Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan and New Year’s Eve! For our customers’ convenience, both Payne’s stores will be open 7 days a week until Christmas Day.

This is a month in which snow and ice can make driveways and paths treacherous. Prevent salt damage to plants and trees by using only environmentally friendly salts, kitty litter, plant fertilizer, or sand on icy walks and driveways.

Now here’s what to DO in your Northern New Mexico garden in December. (Many thanks to various County Agricultural Extension Services, to Charlie Nardozzi, Horticulturist, of the National Gardening Association, and to Dr. Leonard Perry of the University of Vermont Extension Department of Plant and Soil Science, for some of the material in the sections that follow.)

Housplants & Tropicals

To find the poinsettia that will last the longest in your home, check the little yellow flowers in the middle of the colored bracts. In the freshest plants, the flowers will be closed. (If beads of translucent gel well up from the teeny yellow flowers, don’t panic; it’s just the plant’s nectar, which in the wild it uses to attract pollinators. Go ahead and touch the gel and taste it. It is sweet, like a mild honey.)

Keep poinsettias and Christmas cacti away from both heat sources and cold drafts near doors and windows, and let their soil surface dry slightly between waterings. These plants prefer 65-70ºF temperatures during the day, and 55-60ºF temps at night. Keep them in bright natural light whenever possible, and never permit them to stand in water for more than an hour. For more poinsettia care information, click here.

In addition to poinsettias, azaleas, cyclamens, Christmas cacti, kalanchoes  are in big demand this time of year, so come in soon to get the best selection.

When considering a houseplant as a gift for a home or office, consider the environment there. Flowering plants do best in locations with strong light; foliage plants work better elsewhere. Cyclamens and azaleas like bright light and coolish rooms. Terraria, potted cacti, and hanging plants also made great holiday gifts.

Some other tips:

(1) Avoid cold injury to the potted plants by asking Payne’s to wrap them well for the trip from store to home.

(2) Once home, remove the foil (or punch a hole in it) to allow water to drain freely out of the bottom holes.

(3) Be sure to place holiday plants away from drafts and heat sources.

(4) Water potted plants when the top of the soil is dry to the touch.

Geraniums brought (Pelargonium) indoors this fall, may be getting a bit leggy by now. Cut them back to 1 foot tall. The longer days of later winter will stimulate them to resprout and bush out again.

Spider mites are the main foes of houseplants this month. For how to deal with them, see “December Pests and Diseases.”

Holiday Trees

Live Christmas trees in tubs should be kept indoors a maximum of 3 days and nights before they must be planted outdoors. If the soil in the chosen planting spot is frozen, boiling water or black plastic placed over the site can soften frozen ground, See "How To Plant A Tree" for further detailed instructions by clicking here.

Payne’s has a great selection of both cut and living Christmas trees and evergreen wreaths and swags. One way to determine if a cut tree is fresh, bend the needles. If they don’t snap or break, then the tree is fresh. Another way is to check the bottom of the tree for sticky plant resin. If it's there, the tree is fresh. A third way (best reserved for smaller trees) is to bounce the tree cut-end down on the ground. If it’s too dry, there will be shower of falling needles.

Caring for a cut Christmas tree:

(1) Wrap it for the ride home to keep it from drying out.

(2) Once home, put the tree’s stem in a bucket of warm water in a cool, protected place such as the garage.

(3) Just before bringing the tree indoors, cut an inch off the bottom of the trunk to allow better water absorption.

(4) Select a tree stand with a flat, broad base for extra stability.

(5) Add tree preservative (available at Payne's) to the water in the stand to keep the tree fresher longer.

(6) Check water levels daily, and replenish as needed. A fresh tree can consume up to a quart of water daily, maybe more during the first few days it is in place.

(7) If cats or toddlers are in the home, consider anchoring the tree to the wall or moldings with screw hooks and wire or fishing line to avoid disaster.

Safety tips for decorating the tree:

(1) Make sure light cords aren’t cracked or frayed. If they are, discard them—they could cause a fire.

(2) Consider spraying the tree with an antitranspirant spray to retard evaporation of water through the needles.

(3) Place holly and mistletoe (both toxic if ingested), dried flowers, pinecones, and little breakable ornaments high up on the tree where dogs and toddlers can’t get to them.

