I was transplanting a few Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum) plants into my drainage swale pollinator garden last weekend when I noticed this new insect visitor to my blooming Rattlesnake Masters (Eringium yuccifolium; below).
A Smoky-winged Beetle Bandit Wasp nectars on a Rattlesnake Master flower in the author’s pollinator garden. Photo: Stacy Small-Lorenz, UME
This gentle beauty has a name that could have been penned by a cowboy poet – Smoky-winged Beetle Bandit Wasp (Cerceris fumipennis; Family Crabronidae) – and it plays an important ecological role. It parasitizes adult metallic wood-boring beetles of the family Buprestidae, including oak-boring beetles and the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis), an invasive beetle that is devastating North American ash trees, especially Green and White Ashes (Fraxinuspennsylvanica and americana).
The Smoky-winged Beetle Bandit Wasp is native to Eastern North America and is the only North American wasp known to parasitize adults of Buprestid wood-boring tree pests, using the beetle bodies as hosts for their eggs and larvae. Scientists have even used this species for biosurveillance to monitor range expansion of the Emerald Ash Borer.
A combination of traits can help identify this native parasitoid wasp. Look for its black head, thorax, and abdomen and smoky-brown wings. Females may have a blue reflection to their wings. A distinctive cream or white apical band on the second abdominal segment is another key characteristic. Females have three cream-colored spots on the face, while males have two yellow triangles between their eyes.
Smoky-winged Beetle Bandit Wasp adults are active mid-June into September in the northern part of their range. They are solitary ground-nesters that generally produce two generations annually. According to Heather Holm (2021), they usually burrow into compacted sandy or gravelly soil along rivers, in paths, gravel parking lots, or even baseball diamonds, frequently near forests where they can hunt for their beetle victims in the tree canopy, then bring them back to the nest. A female captures and injects a beetle with venom, then carries it in her mandibles to stash with several other paralyzed beetles in an underground nest chamber.
A female Smoky-winged Beetle Bandit wasp brings a pair of mating Emerald Ash Borer Beetles back to her nest. The blue paper shown here will make it difficult for her to bring her victims into the nest, allowing biologists to collect the beetle bodies for pest monitoring. Photo: Philip Careless, Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0]
She’ll lay one egg on the top beetle that hatches after several days. She provides a larger supply of beetles for her female offspring than for the males. After hatching, her larvae will remain in their underground chambers over winter, feasting on beetles from their own personal stockpiles, before emerging as adults the following summer.
Biologists can observe the beetles that female wasps bring back to their ground burrows to document the presence of these tree pests.
These beneficial wasps are also “accidental” pollinators that pick up pollen on their bodies and transport it to other flowers while nectaring. They are harmless to humans and defenders of our forests, so two things we can do for them in return are protecting their nest burrows when we find them and providing some of their preferred nectar plants in a sunny spot near the forest, like rattlesnake master, swamp or butterfly milkweed (Asclepias incarnata or tuberosa), Virginia mountain mint (Pycanthemum viginianum), daisy fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) and Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis). These are relatively simple pest management practices for forest conservation that will also benefit many other pollinators.
While one species of wasp alone may not entirely solve the widespread dilemma of invasive wood-boring tree pests, there are other introduced and native parasitoid wasp species and woodpeckers that target earlier stages of the Emerald Ash Borer life cycle (egg and larval) (Shrewsbury 2026). Therefore, working in combination with other species, they could make a real difference for the next forest generation and therefore deserve our conservation attention.
By Stacy Small-Lorenz, UME Residential Landscape Ecology Specialist
Holm, H. 2021. Wasps: Their Biology, Diversity, and Role as Beneficial Insects and Pollinators of Native Plants. Pollination Press LLC. Minnesota, USA. 420 pp.
Shrewsbury, P. 2026. The Exciting Life of Parasitoids and Their Role as Biological Control Agents. Presented at the Stanton A. Gill Symposium: A Focus on Biological Control. August 5, 2026. University of Maryland Extension, Clarksville, MD.
