(For Release On Or After 11/27/09) A variety of spring-flowering bulbs can be grown in containers for indoor display. Two bulbs, paperwhites and amaryllis, do not need much special treatment and are very easy to grow in pots. Most of the other spring-flowering bulbs need a cold treatment first, but otherwise it’s pretty straightforward.

(For Release On Or After 11/20/09) Gardens are full of plant materials that can add unique beauty to your holiday decorations. Be on the lookout for attractive foliage, bright berries, decorative cones or pods, and consider other landscape materials that can be dried and brought in for the holidays.

(For Release On Or After 11/13/09) This is the time of year to plant cool-season bedding plants in your flowerbeds. These plants will thrive in the cool to cold weather of fall to spring and keep your flowerbeds looking attractive.

(For Release On Or After 11/06/09) Hedges can create privacy, block unwanted views, screen out noise and serve other important roles in our landscape. If you’re considering planting a new hedge or replacing a lost one, now is a great time to get it done.

(For Release On Or After 10/30/09) As the weather cools down and nights get nippy over the next few weeks, gardeners need to decide what to do with their outdoor containerized tropical plants.

(For Release On Or After 10/23/09) The pansy is a popular, cool-season annual used to beautify gardens in Louisiana during the fall, winter and spring. Pansies thrive in the chilly nights and cool-to-mild days of our cool season from November to April.

(For Release On Or After 10/16/09) November through February is the prime planting season for hardy trees, shrubs, ground covers and perennials in our area, so this is a great time for planning landscaping projects.

(For Release On Or After 10/09/09) In the South, the term “greens” refers to vegetables whose leaves are eaten after they’re cooked until tender. During cool fall temperatures, mustard, turnip, collards and other greens flourish in the vegetable garden.

(For Release On Or After 10/02/09) Many plants seem to save up all summer for the spectacular display of flowers, fruit and foliage showing up in our gardens now. If you want to punch up the color level in your garden from late September through early December, you might consider including some of these trees, shrubs and perennials in your landscape.

(For Release On Or After 09/25/09) The satisfaction of growing fresh vegetables is undeniable, yet many gardeners don’t have a suitable in-ground location to grow them. If you’re forced to do your gardening in containers, you should know that many cool-season vegetables can be grown successfully in containers.

(For Release On Or After 09/18/09) Caladiums are getting past their prime now, and it’s time to decide what you want to do with them. Your choices are: pull them up and throw them away; leave the tubers in the ground to resprout there next year; or dig them up, store the tubers and plant them again next year.

(For Release On Or After 09/11/09) Gardeners use the term “volunteer” for the seedling of a desirable plant that appears in a garden without having been planted. They can be the offspring of trees and shrubs, but most often they are the result of seeds dropped by annuals or perennials previously grown in the garden.

(For Release On Or After 09/04/09) For much of the nation, September marks the end of summer. For those of us living in the Deep South, however, it would be wishful thinking to think that fall weather is a certainty in September.

(For Release On Or After 08/29/09) One of the most famous phrases ever written is, “Let there be light.” It is amazing that such a simple statement has such profound implications about creation and life.

(For Release On Or After 08/22/09) It would be hard to find a more dazzling, flowering tropical plant than the bougainvillea. The bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spectabilis) is a tropical, shrubby vine whose bright magenta, pink, white, gold or purple flowers positively glow.

(For Release On Or After 08/15/09) Designing a garden is one of the more intimidating things gardeners expect of themselves. It’s challenging enough to learn all you need to know to select, plant and care for landscape plants successfully. But design is not just learning how to plant and water. It requires an expression of something from inside.

(For Release On Or After 08/08/09) I live in an area that is rural transitioning into suburban. In many areas of the state, developers are building more and more new subdivisions in areas that were once wooded or open fields. People moving to these new subdivisions from more urban areas are often startled to encounter wildlife they never saw in the cities, such as deer, raccoons, armadillos, opossums and moles.

(For Release On Or After 08/01/09) Although native to the Far East, crape myrtles are almost indispensable in the Southern landscape. Their vibrantly colored flowers in shades of pink, purple, red and white from May to September virtually define the summer season here. The relatively small size of crape myrtle trees and long, colorful blooming season make them useful in a variety of landscapes.

