Dear HUMNETters and Karen,
Last year I helped plant some extra hummingbird flowers in
Karen Fay's
Baton Rouge yard. I moved to NJ shortly thereafter and
promised to send
Karen my ideas on spring maintenance of the new plants. I am
posting
this to the list in case anyone else is interested. By the way, the
new
plants seem to have worked. Last winter was the first winter
that
hummingbirds visited the yard for any length of time, with two
calliope
and a blackchinned hummingbird present at the same time.

Salvias:
If the salvias have not frozen back to ground level you may
want to cut
some of them back. Texas sage - salvia coccinia and anise sage
- s.
guaranitica will bloom all summer. If any stems of these are in
the way,
overly tall, or unattractive cut them back. These two can be cut
back all
summer as blooms fade, but will bloom well without cutting
back as well.

If pineapple sage - s. elegans and salvia "Brazil" - a.k.a. salvia
"Costa
Rica blue" or giant sage - have survived above ground then
they will
surely bloom this spring too. Cut back on these only if they are
in your
way until blooming stops in June. Then you should cut salvia
elegans
back to about 6 inches and let it regrow as a nice bushy plant
for fall
flowering. s. "Brazil" does not require cutting back to flower
well, but
can be cut back in June if you prefer. If any live stems of any
salvias are
touching the ground they may root and enlarge your salvia
patch, so I
wouldn't cut them off. Laying mulch or soil over the middle of
a prostrate
stem will help rooting go faster.

forsythia sage - salvia madrensis, Mexican sage - salvia
mexicana, and
fuschia sage - salvia iodantha will probably not bloom until the
fall. Cut
back tall stems of these to encourage bushier plants with more
flowers. I
would cut the plants back to about 18 inches tall if they are in
the sun. If
they are in a position where other plants are competing for
space then
cut them back only to the height of the other plants. I like to
pinch off the
growing tips of these salvias during the summer until about
mid august to
make the plants bushier and more floriforous. With these
plants you can
leave ground-touching stems in place to root.

Mexican bush sage - salvia leucantha will bloom in late
summer. If any
stems remain alive now cut them back to about 6 inches tall. A
new set
of stems will grow and eventually bloom. After the stems are
finished
blooming cut them back to 6 inches. You will probably find a
new set of
stems growing underneath them that will produce a later set of
blooms if
the weather allows.

autumn sage - salvia greggii and little leaf sage - salvia
microphylla
These two woody salvias can be pruned to achieve a nicely
shaped
plant in the spring. If the stems are still alive don't cut them
back too much
as this will result in later blooming and a smaller plant. After a
warm
winter you may find volunteer seedlings around these plants.

Ugly Shrimp Plant:
Your shrimp plants are only 1 year old and so won't need
much cutting
back yet I suspect. If they are getting large you can cut them
back to
maintain their size. Stems of this plant root easily while still on
the plant,
so let them grow into areas where you want more shrimp plant.
Pinching
the tips of straggly stems can encourage branching without
removing too
much growth. Once these plants are established -as they may
already
be - they will grow rapidly and can be cut back to about 1 foot
tall each
spring to maintain their size.

Abutilons - abutilon pictum and abutilon hybridum
After spring flowering slows down I would cut your abutilons
back to
about 4 or 5 feet high. This will encourage bushier, sturdier
plants. Make
sure to cut any long spindly branches, especially horizontal
straggly
branches, back to a foot or two from the main stem. Abutilons,
particularly the orange abutilon - a. pictum, have a tendency to
get
spindly and break in stormy weather, your pruning should aim
to retain
sturdy branches. If you are trying to have abutilons climb a
trellis or
another plant you can leave longer stems; If they are supported
by the
plant or trellis they shouldn't break in a storm.

malvaviscus sp:
Turks Cap- malvaviscus drummondi or m. arboreous var.
drummondi. The
small flowered Turks cap can be cut back to a foot or so in the
spring to
maintain their size, then allowed to bloom all summer. Again,
lower stems
can be encouraged to root if you desire a larger clump of
plants.

