Gardening This Weekend: April 17, 2025
Let me list some highlight kinds of things you might try to get done over this holiday weekend. It is, after all, a great time to be gardening.
PLANT
• Summertime color. Change out all that winter color that’s playing out as it warms up. Plant lantanas, moss rose, hybrid purslane, angelonias, fanflowers (scaevolas), gomphrenas, cleomes, amaranthus, celosias, zinnias, French marigolds, coleus, wax begonias, and a whole host of other great summer color plants. (I just typed those off the top of my head – I know there are others.) Many of those would also be great in containers. South Texas: In addition to those, it’s also warm enough to plant caladiums, vinca, and copper plants.
• Perennials. Nurseries have great supplies of summer- and fall-flowering types in pots, even some of the spring-flowering ones, too. Establishing a good perennial garden takes planning and patience. This is the best time to start.
• New turf from sod or plugs. Wait a couple of weeks to sow bermuda seed in Central and North Texas. Soils are warm enough to plant seed in South Texas.
• Nursery stock. Nurseries have their best supplies of the year, but popular types may be limited because of demand. Rather than accepting a plant type that is a second or third choice, ask how long it will be until they get your first choice back in stock. It will probably be worth the wait.
PRUNE
• Spring-flowering shrubs and vines now that they have finished blooming. Reestablish their good shape and growth form but avoid formal shearing. Let them grow naturally.
• Remove dead branches from trees and shrubs now that they are leafing out. You should be able to determine which branches have been damaged by cold. It’s best to hire a certified arborist when removing large branches from shade trees if they have become compromised.
FERTILIZE
• Unless soil test dictates otherwise, use an all-nitrogen food for all your fertilizing, whether for turf, trees and shrubs, flowers, or vegetables. 30 to 40 percent of that nitrogen should be in slow-release form. Water deeply after you fertilize.
• Apply liquid or water-soluble, high-phosphate root stimulator fertilizer to newly transplanted flowers and vegetables for several weeks after planting. Ditto for newly planted trees and shrubs monthly for their first year in your landscape.
• High-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food each time that you water patio pots and hanging baskets. Read dilution instructions and follow them closely.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Cabbage loopers on Cole crops (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts). You’ll see small white butterflies followed by green looping caterpillars that chew through the leaves until they are totally riddled. Apply Bacillus thuringiensis biological worm control. It is organic and the produce can be harvested, washed, and used the same or next day.
• Aphids are generating lots of questions and many calls. They’re always pear-shaped, but their body colors will vary depending on species from green to red, orange, black, and gray – just about any color. They will always have two antennae sticking back from their sides, and they colonize in a hurry since females can give rise to living aphids without going through the egg phase. They’re not the most harmful pests, but they do cause puckered new growth, and they can transmit diseases. They leave sticky residue in which black sooty mold will grow. Try blasting them off with a hard stream of water if you can do so without harming the new foliage. Otherwise, most organic and inorganic insecticides will eliminate them.
• Broadleafed weedkiller spray containing 2,4-D to eliminate clover, dandelions, poison ivy, honeysuckle, and other non-grassy weeds. Read and follow label directions for dependable results. Early spring grassy weeds such as rescuegrass, annual bluegrass, and ryegrass are almost through their season. They will die within the next few weeks, plus there is no spray that will safely kill them anyway.
• Folks are asking now about the black fungus on trunks of crape myrtles and a few other plants. That is sooty mold. It is harmless but unsightly. It grows in the honeydew left behind by crape myrtle bark scale last summer. To control the mold, you must control the honeydew. To control the honeydew, you must control the bark scale (and crape myrtle aphids). To control the insects, mark your calendar to apply Imidacloprid as a soil drench around the drip line of the plants in early May in South Texas, middle of May in Central and North Texas.