Choosing evergreen wreaths, swags and garlands for home decoration:
Balsam fir, white pine, and Colorado spruce are the best, since they dry slowly and resist needle drop. Spruce smell good, but drop needles easily. Of course, the best cut evergreens are sold at Payne's!

NOTE to people who have pets or small children: mistletoe, English ivy, and holly berries can be highly poisonous if ingested. Ingested holly berries can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Ingested mistletoe berries can cause acute stomach and intestinal disorders. Keep all such plants well out of reach of indiscriminate noshers.

Poinsettias, on the other hand, are not poisonous, according to the POINSINDEX Information Service, the main information resource for poison control centers around the country. POINSINDEX reports that even if a 50-pound child ate more than 500 poinsettia bracts — the amount tested in scientific experiments — the consequences would not be fatal. Even at this high level, no toxicity was found.

Bulbs, Corms, & Tubers

If you potted up bulbs for winter forcing, check them every few days to make sure their soil is still slightly moist. When signs of growth appear, bring them into the light and place in a cool location with indirect sun. In 7-10 days, move them into bright light to stimulate blooming. Now’s also a good time to check stored gladiolus corms and dahlia tubers for signs of spoilage. Visible mold is harmless; check for mushiness.

Potted amaryllis (Hippeastrum sp.) bulbs need to be kept in a cool (60ºF) location until the buds open. Once they open, the plant can be place anywhere.

• What to do with amaryllis after their flowers are spent? They are good for the compost heap. Alternatives include:

• Let the leaves emerge and grow.

• Keep the bulb watered and fertilized lightly through the winter (feed once a month with a standard house plant food at ½ strength).

• After all danger of frost has passed outdoors, put the bulb outdoors in a shaded spot. Don’t let it dry out. If by this time the roots have filled its pot, you may need to repot it into a container 1-2 inches larger in diameter.

• Keep watering and fertilizing throughout the summer.

• In early fall of next year, bring the bulb back indoors, and gradually decrease the watering to almost nothing until the leaves all die back.

• When the leaves have died back, let the bulb “rest” unwatered for about eight weeks in a cool dry spot.

• Resume watering, and the bulb should resprout. (It may not bloom again, however, until the following year.)

• What to do with fall bulbs that didn't get planted? Plant them now! Put potting soil in a pot and mix in 1 tablespoon of bone meal or bulb fertilizer per bulb.

• Don’t let the bulbs touch in the pots.

• Plant them three times deeper in the container than the bulbs are tall. That is, if the bulb is one inch from pointed top to flat bottom, plant the bulb in a hole 3 inches deep, with its bottom on the bottom of the hole. Narcissi and daffodils should be planted so that their pointed tops are just a little above the surface of the soil.

• Water the planted pots, then move them into an unheated garage or basement. It's OK to put them outside in a protected area (such as a straw bale cold frame), then mulching them with a thick (4 inches or more) layer of Payne’s Soil Conditioner, straw, or shredded or chipped bark.

Perennials

Start seeds of hardy perennials this month. Some, such as most seeds from plants in the daisy family, require no cold treatment to stimulate germination. Others do. The information on seed packets gives plenty of direction. (If the packet says to sow the seeds in pots and place the pots outdoors for the winter, the species needs stratification (see cold treatment above).

Pests & Diseases

Spider mites proliferate in the dry air of Northern New Mexico winters. They suck plant juices, stippling the leaves and weaving webs between branches. To check for spider mites, mist plants lightly. The droplets of water will cling to the webs, revealing them. To deal with the critters, keep the humidity in plant areas high. Use a humidifier and group all houseplants together, so that when they are watered the evaporating drops mist them.  Or place the pots in waterproof trays filled with gravel and water. Spray your infected plants daily for two weeks — both sides of the leaf — with a miticidal soap. Note: Not just any insecticidal soap will do because spider mites actually are not insects! They are tiny little crustaceans, distantly related to crabs. So make sure the insecticide’s label explicitly lists “mites” as one of the critters the product targets.

Annual herbs like sweet basil and cilantro thrive in a sunny windowsill! So do cool-weather annuals like nemesia. Payne's seeds are coming in this month (we have a few in already), so come by and see  how to satisfy cravings for winter color and fragrance!

