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Green Thumb Tips

Echter’s Plant Doctors are available during store hours seven days a week to answer
your gardening questions. For accurate diagnosis, it helps to bring in a sample.

Flower Gardens

Wait until danger of frost has passed before planting tender plants. Frost blankets can help protect your plants from unexpected late freezes.

When is it safe to plant my flowers?

 

Pinch back your annuals at planting to promote stronger, bushier plants and more flower production.

More on Planting and Caring for Annuals and Vegetables

Annuals, vegetable plants and roses, selected from inside our greenhouses should be “hardened off” before planting outdoors. This is done by exposing the plants to the hot sun and drying winds gradually until the plants are fully acclimated.

 

Use weed preventer to keep weeds from sprouting in your flower and vegetable gardens after you have
set out your plants. Don't use weed preventer where you are sowing seed until after it is up and growing.

 

Summer-blooming bulbs like dahlias, gladioli, cannas and lilies can be planted outside now. If you started these bulbs inside and they are now up and growing, keep your frost blanket handy to cover them if there
is a hard freeze predicted.

 

Container Gardens

Plant your hanging baskets and container gardens now to give them a good head start. By June they should be well established. Keep an eye on the weather and bring your baskets and containers inside if the weather gets cold.

 

If your outdoor hanging baskets and planters have dried out too quickly in the past, mix granules of Soil Moist (a polymer) into the media of your container gardens and hanging baskets before you plant. This will help retain water for the plants to use as needed. We've added polymers to Echter’s Container Mix so you can reduce the frequency of watering.

 

Perennials & Roses

Prune back hybrid tea roses, floribundas and other everblooming roses to 10" in early May. Also, prune out any dead, diseased or weak canes. 

Do not do a heavy pruning on climbing roses. Prune only those canes which are broken or dead.

 

Deadhead, (cut off the old flowers) on daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and other spring-blooming bulbs, but
don't remove foliage until after it turns yellow. The foliage is making nutrients for the bulbs for next year's show of color.

 

Put up plant supports now for perennials that need to be staked, like delphiniums, peonies, yarrow, etc.  Before you know it these plants will be too tall to do it easily.

 

Vegetable Gardens

Make your list of the tomato varieties and pepper varieties you want to grow in your garden from these links. It's easier if you know what you want before you go shopping.

  Echter's Tomato Varieties        Echter's Pepper Varieties

Plan your vegetable garden so that specific plants, like tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, etc. are planted in a different spot than they were planted last year. Rotation of your crops is very important to prevent any diseases prone to that particular vegetable.

 

Check the "When is it safe..." link mentioned above to our Frost Hardiness Chart which will enable you to judge when to plant your vegetable starts.

For anything that you plant outside early this month, make sure that you have a frost blanket handy for those sudden and unexpected cold snaps.

 

Never cut rhubarb stalks off the plant. Instead, hold the stalk near the base and give it a slight twist as
you pull it away. Rhubarb flowers may be pretty, but they take away nutrients from the stalks. As soon
as these flower stalks appear, prune them to the ground.

 

Lawn Care

Set your lawn mower blade to 2 ½ to 3" to encourage deeper drought-resistant roots. The longer grass
will keep the ground cooler and require less water.

 

Mow your lawn during the day or early evening when the grass is dry. Never mow when there is moisture

on the blades. This encourages the spread of disease and causes the clipping to clump.

 

Leave your grass clippings on the lawn by using a mulching mower and reduce your need for fertilizer by
30 percent.

The best part of the day to water your lawn is early in the morning while it is still cool. There will be a
lot less moisture lost to evaporation and the grass will be more resistant to fungal disease.

If you had disease problems in your lawn last year, apply Ferti-lome F-Stop as a preventive measure.

Trees & Shrubs
Prune off old lilac flowers just below the flower right after they bloom. Trim out a couple of the thickest branches all the way to the base to help keep the lilac full
and well shaped. Prune other early-flowering shrubs after their blooming time as well.

Fertilize your trees and shrubs early in May. There are several ways to fertilize:

1) Use a Ross Root Feeder with the appropriate fertilizer pellet to get the solution right down to the roots. 2) Use a topical granular around the plants and water in. 

3) Use slow-release fertilizer and work it into the soil around each plant. This feeds them for several months. 

Indoor Plants
Turn your houseplants a quarter turn periodically to keep the growth from leaning toward the window and the light.

 

Fertilize your indoor plants twice a month with Jack's Classic Houseplant Special. A good fertilizing program will help your houseplants get their good spurt of new growth this spring.

 

Wildlife

Plant a trumpet vine or honeysuckle to attract more hummingbirds. Stop by our customer service desk for
a list of other plants which attract “hummers”.

   

General

Check your hoses and connections to make sure they don't leak. Echter's carries hose repair kits and replacements for old washers. When you hand water, use a nozzle with a shut-off or trigger nozzle that stops the flow of water when released.

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