VOLUME 20, ISSUE 13 • March 28, 2024

Neil Sperry editor. Gretchen Drew design and circulation.

With a big holiday weekend ahead, happy Easter to all of the Christian faith. May you have a blessed time with your loved ones. To everyone else, have a spectacular weekend.

In this issue…
I've worked really hard on e-gardens this week.
• The facts on Easter lilies
• Gardening tasks to accomplish
• Maybe our best full-sun groundcover
• Diane Sitton's hanging out with gnomes, and
• Your questions and my answers, always exciting.

NEIL SPERRY'S LONE STAR GARDENING
The most book $34.95 will ever bring you

• Covers every aspect of lawns and landscaping, fruit, flower and vegetable gardening for every county in Texas.
• 344 pages and 840 of my photos on high-quality paper in a hardback book that was printed in Texas.
• I was at every press check to be sure it was all perfect.
• I sign every copy as it sells and I guarantee your success or I'll refund every penny. (No one has asked for a refund yet.)

Note: Book is not on Amazon and not in bookstores. Buy it directly from my office or my website:

Click for MY WEBSITE
Or call my office M-F 9-5
(800) 752-4769
(Office closed Fri., Mar. 29,
for Good Friday)

Photo: Landscapes are "packages" to be viewed in their entirety. This is the Sperry hillside, up toward the county road.

Gardening This Weekend

The last weekend of March means it's prime time for gardening across Texas. Nurseries are filled to their fences - many even beyond. Most days the weather is grand. Let's outline the things you really don't want to miss getting done.

Photo: Angelonias like 'Blue Bicolor' have really hit the big time for summer color.

Gnomes

Diane Sitton has been talking to the garden gnomes, and she reports on their many stories.

Photo: It's no wonder gnomes pull their hats over their eyes to protect them from sunlight. According to legend, they live in burrows and only come out at night.

The Low-down on Easter Lilies

Wanna go into the greenhouse business? Wanna pull out your hair and maybe go to the poorhouse? Grow Easter lilies. These babies are rough. Part of it makes sense, and part of it's just crazy. All this about a plant that's supposed to symbolize peace of the season. Let's talk.

Photo: Beauty of Easter lilies belies their true challenges.

Little Garden Tip: Wintercreeper

Purple wintercreeper euonymus has become my go-to groundcover in many different landscape settings, and I'll tell you why.

Photo: Summer and winter looks of purple wintercreeper euonymus in Sperry home landscape could not be more different.

Q&A
Ask Neil

This week you've brought us a speedy lily that's broken fast out of the ground, a gnarly crape myrtle that looks like it's being shredded, a couple of unhappy magnolias, and a sapsucker that's giving a big old live oak ongoing fits. I'll answer all those and others.

And, in closing…

That wraps up another e-gardens. I'm already setting ideas aside for next week. It should be fun.

Radio you ask? I'll be doing my three programs live Saturday and Sunday and still make it to church:

• Lawn and Garden Hour: Saturday 11:06-noon. That program airs on more than 30 stations statewide. Call me there (888) 256-1080.

• Neil Sperry's Texas Gardening: Saturday afternoon 1-2. I'll be on KLIF at 570 on the AM dial, and I can be reached live at (888) 787-5543.

• Neil Sperry's Texas Gardening: Sunday morning 8-9 at WBAP 820 on the AM dial and 93.3 on the FM dial. My number there is (800) 288-9227.

Podcasts of my radio programs are available on my website.

Have a wonderful Easter. Join me on my website. I'd love to have you join me on all my radio broadcasts. Join us at church if you're nearby and don't have a church of your own (or via live stream from the church website). And be kind to one another.

Until next week,

Happy gardening!

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