Peaches face long odds

A couple years ago Coeur d’Alene’s Gabby Gardener, Dick Rifkind, said there was a peach tree that was reliably hardy in the Bumblebee/Enaville, Idaho, area. My elderly parents love peaches and I would like to get them a couple trees. We tried Reliance; it died the third year. Elberta died the second year. It seems Rifkind said that the tree had to be ordered by mail and early, but he is no longer in the area and I don’t know how to find out what the tree’s name was or where to order it. Do you happen to know?

Kathy Brown

Your parents are in a very tough place to grow peaches. The Coeur d’Alene River drainage is not only a conduit for water from the mountains but also for cold winter air that comes down from those same mountains often creating much colder pockets than is indicated by the broad brush USDA hardiness map. The Reliance peach is rated at zone 4 (-25) and the Elberta at zone 5 (-10 to -20). Peaches also require well drained soil so if they have clay, the water may not be draining away from the roots well enough especially in the winter. Another problem for peaches is that they bloom so early; they are often hit with late frosts that kill the flowers and the fruit for the year. A quick check of several tree nurseries I am familiar with came up with very few cold hardy peaches besides Reliance. One I really like because they are willing to work with you to find the right tree is Raintree Nursery in Morton, Wash. They specialize in unusual fruits and trees that aren’t widely available. They can be reached at www.raintreenursery.com or at (360) 496-6400.

Droopy geraniums

My mother has a problem with her geraniums that I hope you can help her with. Her zonal geraniums are planted in the ground and the blossoms are large and beautiful, but they don’t stay erect. The stems are six inches to eight inches but they just bend over. The lady at Northwest Seed told us to fertilize the geraniums every two weeks. It didn’t help. Is it possible they’re being watered too much? They are watered by the automatic sprinkling system.

Bridgid L. Kardong

Watering probably isn’t the problem unless the flowers are in the direct line for the spray of the sprinkler and get knocked down by the weight of the water. You don’t say what kind of fertilizer you were using but a high nitrogen blend might be making the plants grow too much to hold the flowers up. Next year work some good compost into the bed and then add a quality time release fertilizer. If they still need some fertilizer as the season goes on use a 5-10-10 blend every three to four weeks. Lastly, are they getting full sun most of the day? Geraniums need full sun to stay stocky and bloom well.