Joan Swenson: Readers swap secrets on sweet peas
| Tuesday, Nov 04 2008 08:53 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:20 PM
Readers have some comments and questions:
After I wrote that I wouldn’t plant tulips because of their need for colder weather than we have in Bakersfield, Francesca Sullivan wrote about warm weather tulips: “Last year I found tulips advertised at High Country Gardens that were specifically developed for warm winter areas: Tulipa clusiana. I planted some in the fall and I am including pictures of them their first spring.”
Christine writes: “I took your advice and planted my sweet pea seeds the middle part of September hoping for flowers in the spring. Then I noticed that the plants were already coming up a couple weeks later. They are growing pretty good right now although no actual flowers yet. What do I do now? Should I just leave them and hope for the best? Or should I replant some new seeds again in their place? These particular plants were facing west. The ones I planted facing south have yet to pop up. Strange, huh?”
Sweet pea seeds are planted in the fall, but will not bloom in Bakersfield until spring. What will happen in the coming months is that they’ll grow, but then slow down. They’ll look a little puny during the coldest and darkest part of winter. Then they’ll start growing like mad in January — put up your net or string trellises before they get too tall! With the rain and more sunshine, they’ll be blooming by late February/early March. I’d replant the ones that haven’t sprouted, if you planted a month ago. Keep them watered well.
As for me, I still have a lot of guilt about my sweet peas; I didn’t plant them until last week because of busy, busy weekends since September. But with the warm weather, they may do OK.
Cheryl writes: “What can I plant in my raised bed for fall/winter crops? We just pulled the last of the tomatoes/zucchini/yellow squash plants out and need to know what to plant next.
Would you provide a list of the best veggies to plant and when, in Bakersfield?”
Right now you can plant sugar snap, English or Asian peas, carrots, radishes, leaf lettuces and beets from seeds. You can buy transplants in nurseries for any of the cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale, but not brussels sprouts because of the winter cold in Bakersfield). You may plant onions from little “sets,” which are just tiny onions that will grow into big ones, although some nurseries have transplants in pony packs. Pretty soon, the bare root season will begin and you may plant strawberries and other types of berries as well as artichokes and asparagus.
From Caroline: “I have a rosemary bush that has been in front of my den window for 17 years, growing up from a tiny little transplant to about 3 feet tall (kept trimmed at that height) and probably 3 feet wide. I was gone for a week and came back to see sections of the plant totally brown and dead. Part of it was still healthy looking and these dead brown sections were, well, obviously dead! My gardener and I decided to cut out the brown, dead sections and see what happens. It faces southeast, protected by the garage on the west side and the house on its north side. It did beautifully and this disease or whatever came on suddenly. I’ve looked this up in several garden books and can’t find anything on it. So far, it doesn’t look very promising that the dead parts are going to come back, though the parts that were healthy are still healthy. Any thoughts?
Eventually what happens with some rosemary bushes is that they become overly woody and experience die back and need cleaning out, as you have done. That section may or may not regenerate; it may be time to remove it and put in a new shrub. However, 17 years is pretty good service from your rosemary.