I think we’ve all been there. Everything else in the vegetable garden is going well, growing as it should, producing bountifully, getting the better of challenges. And then there’s the one plant that just… isn’t. (Or more than one that just aren’t.) Maybe, though, given a little more time, a little more fertilizer, a little more effort, a little more love… it might pull through? Or is it taking up space for no reason? Worse, is keeping it around bad for your more successful plants?
When, in fact, is it the right time to commit plant murder?
I can’t help joking, but of course we all hate killing plants that we’ve tried hard to nurture, maybe even growing them from a tiny seed. But let’s face it, there’s only so much space in a garden, and the season will be over soon. We don’t want to waste the time and square feet that we have. Most of the plants in an edible garden are annuals, and with these we need to make decisions soon. With perennials, maybe you can wait until next year to see if conditions improve.
How do you figure out when and if you should pull a plant out of the garden? Well, it’s like a detective story in reverse; first, you need to be an investigator, and then a potential killer. Find out what’s wrong with the plant; assess how bad the problem is and what the consequences might be; and then make a decision based on the facts.
The HGIC website is a good place to start. If the plant in question is a vegetable, I suggest starting with the Vegetables Grown in Maryland page, select your vegetable, and visit the “Growing ___ in a Home Garden” article. From there, you can explore the list of potential problems. If you can’t figure it out from there, or from more searching online, you can contact the Ask Extension team, or ask your county’s Master Gardeners.
The problems you might encounter with plants include:
PESTS
Pest problems are often fixable. Follow the advice given at HGIC or on other regional Extension websites, and you are likely to be able to control the pests sufficiently to get a crop. However, there are a few instances where giving up on the plant is a better option.
The pest has killed the plant or come close to killing it. For example, squash vine borer can take out a squash plant in days, and if you don’t remove the pest in time, or it has destroyed most of the main stem, you will not be able to revive the plant. Flea beetles can eat most of the foliage of young eggplants, to the point where they can’t survive. But don’t jump to the conclusion that a few holes mean a devastating invasion.
The pests keep coming back even when you remove them. This happens often in community garden situations or when you have close neighbors growing the same plants. Maybe you can work together to get rid of the pests, but if that’s not an option, you might consider switching to a less susceptible crop.
There is a solution, but you can’t implement it right now. This is particularly true of animal pests—maybe you need to fix a fence or fill a hole, and it’s best done in the off-season. Or you have overplanted a bed, making it difficult to reach plants to remove pests. The easiest fix may be to remove the temptation and limit the pest’s options in the process.
Squash bug damage in plants I couldn’t get to because I overplanted my small garden. Photo by Erica Smith
Remember that not dealing with insect pests as soon as possible means that they are able to complete their life cycle and make more pests! If you do remove a plant that is infested, try putting it in a black plastic trash bag and leaving it out in the sun until the pests are dead. That way, you haven’t just chased them off to attack another plant. You can then put the bag in the trash or even add the contents to your compost if the plant isn’t also diseased. Speaking of which…
DISEASES
If you suspect a plant disease, diagnose it and read up on its prognosis. Does it kill a plant fast, or is it slow-working? How lethal is it and how fast does it spread? Again, it’s likely you can keep plants going for a while, for example with a common fungal disease like early blight on tomatoes, but there are cases where plant removal is advisable. If you do pull plants, put them in the trash rather than adding the debris to your compost.
Diseases that spread quickly. If you see the disease spreading to other plants, and it can’t be stopped by removing affected foliage and other plant parts, you may need to pull the plants that are diseased. This is especially true in truly destructive diseases like late blight (luckily, this is uncommon in Maryland!), but also with more common issues like bacterial leaf spot, which has devastated some of my recent pepper crops. Remember, most diseases are specific to particular species or families, so you don’t need to pull out your whole garden because one type of plant is affected.
Diseases that will prevent a plant from producing. Examples include bacterial wilt that kills a cucumber overnight (easy call), or mosaic virus that lets a squash plant continue to grow but will kill it before it has any viable fruit (harder to make the decision to pull). In perennial plants such as fruit trees, you may lose a crop one year but not the next; on the other hand, if the disease comes back for several years running despite treatment, why are you still trying? (It took me a couple years of fire blight on quince to decide I wasn’t meant to grow it.)
