Here are a few tips and bits of information that might be useful to you.

Note:  Tip topics are highlighted in red.

 

IN ADDITION:  some items of Horticultural Trivia are included on this page.

See our Best Bets for Off-season Gardening Color.

Learn the correct botanical names for your plants to the extent possible. Common names cause confusion whereas botanical names are based on scientific classification which provides one unique identity for each plant. For help in understanding botanical names, go to Understanding Botanical Names, found on this site. Also, botanical/horticultural terminology is used to describe plant characteristics (e.g. leaf shapes and arrangements, flower parts and arrangements, etc.). For charts depicting these terms, Click Here for foliage terminology, and Click Here for floral terminology.  Use botanical names when researching plants on Google or any other search engine.

Looking for software to draw landscaping designs? Try Excel - making column widths equal to row heights produces instant graph paper.  Create landscaping symbols using the drawing toolbar on PowerPoint.  Copy and paste into Excel.     You don't need special "landscaping" software to draw good designs. Simple drawing tools and standard shapes will do.   For a sample using Excel, Click Here. Requires Excel 5.O or later version . 

If you have an identified plant but are not certain about how to care for it, do some research either in books or on the Internet (using botanical, not common name) regarding its origin or place where it grows in its natural environment. If you can duplicate that environment or come as close to it as possible in providing for the specific need of the plant in it's natural environment, you will be able to grow it and achieve it's ornamental potential.

A plant cultivar can be discovered by any observant person. If you see something unusual about a plant's growth habit, leaf coloration, or shape, that characteristic might be able to be preserved by asexual propagation to create a new plant cultivar if the characteristic is stable through successive propagation.  For an example, Click Here.

Variegated plants add color and interest to your landscape when flower displays are not in season.  Most variegated plants grow much slower than their green forms thereby reducing plant maintenance requirements.  Contrasting plant foliage colors can brighten up any garden.

Avoid using chemicals for pest and disease control if at all possible.  Runoff of chemical fertilizers also hurts our environment.  Examples of organic methods:  Aphids and soft bodied insects can be killed with a sharp hose spray. Cooler weather weeds in St. Augustine grass can be controlled by low mowing in spring to prevent seed formation until the warm weather St. Augustine grass thickens to choke out the weeds - then raise mowing height.  Use of toxic insecticides also kills the 90 percent of the insect population that is beneficial to our gardens.    Toxic chemicals are just plain dangerous!   Disease infected plants should be dug and destroyed.  Weakened plants attract disease and insect attack.   Occasionally, a chemical means is the only solution that will work, but use only as a last resort and to save not easily replaceable plants.  REMEMBER, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL SAFE PESTICIDE!

Recycle used nursery containers and the old potting soil they contain.  Dump the used potting soil on your outdoor beds and take used containers to local nurseries, most of whom will gladly accept used nursery containers of all sizes (1-20 gal.) for reuse. It saves them money and is is environmentally friendly - they don't end up in a landfill as non-biodegradable waste.   .   

Plant labeling is always a problem.  Here's a tip for long lasting plant labels.  If you have an old aluminum mini blind - don't discard it.  Cut the blades into 4 to 8 inch strips with scissors.  Use #2 pencil, or a fine tipped acrylic paint pen available at most craft stores in colors,  and poke them in your pots or in the ground for durable, long lasting plant labeling.   These labels can be reused by erasing the pencil or paint using a mild scrubbing agent, eg. Soft Scrub. 

The best place to shop for unusual or new varieties of plants at value prices are special plant sales, either conducted by arboreta, botanical gardens, or horticultural associations, or private plant sales conducted by plant collectors who sell plants from private overgrown collections. You'll always find something exciting that you'll never find at the local nurseries and get expert advice about the plants you buy.  Try trading with other plant collectors or gardening enthusiasts.  Your surplus can result in the opportunity to try and grow new varieties of plants.

The best place to get sound honest advice on plant selection or landscape designing may not be commercial sources. Try independent advice from non-commercial , knowledgeable sources like hobby plant enthusiasts and specialists who love to share and give you the benefit of their experience so you can learn to make good choices.

Use native plants to the extent possible to avoid maintenance problems.  These plants are very adaptive to local conditions,  disease and pest resistant, and have been time tested to perform well in your area.  Native plants generally need less care, watering, no fertilizing, etc. 

