How to Display Your Beautiful Gerbera Daisies so They Last – Orange County Register

Five things to do in the garden this week:

fruit trees. As November comes to a close, persimmon fruits may still be hanging on trees whose foliage displays spectacular fall color far more impressive than any other deciduous fruit tree. Persimmon is one of the most useful fruit trees for Los Angeles gardens and is relatively easy to care for. Once the tree has established its main branching structure after a few years of growth, pruning is no longer necessary—as long as the mature height of 20 feet is acceptable to you. However, like all fruit trees, a persimmon tree can be maintained at a recommended height of 8 feet with regular pruning to make picking easier. The persimmon tree is also somewhat drought tolerant and should not need to be soaked more than once a week. Unlike most fruit trees, the fruits of a persimmon tree are found predominantly at the current season’s growth tips, although some fruits also grow on annual wood. Persimmon trees are self-fruitful, so you only need one tree to produce a harvest. However, it is advisable to plant a pollinator variety such as Gailey as a complement to the popular Fuyu variety to maximize the yield of both trees.

Vegetables. Parsnips are ready to plant now. They are related to carrots but are much longer, often reaching 30 cm or more in length. The taste is slightly spicy with a note of anise. Although parsnips require full sun, they can grow in dry or moist soil as long as it drains well to promote prolonged root growth. Soaking the seeds in water for 24 hours will increase germination. If you sow your seeds now, be sure to pull out the roots that grow from them in the spring. otherwise the parsnips will become woody and inedible.

Herbs. Ornamental oregano is by far the most floriferous herb of all. There are many varieties including Kirigami Pink and Kent Beauty. You can order these plants by mail order from many internet providers. Its leaves can be used for culinary purposes, although its taste is much less pungent than that of common oregano. Ornamental oregano is easily propagated by dividing the root ball and from stem cuttings, which root easily in water.

ornamental plants. I recently received a bouquet of flowers containing some Gerbera daisies. If there’s one flower that everyone loves, it’s the gerbera daisy. The problem is that the stems will bend, so they may need to be propped upright in the vase with the help of those thin bamboo plant supports and some gardening tape. You can also cut off the heads of gerbera daisies and float them in a small bowl of water. Whether in a vase or floating, gerbera daisies should keep for a few weeks. Make sure the water is changed every few days and flower food is added with each water change. You can make your own flower food by mixing two tablespoons of white vinegar and two tablespoons of sugar in one liter of warm water.

If you want to expand the presence of daylilies (Hemerocallis) or lilies of the Nile (Agapanthus) in the garden, you can dig up and divide the clumps any time between now and late winter. For daylilies, cut the plants to within a few inches of the ground, then carefully dig around the clump a foot from the center so as not to damage the roots when you lift the clump from the soil. Make sure each clump contains 3-6 plants for each new clutch of daylilies. For lily of the Nile, this process is the same, except you have to dig deeper under existing clumps to fully extract the roots. Here you need to separate the rhizomes and make sure that new clumps contain 3-6 leaf compartments.