Gardenig in state South Carolina. Tips & Guides

Springtime color in the residential landscape is never lacking with the multitude of flowers of many species of annuals, perennials, and shrubs. However, autumn colors may be a bit more lacking in the average home garden. This is why I have included deciduous viburnums in our landscape design. Not only do many species have outstanding fall color, but most have beautiful clusters of red, blue, pink, or glossy black fruit. Additionally, for the native plant enthusiasts, there are many species of native deciduous viburnums from which to choose. Of approximately 18 deciduous species that grow well in South Carolina, six are natives.

Come for a fall stroll in the beautiful South Carolina Botanical Gardens and see what’s blooming this week.

While enjoying a slice of delicious locally-made pecan pie, I felt motivated to share with you some tips on growing and enjoying pecans. Whether you say “pee-can” or “peh-cahn,” they are one of the most nutritious nuts you can buy. Or grow for yourself!

The “Jurassic Garden” at the South Carolina Botanical Garden represents plant groups that trace their lineage back to at least the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous — a place where you can see dinosaur tracks, fossil casts, and the plants.

This year, more than ever, holiday traditions are important. One of my favorite traditions is making a centerpiece for my dining room table. Usually, this is a project I share with my grandchildren when they visit. We walk around my garden and collect attractive foliage, berries, and dried flowers.

It never fails that come March and April, the desire for many of our lawns to begin to breaking dormancy is met with the horror that the only things that seem to be green are the weeds that we have been ignoring throughout winter. This may include white clover, dandelions, chickweed, the painful lawn burweed, or so any other species. These weeds may be welcome to some homeowners as some serve as early pollen sources for pollinators, but they can also be a nuisance to others.

Can’t travel right now to see the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona? Come for a visit to the South Carolina Botanical Garden to see selection of the interesting native plants at the Chihuahuan Desert Garden Display.

Rob Last reports, “Strawberry crops are developing well; however, we are seeing gray mold phomopsis blight in some crops.  Sanitation can really help prevent botrytis from spreading as we move forward when allied to fungicide applications. Keep scouting for spider mites as there are active populations in some crops. Now is a great time of year to think about the maintenance of equipment for bed formation, cultivation for spring crops, and most important product application.”

Smilax vines go by the common names greenbrier or catbrier due to the thorns covering their stems. There are 300 to 350 smilax species worldwide. Approximately twenty-four species are native to North America, with fifteen species growing in South Carolina. Smilax grows well in moist shade and is an important food source and habitat for wildlife, including birds, rabbits, and deer.

It’s camellia time at the South Carolina Botanical Garden!

Daffodils are in bloom all over South Carolina and spring is almost here! Daffodils and Narcissus are the same plant. Narcissus is the scientific name given to the genus of plants commonly called daffodils.

A winter’s day walk in the South Carolina Botanical Garden. Walk quietly and softly, and you’ll be amazed at what you see.

The spring migration of ruby-throated hummingbirds from their tropical winter homes to South Carolina gardens is a highly anticipated event. These jeweled visitors usually arrive in mid-March; therefore, it is important to put up hummingbird feeders by around March 15. Nothing is more exciting than spotting the first arrivals.

Every spring, all over in South Carolina, we see yards, abandoned lots, natural areas, roadsides, and, in some cases, forests filled with white flowers. These first white flowers of the year are nearly all from the Callery pear tree (Pyrus calleryana). This tree is native to China, and while they may look the same, many of the trees planted in yards, around businesses, and in other managed landscapes across South Carolina are cultivars of P. calleryana. One of the most common cultivars is the Bradford pear. For more information on Bradford pears, see HGIC 1006, Bradford Pear. Bradford pears, by themselves, cannot produce viable seed. But, if pollen from a different flowering pear cultivar (or a wild Callery pear) pollinates a Bradford pear flower, then viable seed can be produced. The fruit are often eaten by birds, and birds doing what birds do (hint: they poop), spread the seeds across the land. When these new plants grow, they’re now Callery pears, the wild relative of Bradford and other cultivated varieties of Pyrus calleryana.

