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Although new plants are introduced into the landscape trade each year, there are some plants that have been a part of our landscapes reliably for years on end without ever falling out of favor. There's something familiar, even comforting perhaps, to have such consistency in our gardens. One such plant is the crinum lily, an amaryllis relative, that performs admirably in a number of landscape situations throughout the southeast.
lily-like flowers. Flowers are typically some shade of pink, red, or white. The cultivar 'Milk and Wine' is particularly notable for its lovely pink and white striped blossoms.
Crinums can tolerate a bit of shade, but will bloom best in full sun. They tolerate a wide range of soils, and are fairly drought tolerant, though they prefer to have adequate moisture and good drainage. Newly planted crinums may take a year or two to settle before they bloom. As the plants age, the bulbs will produce offsets, and thus clusters of bulbs can be divided every four to five years or so. This provides ample opportunity to fill in empty spaces elsewhere in your landscape or share plants with friends. Dividing is best performed during winter months, though it can be done at other times of the year with reasonable success. The deep-throated blossoms on crinum are favorites of hummingbirds and butterflies, so one could easily incorporate crinums into a pollinator-themed garden. Crinums are particularly attractive when planted in mass plantings, but also work well as edging or in borders.
Crinums have a few minor pest problems, but are generally quite easy to grow. They are remarkably salt tolerant, which makes them ideal for planting closer to the coast, but also makes them well suited to be planted near roads and driveways. They are mostly deer resistant, likely due to the fact that all parts of the plant are mildly toxic, causing occasional gastric upset if ingested.
Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension?s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705. Images are from the NC State University Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox at https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/crinum/
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Peaches are one of my favorite fruits to eat during the summer. It’s really hard to beat the flavor of a fresh peach picked just that day. Unfortunately, growing peaches is unfortunately not as easy as one would hope, due to a variety of disease and insect problems, as well as a danger of ill-timed frosts that reduce yield. Peaches are native to China but have been grown in the Southeastern United States since the early 1900s. Like most fruit trees, they are normally grafted to ensure consistent quality. Trees developed from seedlings generally produce lower quality fruit.
Peaches need eight or more hours of daily sunlight, protection from late spring frost, and regular pruning to produce fruit. Avoid planting near the edge of a wooded area or at the bottom of a hill, as these areas carry an increased risk of frost injury. Peach trees grow best when trained to grow in a vase shape. Young trees have their central trunk pruned off early, leaving the tree with 3-4 strong lateral limbs, and an open center allowing for ample sun penetration. Yearly winter pruning helps maintain the open center. Once the tree is mature enough to produce large amounts of fruit, it is a good idea to thin the fruit each year. Fruit thinning means removing some of the flowers or young fruit early in the season to lesson the total number of fruit produced, but increase the size and quality of those that do mature. Mature peach trees often face the problem of branches bending or breaking due to heavy fruit load. Thinning helps reduce this problem, and also helps limit disease problems by creating more space between fruits. A properly thinned tree should have peaches growing about 6 inches apart on the stem.  Above: The showy flowers of a peach tree in bloom appear in spring, followed by fruit in summer. Photo: Jim Robbins CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Those who wish to grow peach trees also face the risk of some disease and insect pests. Brown rot is a common disease of peaches and, like the name implies, causes peaches to rot and turn brown before they reach maturity. Fungicide applications during and after bloom can help reduce this disease, but it is also a good idea to remove damaged fruit from the tree and the ground around it in order to minimize spread of the disease. Insect pests include plum curculio, oriental fruit moth, and peach tree borer, of which peach tree borer is the most damaging. The insect bores into the stem, causing an orange-brown gel to accumulate around the trunk. Peach tree borers often affect trees that are already stressed, making it difficult to control.
Because of these issues, life expectancy of a peach tree is somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 years. Growing good peaches is not easy, but the reward that a well-cared for tree provides is tough to beat. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705. |
Matt Stevens
Pitt County Extension Director & Horticulture Agent Archives
June 2025
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