Monthly Gardening Tasks - December

No matter how you celebrate the holidays, the season provides a good excuse to give gifts of plants -- yes, even to yourself! Here are some tips for choosing plants and keeping them healthy. Miniature roses are a popular holiday gift plant. They produce an abundance of small flowers on 1 to 2-foot tall plants (some varieties grow only 6 to 8 inches tall). If plants already have buds and flowers they can be placed on the holiday table indoors until they finish flowering. However, if you want to keep them growing and blooming indoors, they need to be grown under artificial grow lights.

POINSETTIAS

Select a plant with dark green leaves and brilliantly colored bracts. Select one that hasn't shed its pollen (check the bracts for yellow pollen stains), because once the plants drop their pollen they decline faster.

Choose plants displayed in areas that provide bright light with temperatures in the 60s and high humidity.

CHRISTMAS TREES

If you are planning to buy a live Christmas tree to plant in the ground after the holidays, prepare its planting cavity before the soil freezes (yes, it has frozen in this area before, believe it or not). Mulch the area heavily to prevent freezing, or dig the hole and store the soil in a protected, nonfreezing area, such as a garage.

HOLLIES AND FLOWERING BULBS

Consider planting hollies with colorful berries to attract birds and provide cuttings for indoor decoration. They can be planted in the fall in all regions. Make the planting cavity as deep as the root ball and twice as wide. Once you set the plant in place, the top of the root ball should be just above the ground level. A mulch helps to protect the shallow roots.

Start indoor bulbs such as amaryllis and paperwhite narcissus. Once the bulbs show new growth, keep the pots well watered in a bright, sunny window.

To extend the life of poinsettias, Christmas cactus, or other plants, keep them in the coolest rooms, especially at night. Cooler temperatures slow growth and flowering. To speed up flowering, move the plants to sunny spots where the temperature is in the 80s.

Even though it is a very busy time of year, start thinking about a new landscape design.

You can still plant Lucullus chard and Georgia or Blue Max collards.

Feed snapdragons and other spring flowering annuals every two weeks.

Put your indoor herbs in a sunny spot in your home.

Plant muscadine grapes. Plant 15 to 20 feet apart and prepare each row for trellising.

Plant your fruit and nut trees. They DO NOT like wet feet.

Lawn