By Calvin Finch
Guest Columnist
 
Now that we have had several freezes in many San Antonio neighborhoods, you can make decisions about when and how far you are going to cut back your top killed plants.

There is no rush; in fact, there are several arguments to delay the cutback:

For one, we may have more freezes and the dead areas that eventually need to be cutback will expand.

If you prefer to only prune back the plants once, it is better to wait until early spring when the danger of a freeze has passed.

Also, if one of your goals is to preserve as much wood as possible, leaving the tops in tact until the last freeze date may contribute to that goal.

Any stems and branches that remain in place help reduce the susceptibility of the unkilled wood to further freeze damage.

In addition, the freeze-killed stems provide cover and habitat for ground feeding and low feeding birds.

A meticulously trimmed shrub border is less inviting to wintering birds than one with more stems and tangles.

When you do decide to prune back the freeze-killed tops, you can cut to live wood or cut to ground level.

Quite often in plants like esperanza, plumbago, cape honeysuckle, Turks Cap or poinciana, some, but not all, wood is damaged.

Lantanas, mallow hibiscus and four o’clocks are more likely to be pruned at ground level.

In the vegetable garden, plant your spinach, broccoli and cabbage transplants for spring production.

Late in the month, potatoes should be planted.

The usual way is to dig a trench 8 to 12 inches deep and lay a portion of a seed potato in the trench every 2 feet.

The seed-potato piece should be one quarter of a large potato or a whole seed potato if it is small. Each piece should have at least one eye.

Cover the potatoes with soil and then add soil as the growing tip emerges. If you have enough soil, hill the soil up on the plant.

Red potatoes work best. Call around to area nurseries to find a seed source. Grocery store potatoes work if they have started to sprout.

Keep your onions and greens well fertilized with 19-5-9 or a similar formula lawn fertilizer. Control cabbage loopers with Bt or Spinosad.

If you have chilled tulip bulbs, plant them early in the month.

The paperwhites should bloom in January. They are desirable, because they bloom so early and the deer do not eat them.

Deer usually do not eat larkspurs either. The seedlings should be obvious.

If you want to maximize the show in a garden setting thin the plants to a foot apart. If they are in poor soils in a vacant field they do not need to be thinned.

Larkspur seedlings and bluebonnet seedlings are often available in area nurseries during the month.

Fertilize your cemetery and Dutch iris later in the month.

The cemetery iris may begin to bloom late in the month.

Dr. Calvin R. Finch is a horticulturist and the director of water resources for the San Antonio Water System.