Here we are just a few days away from the start of the 7th season of Garden Time.  We have been busy putting our first stories of the new year in the can and if you have been watching our great TV stations (KOIN, KEVU, KWVT) you have probably seen some of the promotional commercials touting our return.

For those of you that have subscribed to the Garden Time Magazine, you have not been left out in the cold.  You have had new issues coming to your e-mail box during the whole winter.  For those who haven’t signed up yet, click here to sign up, it's free!

While you wait for these last few days to pass, enjoy these stories from last winter.

This week we feature...

Winter Insect Control

Some spring and summer plant problems can be avoided if you take a few preventative measures.  Pre-season spraying can take care of things like scale, mites, leaf curl and other problems.  William talked about checking your indoor plants.  Look in all the hidden places including leaf joints or nodes and under leaves for signs of disease or pests.  You can then use some safe products like insecticidal soaps and other organic materials to treat the problems.  Then Judy talked about dormant spraying and some of the ways you can tackle that.  Dormant spraying is when you treat plants during their dormant phase, when they are not actively growing.  This especially refers to fruit trees.  They respond well if you apply preventative measures before the new buds break in the early spring.  Judy mentioned hose end sprayers as a way to apply chemicals.  These fit on the end of your hose and usually have a regulator that measures the amount of spray that you can apply.  If the job is small there are also pump sprayers you can use.   Check with your local garden center to diagnose your plant problems and help select the right treatments you can use.

Winter Indoor Plants

The cold and wet weather may be keeping you out of the garden, but you can still enjoy wonderful unique plants indoors!  We stopped by Portland Nursery on Division (503-788-9000) to see a few of the special plants they have for gardeners trapped indoors.  We started with a very unusual plant, the pitcher plant.  This one traps insects in its cup shaped pitchers and then absorbs the nutrients from the decomposing insect.  Remember, the pitcher plant loves a nice warm and humid place to grow.  Next was a Pineapple plant.  This will grow an actual pineapple that you can eat though it may be smaller than the ones you find at the grocery store.  Another tropic loving plant is the Vanilla Orchid.  This plant has the ability to grow a vanilla type bean, but you really need to provide more heat and humidity than most homes have.  Still it is a great house plant.  Next was a beautiful color plant, the Rose Pine Cone.  This plant has a wonderful multicolored bloom that has shades of pink, red and purple.  Plus it blooms all year long!  Finally we found the Chinese evergreen.  This is a foliage plant with huge mottled leaves than is very easy to grow.  If you are feeling like you need a plant boost during these dreary winter months, try some indoor plants!