Multiple factors, including disease. A disease alone might not be enough to make you decide to pull a plant, but if it’s also battling pests or drought, or producing very little for some other reason, it might not be worth keeping.
This pepper damage was likely caused by bacterial leaf spot. Not worth keeping the plants going if the result looks like this! Photo by Erica Smith
OTHER
Failure to thrive. This is a generic term for “just not cutting it”: looking puny and sad. Maybe the seed you grew this plant from was the worst one in the packet; maybe it got stressed from being in a pot too long; maybe the soil conditions in that particular spot are poor; maybe we’ve had crazy weather and the plant just can’t cope. Some TLC and fertilizer may help, but not always.
Bolting. Cool-weather crops often last into the summer, but there’s always a point when they want to go to flower, and no amount of pruning will stop it.
Failure to produce correctly. Maybe the plant looks healthy but it isn’t making what it’s supposed to make. Root vegetables that don’t make roots; beans that don’t bean; broccoli that won’t head up. A little extra time and some fertilizer may help, but possibly not. Pull the plant; do a soil test and plan an appropriate fertilizer regimen next year; look at conditions generally (enough sun? enough water?).
Need the space for something else. In a small garden, we sometimes have to make choices about what hangs in there and what gets ousted. If you want to grow kale and there is nowhere else to put it but where the tomato plant is covered with early blight and producing many fewer fruits, it may be time for the tomato plant to go.
This fish pepper has been looking sad all season. Might be a soil issue, or stress due to root crowding in the pot. Or something else. I still don’t want to pull it out, so I gave it some fertilizer and a pep talk. Photo by Erica Smith
In general, remember that failures are a learning experience! Sometimes we learn about a fundamental flaw in our garden or in our practice; sometimes we learn that a particular plant isn’t for us (but give it another try first!); sometimes we can just chalk up failure to a bad year or one fixable mistake. Pulling a plant is also an opportunity to put another plant in its place. (Probably not one of the same species, because the problem may affect it too.) Succession planting is made easier by thoughtful but relatively quick decision-making; get out that sick squash and you may still have time to put some bush beans in, or to get the space ready for fall planting.
And as gardeners, we always continue to hope things will be better next time!
By Erica Smith, Montgomery County Master Gardener. Read more posts by Erica.
One of the most widespread actions implemented to support pollinators and other beneficial organisms is the planting of (native) flowering plants. The idea is that if we offer food to pollinators, they will come. However, we may have planted the plants, but the pollinators still aren’t coming. What could be happening? In this post, I will cover some biological reasons why this may be happening, and some solutions to consider.
Not all flowers are made equal
To a pollinator’s eye, not all flowers are the same. As we mentioned in other posts, each pollinator group (e.g., butterflies, birds, bees, flies…) has a different shape and different sensorial and physical abilities. While a butterfly may be able to reach the nectar at the bottom of a very tubular and long flower, a fly may not. Likewise, a large pollinator that is physically stronger than a small pollinator may be able to enter a very closed flower. Further, a night pollinator can obtain nectar from plants that offer it at night, while it will not get anything from those that offer it during the day…. I guess you see my point. Essentially, pollinators prefer flowers that make it easiest to locate and harvest resources like nectar and pollen. These differences mean that unless those flowers are present in a landscape, certain groups of pollinators may not be seen at all.
Different floral shapes and colors make floral rewards more easily accessible to different pollinators. Photos: J. of Pollination Ecology.
Not all flowers necessarily offer what a pollinator is after
Pollinators visit flowers to obtain something they need. That something may be food (e.g., nectar, pollen, parts of the flower), materials for reproduction (e.g., perfumes), materials for nest building (e.g., resins, floral oils), or simply a place to overnight, stay warm, and/or mate. As a matter of fact, not every single flower serves all those needs, making the pollinators end up “sorting themselves” among the plants that offer what they need.
