Things To Do This Weekend

Gardeners can add flair to their landscapes by planting sanchezia shrubs now. Native to Tropical America, sanchezia (S. speciosa, formerly S. nobilis) is an evergreen, woody shrub that grows 10 feet tall if left unpruned. This flamboyant plant bears tubular yellow flowers that spill out of brick-red bracts throughout the warm season. The large, glossy foliage of sanchezia is also striking, with a bright-green background sectioned by yellow veins and edges. Sanchezia thrives on organically enriched, mulched sites in fll sun or bright, dappled light. Plants on unimproved sites, however, may struggle.

Because sanchezia is sensitive to low temperatures, it should be planted on the east or south sides of buildings, where winter winds will be deflected.

A light tree canopy will also provide protection on cold nights.

Sanchezia is easily propagated by warm-season cuttings.

Sanchezia parvibracteata is a slightly smaller, variegated shrub with clusters of yellow-and-red tubular flowers. Its requirements are identical to Sanchezia speciosa.

Fertilizer Lore

Have you recently given your garden its spring fertilization?

To many folks, fertilizer is a mysterious blend of chemicals they think of as plant food. But plants make their own food by using sunshine to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar and starches.

What fertilizers do is supply vital mineral nutrients that the soils in our gardens may provide in insufficient quantity or in forms that plant roots can't utilize.

Macronutrients include the famed NPK - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - as well as magnesium, calcium and sulfur. The micronutrients plants require are boron, copper, chloride, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc. Chloride is found in the soil and is not a component of fertilizers. Calcium, too, is present in adequate quantities in most but not all soils.

But many fertilizers are markedly incomplete, even those with labels proclaiming they contain micronutrients. The majority of these offer only some micronutrients, typically iron and zinc, and limit macronutrients to NPK and magnesium.

It pays to read labels.

Dwarf Ginkgos

If you want something different for your spring garden, plant a ginkgo tree.

Ginkgo species flourished worldwide 200 million years ago but gradually disappeared until only one species remained-Ginkgo biloba.

This primitive, deciduous tree from China has attractive fan-shaped leaves reminiscent of maidenhair ferns. In nature, ginkgos can grow 120 feet tall with some trees displaying upright growth and others having weeping branches.

Fortunately, several dwarf varieties of ginkgo are available, so plant lovers can enjoy this unusual tree in containers or as in-ground specimens in the smallest gardens.

These dwarfs grow in full or part sun and, although they're often listed as suitable only down to Zone Eight, most do well in Polk, which is Zone Nine.

"Spring Grove" is available from Wayside Gardens by calling 800-845-1124 or visiting www.waysidegardens.com.

Klehm's Song Sparrow nursery offers "Majestic Butterfly" and "Mariken." Call 800-553-3715 or visit www.songsparrow.com.

Charles Reynolds, a Winter Haven resident, has an associate's degree in horticulture and is a member of the Garden Writers Association of America.