VOLUME 20, ISSUE 17 • April 25, 2024

Neil Sperry editor. Gretchen Drew design and circulation.

Our final e-gardens for April. I feel like I'm in an old Mazda commercial: zoom, zoom, zoom. But it's still a great time for gardening.

In this issue…
• Wintercreeper versus Asian jasmine.
• This busy weekend's tasks.
• St. Joseph's lily - a favorite.
• Diane Sitton's dish gardens.
• Our Q&A session.

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Note: This is the final (6th) printing of my book. If you've been wanting to buy it, I hope you'll do so now.

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Photo: Gold Star Esperanza might be the prettiest yellow flower ever. (That's my vote!)

Gardening This Weekend

Here's hoping you've been able to take advantage of some of the beautiful weather these past several weeks to get important gardening tasks done. Well - not wanting you to run out of goals, I'm back with a fresh set. Take a look!

Photo: 'Gold Star' Esperanza loves Texas summers.

Garden in a dish

As you could have imagined, "Dish Gardening" refers to growing plants (usually tropicals) in small pots. Diane Sitton has great suggestions.

Photo: Perfect pairing. A dappled turquoise dish accentuates the blue-green foliage of showy rosettes.

Wintercreeper versus Asian jasmine after winter

As Lynn and I left an appointment last week I saw this side-by-side comparison of Texas' two best full-sun groundcovers. I thought this might be a good time to tell you why I really prefer one over the other.

Photo: April photo of purple wintercreeper euonymus on left and Asian jasmine on right.

One of the best of the bulbs

All the great old-time gardeners grew them. And their St. Joseph's lilies are still going strong decades later. You'll find them around abandoned homesites, but you won't find them in nurseries. So I'll need to tell you about them.

Photo: Sometimes referred to as "hardy Amaryllis," St. Joseph's lilies have been in bloom across Texas the past week or two.

Q&A – Ask Neil

Crape myrtle with hail damage. Pride of Houston yaupon holly showing iron deficiency. (That's odd!) Should hackberries be removed? Buggy yuccas. Quite a diverse group of questions. Click to see my replies.

And, in closing…

I'll have something special to share with you next week here in e-gardens. Please be looking for it.

In the meantime, this will be a great weekend to shop at your favorite independent retail garden center. That's where you'll find the best in plants, products, and service.

And join me, please, on the radio live this weekend.
• Statewide on 33 stations Saturday 11:06-noon (888) 256-1080.
• KLIF 570 AM and 96.3 Saturday 1-2 pm (888) 787-5543.
• WBAP 820 AM and 93.3 FM Sunday 8-9 am (800) 288-9227.
(Podcasts of these programs will be on my website by Monday evening.)

Again, thanks for reading. And until next week…

Happy gardening!

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