Garden Detective: Pruning, propagating a yucca
When pruning a yucca, don't discard the removed portion of the canes If you want to propagate more plants. Credit: iStock
If you want to propagate more plants, don't discard the removed portion of the canes. Just replant them, cut-side-down in potting mix and cut off the leaf portion at the top. Water. New roots will grow, and leaves will follow.
White irises typically are stronger than colored ones, and when planted in a bed with other-colored irises, they may choke them out. It's possible your colored irises simply were out-competed, leaving you with a bed of white and the impression that the colored ones have changed.
Irises produce seeds, which drop into the soil and grow into new plants if left undisturbed. The irises that grow from these seeds are not always the same as their parents, so it's also possible you moved some newer seedlings. Or maybe they had already choked out the colored irises when you moved the bunch, but you didn't notice because they weren't in bloom at the time.
You say the original bed contained "various colors of irises." Is it possible you only dug up and relocated the white ones?
After Joyce and John Chanda lost their Massapequa home during superstorm Sandy, the couple relocated to an apartment in Holbrook. John and their son, Justin, have always had "an obsession with gardening, especially, tomatoes," Joyce said, but after leaving their garden behind, "we thought this enjoyment was over."
But the family wouldn't give up its love of gardening: The Chandas forged a small 4-foot-square tomato garden behind their new apartment, and Justin, who now lives in a fourth-floor apartment in Brooklyn, grows tomatoes on the roof. The take-away? "You can fulfill your passion and attain joy with a little hard work and imagination," Joyce said. We're looking forward to meeting the Chandas at this year's Great Long Island Tomato Challenge.
Are you in? This year's contest will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 23 at Newsday headquarters (235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville). Bring your biggest, heaviest, ripe homegrown tomato, and Garden Detective Jessica Damiano will weigh it and crown the 2013 Tomato King or Queen.
In the meantime, send a photo of yourself with your tomato plants, along with details about your growing strategy, to jessica.damiano@newsday.com.