(For Release On Or After 07/25/09) If you want to boost the color in your landscape, nurseries still have a good selection of colorful bedding plants that will thrive in whatever heat the summer throws at them. You can create cool, elegant color schemes with pastels, or an explosion of bright, vibrant colors full of excitement.

(For Release On Or After 07/18/09) Although Louisiana receives on average about 50 to 60 inches of rain annually, it doesn’t occur evenly through the year. As a result, dry spells are not uncommon, particularly during the heat of mid- to late summer. At those times, we may need to provide supplemental irrigation to flowerbeds, shrubs, lawns and newly planted trees.

(For Release On Or After 07/11/09) Summer is the time when people commonly take their longest vacations. When planning a vacation, people make arrangements to have someone take care of everything from the cat to the newspaper. But many neglect to have someone look after their plants and home grounds during their absence.

(For Release On Or After 07/04/09) For the summer season, no flowering tree or shrub outblooms the crape myrtle. This small tree packs a powerful punch of color over an amazingly long season. But other summer-blooming large shrubs and small trees can do a lot to contribute to the summer display. Here are a few –

(For Release On Or After 06/26/09) When I’m asked about what should be done in the garden this time of year, I generally reply, “As little as possible.” The period from late June to mid-September is the most stressful time of the year for gardeners and their plants.

(For Release On Or After 06/19/09) If you picked dewberries or blackberries from the wild as a child (or adult) and miss those wonderful shiny, black fruit bursting with sweet juice, you’ll be glad to know blackberries are easy-to-grow and productive in the home garden.

(For Release On Or After 06/12/09) Summer-flowering vines can be used to provide color, fragrance and interest to Louisiana landscapes. They also can provide screening and even shade if they are allowed to cover an overhead structure. Indeed, no other group of plants can provide the same effects as vines.

(For Release On Or After 06/05/09) June is the peak month for harvesting early summer vegetables. One reason people grow their own vegetables is the outstanding quality of freshly harvested produce. Harvesting at the right stage, however, is essential to getting the best quality vegetables from your garden.

(For Release On Or After 05/29/09) Winters have been relatively mild in Louisiana over the past few years, and I see lots of palms being planted around the state. They add a wonderful tropical look to the landscape.

(For Release On Or After 05/22/09) Grown and used in cuisines around the world, basil also is indispensable to Louisiana cooks. Besides having extraordinary taste, basil is really attractive and easy to grow.

(For Release On Or After 05/15/09) You may sometimes read or hear information about planting certain plants around other types of plants to prevent insect problems. This is commonly called companion planting. Generally, research does not substantiate the claims of companion planting.

(For Release On Or After 05/08/09) Most years I get a few questions asking why purple martins failed to take up residence in a birdhouse provided for them.

(For Release On Or After 05/01/09) Many gardeners suffer from pollen allergies and are prone to sneezing, runny noses, watering eyes and sinus pressure headaches while working outside when pollen counts are high.

(For Release On Or After 04/24/09) Vines are an amazing group of plants with enough diversity to boggle the mind of any gardener. What binds these wonderful plants together is their universal lack of strong stems.

(For Release On Or After 04/17/09) Mulching is an easy-to-do, labor-saving gardening technique that all gardeners should take advantage of. A mulch is a material, usually organic but sometimes inorganic, that we use to cover the soil surface around plants. Mulching beds is an important part of sustainable landscaping.

(For Release On Or After 04/10/09) Some the most popular vegetables planted in Louisiana home vegetable gardens belong to the cucumber family, or Cucurbitaceae.

(For Release On Or After 04/03/09) Among my favorite spring wildflowers are the amazingly beautiful native Louisiana irises. In gardens and landscapes, hybrids of our native species bloom in a rainbow of colors with large, showy flowers on tall stems.

(For Release On Or After 03/27/09) As we move into April, we can enjoy the peak blooming season of our cool-season annuals. But it’s not too early to begin to plan our summer gardens.

(For Release On Or After 03/20/09) Louisiana gardeners can begin to plant spring and early-summer vegetables this month. You can plant after the last freeze date in your area, but be prepared to cover or protect tender plants in case of an unusually late freeze.

(For Release On Or After 03/13/09) Visions of delicious home-grown vegetables can become a reality with a little planning and some work.

(For Release On Or After 03/06/09) Late January through early March is an appropriate time to prune most summer-flowering trees and shrubs. Especially in the case of trees, pruning generally should be done to enhance their natural shape while correcting any problems.