Composting

Keep adding vegetable scraps to that compost heap!

Containers

Don’t forget to water outdoor hardy perennial containers as long as the soil is unfrozen.

Equipment

Gardening tools cleaned yet?  They will work better and last longer if so. One way: Fill a bucket with sand. Pour some all-purpose oil into the sand, mix it with a stick, and put the metal end of hoes, shovels and other tools into the oily sand repeatedly. The sand and oil will rub off any dirt adhering to the tools. When the tool is clean, wipe off the sand and hang up the tool in a dry place till spring. The bucket of oiled sand will keep indefinitely. To dispose of it properly, take it to a hazardous waste drop-off center.

Fertilizing & Mulching

Any trees, shrubs, vines, and perennials  planted this year need to be mulched as soon as the ground freezes. Straw, coarse compost (such as Payne’s Soil Conditioner), and bark chips all make good mulches, because they don’t pack down. Use gravel or stones to mulch xeric plants such as lavender, Russian sage, agastaches and penstemons. When mulching trees, leave a 2-inch gap between mulch and tree trunks to keep rodents from feeding on the tree bark undetected.

Grasses & Lawns

Don’t tread on frozen grass unless it has a couple of inches of snow over it to protect it. Otherwise, the grass may be damaged, causing dieback in the lawn next spring.

Herbs

Many people grow herbs indoors for winter use. Fancy grow lights are not required: a plain old 48” fluorescent shop light, outfitted with two 48” fluorescent bulbs, will do fine. Dwarf basil (Ocimum basilicum), chives (Allium schoenoprasum), garlic or Chinese chives (Allium tuberosum), sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana), and French thyme (Thymus vulgaris ‘French Summer’) may all be started from seed indoors, and Payne’s sells seed-starting kits and we carry small ready-to-grow herb plants. Place the lights around 3 inches from the tops of the plants, and adjust the lights as the plants grow. When harvesting the herbs for cooking, remove no more than one-fourth of their shoots so that they will retain enough leaves to continue photosynthesis.

The exception to this rule can be sweet basil. In Italy, the most common method for growing basil is to make successive sowings several weeks apart all season, and to harvest the entire tender young plant before their stems toughen up and their leaves start to lose their best scent and flavor. When sowing basil seed, be sure not to cover it with soil. Basil seed needs exposure to light for best germination.

The herbs mentioned above do not need cold treatment to sprout. However, some hardy perennial and biennial herbs, particularly dill (Anethum graveolens) and parsley (Petroselinum crispum), sprout from seed much more easily if the seed is first given a cold treatment. One way to accomplish this is to sow seeds of hardy herbs outdoors in cold frames, then leave them there all winter for the action of the natural winter cold to stratify them. The danger of this method is that the seeds will dry out and die before the warm weather comes to sprout them.the whole process can be more easily monitored indoors.  

Step-by-step cold treatment instructions:

• Use one small plastic bag, without a zipper closure, for each sort of seed to treat.

• With a permanent-ink marking pen (such as "Sharpie"), write the name of the seed on the bag, and the beginning date of the cold treatment process.

• In each bag place a tablespoon of vermiculite or sterile potting soil, followed by the seeds to be sprouted.

• Add 1 tablespoon of water, and shake or stir the contents of the bag thoroughly (the contents should be just barely moistened, not wet).

• Loosely tie the bag at the top with a metal twist-tie or piece of yarn, and place the bags in the refrigerator vegetable crisper.

• Check once a week to make sure the bag’s contents haven’t dried out, and to see if the seeds have started to sprout.

• After 30 days, whether or not the seeds have sprouted, remove the bags from the refridgerator, and spread their contents as evenly as possible onto individual trays of barely moistened, sterile potting mix (Payne’s sells a type just for seedlings).

• Sprinkle ¼” of soil over the seed, water lightly, then place the trays into untied transparent plastic bags (or cover them loosely with transparent plastic film). Then set the trays in a warm spot (70ºF), such as on top of the refrigerator or directly under a fluorescent light-unit.

• Keep the trays slightly moist until the seeds sprout. As soon as they begin to poke their heads above the surface of the potting mix, move the trays to the best available light, and keep them moist until the seedlings have grown to about ½” tall.