A bee of the genus Chalepogenus visiting a flower of Calceolaria dentata (native to Chile and Argentina) to collect floral oils and pollen. Photo: A. Espíndola.
Let me give you an example. In my research life, I work on a specialized pollination system that involves flowers that do not offer nectar at all, but instead offer floral oils (and pollen) in exchange for pollination (you can read more about this from the blog post: Why Do Pollinators Visit Flowers?, May ’20). These flowers are called lady slippers and belong to the Pan-American genus Calceolaria. When we observe which pollinators visit the flowers, we see that it is mostly bees who specialize in collecting floral oils (in our case, bees of the genera Centris and Chalepogenus), and basically nothing else. In landscaping, filling our yards with only one specialized flower type drastically limits pollinator diversity. For instance, if we only planted oil-producing flowers, we would not see many diverse pollinators. This highlights a key rule: the rewards a plant offers dictate the visitors it attracts. Just as varied flower shapes are crucial, providing a diverse mix of nutritional rewards—like nectar, pollen, and oils—is the best way to boost the number and variety of pollinators in our green spaces. As for the floral shape I was referring to, planting species that offer different types of rewards is a very good way to increase the number and types of pollinators we see in our green spaces.
The flowers do not necessarily want to share too much
Plants attract pollinators because they can get pollination from them, which allows the plant to reproduce. From a biological point of view, a pollinator will be a good one if it carries pollen from the stamens of a flower and makes it land on the stigma, so it can germinate and then fertilize the ovules. This is all good and nice; the problem, however, is that many pollinators use pollen as food. This creates a conflict between the plant’s and the pollinator’s interests: a plant needs the pollen (that contains its sperm) to not be eaten but to fertilize its ovules, but many pollinators just want to eat the pollen (and they have good reason for this, since a pollen grain is extremely rich in nutrients!).
As a response to this conflict, some strategies have evolved that somewhat “control” the feeding on pollen that pollinators may do. In fact, plants protect their pollen with physical structures that make it hard to be broken by pollinators. Some of these pollen grains feature spikes and thickened walls, which force pollinators to use specialized tools to break through them. Along with this physical “shield”, pollen grains often contain what are called secondary metabolites. These are chemical compounds that make the pollen indigestible or toxic, unless the organism trying to eat it has evolved ways to tolerate those compounds themselves. Closely related plants produce similar chemical compounds; the unique chemistry of a plant family dictates which pollinators can digest its pollen. This leads to different levels of floral specialization on the side of the pollinators. Pollinators will only try to visit plants that offer pollen they can digest, which again, restricts the flowers they visit. As for the previous points, increasing the different types of plants by having representatives of different plant families can increase the variety in the chemical quality of the pollen offered, attracting and supporting different types of more or less specialized pollinators.
By Anahí Espíndola, Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park. See more posts by Anahí.
Wildlife can be cute, but also destructive! Photo via Adobe Stock
You’re happily growing lettuce in a salad table, watching the little seedlings get bigger, and then one day half of them have been dug up and tossed aside. Or you’re about to harvest your kale and then realize it’s full of holes and little green caterpillars. Or your eggplant leaves are suddenly nothing but lace. Maybe someone is stealing your tomatoes, or—more insultingly—taking a bite out of each of them. Or maybe everything is just… GONE.
Pest issues are not unique to container gardening, of course—all veggie gardeners deal with them. But just as containers have their pluses and minuses in every aspect of food growing, they sometimes provide specific challenges and benefits when it comes to dealing with pests – whether insect or animal.
By the way—let’s acknowledge here that the creatures we’re talking about are just trying to get along and feed themselves. They don’t know that they’re putting us to extra trouble (even if it really seems like squirrels in particular are just trolling us). It would be great if we could jall just get along without harming each other. So the proposed solutions below don’t go as far as hurting or killing anything (if you want to use pesticides against insects, that is up to you, though please be sure to carefully follow the label instructions). These methods all follow four principles: Location, Exclusion, Deterrence, and Distraction.
