Now's the time to get to planting some of the most desirable homegrown veggies. Specifically, asparagus. Asparagus needs to go in the ground before mid-March.

There aren’t many perennial vegetables we have the luxury of growing here in Dallas. Asparagus is an exception that can establish and produce for up to twenty years. When harvested and prepared fresh, you’ll enjoy spears that are much more tender and flavorful. While there are some tricks to growing great asparagus, overall it’s less challenging than you might expect. Basically, asparagus needs climates that have a hard freeze in the winter (check). They tolerate high soil pH, which we have here in Dallas (check). They also need lots of sun (double check). Beyond the basics, there are a few more tips for planting a great stand of asparagus.

Looking for something unusual? Try asparagus ‘Purple Passion’.

Remember that your asparagus can live in the same spot for 20 years or more and it doesn’t like to share. Dedicate a sunny raised bed just for your asparagus in a sunny location. While you’ll read that asparagus tolerates some shade, I’ve found that without a good 6 hours of direct sun, plants can become thin and weak. Asparagus likes being in a spot where the late-winter sun will warm up the soil early on. Loosen the soil with plenty of organic compost, some composted manure and expanded shale.

You’ll buy asparagus crowns bare-root from your local garden center now. Look for 1 or 2 year-old crowns. You won’t be able to harvest your asparagus until the 4th season in the ground, so 1 or 2 year crowns will give you a jump start.

Soak your crowns for about 20 minutes before you plant. Dig trenches in your bed 12-inches wide and 6-8 inches deep. Spread the roots out, growing point up, and set in trench about 1-2 feet apart. Back fill your soil and mulch the bed. Keep the beds weeded as asparagus doesn’t like competition. Asparagus is a heavy Nitrogen feeder so be sure to fertilizer well through the growing season. Keep consistently moist in summer, but not wet. Know that asparagus plants grow into 5-foot tall feathery plants…so give them some space!

If you like to experiment, you may want want to grow an heirloom variety or a purple-stalked variety like ‘Purple Passion’.

Now, this is just a quick asparagus primer. Be sure to stop by your local garden center for all the best tips and tricks to growing fantastic fresh asparagus.

It’s just about that time to prune your fruit trees, while they’re still dormant. Fruit trees are treated a bit differently than shade trees when it comes to pruning. While we never want to over-prune or over-thin our large shade trees, smaller fruit trees are often heavily pruned each year in order to produce the best yields of fruit. Timing your fruit tree pruning can be a bit tricky, especially with our fluctuating weather here in Dallas. Your goal is always to prune as late as possible, but before any bud break occurs on your tree. Some fruit trees will start blooming by mid-February, so now’s the time you need to start pulling out your pruning gear.

Each variety of fruit will bloom at a different time. The best approach to timing your pruning is to prune the later blooming trees first, followed by the earliest bloomers. That means you’ll start with apples and pecans (although large pecans should be pruned by a professional tree care company). Peach and plum trees will follow, as they bloom the earliest here in Dallas.

Hard pruning of fruit trees should begin the first year they are in the ground. Hard pruning to properly shape the tree continues each winter for the next several years. As trees mature, you’ll perform lighter maintenance pruning. Depending on the type of tree, you’ll either train it using the central leader method, or the open center method.

Apples, pears and plums should be pruned using the central leader method. This means you allow the tree to grow a central main trunk that is tall than all the surrounding branches. The rest of the tree is shaped into a pyramidal form.

Heavier fruiting trees, such as peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds, perform better when pruned using the open center method. By removing the central leader branch, you’ll create more of a vase shape to the tree. This allows more sunlight to reach all of the central branches and reduces branch breakage.

You’ll also need to do some “thinning” and “heading”. When you thin branches, that means you’ll remove them at their base. This allows more light into the interior of the tree. “Heading” involves pruning off the tip of the branch in order to encourage more fruiting lateral branches.

If you have fruit trees and have fallen behind on necessary pruning, or you’re thinking about planting new fruit trees, now’s the time to pick up a fruit tree pruning book to learn the best techniques.

Haven’t planted fruit trees yet? Now’s the perfect time. Local garden centers should have a good stock of fruit trees that are appropriate for our climate and can give you a primer on pruning.

Originally published on D Home blog.

Just because you don’t have a dedicated vegetable garden, doesn’t mean you enjoy eating from plants you’ve grown yourself. Springtime is the perfect time to discover edible flowers already growing in your landscape.

You’re probably familiar with common edible flowers, such as violas, which are often used candied or to decorate pastries. Nasturtium are another common garnish in salads. But you may not be acquainted with some of the other unexpected edible blooms growing right under your nose.

• Have Gardenias potted on your patio or growing in your shady garden? Gardenia flowers have a fresh, light and sweet flavor.

• Honeysuckle plants have popped into bloom all over Dallas. These fragrant sweet flowers are perfect tossed into salads for some added sweetness.

• Are your Citrus plants still blooming? Add a lemony flavor to dishes with a few citrus flowers.

• Pineapple Guava is one of my favorite “exotic” looking landscape plants. The beautiful flowers taste just like the fruit -sweet!

• Hibiscus and Marigold flowers are also edible. Hibiscus blooms are wonderful steeped as a tea and marigold flowers have a spicy flavor.

• Chives are a favorite garden perennial of mine. the flowers taste much like the leaves and make a wonderful garnish.

• The tiny blue flowers on Rosemary plants are not only pretty, but have a bright savory, sweet flavor.

Have the weeds got you down? If so, you can get your revenge by popping off a few of their heads. Dandelion flowers not only make a potent wine, but are fine food as well. Fry them up in butter and they taste just like mushrooms. Clover flowers have a sweet licorice flavor.

While there are many other edible-ish blooms in our Dallas landscapes, some contain chemicals that can irritate your system or exacerbate certain conditions. Many, many of our landscape plants are poisonous if consumed. Also, take note that if you’re harvesting garden flowers to eat, avoid plants that have been sprayed with pesticides.

DON’T EAT THESE FLOWERS: azalea, crocus, daffodil, foxglove, oleander, wisteria

Originally published for DHome Blog.

Rose Rosette Disease: If you love your roses, then what you see in the photo above should move you to action immediately. The effect might seem "neat" but those witch's broom clusters of growth mean your roses have only a short time to live.

Rose rosette disease is a terminal virus that affects all types of roses. While your plants may limp along for an average of about 22 months after infection, death is inevitable. There is lots of research going on now to combat this destructive virus, there is currently no cure. It is a virus. The best thing you can do for your landscape, and that of your neighbor's, is to remove the plants immediately. Don't compost them. It is best to bag them and dispose of them. The virus is spread by a mite that moves from plant to plant. Leaving infected plants in the ground will only cause more plants to become infected. I provided a link below to an article I wrote on Rose Rosette for an industry publication last year that you may find helpful whether you're in the green industry or a home gardener.

A Plague of Roses, Garden Center Magazine

Yes...there are gardening books aplenty out there these days for all of us with a plant addiction, but I have one more for you. You can never really have too many plant books and as far as all those jokers who say print is dead, they haven't talked to any gardeners or hort heads. We plantgeeks like our pretty on PAPER. We like our print magazines and we like our PRINT plant catalogs. And yes, this is coming from someone who makes a living in digital media. But I still buy an obscene amount of gardening magazines and I'm treating the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog like it's my precious.

So back to that book you need...I have a precocious little friend named Kelly Norris and he has oh such a way with planty things and words. Check out his latest, Plants with Style. He'll teach you how to blend your personal style with that of your garden and local environment.

"A garden is the best way to savor life on earth." Tru Dat Kelly.

It’s right about this time each year that I really start longing for my summer garden. I’m tired of my toes being cold and I’ve officially run out of my fall harvested tomatoes. If you too are looking forward to a bounty of vine-ripened tomatoes, then you’d better hop out of that winter armchair and grab those seed catalogs! Just because it’s January, doesn’t mean we get to rest on our gardening laurels here in Dallas. If you’re planning on growing any heirloom or specialty tomato varieties, chances are you’re going to have to grow them from seed. If you’re going to grow them from seed, you need to do it now.

‘Celebrity’ hybrid and ‘Green Zebra’ heirloom tomatoes.

Tomato transplants take a good 8-weeks to germinate and grow into a transplant large enough to set out in the garden. Our average last frost date is March 17th, which means you’ll need to get those tomato seeds germinated by the last week in January if you want to make that planting date. Experienced tomato gardeners know that if they can get their transplants outdoors a tad bit earlier, it means a bigger harvest. But won’t they freeze if you plant them before March 17th? Not if you cover them with frost cloth (sometimes two layers are necessary). I typically set out my tomato transplants before March 10th…but sometimes even the last week of February. If you’re willing to hedge your bets and keep the frost cloth at the ready, you can get your tomato plants flowering earlier, which means more set fruit during optimal temperatures.

Planning on waiting until after all possible chances for a freeze have passed? Don’t bother. If you do, it will be too late to plant tomatoes, at least the 4″-pot sized plants. If you’re late to the game and decide to hit the garden centers at the end of April, don’t waste your money on 4″ tomato transplants. Look for 2-gallon or larger potted plants that already have flowers and some baby fruit on them. Or, start your fall tomato transplants from seed in May.

When starting tomato seeds indoors, remember that you’ll need to warm up the soil to speed up germination and a good 16-hours of supplemental light after seedlings sprout. Invest in a good seedling heat mat and grow light if you want your seedlings to mature successfully. Relying on that “bright” winter window typically results in a a disappointment as seedlings stretch for light, then topple over and die.

After three years of running Halleck Horticultural full time, we've decided to re-brand our company blog and future content channels to better encompass the interests of green industry companies, professionals in the industry, and home gardeners. Ours is a quirky blend of content that we feel is relevant to both pros and their customers. It's all about how we each green-up our own lifestyle.

The new Plantgeek Chic brand will represent our blog and future projects such as podcasts and print media. Content will continue to focus on the utility, tools, trends and style of green industry business, while also providing behind-the-scenes insight and useful hands-on info to horticulture students, young professionals, green consumers, and gardening hobbyists.

Everyone, be you Plantgeek or wannabe Plantgeek, is invited...so stay tuned!

Welcome to the blog...Plantgeek Chic is our stream-of-consciousness channel for all things related to green industry business, marketing, and networking; as well as all things related to green lifestyle, plants, and gardening. Green industry businesses, Pro Plantgeeks, wannabe Pro Plantgeeks, and home gardeners equally served.