VOLUME 22, ISSUE 17 • April 23, 2026

Neil Sperry editor. Gretchen Drew design and circulation.

Gardening This Weekend

Hopefully your part of Texas got a little rain this week. And the cool weather was a nice touch to boot. Now we can tackle some of the mid-spring activities I've put on our list for the next several days. Take a look and see what you think.

Photo: Mealy cup sage (Salvia farinacea) is a lovely short-lived perennial that will bloom for many months its first summer.

Doublefile viburnum puts on a spring show

Growing up in Texas, I was enchanted by the diversity of plants available in Ohio those years I lived there while finishing my two horticulture degrees from O.S.U. Viburnums are very popular, and I brought this one to our Texas landscape 35 years ago. Let me tell you about it.

Photo: Doublefile viburnum blooms each April in our Texas garden.

Gardens … they've got the blues

Blue is the most evasive of floral colors, so it’s a shade we like to add where we can. Wait ’til you see great ideas Diane Sitton has shared with us today.

Photo: Want to add blue to the garden … paint an arbor, trellis or chair.

Timing the feedings

Knowing how often to fertilize your plants and which products to use can be confusing. Or at least we make it more confusing than we need to. Let me boil it down to the simplest terms. Click through to see my suggestions.

Photo: How many kinds of plant foods will I need, and when will I need to apply them?

Q&A – Ask Neil

Can a splitting redbud be saved? How can wild violets be eliminated from Asian jasmine? How come hibiscus plants drop buds? Is there a preventive spray for chinch bugs? Why does my magnolia look so battered? See how I answered these and other questions.

And, in closing…

That's what I've put in the cart for this weekend. It's enough to keep us all busy until we meet up again next week, same time, same e-mailbox.

In the meantime, tune me in on the radio this weekend. Here's a page that has all the stations, times, phone numbers, and other pertinent information. Give me a listen - and give me a call.

Before I close down, here's a photo sent to me from Facebook from a friend who was in the control room as I started my career in radio 48 years ago at WFAA-AM. Byron Albright found it on Facebook and shared it with me. I share it with you.

Retired farmer John Henning grafted 4 linden trees together to form the famous "4-legged tree" in Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 1915. One tree died and had to be replaced, explaining why one of the legs is still smaller than the other three.

The trees grew together into a unit that created quite a talking point - until a major storm blew the top out of the tree about 10 years ago. Fearing that what little remained might fall and cause damage or injury, it was cut out. But the four legs persist to this day, and anyone from Cedar Falls can tell you exactly where the odd tree is.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. And until next time…

Happy gardening!