Our site has gone through a bit of a redesign this month. We wanted it to look cleaner and be easier to use on mobile devices.
You can browse the content by clicking on a category in the top navigation bar, or fine-tune your browsing by using the Article finders to the right. Just pick a topic & vegetable and click “show articles”.
Searching for a keyword is always available, also, via the search box in the top-right.
Leave us a note in the comment section if you have any feedback!
Going to look over your new site. Looking for friends to chat with on what’s growing.
Good Morning!
I have a honeysuckle vine which divides my home from the neighbors. I know it should be trimmed before it flowers but I could not do it at the time.
My question is = is it ok to trim it now, and if so, what would be the best way to do it.
Thank you.
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
I love honeysuckle! I found this great article on pruning honeysuckle vines on SF Gate: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/prune-old-honeysuckle-vine-41844.html
Are you in California? If so, then this should be all you need to know. If not, let me know where you are and I will look for climate-specific factors.
Is there another plant/shrub that grows as quickly and easily like an oleander but it not poisoness?
Hi Frank,
I agree, although pretty, it is one of the worst plants because of its toxicity.
In order to answer your question best, what part of the country do you live in?
Good morning, I saw you on good day a few weeks ago and remember you saying something about ants. What does it mean when your soil is full of lil black ants?
Hi Brandy,
That must have been another “Plant Lady”, but I tried to find the show you mentioned. Was it Good Day Sacramento? I saw that they have a segment called “Ask the Plant Lady”, but couldn’t find any videos that included ants. I’d be interested in finding out what she said, also.
Good morning
I have a dwarf lemon I am assuming it is a Meyer lemon. I bought it 3 years a ago. Since I have bought it I have had so many problems with it. Dropping flowers, dropping leaves, no fruit. I have put it in the ground and it didn’t seem to like it. So I now have it in a pot and and all the leaves have fallen again. Help me! I have reported and gave it some miracle grow and tappinroots.
Hi Tanisha,
The first thing that comes to mind is scale. Scale are tiny insects that don’t look like insects, but more like brown bumps on the twigs and stems. Here are some images from google: https://www.google.com/search?q=citrus+scale&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=1115&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CC0QsARqFQoTCL7Y5fCW48cCFdE6iAodT3MHZQ#tbm=isch&q=scale+on+lemon+tree
If you don’t see any scale, then consider the amount of light it’s getting: if it’s not getting at least 6 hours of direct sunlight, this may be the cause.
Also, watering could be the culprit: not enough water causes leaf drop, but then overwatering can cause root rot, which also causes leaf drop.
If none of these seem to be fitting causes, then I’d take a look at these sources for diagnosing what the problem might be:
UC Davis IPM: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/C107/m107bpleaftwigdis.html
Univ. of Arizona: http://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1492.pdf
Good luck!
Let me know what you find out.
The Plant Lady
We have a succulant in our front yard that does not do well with frost. It is about 3 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide. It’s branches are very fragile and would break easily. It needs to be covered at night, any suggestions on what I could use without breaking it.
Hi Cindy,
There are several different weights and thicknesses of frost cloth that can be purchased. You will want to talk with the salesperson on which one is right for your particular plant and the temps in your area.
Things to keep in mind, when dealing with freezing temperatures, is to remember to keep the ground well-watered. Water acts as an anti-freeze for the plant. Especially in succulents. Also, you could also put christmas lights on it, and have them on during the night. The lights can go on underneath the frost cover, which keeps the warmth in.
Good luck!
-The Plant Lady
I replanted a poinsettia plant from last Christmas and it was doing very well on the outside patio. I read how if you put the poinsettia in complete darkness between 5:00 pm to 8:00am the leaves will turn red by Christmas. Well after a week in the closet it started losing its top leaves. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks, Anita
My indoor plants seem to all have some sort of disease. It seems to start in leaf stem–splitting the stem with a brown line–and leaves have brown spots. Don’t see any critters. Local plant nursery suggested Bio Neem but it came back. I keep cutting off leaves affected but disease continues. What can I do?
Japanese beetles are destroying my roses is there away I can get a head start on them as grubs?
Thanks
Yes! Beneficial nematodes are said to be effective against the soil-dwelling grubs, and I wrote this article on using them: https://www.theplantlady.com/beneficial-nematodes/
Also, if you have chickens, you could let them roam in your rose bed where they will dig in the soil and find all sorts of grubs and cutworms that will be pests come the spring. Their digging shouldn’t do too much damage to established roses and shrubs, but you need to keep an eye on them. One other thing to try, once the Japanese beetles mature, is to see what works best for trapping them – then they won’t be able to lay eggs for next year.
I have a dying ivy plant! It had spider mites during the summer but now they are gone, however I can’t seem to get it healthy avian 🙁 help!