Herself’s Houston Garden

Back in Boston I had a quince that came with our home outside my office window. It was the first plant to flower every spring and my favorite.

Last fall I found a Cameo Quince and put it outside my office window down here in Houston. It was the first plant to bloom in the garden this year.

We are really at the lower edge of where it will grow ( zone 5a-8b ) and I’m not sure how well it will do in the summer but I couldn’t resist giving it a try.

This quince is planted in part shade but it will do well in full sun.

Chaenomeles cameo quince does not have the thorns many other quinces do.

In a cold winter quince will drop its leaves, this one retained its leaves all winter.

Watering needs are average.

Needs little pruning to keep its shape. Quince will reach about 5′ tall by 6′ wide.

Quince was a staple in Victorian gardens. The fruit must be cooked before eating. It was commonly baked in pies that are similar to apple pies.

Today I went to a talk given by the owner of Pineywoods Nursery on fruit and nut trees and attracting wildlife. Perfect timing as January is when most of the local fruit and nut tree sales take place and after the great freeze of twenty-ten you’ve probably got a few bare spots to fill in the garden.

While Tree Search Farms is a wholesale only tree seller, I’m told the website is an excellent source of information about local fruit trees. Anything they sell does well here.

Useful things I learned at this talk:
If your fruit tree isn’t fruiting it is usually because winter wasn’t cold enough or you don’t have enough pollinators. To attract bees plant various cupheas (Bat faced cuphea, Cuphea ignea, Mexican Heather ) around your fruit trees.

Fruit trees should be heavily pruned, but are easily infected, use sterile tools.

Tips for proper tree planting in Houston

PineyWoods recommends these fruit trees for the Houston area:
PawPaw – fruit is similar to bananas, spoils rapidly, fruit is high theft item from local critters, you’ll need to be quick

Mexican Plum ( prunus Mexicana ) great for dry areas

Chinkapin (Castanea pumila ) Chestnut tree, grows slowly but very tall

Mayhaw (Crataegus opaca) Hawthorne, loves damp areas

Darrows Blueberry ( Baccinium darrowii) stays compact, good foundation plant, need male and female plants to get berries.

Black Cherry ( Prunus serotina) Tall tree, interesting bark

Grapes ( Ison muscadine ) build a very strong trellis first

Mexican Thornless lime- only hybridized limes grow in Houston, this plant is good for pots

Improved Meyers Lemon – best lemon for Houston area

Republic of Texas Orange – only good orange for the Houston area

Rio Red Grapefruit

Blood Oranges

Celeste fig, brown turkey is best

Beauty Plums – need multiple varieties to produce

Red Barron Peaches

Dorsett Golden Apples

Housi Pear

Fuyu persimmons – a great wildlife attractor if you don’t like persimmons

Garnet Pomegranate

Jan 16th
9 am – 2pm Sale/ 730-2pm Symposium
Fruit and Nut Sale ( pdf flyer ) 3033 Bear Creek Drive, Houston.

Jan 23
Program 8-9, Sale 9-1pm
Fruit and Nut Tree Sale Montgomery County Master Gardeners

And if you miss the sales, just drop by Pineywoods Nursery they have plenty of fruit trees for sale.

* Note: When your fruit tree comes back from the great freeze, be sure it’s your fruit tree and not a Flying Dragon which is the root stock most of our fruit trees are grafted to. Flying Dragon is curvy with large thorns, remove immediately or you’ll be sorry.

The Texas Master Gardener Certification Classes begin January 28th, at the Harris County AgriLife Extension office at 3033 Bear Creek Drive. The classes are a great way to increase your knowledge, and meet others with a shared love of gardening.

Master Gardener classes are taught by Texas AgriLife Extension Service specialists, staff and other local experts. Topics include lawn care; ornamental trees and shrubs; insect, disease and weed management; soils and plant nutrition; vegetable gardening; home fruit production; garden flowers; and water conservation.

For more information visit Harris County Master Gardeners or contact David Parish at 281-855-5600.

It’s only just begun.

First came the December freeze. All the tropicals lost their leaves. There’s so many of them that the garden smelled like rotting lettuce for a week. ( I’m pretty sure that didn’t win me points with the neighbors. )

The yellow and black bamboos lost their leaves and wilted, the greens are holding up so far.

The gingers have died back to the ground to await warmer weather.

The younger cactus have wilted, the older cactus have blackened tips.

Surprising to me the mother-in-laws tongues have help up well, I ‘ll plant more of them come spring.

This week lows will be in the twenties. For a light freeze covering your plants with fabric, then plastic helps, at 20′F that’s not going to do much.

Do not cut your plants back. I know they look bad, but if you cut them back they’ll try to grow on warmer days and the new growth will die back on the next cold night. Be patient, wait till spring to cut your plant back and more of them will survive the winter.

It’s been rainy so no need to water.

Adding mulch never hurts, or layers of newspaper. Plastic can not be touching the plant to do any good. Put paper or fabric between the plant and the plastic.

Large rocks in the sun heat up and stay warm a little way into the night, plants near rocks, and stone walls will have better protection.

In the spring the strong plants will still be here, in place or rebuilding themselves from the ground up. Let nature decide what plants should be in your garden. Come spring, replant the lost ones with something new.

The climate usually gives us a couple decades of warm weather, then a couple decades of cold weather. It’s too soon to tell if this is just a bad winter or whether we are returning to the colder winters of the 1980s. But I’m thinking I’ll be planting less tropicals come spring.