PART ONE: INSECTS
Here’s a typical scenario from Home and Garden Information Center’s Emily Clark-Waterson:
I planted kale in a flower box in the spring in a new self-watering flower box container, hanging off my balcony railing. It grew beautifully and I was able to clip young leaves and let them keep growing until the summer weather got too hot. I planted it again in late August for a fall harvest, except this time I started to notice some leaf damage and found a type of Imported Cabbageworm. These moved fast and left little to be harvested. They like to hide along the midribs. Lesson learned: Always cover your brassicas with insect netting or floating row cover to help prevent this. A small piece of tulle from a craft store works well, or you can purchase various-sized mesh bags to put over containers. I won’t be making that mistake again.
How many cabbageworms can you find? Photo: Emily Clark-Waterson
They really can be camouflaged in the leaves. Photo: Emily Clark-Waterson
This one has eaten well! Photo: Emily Clark-Waterson
Prepared for pests this year with tomato cages and tulle held together with clothes pins. Photo Emily Clark-Waterson
This is a great example of Exclusion. In fact, covering plants with materials like this solves the majority of insect problems—and it’s so much easier and cheaper in a container than covering a long row in an in-ground vegetable garden. Here are some other examples of plants in the brassica family being covered to protect them:
Insect mesh and hoops over Asian greens. Photo: Lily Bruch
Floating row cover over brassica plants keeps caterpillars and other pests away. Photo: Robin Ritterhoff
Plant covers work against other insects as well, for example, to keep flea beetles off of eggplants. But in this case, growing in containers provides another advantage, one of Location. Erica Smith has had success over the years by growing eggplant in containers on her deck, which keeps them well away from the flea beetles in the soil below. MG Robin Ritterhoff also uses this method, making sure to replace at least the top third of the potting soil every year in case beetles are lurking. But MG Lily Bruch says her eggplants still get eaten despite growing on a deck, so she uses row cover and also plants marigolds in hopes of Deterrence. Sometimes strong-scented plants either confuse or annoy insects and keep them away from your vegetables. It’s worth trying, since flowers also bring in much-wanted pollinators and other beneficial insects.
And what if the insect eating your plant is actually beneficial? MG Mary Anne Normile writes:
[It’s a tough call] when Eastern black swallowtail caterpillars feed on container parsley. I love the butterflies, but the caterpillars can denude a parsley plant in short order. No good solution unless you have another desirable (to the caterpillars) plant to relocate them to, except possibly to have a fresh batch of parsley seedlings on hand to plant for the short period after the caterpillars stop feeding and the end of the growing season.
If you have room, you can plant extra herbs in the parsley family, such as dill and fennel, which the swallowtail caterpillars will also enjoy. (Also make sure to have lots of nectar-producing flowers for the adult butterflies.) You could also cover up a few of the parsley plants to keep them just for you.
When pest problems arise in container plants, make sure you address them quickly, because it’s easy to lose your entire crop in very little time.
PART TWO: ANIMALS
(Yes, insects are animals; let’s not be pedantic.)
Erica here:
This is a photo of the gate to my old vegetable garden:
This is a typical squirrel move. Didn’t even eat the whole tomato and left it in an obvious place just to taunt me.Photo: Erica Smith
And this year, I have a squirrel who loves Swiss chard:
It ate every single seedling out of the deck planter, leaving the lettuce alone, and then climbed into my garden and snacked on the beet leaves. Oh well, no Beta vulgaris for me this year!Photo: Erica Smith
Mary Anne writes:
I have had squirrels … dig up freshly planted basil in containers. They seem to love fresh soil. They don’t eat the basil, they just dig up the plants and sometimes toss them out of the container. I replant them and sprinkle the surface of the soil liberally with cayenne (the cheapest stuff, not Penzey’s), repeated after a rain, and that deters them. Once the basil plants are large enough, the squirrels don’t bother them.
Squirrels do instinctively dig in fresh soil, sometimes burying nuts, but other times looking for food or following up an interesting smell. Lily reports that they dig up her lettuce seedlings; her solution is to cover the container with a metal grid or chicken wire.
