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Monday, March 05, 2007

Garden Tips: In the Garden with Andre Viette

Sat., while driving down to Richmond, I listened to "In the Garden with Andre Viette" on the radio. Mark Viette, Andre's son, actually hosted it that day. I enjoy them both; however, I might just enjoy Mark a tiny bit more. Anyway, Mark talked about something I had never heard of before.

His topic (for that segment) was plant propagation. He said that there is a period of time in spring...before forsythia blooms...for about two-three weeks when you will find plants producing numerous new little plants. Specifically (that I remember), he mentioned asters and pulmonaria. During this time, you can find numerous little plants that you may remove without harming the mother plant. If you wait until later, they (the roots) will be gone as the rising temperatures destroy the roots.

I will have to look for this...as the forsythia will soon be blooming here, I think. Have any of you heard of this or tried it?

Another thing he mentioned, mostly for us I would expect with our clay soil, was to not be digging while the soil is pretty wet. Let it dry some. You can destroy soil structure (this I knew) for up to five years. Worth waiting a bit, don't you think?

2 comments:

  1. Although it's been almost 8 years since I worked with them, this trick probably worked with Brunnera, too.

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

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  2. Thanks, Annie! That's encouraging to hear!

    ReplyDelete

Gotta Comment? Great! Thanks in advance for taking the time. I'll get back to you as soon as possible, assuming I'm not in the garden...because there, I lose all track of time...(Don't you?)...Take care now.