Category: Plants

Citrus trees need the warm climate of Florida, California, and portions of Texas, Arizona, and the Gulf coastal strip to ripen the fruit properly. Even in those areas, it is often necessary in winter to bank soil around the trunks or to wrap the trunks with insulating material such as layers of newspaper. Sour orange (Citrus aurantium) and mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata), the most hardy, can survive temperatures of 24°F Citrus trees do best in well-drained loam and in full sun.

Buy budded stock from a local nursery to ensure its hardiness and to avoid varieties locally subject to disease. Plant trees during their winter dormancy, usually February.

Climbing plants can attractively fill vertical spaces in your home. Use them to divide a room, curtain a window, cover an expanse of wall, or frame a door. Most flowering climbers, such as passion flowers, bougainvilleas, stephanotis, and black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata), need full sun or bright light. A few plants grown for their foliage, such as creeping fig, ivy, and philodendron, do well with limited light.

Cold frames and hotbeds are similar; both are glass-covered wooden boxes set over the ground. Both protect plants from frost, wind, and cold weather. A hotbed has an electric heating cable buried in its soil, extending its usage even further.

Seeds can be started and seedlings planted in a frame several weeks before garden planting is possible. Lettuce, radishes, spinach, and scallions can be grown in frames for an additional month to 6 weeks in fail.

A frame should be 1 to 2 feet high in front and 2 to 3 feet in back, producing a sloping top that maximizes the sun’s warmth. If possible, locate a frame facing south.