Pruning tips:  Prune trees and shrubs minimally and only as necessary to remove dead or diseased wood, shape, or eliminate undesirable growth..  Pruning opens cuts and wounds that can be an avenue for disease or insect infestation.  (Elmer's glue makes a great wound and cut sealer!)   Never prune more than one-third of a plant at a time.   Spring flowering plants bloom on old wood so prune only after their blooming period.   Plants that bloom on new wood should be pruned during winter or very early spring.    (Note: Encore varieties of azaleas bloom on new wood, whereas all other azaleas varieties are spring only bloomers)  

Plants you DON'T fertilize:  Ferns, Cacti and Succulents, and Bromeliads.  Ferns need only decayed organic matter for their nutrient needs,  Cacti and succulents can over-accumulate minerals causing toxicity, and Bromeliads will never bloom when fertilized.  Only fertilize bromeliads at half strength when encouraging new pups after blooming or to stimulate pups to faster maturity.  

Yard  Maintenance Crimes:   In maintaining your landscape, here are the top things to avoid:  (Landscape Service's are particularly guilty)

-  Crepe murder:  Crepe Myrtles don't need to be pruned except to promote reblooming in one season or to gently shape or remove dead wood.  Do not prune these plants back severely - (see pruning tips above)

-  Live tree and shrub burial:  Do not stack mulch or soil around a tree higher than natural ground level.   Since most of the feeder roots are within 2' of the surface,  this causes them to grow above ground level which is detrimental to the tree.  Always keep mounded mulch 12" away from the trunks.

-  Border all plants in open lawn areas to protect them from weed eater/lawn trimmer damage and girdling (which will kill a shrub or tree),  

Let nature into your yard. We can't and shouldn't try to control every natural intruder (plant or animal). Examples include mushrooms and other fungi, (which are indicators of a healthy soil and environment), squirrels and other animals trying to survive due to our  destruction of their habitat, and spider webs we run into occasionally (spiders control insect populations).  Many critter life cycles are so short that temporary damage they cause to plants can be tolerated.  Fungi (not often pleasant to look at) decay organic materials that enrich our soils. Nature benefits us in most cases and we need to be less "sterile" in maintaining our yards and more accepting of the diversity in our natural environment.   

                                      

Zone 9 Plant Substitutes:  Have you moved to Zone 9 from other areas of the country and miss certain plants that you can't grow along the Gulf Coast?  Here are some 'almost look alike" substitutes you can plant instead.

 

Plants I used to grow in other climate areas	Try this as a substitute
Hosta	Kampheria Gingers
Lilacs	Crepe Myrtles
Dogwood (Cornus florida)	Mock Orange (Philadelphus spp)
English Yew (Taxus spp)	Cephalotaxus or Podocarpus
Pachysandra (ground cover)	Ardesia
Witch Hazel (blooms)	Loropedalatum (blooms)
American Boxwood	Harland Boxwood (B. harlandii) or Yaupon Holly (I. vomitoria)
Japanese Holly (Ilex crenata)	Buxus microphylla (Korean Boxwood)
Peonies	SORRY, WISH WE HAD ONE - any suggestions?
Blue Rug Juniper	Shore Juniper
Canadian Hemlock	Bald/Pond/or Montezuma Cypress

• In England, the Dandelion has been declared an endangered wildflower!
• Also in England, garden thievery has grown to such extraordinary proportions that Scotland Yard has officers specialized in plant theft!
• A watermelon is botanically classified (by fruit type) as a berry!
• When you eat a fig, you are eating a flower, not a fruit!
• Pineapples are bromeliads, so is Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) seen hanging from trees throughout the south - strange relatives!
• Vanilla comes from a vining orchid (Vanilla planifolia). 
• The oldest existing living plant in the world is a Bristlecone Pine in Utah estimated to be around 5,000 years old!  There are living live oak trees exceeding 1,000 yrs. old.
• Living fossil plants you can grow today include cycads, dawn redwood, tree ferns, Gingko biloba, horsetails to name a few.  These go back to when dinosaurs roamed.
• Here's something you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask!!  What does pH stand for? The "p" (always written in lower case) is a chemical mathematics symbol for "the negative logrithm of".  The "H" is the chemical symbol for hydrogen.  So "pH" is the negative logrithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a soil or water solution.  Now - do you wish you never asked!!
• Did you know plants are becoming extinct at a rate 1,000 times faster than at any other time in history!!  In our lifetimes,  we may lose 10% of all known plant species.
• Did you know that the spines on a cactus are really modified leaves.
• There are ferns that grow only in the desert or desert like dry environments? 
•  The plant with the largest leaves & largest seed is a palm - The Coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica) in the Seychelles.  The leaves are 30+ft long, up to 15 ft wide and the seed weights up to 45 lbs and takes 6 years to germinate.
• Can you identify these odd plants!  The answer is located somewhere else on our site.  Isn't that a sneaky way to get you to visit the other pages too!!

• We would like to add a lot more trivia for all to enjoy - if you will help.