Overwatering the soil does not compensate for lack of atmospheric humidity. When I advise people who bring me samples of house plants grown where the relative humidity of the air is too low, the common reply is: “But I water the plant every day.” This is undoubtedly true but unfortunately has little bearing on the issue.

Watering container-grown foliage plants calls for judgment. No absolute rules can be laid down. All you can do is wait until you believe the plant to be in need of water and then to soak the soil thoroughly. Wait until there is a clear need for water again before repeating the process.

Some few plants such as the umbrella-plant grow well in a constantly saturated earth, yet others, such as the begonia. prefer a soil that is only fairly moist. In both cases it should never be allowed to become absolutely dry before water is given. A third group of plants, such as dracaena and schefflera, abhors soils that are always wet; with this group soil should be permitted to become noticeably dry – but not absolutely dry – between waterings.

Coldframes and greenhouses – These structures, while not elaborate, can play a vital part in an active garden program. November is a good month to build or repair them. Both structures are similar in construction, but vary in heat requirements. A hot bed has some type of generated heat, but a coldframe depends on the sun.

The size of the structure will vary, depending on the amount of space and the cost. Several new plastics make good covers for these, and the price of construction is declining each year. Tender perennials can be stored in these for the winter and new plants started weeks ahead of regular schedule in the spring. If you have never tried your hand with a hotbed or greenhouse, do so and you will receive untold pleasure from the experience.

Flowering shrubs – This group of plants needs only corrective pruning to improve the habit of growth or remove crossing and rubbing limbs. Flower buds are already formed for next season’s bloom and pruning will remove valuable bloom wood. It is advisable to dig in two cupfuls of bone meal or other slow-acting food so it will be available as growth begins in early spring.

Practically all varieties of trees and shrubs prefer a well drained location with plenty of water. Poor subdrainage is frequently the correct diagnosis for trees or shrubs presenting small bronzy foliage that droops and appears unhappy. The proper installation of drain pipes is the best cure for these sick trees or shrubs.

The proper steps for successful shade tree planting are not difficult to take. Select your trees at a local nursery, preferably when they are dressed in their bright fall colors. Well grown trees from the nursery have developed an abundance of fibrous roots which have resulted from occasional transplanting. Hence, they transplant more successfully than woods trees which usually have few fibrous roots.

For trees to be handled bare-rooted, select those about two inches in diameter or smaller. Good species of shade trees such as sugar maple, red oak, pin oak and sweet gum, which are larger than two inches in diameter, are usually best handled with a ball of soil burlapped firmly about the roots – B & B, in other words. Have the trees delivered on one of your gardening days, and try to have the holes dug before they arrive.

At several keys ports in these United States groups of devoted federal employees put in long hours of detective work to protect American gardeners, nurserymen, florists and farmers from insect pests and diseases coming from foreign lands. Their job is to keep any undesirable plant pests from entering this country.

Until early’00′s, no attempt was made to prevent the entry of plant pests into this country. Once American scientists and agriculturists realized that insects and diseases which had been troublesome in other countries were becoming problems in this country, the necessary forces were set in motion, resulting in the enactment of the Foreign Plant Quarantine Act of’12.

Following are a few reasons for the passage of this very comprehensive law to prevent the unlimited importation of plants from abroad:

1. The discovery that large numbers of white pine seedlings infested with blister rust, a highly fatal fungus disease, were being imported into the United States;

2. The observation that a great deal of nursery stock imported from Europe harbored egg masses of the gypsy moth, the worm stage of which could defoliate a whole forest in just a few days;

When the Christmas roses come to you for fall planting the flower bud is already formed deep down among the black roots. To enjoy blossoms that winter, the plant must be set in a hole much deeper and wider than the roots, generally’ inches deep and a foot wide. At the bottom, place five inches of crushed rock plus a little rotted manure and compost.

After spreading the roots on top of a small pyramid of earth, additional rotted manure and compost and good soil, mixed with a teacup of bonemeal, is pressed around the roots until the hole is full. Water the plant well and add buckwheat hulls for a mulch.

The location for Christmas roses should be east to north so that the handsome evergreen foliage will flourish the year round without burning. Sun or a late spring freezes and lack of quantities of fertilizer and water will cause injury. The best plants I have seen in a Louisville garden were on the northeast side of the house between the base of a picture window and a small fish pool’ inches away. Here dozens of blooms enliven the winter scene two to three months each year.