(For Release On Or After 02/27/09) Every year, Louisiana gardeners see amazingly beautiful beds of pansies, violas, dianthus, snapdragons and many others whose peak blooming season is late March through May.

(For Release On Or After 02/20/09) Swiss chard is a leafy vegetable that can be grown easily in Louisiana vegetable gardens during fall, winter and spring. It is reliable and very productive and should be more commonly planted.

(For Release On Or After 02/13/09) This is the time of year for garden catalogs to arrive in the mail. Mine generally start to arrive in December and continue through February. Most gardeners would likely tell you that mail order is their least preferred way to purchase plants, and I generally agree.

(For Release On Or After 02/06/09) February is a great time to plant hardy fruit trees, bushes or vines in your landscape. Local nurseries should have an excellent selection of these plants newly arrived for planting in late winter and early spring.

(For Release On Or After 01/30/09) Few shrubs or trees are best purchased and planted while they are in bloom. One notable shrub, however, is currently in glorious bloom. And right now is an excellent time to plant it into your landscape. I am, of course, referring to the camellia – Camellia japonica.

(For Release On Or After 01/23/09) The presence of birds is almost universally welcome among gardeners. Their contribution of movement, color, sounds and pest control are unique and desirable.

(For Release On Or After 01/16/09) The name “asparagus fern” is a strange jumble of terms. These plants are neither ferns nor edible vegetables. Asparagus ferns are versatile, reliable and easy to grow and are useful in a variety of gardening situations.

(For Release On Or After 01/09/09) Many gardeners consider snails and slugs to be the most disgusting pests in the garden. I could live with their looks if they just didn’t cause so much damage.

(For Release On Or After 01/02/09) All-America Selections is a nonprofit organization that tests newly developed cultivated varieties of seed-grown bedding plants and vegetables in garden plots all across the United States.

(For Release On Or After 12/28/2007) The basic techniques of gardening today are not that much different than those our great grandparents used. Still, technology and the age of communication are definitely changing the way we live, work and garden. Gardeners will, with greater ease and frequency than ever before, exchange ideas and be exposed to new concepts about how and why we garden. How will the new trends affect the plants we use and how we design with them and care for them?

(For Release On Or After 11/23/07) Many plants seem to save up all summer for the spectacular display of flowers, fruit and foliage showing up in our gardens now. If you want to punch up the color level in your garden from October through December, here are some trees, shrubs and perennials you might consider including in your landscape.

(For Release On Or After 11/16/07) Botany lessons are often helpful for gardeners to understand some of the underlying reasons why plants behave the way they do and why we do things a certain way. When growing a plant that is expected to produce fruit, knowing something about the reproductive workings of the plant is in the gardener’s best interest to prevent disappointment.

(For Release On Or After 11/09/07) Fresh, ripe strawberries are a favorite with just about everybody, and now is a great time to plant them into your garden. Strawberries are best planted from late October through November for production next spring. They are easy enough that growing a crop is a fun project for kids at home or in school.

(For Release On Or After 11/2/07) Gardening is a well-documented and beneficial form of exercise. It contributes to a healthy lifestyle.

(For Release On Or After 10/05/07) Fall is a prime planting season in Louisiana. Cool-season flowering bedding plants and cool-season vegetables are planted from now through February, and November through February is the best time to plant hardy shrubs, ground covers and perennials in the landscape. How well you prepare the soil before planting has an enormous effect on the health and growth of your plants.

(For Release On Or After 10/26/07) October is a transitional month in Louisiana flower gardens. Many warm-season annuals have finished or are finishing, and gardeners’ thoughts begin to turn to cool-season bedding plants for fall, winter and spring color.

(For Release On Or After 10/19/07) We’ve become accustomed to running out and buying flats or pots of blooming bedding plants to create “instant flower gardens.” This last-minute approach, however, will simply not work when using spring-flowering bulbs in the landscape. If you want beautiful beds of daffodils, tulips or Dutch irises next spring, you should think about planting them now.

(For Release On Or After 10/12/07) Cooler mornings in October make it a joy to get out and work in the home vegetable garden. A number of delicious and nutritious vegetables will thrive in the coming cool season. Indeed, some of our favorite vegetables can only be grown in Louisiana October through April.