• Using the point of a knife, gently lift each seedling from its tray (be careful — seedling roots tear very easily) and very gently repot into a soil-filled cell pack, plug tray, or individual peat pot (Payne's sells them all). Here at the nursery, we usually plant two or three seedlings together in the same cell or pot.

• Water gently, and place the repotted seedlings into the best light available. If using fluorescents, keep the tops of the seedlings within 1 or 2 inches from the tubes, raising the light unit (or lowering the seedlings) as the herbs grow. Otherwise, the seedlings could stretch for the light and become leggy.

• Fertilize weekly with a balanced liquid or other water-soluble plant food (avoid high nitrogen, the first of the three numbers on the plant label) diluted to half strength. And never, never, never let the soil  get soaking wet—just keeping it moist is the goal.

WINTER SHRUB CARE:
Shrubs growing under the eaves of a house need to be protected from ice falling off the roof. Wrap their limbs in burlap or erect wooden teepees around them. If ice or heavy snow collects on the branches of trees and shrubs, don’t rush to stake or prune.The branches will usually straighten up on their own once the ice and snow melt, so wait until the first thaw to take action.

Vegetables & Fruits

In the days, before air fresheners, folks carried around pomanders to sniff when the air got too mephitic (i.e "stinky"). Pomanders are easy to make, and can be lovely when arranged in an open bowl or hanging from the Christmas tree over the holidays.

To make a pomander:

Items needed:
fresh oranges or limes and/or lemons
a sharp-ended bodkin or knitting needle
half-inch wide ribbon
approximately 3 ounces of whole cloves

• Lay down some newspaper and place the orange on it.

• Wind the ribbon all around the outside of the fruit so that the cut ends of the ribbon meet at the top of the fruit. Make the ribbon long enough so that there is enough extra ribbon to make a hanging-loop for the finished pomander. Then crisscross another generous portion of ribbon over the first at right angles to it, with the ends of this ribbon meeting at the top, too. If done correctly, the two ribbons will have divided the fruit into four equal exposed peel surfaces.

• Prick the orange’s exposed peel surfaces all over with the bodkin or knitting needle. Make the pricks no more than one-third of an inch apart. Don’t prick so deeply that fruit's flesh is cut, or juice will well up from the wound, making the pomander sticky.

• Into each pin-prick insert a whole clove, stem down. Push the clove in until it is flat against the surface of the fruit. Continue until the exposed surfaces of the fruit are completely studded with cloves.

• Hang the finished pomander on the tree, or arrange a bunch of them in an open bowl in a warm place. Throughout the season, they will exhale their delicate spice-and-citrus scent throughout the room. To enhance their scent, add a drop of true essential oil (available in many fragrances from Santa Fe’s natural food stores and herb shops) to each pomander.

Vines

Crafters take note! Trumpet vine (Campsis sp.) pods make wonderful Christmas ornaments! Just cut them from the vines, put them on newspaper indoors to dry thoroughly. Once they’re dry, spray or brush them with metallic paint. When the paint has dried, spray the painted pods again, this time with adhesive. Then dip the pods into pots of glitter. Let them dry again, tie ribbons around their ends, and affix them to wreaths, garlands, or holiday tree. One idea: paint the pods with silver or gold on the outer, concave surface and paint the inner, convex surface plain white. Then use the white as a background for glued-on fake pearls, tiny figures, or painted scenes.

Watering

Keep watering outdoor plants, particularly the ones put in the ground this past year. Trees, shrubs, and perennials often die over the winter not because of the cold, but because they haven’t been watered enough. Focus upon deep watering once a week till the ground freezes. After the ground freezes, water deeply twice a month whenever sunny days appear to thaw out the hoses.

When finished watering, be sure to let the hoses drain thoroughly before recoiling them. Stretch them out with both ends open, preferably on a gentle slope. Otherwise, the water left in the hose may freeze and split the hose. Be sure outdoor faucets are covered to protect them from freezing!

Wildlife

As the weather gets colder, check bird feeders daily. Experts recommend giving birds black oil sunflower seeds. Don’t forget fresh water (ground level is best) and suet blocks for the insect eaters!