Chicken wire to exclude squirrels Photo: Lily BruchMetal wire grid to exclude digging squirrels Photo: Lily BruchPicnic food tents resting over a container is enough to keep the squirrels from digging up new lettuce seedlings. Photo: Emily Clark- Waterson
Lest you think this section of the blog is all about squirrels, they are, in fact, one of the worst pests for container gardeners (and veggie gardeners in general). They can climb anything, and they eat a wide variety of foods. And they are determined. They may be the hardest animal to stop once they start bothering your garden. Except possibly for raccoons—and former MG Nancy Moses had both of them!
Here’s Nancy describing the year she planted vegetables in containers on her second-story deck—in a yard surrounded by a six-foot fence but that backs up to woods.
The squirrels and raccoons climbed over our chain link fence, up the 13 steps to the deck, taking over the territory as their own. The resulting poop was unpleasant! The light-weight, conniving, hungry squirrels politely climbed over the netting held up with metal stakes in each tomato-growing pot; and the raccoons knocked over the pots and anything else in their way toward achieving their goal of mass destruction and hunger gratification.
Nancy says that after that, “You could say that I quit; but I view it now as having just politely surrendered.” And honestly, how can you blame her? She tried the principles of Location—putting the pots up on a high deck—and Exclusion. Maybe the netting could have covered the plants more thoroughly, but the raccoons still would have knocked the pots over. The only real solution would have been Total Exclusion, meaning a fence that completely surrounded and covered the pots, which does not lead to enjoyment of the deck by humans.
So back to those principles. Location often works (in less extreme circumstances) by keeping plants in pots up high where some animals won’t venture. Most deer (we can never say all) won’t climb up steps and some won’t even venture close to a human home. Rabbits are short and don’t climb, so higher planters are unreachable. A balcony location keeps even groundhogs off, though probably not squirrels and certainly not birds.
Exclusion with row cover or netting can keep some less determined animals and birds away. Fences are another solution—you can fence off part of a deck or patio, or put your containers inside a fence in the yard (or use them as part of your regular veggie garden). Again, if you have serious squirrel, raccoon, or bird issues, only a garden enclosure with a roof will help.
Deterrence can mean using strong-scented plants to warn away animals that don’t enjoy those smells. It’s no guarantee, but maybe will stop the casual visitor.
Colorful planters hold strawberry plants up high, and a “citronella plant” scented geranium as one of the strongly-scented deterrent plants to offend visiting herbivores. Photo: Erica Smith
In extreme cases, you can revert to growing only these sorts of plants. Herbs like rosemary and thyme, onions and their relatives, and hot peppers may be unattractive to animals.
There are other methods of deterrence if you want to try automatic water sprayers, constant noise, or bird scarers of various types. Avoid sprays that are meant to repel deer if they contain any ingredients you wouldn’t want to consume.
Distraction means giving our animal friends something else to think about. Some garden writers advise providing an alternate source of food, such as edible plants closer to the animal’s habitat, but be wary of bringing in an entire extended family that will reach your closer-to-home plants eventually. Also, be sure to keep compost containers secure if they hold food scraps, and keep fallen produce cleaned up. (We have not talked about rats so far in this post, and let’s not start now.) But do make sure animals and birds have a water source they can visit—sometimes they are eating your vegetables because they’re thirsty.
If possible, try to provide natural sources of food by planting shrubs and trees (preferably native to your region) that grow seeds, nuts and fruits. If you don’t have room yourself, use our resources to learn about native plants and try to convince neighbors or anyone else who controls plantings in your neighborhood to grow them.
Dealing with pests can be challenging, but it feels great when you rise to the challenge! Growing in containers can sometimes help you combat pests, such as when you can easily cover a pot or place it somewhere the pests can’t get to. And if you need to take a season off to regroup, it’s so much simpler to just empty the pots and put them away, rather than having to close down a big garden. Do some research, find some solutions, and come back refreshed to try again!
Share your struggles and triumphs in the comments—and best wishes!!
By Erica Smith, Montgomery County Master Gardener. Read more posts by Erica.