Come for a stroll in the beautiful South Carolina Botanical Garden.

In springtime, the deciduous woodlands around us are beginning to awaken as the delicate flowers of spring ephemerals pierce the blanket of leaf litter. Most of these woodland plants are found in areas with rich, humusy soil and layer of deep leaf litter; they flower when the leaves are off the trees and light reaches the forest floor in spring. These diminutive plants are beautiful, but beyond this, they provide critical support for newly emerging spring bees. As temperatures warm, native solitary bees visit bloodroot, trout lily, spring beauty, Virginia bluebells, and other spring flowers to collect pollen or sip nectar. Some of these bees have a close or exclusive relationship with specific flowers, a fact recognized in their names: trout lily bee (Andrena erythronii) or the spring beauty bee(Andrena erigeniae). Trout lily bees visit more than just trout lily, but the latter relies exclusively on the pink pollen provided by spring beauty to provision their nests. However, many other bees visit this spring beauty too. In fact, 58 species of bees have been reported as visitors to this tiny pink flower. Similarly, bloodroot, trout lilies, and Virginia bluebells are visited by a diversity of bees, including bumblebees (Bombus spp.), little carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.), halictid bees (Halictus spp., Lasioglossum spp.), and mason bees (Osmia spp.). Clearly, these spring ephemerals are of considerable importance to the survival of many spring bee species, a fact we rarely consider when we admire their flowers.

March brings springtime, and with the warmer temperatures, vibrant colors in the landscape like the lawn. Many lawns in South Carolina are warm season, like bermudagrass, centipedegrass, and zoysiagrass, which will start to transition from a tannish-brown color to a new green color. But while we may get excited when the grass starts to green-up again in the spring, there are some instances where springtime diseases can create patches of persistent off-color turf.

What’s blooming at the South Carolina Botanical Garden this week.

Sweet potatoes, any way you serve them, are yummy and very nutritious. They are one thing that you can plant in the garden from April until the first of July, so you still have time to get them in the ground. I received some slips of ‘Bradshaw’ sweet potato recently and am looking forward to growing them in the garden at the Clemson Extension office. David Bradshaw was one of the most beloved professors in the Horticulture Department, and he was very involved with organic and heirloom plants at the South Carolina Botanical Garden. The sweet potato was developed from the Mahon Yam (which is really a sweet potato) by Dr. Bradshaw and given to one of my classmates who has grown it for many years, saving a few each year to grow out the slips.

Strawberry season is just around the corner in South Carolina. Having a plan to preserve fresh strawberries can mean more farm-fresh flavor year-round and less food waste. Strawberries are high acid foods and can be processed safely using a Boiling Water Canner or Atmospheric Steam Canner. For detailed information on home canning, please read HGIC 3040, Canning Foods at Home.

Native spring wildflowers are blooming throughout South Carolina.

After 17 long years, billions of cicadas are ready to emerge from the ground, and we’re going to hear about it! Cicadas are harmless insects with big, bulging eyes and see-through wings held like a roof over their large bodies. Some cicadas appear every year, some every few years, and some, like the “Brood X” cicadas, are about to emerge throughout the mid-Atlantic, appear periodically every 17 years.

A lot of attention recently has been on periodical cicadas, which are coming out of the ground after 17 years across parts of the Southeast and much of the Mid-Atlantic region. However, another insect is about to come out of the ground in South Carolina too, and this one is not just a novelty – it can completely defoliate many plants in your yard. That’s right, folks, it’s almost Japanese beetle season!

Peaches are among the most popular fruit trees for backyard gardeners, especially in the southeastern U.S. And, now that the summer is upon us, a common question from backyard gardeners is: when and how much should I irrigate my peach trees?

Including more whole foods in your diet, such as fruits and vegetables, can keep your body healthy and functioning at its best. Fruits and vegetables contain high amounts of essential nutrients like fiber, vitamins, and minerals necessary for your body’s health and maintenance. People who eat more fruits and vegetables as part of an overall healthy diet are also likely to have reduced risks for some chronic diseases.

