Q&A on gardening

Q: I like the scent of hyacinths. Is it too late to plant them to force into bloom this winter?

A: Not too late at all. I think hyacinths are the easiest of the spring bulbs to force into bloom. And they seem to last longer than do tulips and daffodils because each stem has a lot of flowerets, instead of one or a few blooms.

Planted now, they will bloom in January, just when your spirits need a boost because spring still seems far away.

You need little equipment: a shallow plastic or terra-cotta pot, with drainage holes in the bottom; new, clean potting soil (no insects or slugs hanging around) and a half-dozen bulbs for an 8-inch pot.

Put about 2 inches of soil in the bottom of the pot. Set the bulbs snugly onto the soil, making sure they are not touching. Then fill the pot with more potting soil. Shake it to settle and add more to fill it to about 1 inch below the rim.

Water the plants to stimulate root growth and set the pot in a cool place such as the crawl space of your house. The best place is the bottom of your refrigerator, where, set in a plastic saucer, the bulbs will have ideal temperature for root growth. Make sure no ripening apples or other fruits that emit ethylene gas are in the refrigerator. You must remember to water the bulbs occasionally, since it never rains in the refrigerator.

After about 10 weeks, when the flower stems start to come up, move the pot to a cool, sunny window to bring up the stem. Then put them in a sunny, slightly warmer spot to open the blooms.

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Q: I have holly plants that are wildly out of bounds. Can I prune now?

A: If you can live with these overgrown plants (meaning they are not in the driveway, covering the windows or slapping the neighbors walking on the sidewalk), wait until late winter. Or do a tiny bit of pruning on the most wayward stems.

Severe pruning of most evergreens now means they will look severely pruned until new growth comes out next spring. Often, this is not an appealing appearance. And, depending on the weather this month, it could stimulate some fresh growth that would likely be burned by cold weather this winter.

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Q: I have a weed called plantain in my lawn. This spring we used a weed-and-feed product on the lawn, but it doesn’t seem to have helped. It looks like there is more of the weed this year than last, and I can also see it in my neighbor’s yard. What advice do you have?

A: Plantain is a very common lawn weed in the Piedmont. Don’t feel that it singled you out for special favor. By this time in the fall, it probably has sent up a flower spike that produced many seeds which will drive you nuts next year.

A mature plant has very tenacious roots. Simply mowing the top will not be the end of plantain.

The best thing to do is kill the weed with a broad-leaf herbicide that states on the label it works against plantain. Or, dig up the plants. That will not affect the dormant seeds on the ground waiting to sprout.

One way to deal with that is to raise the height of your lawn mower so the grass stands 3 to 3 1/2 inches tall. This should shade out newly germinating plantain.

Meanwhile, don’t think that just because it’s cooler, the weed season is over. Remain vigilant for the first sign of chickweed.