2026 is Grow It Eat It’s Year of Container Gardening! Growing in containers (pots, planters, boxes, bags, etc.) is one of the best approaches for vegetable gardening beginners. It’s also a terrific way to sneak in a few more plants even if you already have a garden. The key word in container gardening is flexibility. Nearly everyone can find a place where they live to grow something edible in a container.
Container plants on my deck
Maybe you live in an apartment, but have a balcony or patio, or even just a sunny window. You might have a small backyard with no room for planting, but you’ve got a deck, or a spot on a driveway or other paved area. Some people even put containers on an accessible rooftop! (Make sure it can support the weight of multiple pots full of soil if you’re going this route.)
The other big advantage of growing in containers is that you control the soil mixture. Don’t use soil directly out of the ground for containers; it’s too dense and will be full of bugs and weed seeds. You can buy potting soil at any garden center or big box store, or if you’re ambitious you can buy the ingredients and mix your own to order. Different plants may prefer different combinations of peat or coir plus compost, perlite or vermiculite, or other materials. Commercial potting mixes are usually pretty good for all common garden plants, though.
Because you’re not adding weed seeds to your growing mix, you will barely need to weed your containers, which is a great advantage. Pest problems may be lessened as well.
There are some basic rules to follow when growing in containers:
Use the sun. Most edible garden plants require plenty of sunshine. Find the sunny spots in your growing area and place your pots there. If you don’t have a spot with more than six hours of sun available, you should still be able to grow some spring crops like peas or spinach (especially if the lack of summer sun is explained by trees that don’t leaf out until late spring), and lettuce grows well in only a few hours of direct sun or indirect light all day. But look around! Maybe you have a sunny location you hadn’t considered.
Fertilize. Container plants need nutrients, and they will only find them in potting soils for a short while. Establish a regular feeding schedule according to package directions, and stick to it.
Water. This is very important! Plant roots dry out much faster in containers than in in-ground or raised bed gardens. Rain doesn’t always reach the soil through the leaves of plants. Check the soil regularly to see if it’s moist, and if not, give your plants a drink. On hot summer days, you may need to water daily or even more than once a day. If you go away, arrange for someone else to keep your container garden watered.
The other important rule is to use appropriate containers. They should be food-safe (designed to hold edible crops), well-drained (make sure they have holes in the bottom and are not sitting in a saucer unless you’re prepared to empty it), and large enough for the crop.
These containers are definitely large enough for tomatoes!
Get bigger pots than you think you’ll need. Guidelines will tell you to use a pot of at least five gallons to grow tomatoes; unless you are growing dwarf tomatoes, your plants will be spindly and minimally productive in that size of container. For an indeterminate tomato plant, ten gallons would be better. Grow eggplants or peppers in those five-gallon pots.
A variety of container types in a trial garden
Where do you find these containers? You don’t necessarily have to spend tons of money. Check discount stores; join freecycle/buy-nothing groups; source five-gallon food-grade buckets from restaurants and grocery stores. If you’re handy, you can build your own salad table or planter out of wood. Fabric growing bags are another great low-cost option; many online gardening retailers and garden centers stock them.
What plants can you grow in containers? Just about anything, if the container is big enough. You may want to seek out vegetable varieties that are bred specifically for growing in small spaces.
Start a new adventure this year! We’ll post more about specific container plants, techniques and methods, and solving problems as the year goes on.
By Erica Smith, Montgomery County Master Gardener. Read more posts by Erica.
Boxwoods have graced gardens for thousands of years and become part of our holiday traditions. Native to Europe and Asia, boxwoods were used in Egyptian gardens as early as 4,000 BC. Ancient Romans and Greeks used the fine-grained wood to carve intricate combs, utensils, flutes, and, yes, boxes.
Boxwoods came to the Americas in the 1600s with European colonists. Today boxwood joins holly as an evergreen symbol of the holidays. What better way to honor its rich tradition than creating your own tabletop boxwood tree. It’s easier than you think.