Giant Turk's cap - malvaviscus pendulaflora or m. arboreous
var.
mexicana. If your plants have not frozen to the ground you will
want to
prune tall or ugly stems back to about 3 feet. pinch the tips
during the
summer until about august to make bushier plants. With this
plant,
abutilons and fall salvias I try to pinch the tip of the stems after
about 6
inches of growth has occurred since the last pinch. This
ensures a
bushy plant. Pinching back is not necessary for any plant.
Rather than let
your plants get tall I would try to keep them growing below the
eaves of
your house. This will give them a little protection from early
frosts and
could greatly lengthen their blooming season.

cupheas:
Giant cuphea - cuphea micropetala can be cut back to 6 or 8
inches tall in
the spring. It will bloom in the fall without further attention, or
you could
periodically pinch the tips of the stems to make a bushier plant.

cuphea "David Verity" can be cut back to 6 inches to remove
ugly old
stems. It will them bloom all summer and fall without further
attention.

manettia cordifolia - firecracker vine
you firecracker vines are growing under the roses near the old
wax
myrtles. They are probably frozen back to ground level and
need no
attention. If you don't like the way they look you can remove
old or dead
stems, but this will be a challenge in the rose bushes. Roses
can be cut
back too, if you have dead stems or want to control their size.
Manettia luteo-rubra (manettia inflata) - the other firecracker
vine with the
fuzzy red and yellow flowers can be left alone if it survived the
winter.

vining honeysuckles
You have several hybrid honeysuckles (lonicera heckrottii) that
are vines
similar to the coral honeysuckle-lonicera sempervirens. I
recommend you
do not cut these back unless they are completely covering the
bushes on
which they are growing (and they generally will not completely
cover a
bush). They should be blooming now and will continue until
Nov or Dec.

winter honeysuckle -lonicera fragrantissima
These bushes grow slowly when young so I would prune only
if they
are in the way of your path. They usually maintain a nice shape
without
any pruning even when they get larger.

trumpet creeper - campsis radicans
Your vines are climbing tall trees, which is a good place for
this wild
rampant plant. no attention is needed unless they resprout only
from the
base. In this situation, which is common in the north but not
usually the
case in LA, you can direct the young stems toward the trees to
get them
started climbing.

lions ear - leonotis nepetafolia
The tall, small flowered lion's ear is a true annual and always
dies after it
blooms for a few months. Your plants bloomed so you should
have
umpteen volunteer seedlings this spring. If you want big plants
thin the
seedlings to about 2 feet apart. The seedlings transplant easily
and
transplanting causes plants to bloom later. By transplanting a
few around
your garden you can lengthen the lion's ear bloom period.

dicliptera suberecta - kings crown. This will bloom and grow
without any
attention. You can prune off stems that have finished blooming
if you like.
Stems of this plant root readily while on the plant and can be
transplanted.

four o'clock - mirabalis jalapa
Four oclocks generally die back to the ground in Baton Rouge
each
winter. No attention is needed; last years stems can be removed
if you
like. There should be lots of volunteer seedlings around your
plants.

flame acanthus -anisicanthus wrightii
This shrub may die back to the ground during the winter, or it
may
resprout from the bare branches. Give it time to recover, then if
branches are truly dead you can remove them. You might cut
back some
of the shrubs around these plants as they prefer lots of sun

smugglers vervain - stachytarpheta sp.
Your plants were in a sheltered spot and so they may still be
green or
may resprout. Removing dead stems or pruning gangly
branches (both
for aesthetic reasons) is all the maintenance necessary.

canna -canna indica
Cannas probably froze to the ground this winter. In any case
they can
be cut back to 6 inches tall in the spring. They will quickly
regrow and
begin to bloom. If they get too large during the summer, as
they tend to
do, cut them back to 6 inches again. A less drastic pruning
regimen calls
for removal of spent flowers to avoid seed set and theoretically
encourage blooming. If you prune off old flowers be careful
not to
remove too much of the flower stalk. Flower stalks often
branch off new
spikes of flowers after the initial spike has bloomed. by the
way, these
are the small flowered cannas. The large-flowered, showier
cannas -
canna x generalis- are not attractive to hummingbirds.

Fertilizer:
I would fertilize the entire garden. A slow release fertilizer of
almost any
makeup will work. I would spread about a forty pound bag
around your
yard now and again in mid summer. Simply scattering the
fertilizer on the
ground between plants, avoiding the bases of plants, works
well.
Non-slow-release fertilizers can be used too and are cheaper.
With
these be careful not to get too mach fertilizer stuck in the plants
as this
could cause burning of the plants. I would apply 40 pounds of
non-slow-release fertilizer every 6 weeks until September. I
suspect that
nitrogen is the main nutrient needed in your garden. Nitrogen
is the first
number listed in the chemical analysis; 20 -5-5 fertilizer is 20
% nitrogen.
Thus you might want to buy a lawn fertilizer that is high in N
and lower in
the other two (phosphorous and potash). Alternately buy
whatever is
cheap or available. DO NOT USE WEED AND FEED. All of
your plants are,
from a fertilizer label point of view, weeds.

Ron Rovansek