Have you ever tried fall sowing flower seeds? It works wonderfully with all the hardy flowers and even with some of the hardy annuals such as larkspur, cornflower, nigella, calendula, and any of the others that normally self sow in your locality. And as I have said before, I like to sow my seeds in pots so I can handle them as individual units.

Three-inch plastic flower pots are plenty large enough for my place, but you may want a four-inch pot. I fill the pot half full with a mixture of soil, sand and peat sifted through a quarter-inch sieve. Then I put in an inch of equal parts sand and peat and sow my seeds in this. It’s weed free and practically sterile and gives marvelous germination. I honestly never have bothered with treating the seeds with any disinfectant, it works so well this other way. Some of the perennials that you may want to order now to sow later this month (November) might include the cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), delphinium, gaillardia, dwarf bleeding heart, and hardy candytuft.

Honeysuckles

Here are some ideas for using vines and hanging plants in indoor planters and gardens of all sizes and types.

For an airy, open screen or room divider, find a grille, or similarly patterned felt material, frame it, and set a planter garden at the base. The garden may be sunken, or simply a shallow galvanized tray with a layer of pebbles to set the pots on. Unless there is enough natural light from a nearby window, install fluorescent fixtures at the top. On ornate grille patterns train plain-leaved plants like scindapsus, cissus, philodendron; for simple geometric designs, fatshedera, nephthytis; if there is sunlight, the fiery manettia.

To divide a small room into two functional areas – for cooking and eating, dressing and sleeping – train a single vine on an open trellis made of plastic clothesline strung in fan shape from plant to ceiling. Use stem-twining or tendril-climbing foliage vines – cissus, serjania – that are content with artificial light, or hoyas if there is sunlight.

There are still flowers to enjoy in the garden in October. Unless there has been an unseasonable freeze, chrysanthemums are at their height, calendulas and verbenas are colorful, and roses are among the best produced all year.

Protecting roses for the winter – North of the Ohio River there are few areas where roses will survive the winter without protection. No one has found (so far) a material that protects roses as well as soil. But don’t make the mistake of scooping out soil from between the rows of roses; this would merely put all last summer’s blackspot and mildew spores to bed with the roses. Bring in fresh soil for the hilling job, piling it between bushes until needed.

Lifting gladioli and dahlias – Most of the gladiolus corms can be dug now for storage. This will leave only the last planting to ripen while freezing weather threatens. Also dig dahlias for storage as soon as frost blackens their tops. Both the gladiolus corms and dahlia roots should be dusted with fungicide after digging to reduce losses from disease during storage.

Lilies are making their appearance in garden center stores in ever-increasing numbers during October. The southern strains of Easter lilies are now ready for planting. These are hardy in southern gardens and produce great quantities of pure white blooms every spring. Plant them 6 to 8 inches deep in rich, well-drained soil.

Don’t overlook the wonderful ever increasing new hybrids. They grow beautifully in our gardens and can be had in nearly every shade and tone of white, yellow, orange, pink and red. You can have lilies in bloom from April to August by proper selection of varieties : Madonnas and the other new hybrids, April and May ; regales and tigers, June; rubrums and auratums, July; and formosanums, August.

Peonies can be planted in the Upper South only. They are too far out of their natural range to be grown successfully below Atlanta, Birmingham and Greenwood. Plant in a rich soil to which well-rotted manure has been added. Don’t plant the crown or eyes more than 1-1/2 inches below the soil level. They won’t bloom if you do.

The appearance of our gardens next spring and early summer depends largely on how well we plan and plant them now (October). To the garden-minded people who have migrated to the South from the colder North I would emphasize that many plants (especially the hardy annuals) which they have been accustomed to planting in spring must, in their new Southern gardens, be planted in the fall.

In many areas the main obstacle to fall planting is dry weather; the soil is too hard to work. But since we cannot afford to delay planting, first soak the soil with a sprinkler, soil soaker or sprinkling hose until it is moist to a depth of 10 or 12 inches and then prepare the bed.

Though plant food will be carried down eventually to the plant roots by rains and sprinkling, much of it never gets to the spot where it will do the most good. Spread the plant food over the bed and mix it in thoroughly and deeply. This will encourage the roots to grow downward instead of toward the surface. If you can prepare the beds a few weeks before planting just like sago plant care, so much the better; this will give time for the plant food to dissolve, become somewhat neutralized and be more readily available to the plants.