You’ll need:
boxwood cuttings
pruners
floral foam block (the kind that absorbs water)
a knife
shallow waterproof container (which fits the end of the foam block snugly)
wire or floral picks
Your choice of decorations
Instructions:
When you’re ready to go, assemble all your supplies on a waterproof surface.
Soak your floral foam in a bucket for a few hours to a day before you make your tree.
Use your pruners to fill a bucket with boxwood cuttings, resting their stems in a few inches of water. When you make your tree, you’ll re-cut those stems into four- to six-inch lengths.
Cut your boxwood the day before you make your tree to let the cut stems drink heavily. And yes, I said the stems, not you! Okay, a little cider is fine. Or mulled wine!
No – you aren’t harming your boxwoods by pruning them now. A late fall or winter pruning helps to shape them for next year. Just go easy, cutting no more than a third of the plant.
Cut the sides of one end of a block of floral foam at an angle to create a tree shape, leaving a flat top at the peak. Put the wider uncut side of the floral foam into your container.
Starting at the bottom, push cut boxwood stems into the foam in a circle around the base. Work your way up the foam, using shorter pieces as you go. Some find it easier to establish the base and top, then fill in.
Push stems into the foam only once. Moving them damages the foam. Stripping off some leaves at the base of stems helps them to go in more easily.
Tip: Stand back often as you work to look at the shape. Perfection is overrated, but it should have an overall tree shape. Fill in any gaps. When you’re done, no green foam should show.
Voila! You’ve just made your first boxwood tree.
Now comes the fun part: decorating it!
Use floral picks or wire to attach ribbons and bows, pinecones and picks, balls, beads, birds, or other baubles. My last tree wore vintage lace, star anise, berries, and strands of pearls. When you’re done – and smiling, no doubt – water your boxwood tree. Put your finger in the container and slowly water from the top until you feel water on your finger. A well-watered tree can last for a month or two.
Holiday boxwood trees are unique, long-lasting holiday decorations.
I tip my hat to Master Gardener Dusty Graham for teaching me how to make boxwood trees, so I could now teach you. Thanks, Dusty!
I hope you’ll try your hand at making a boxwood tree or two. They add elegance to your holiday home and make wonderful gifts.
By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. Read more by Annette.
This Christmas cactus may be struggling to bloom due its location in the home with lower light conditions. Photo: Ask Extension, UMD HGIC.
Q: This year, I am again having problems with the flowers on my Christmas Cactus. The plant gets an abundance of flower buds, but most of the ones that flower do not flower completely. Many partially flower, but then start drooping before fully blooming and opening. Also, many of the buds fall off before blooming. I am careful not overwater, and the plant is in a window facing the east.
A: It can be difficult to know for sure what is causing the symptoms, but possibilities include low ambient humidity (these cacti are native to jungle environments, where they grow as epiphytes on the trees like orchids do), temperature fluctuations, under-watering, and possibly exposure to ethylene gas, which can come from a group of ripe fruit and leaks in gas appliances.
When watering, make sure the potting mix is thoroughly rehydrated, and excess water freely drains out of the bottom drain holes. To boost humidity, consider using a humidifier (misting foliage will not be effective).
An east-facing window doesn’t give the plant much light (especially this time of year and if the plant isn’t directly in front of the pane), so if you have an option to grow it in a west- or south-facing window, that may help with growth and vigor overall, even if it may not change much with regards to flower bud dropping. In fact, that may need to wait until after the flowering period, as Iowa State notes that “to avoid flower bud drop, do not move the plant during flower bud development,” though it can be moved once flowers are opening. Michigan State mentions a couple of other causes, such as exposing the plant to light that interrupts its required 13 hours of darkness (a seasonal trigger for flowering) and exposing the plant to temperature swings (drafts), particularly below about 50 degrees. The linked page has more details about the darkness period.
Heavy blooms are a hallmark of Christmas cactus and its cousin, the Thanksgiving cactus. Photo credit: Washington County Master Gardener Wilma Holdway.
By Miri Talabac, Horticulturist, University of Maryland Extension Home & Garden Information Center. Miri writes the Garden Q&A for The Baltimore Sun and Washington Gardener Magazine. Read more by Miri.
