Herself’s Houston Garden

How can you not love a plant with a name like tetrastigma? Tetra refers to the 5 fingered leaves, the stigma I’m sure time will tell.

I first saw this plant growing in a nursery greenhouse back in Massachusetts. It grew all along the ceiling and had the most wonderful 2′ long tendrils that reached down as if to nab you.

The leaves are dark green and shiny on top, and soft and fuzzy underneath. Leaf size I’m told can reach 12″, I’ve never seen it more than 4″.

I tried growing it as a house plant with little success. It just couldn’t handle the low humidity in the house.

In a last ditch attempt to save it I placed it outside last fall. And while it hibernated and dropped some leaves over the winter, it did come through and started to grow again the beginning of March.

I have one planted in shade with little dappled sun, and one in dappled sun for most of the afternoon. Both are planted in very dry areas of the garden, both are happy. All accounts report this plant loves frequent waterings so it should do well in damper areas as well.

These plants are heavy feeders, notice the discoloration on the leaves? Despite frequent feedings they are begging for more.

This plant is native to Vietnam.

Like most vines, propagation is by cutting. The nursery where I originally purchased this plant told me that they had very limited success with cuttings and propagation. I haven’t tried yet, the plants are not large enough to take cuttings.

There is little information on this plant in my books, as I learn more I’ll post it.

If you don’t have time to take to go hear our local Master Gardener’s, you can see many of the lectures from the comfort of your home now.  The University of California has taped and made many of their Master Gardener Lectures available online at You Tube.

Plant Disease Part I
Plant Disease Part II

Home vegetable gardening part I
Home vegetable gardening part II

Intro to Entomology Part I
Intro to Entomology Part II

Integrated Pest Management Part I
Integrated Pest Management Part II

Principles of Vertebrate Pest Control Part I
Principles of Vertebrate Pest Control Part II

The Home Orchard Part I
The Home Orchard Part II

Turfgrass Management Part I
Turfgrass Management Part II

Planting and Care of Landscape Trees Part I
Planting and Care of Landscape Trees Part II

Weed Management Part I
Weed Management Part II

Understanding Pesticides Part I
Understanding Pesticides Part II

Irrigation and water control

Fruit trees need frequent proper pruning to reach their full potential.  You’ll want to spend some time once a year, after the fruit finishes and before the new buds appear to give your tree a serious pruning, but don’t let water spouts or crossing branches stay when you find them.

Remember when pruning to step back and circle the fruit tree frequently to see how it looks while you are working.  You want a slighly domed shaped top, and the bottom should look like a steep bowl.

1) Remove water spouts.  Water spouts are branches that grow at 90′ angles to the branch they stem from. They will take all of the nutrients and water away from the rest of the branch if you let them grow.

2) Remove all branches that bend down toward the ground.  Your branches should curve or reach up not down.

3) Remove all branches that cross another branch.  On windy days those crossing branches will rub each other.  This causes breaks in the bark where insects, fungus and bacteria can enter and harm your tree.

4) Thin branches so that sunlight reaches deep into the tree.  Fruit trees especially need lots of sun to grow well and remain healthy.

5) Shape the top just for appearace, cut back to the beginning any branches that stick out too far from the rest.

The branches you remove can be used to propagate new trees.  Cut the branches so that only 3 sets of leaves remain.  Remove the bottom set of leaves.  Dip the bottom of the branch in rooting hormone.  Plant in light soil and keep warm, moist and humid until new growth appears.  Then treat as you would any other young tree.

While scale has always been a problem with the indoor orchids I grow it has only recently become an outdoor problem for me. Last Jan Tea scale made an appearance. I never liked those shrubs anyhow.

This winter I’ve been battling it on both of my magnolias. I am testing a systematic pesticide which goes strongly against my use of nonharmful pesticides, but I really don’t want to lose these trees and nothing else has worked so far.

While researching scale treatments I ran across Scale insects which is a site from the Systematic Entomology Lab, USDA which helps you to identify which type of scale you have by photo. Once you’ve identified your enemy, you can learn all about them. ( Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer as it were ).

The proper way to keep scale off your magnolias is to spray your magnolias, especially new leaves, in the spring with insecticidial oils. This is a much more environmentally friendly preventative treatment and one I have done most years. It’ll be done again this spring.