence, water the soil directly and take care to avoid wetting leaves. When planting, allow enough space around and between plants for air circulation. And plant hibiscus in full sun.
Good luck!
💡 If you do one thing this week…
Outdoor plants aren’t the only ones susceptible to infestation. Check houseplants, especially under leaves, where many settle in.
👏 Sunday shoutout
Mary Fjellstad of Smithtown, NY, shared this lovely photo of her striped Barbados lily (a relative of Amaryllis).
“I've had it for years,” she writes. “Every few years, I got one or two blooms, but this year it literally exploded right before Christmas. I just couldn't believe it,” she wrote.
“This year, I had just about given up on it. It had scale, and I put it outside during summer, about ready to ditch it. Then in October, it started to get cold, and I felt sorry for it. I gave it a severe haircut and brought it inside. The new leaves came in so healthy and then all of these buds appeared! I’m so glad I didn't give up!”
Send in your photo, and you could be featured next (bonus points if you’re in the picture!)
📰This week in my Associated Press gardening column
I write a weekly gardening column for the AP, so you might have seen my byline in your local paper (or news website) — wherever in the world you happen to be. In case you miss it, I’ll post the most recent here every week.
THIS WEEK: Trendy, peachy plants to try this year.
LAST WEEK: With the holidays behind us, there’s no better time to start planning our 2024 gardens. My winter garden tips.
BEFORE THAT: Save your poinsettias for next year. Here’s how to get them to bloom again in time for the holidays.
ONE MORE: The bathroom is an ideal place for many houseplants. Some are even happy in the shower.
You can read all my AP gardening columns here.
📚📺🎵 Random things I enjoyed this week
🎥 I saw Wonka, and it was wonderful! Timothée Chalamet was excellent. Another Oscar contender, if you ask me (but for some reason, the Academy never does).
📺 After hearing all the hype, I watched The Holdovers on Peacock. Loved it!
💉 This doesn’t belong under Things I Enjoyed, but since I’m sharing — I got my second shingles shot. It came with a headache, body aches, chills and general yuckiness that lasted about two days. Not quite as bad as last time, but I was sidelined, for sure.
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📧 How’m I doing?
I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Ask Jessica section.
Jessica,
My Meyer Lemon tree looses all its leaves when I move it inside for the winter. I’ve tried cooler room, closing vents, spraying with water, grow lights, etc to no avail. Can you help?
Jerry
Hello Jessica,
Thanks for your recent information on new and hardy flowering plants. I have one more beauty for you. It is the annual plant "Brawalia"! It is absolutely gorgeous! My question is: Why is this plant so little known and why is it so difficult to find?. I used to buy it at the Plantation Nursery on Middle Road in Riverhead, but this Nursery has gone out of business. I've not seen it in any other nursery in the Riverhead to Southold area. The Brawalia flowers non-stop till Fall and comes in 2 colors that I know of - white and a lavender/blue. See picture.