Getting answers

QUESTION: Among the exotic plants at a garden show, I saw one called “Buddha’s hand.” The leaves were not outstanding, but the blossom, which looked like a hand in a yellow rubber glove, was spectacular. What can you tell me about this unique plant? Paradise, CA

ANSWER: The inadequacy of common names again rears its ugly head. “Buddha’s hand” usually refers to the citrus tree Citrus medica `Sarcodactylis’; yet the fruit (what you describe doesn’t sound like a flower) suggests the plant you saw may be Solanum mammosum, the “nipplefruit” typically offered in Sunday supplement ads or by seedsmen specializing in oddities.

The tropical nipplefruit, when grown as a container plant, is best treated as an annual. It may survive longer if given cultural conditions similar to those required by its relative, the Jerusalem cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum). The irregularly lobed, prickly foliage is accented by small golden-orange fruits with nipple-like basal lobes. The oddly knobbed fruits are toxic if ingested. Or maybe yet another plant was at the show-who knows when we’re at the mercy of common names?

Q: I enjoy chrysanthemums very much and grow many varieties, but most of them grow out of control. By pinching the tops several times during the growing season, I get bushels of blooms, but they grow too tall. Am I using too much fertilizer? North Providence, RI

A: While numerous hobby mum growers would be delighted with the “bushels of blooms” you mention, plants becoming too tall do tend to fall over or break when loaded down with heavy clusters of flowers.

By dividing your clumps of chrysanthemums every two years, each clump produces fewer stems, thus reducing the elongation of competing stems as well as spindly stems resulting from overcrowding. Continue your practice of vigorously pinching the growing tips. Pinch for the last time in mid-July, or late July for late-season bloomers.

If staking of some varieties is necessary, insert the stakes in June so roots will not be damaged later and to enable the stems to be tied early. Using fertilizers low in nitrogen will help control excessive foliar growth.

Beginning gardeners can prevent this height problem by carefully selecting cultivars noted for self-branching, low growth habits.

Q: How can I cut a geranium down to get rid of the big stalks that have accumulated during the three years I’ve had it? It still flowers beautifully. East Sullivan, NH

A: Although I’ve observed old stock geranium plants with aged, woody trunks supporting fresh new stalks heavy with bloom clusters, these are best left to the commercial grower with a sunny cool greenhouse and the need to produce many cuttings.

For your geranium, I’d suggest starting new plants from cuttings. Cut six to eight inch sections from firm stalk ends. Remove the lower leaves of each stalk, as well as any flower buds, and dip into a rooting hormone.

The cuttings can be rooted in a communal container of perlite mixed with peat or vermiculite. Insert the cuttings into the dry medium and don’t water for a day or two, allowing the cut surface to form a scar. Keep new cuttings in bright, indirect light with high humidity. Transplant to individual containers when rooted.

Cuttings can also be rooted in separate rooting blocks or cells. Or root three to five cuttings directly in a larger pot of houseplant soil mix so you need not repot immediately.

Although your original plant will resprout and produce blossoms, it won’t be as vigorous or as shapely as its offspring. Why not plant the old plant directly in a summer flowerbed as an accent plant, giving it a shot at a spectacular last hurrah?

Q: Our original planting of thornless blackberries produced bumper crops until an untrained “gardener” cut them to the ground; since then, we have had leafy canes but no fruit. Newer plants, nearby, are beginning to fruit. Can the older plants be brought back into production? Wichita, KS

A: Keep plants in discrete clumps, allowing three or four new canes to develop each spring. In late fall, remove old canes whether they have fruited or not. Topdress the plants in early spring with about one pound of 5-10-5 fertilizer for every 25 square feet of bed area. A generous loose mulch between the rows and around the plants is beneficial, but do not mulch over the crowns.

An acquaintance of mine with a farm tends large patches of wild blackberries. When fruit production dwindles, he mows them to the ground, then throws on a quantity of fertilizer (usually 10-10-10). In two or three years, man-killing canes are back to head height, loaded with fruit.

–John Ebert has a degree in horticulture and is co-owner and operator of the last working family farm in the township of Cherry Hill, NJ. As well as retailing the produce grown on the farm at their market, John’s family also specializes in the production and culture of over 350 varieties of herbs, as well as perennials, bedding and vegetable plants. For more information on John’s most interesting farm, questions on this article or other plant-related issues, email him at sfm@juno.com.

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