Published: Monday, Jun. 01, 2009

Updated: Monday, Jun. 01, 2009

Chores abound as summer weather arrives

Summer is suddenly here with hot, humid weather, and the rain that we gardeners have been hoping for.

The big, rounded jacaranda trees are finished showering lawns and sidewalks with blue flowers and my favorite Royal Poinciana trees are cascading with full red blooms. Scented crinum lilies are just starting to open, as are the sweet-smelling Angel Trumpet trees.

Here are some chores to do now:

n Clear winter plants out of the vegetable garden and put in summer crops or solarize your garden soil to kill nematodes. Mexican tarragon and rosemary are easy summer herbs. Move winter herbs into a shaded area. Cherry or grape tomato plants will live through the coming heat, as will collards, okra, blackeyed peas, bush beans, squash, and sweet potatoes. Almost all the fixings for a southern Sunday dinner!

n You can prune hibiscus, oleander and crepe myrtle several times during the warm weather to improve the shape. This is a good time to plant new palms and put in bedding flowers for the summer. Good choices for hot weather: Salvias, gaillardias, coreopsis, cosmos, nicotiana, portulaca, torenia, vincas, wax begonias, zinnias and ornamental peppers. Your vincas can bloom all year if they are sheltered and cut back when leggy. My neighbor’s gaillardias bloom year round, so I am going to add some to my garden, too.

n Watch the lawn for summer insects. Mole crickets and cinch bugs like new growth that comes with fertilizer and summer rains. If you see a flock of Ibis working on your lawn, they are probably after mole crickets! Do not water when rains have given us an inch of rain. Too much water will invite fungal disease and weaken the grass’ root structure. You want roots to grow deep, not spread out on the surface.

n Once a week, scout your plants for harmful insects and treat them with soap and oil sprays before the problem gets out of hand. Tender new growth on plants invites thrips, scale and mites to feast. Snowbush spanworms are just starting to strip the snowbush leaves. Catch them early by spraying your bush with Bacillus thuringensis (Dipel or Thuricide) or a Spinosad product. These are naturally occurring spores that give the caterpillars a stomach disease that is not harmful to other creatures.

n This is a great time to add more color to your garden with easy care perennial bulbs and rhizomes. One of my all-time favorites for big tropical splash is the Giant Crinum (Crinum americanum) that is native to the U.S. Gulf Coast region. These crinums can easily reach 4- to 5-feet tall. They have large, strap-like leaves with spikes of white trumpet flowers in all but the coldest of our winter weather. The variation, Queen Emma, has maroon-tinted green leaves and deep purple and white flowers. There are shorter crinums with pink flowers, or wine-colored stripes on their petals. Crinums are happiest with some shade, although many do well in full sun. They can tolerate drought and can actually stand in water for short periods of time. Crinum flowers develop into small hard bulblets that will make new plants.