Lily of the Nile or agapanthus (Agapanthus africanus and hybrids with this species) is a blue-flowered perennial that grows from a rhizome (fleshy root). Each rhizome sends up several shoots. Rhizomes also reproduce, so over time, a one-gallon plant of a vigorous cultivar like ‘Blue Storm’ will make a clump 2.5 feet wide. One of my large-leaved, unnamed cultivars has spread 3.5 feet in all directions.

Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’ was once touted as the perfect, sterile garden or landscape tree. It has now bred prolifically with other pear species and spread so extensively that it is now on South Carolina’s invasive plant list. Now is an excellent time to replace these pest trees with something more ecologically sound. We have several options to choose from at the South Carolina Plant Sale or visit your local nursery to find alternatives. The SCBG plant sale is online again this spring; details are here: https://www.clemson.edu/public/scbg/plant-sale/index.html

Interest in home gardening has flourished throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Clemson Extension’s Horticulture team is evaluating the best ways to meet the growing public demand for gardening knowledge.

Few insects can grab your attention like a giant stag beetle. Stag beetles are in the insect family Lucanidae. Both females and males of many Lucanid species are impressively big, but the males, with their long mouthparts that look like antlers on a stag, are amazing and intimidating. While they are also called pinching bugs by some, they are quite harmless. The males have prominent mouthparts not to bite people but rather to impress females and to push, pull, and even throw rival stag beetles away from their future mate. Think of it as two bucks fighting over a doe in the forest.

The Pomegranate, as well as the fig, are often considered some of the oldest cultivated fruits. Believed to be native to the Middle East, the Pomegranate is a fruit with an interesting history and has been grown in South Carolina for centuries. The Pomegranate, Punica granatum, is a wonderful small, deciduous tree that grows between twelve and twenty feet tall and can get just as wide depending on the part of the state it is grown.

Native grasses are an excellent choice for low-maintenance, attractive, and wildlife-friendly plants to add to your landscape. Their beauty is often more subtle than the color splashes of perennials and annuals but can add amazing depth and interest to the gardener’s palette. There are so many species of native grasses to choose from, and each one brings differing structure, texture, and color to the garden. Grasses give multi-season interest to the landscape. Perennial grasses mostly emerge in the spring and are at their peak in summer and tend to be happiest in full sun. Persistent seed heads provide structure and movement to the garden in the fall and well into the winter.

In South Carolina, it is hot in July. Whether you have been fishing for years or are just learning, the way you handle freshly caught fish is critical for quality and safety. This is especially important in the summer heat.

One of the lesser known fruits that grow well here in South Carolina, the Pineapple Guava, Acca sellowiana, is a large, evergreen shrub in the Myrtle Family, Myrtaceae. Native to South America, it is becoming more popular within the nursery trade due to its excellent ornamental features. It is a relatively fast-growing shrub with beautiful bluish-green leaves and gorgeous flowers opening this month and eventually producing unique fruits which ripen in the late summer. The undersides of the leaves have a silvery look to them, and the stems contrast this well with its brownish-orange bark. If planted in full sun, these produce an abundance of flowers in spring that have white petals and dark red stamens in the center. These shrubs make excellent additions to most landscapes and tend to have few issues once established. This is also an ideal plant along the coast due to its moderate salt tolerance and semi-tropical appearance.

The eastern Hercules beetle is one of the largest and heaviest insects in the U.S. In South Carolina, there is only one Hercules beetle species, Dynastes tityus. These insects are a type of beetle in the family Scarabaeidae – the same family as June beetles, Japanese beetles, and dung beetles.

It’s not a banana, but it is big and yellow…it’s a banana spider! These gentle arachnids are fairly common in South Carolina during mid to late summer, especially in the Lowcountry. These spiders are also called golden silk orb weavers because their large webs – which can measure several feet across – often have bright yellow silk strands alongside more common whitish silk strands. Banana spiders capture prey in the sticky silk strands and fill a valuable ecological role.

Prediabetes is a growing problem in the United States. In South Carolina alone, 31.2 percent of adults have prediabetes. Having prediabetes, or blood sugar levels higher than normal, can put you at an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Other risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes include: