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"We have a wooded area on our land near Greensboro, North Carolina. I discovered several patches of wild petunia growing there. Websites say it enjoys full sun, but I found it growing in nearly full shade. I love the blue flowers. Is it transplantable?" – Jan
Grumpy Gardener: Wild petunia isn't a true petunia, but it a small native perennial with a botanical name Ruelia humilis. And it grows in sun or shade, in moist or dry soil. It makes showy blue flowers from early summer into the fall. And nothing much bothers it. Doesn't that sound great? Yes, you can transplant this in fall, but let me give you a word of warning. Some years back, a friend in Tennessee sent me wild petunia. And it is truly the gift that never stops giving.
I planted some in the backyard and now it's in the front yard. The side yards by flower pots. And even my man cave. I figure it shoots seeds in all directions like fireworks. And once established, it has a very sturdy root system. You can't pull it out, you have to dig it. So if you're gonna transplant this thing, make sure you put it in a natural area where you don't mind it coming up hither and yon. That's hither over there and way over there it's yon.
My tip of the week is for those of you in the South and elsewhere in this country, who have cool season lawns. Now cool season lawns are defined as those composed of grasses that grow actively during cool parts of the season. Like, spring and fall and go dormant in the hot parts of the season, say summer. That's exactly the opposite of warm season grasses.
Now, if you have cool season lawn, that would be composed of things like Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, the fall is the most important time for you to fertilize your lawn. And that's because, the grass is actively growing now in the cooler weather. And it's gonna keep on growing up until you get really freezing weather. It's gonna thicken up, it's gonna fill in bare spots. And this is critical for it so that it can go into winter and be healthy and green up, and look pretty again in the spring. So now is, if you had to pick one time and you have a cool season lawn, fall is the time to fertilize. And all you have to do is just go out to the garden center or home center, pick you up, uh, a bag of lawn fertilizer, make sure it's labeled for your type of grass and put it down at the amount that the bag says.
