GARDENING CALENDAR

The season's coldest weather is most likely to hit us in January.

Have on hand those old sheets, blankets or burlap to protect any small, cold-sensitive trees or shrubs should a freeze be forecast. Drape the material over poles, tepee style, rather than directly on the plants. Don't use plastic or metal that can conduct heat away from the plants and injure leaves.

Water the ground thoroughly before the cold arrives, should rain not accompany the front, because wet soil retains heat longer than dry soil. (The oceans, remember, take longer to heat and cool than the land.) And pull mulch back from trees and shrubs to let heat radiate up through the canopies.

Windy cold may brown the edges of sensitive leaves, but it also mixes cold and warm air, which is better for plants than deep and still cold. On cold, still nights, the coldest air sinks to the earth while heat radiates into the atmosphere.

You can buy 6 mil plastic sheeting to wrap up your shade house. Be conscientious about watering your orchids (vandas like water daily unless it's overcast or raining) and keep the plastic sides tied open so the plants won't overheat.

Refrain from fertilizing or pruning now. Both cause buds to break and new leaves to appear, which are quite susceptible to cold. Pruning the tip of a stem removes the hormones that keep secondary buds from developing, and once that control has been switched off, new branches begin to form.

Don't plant palms now, as their roots are inactive.

You still may sow rye grass to prevent weeds from invading the bare spot in the lawn.

EARTH NOTES

A few cold days remind us we are experiencing winter in South Florida, but balminess is our general state of grace.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

Roll up your sleeves come the end of February and give trees and shrubs a dose of fertilizer to put nutrients at the disposal of roots that will be astir in spring. You won't have to work overly hard: Broadcasting, not digging in, is the right way to apply it.

Use a low-phosphorus formula with a ratio of 3-1-3: three parts nitrogen, one part phosphorus and three parts potassium. South Florida's alkaline soils, rich in phosphorus, can chemically capture micronutrients, such as manganese and magnesium, and make them unavailable to plants. So examine fertilizer bags to make sure manganese, magnesium, iron and other minerals are included, because they may be needed in small amounts. They play vital roles in photosynthesis.

Select a slow- or time-release fertilizer. It generally costs a little more, but it allows a steady flow of minerals to reach the plant roots for three or four months in South Florida. Some forms are said to last six months.

By watching your plants carefully, you can tell when the food has run out - plants will begin to yellow or slow their growth or both. Water the ground around the plants well on Saturday; fertilize on Sunday (it's OK, this is the Lord's kind of work) and water in the amount you put down. Broadcast the proper amount beneath the plant canopy and beyond, as roots extend quite far beyond the drip line or edge of the canopy.

How much is the proper amount? Figure one pound per inch of tree- or shrub-trunk diameter for granular fertilizers, such as 6-6-6. (A two-pound coffee can holds five pounds of fertilizer.) Follow directions for slow-release, again broadcasting rather than piling on the goodies in a ring where nutrients will miss many food-absorbing root hairs.

Tempted to buy some weed-and-feed type of fertilizer for the lawn? Be careful when applying it; atrazine (the weed-killer part) can zap roots of trees and shrubs. Forewarned is forearmed.

PLANT AID

If any of your plants were touched by cold this winter, look for new growth and trim away branches without any.

This also is the time to have the royal palms drenched with Merit to prevent the royal palm bug from sucking juices out of the newly forming fronds, making them ratty and brown when they unfold in the spring.

Merit is a restricted pesticide, so a licensed professional must do the work.

Entomologist Bill Howard at the University of Florida's research center in Fort Lauderdale has found that as little as a half-ounce of the active ingredient (imidacloprid) per palm is effective. If you have more than one royal, you should treat them all, as the little bugs are highly mobile. One treatment lasts up to five months, after which time the bugs decline in number.

It's time to fertilize

Here are your marching orders. March of the toreadors, and over the River Kwai. March hare, march there and beware the Ides. This rambunctious, rarin' to go month, already stirring up the last of idle February, waits impatiently in the wings to get its show on the road, to steal center stage.

A little of that seasonal itchiness soon will affect us all, creep into our fingers so they drum on the tables, flip calendar pages, trace roads on the map and reach for stars. Are we there yet? Hang on to your hat.

The roots will wiggle and the buds will swell, as the urge to move, the impulse to dance, takes hold. Drop that old set of leaves and put on a new top hat, gotta dance, gotta dance. Move on the updrafts, shake on the down, sway in the wind. Rock 'n' roll. Gotta dance.

Once again, the grass will grow under our feet, the leaves will unfold, the twigs branch out, and we'll take our branch and bourbon neat. 'Bout time, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you say the time is ripe to clean out the pipes and feel the sap flow, race to the moon on the least little whim? Beam us up, Scottie: First star to the right and straight on until morning. The planet is quivering, our poor cradle shakes.

Then you should say what you mean, the March Hare went on.

March: our dance to spring.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

Well. For all of that activity to get anywhere, it's time to fertilize, as if we weren't fertile enough already, but that's another story.

For palms yellowed by winter, use 12-4-12-4 with slow-release nitrogen and potassium. Application rates are 3 pounds per palm for small palms; 5 pounds for medium-size palms; 8 pounds per palm for large palms such as coconuts and royals.

If you want to fertilize the lawn but once a year, do so now. Use a balanced fertilizer to encourage the development of roots as well as top growth. Water well the day before fertilizing, then water the fertilizer in.

It's also time to fertilize the rest of the landscape if you haven't done so yet. You can do this with organic fertilizers or chemicals, but you should consider starting a compost pile now as the addition of compost to the soil enriches it and keeps you from being poor indeed. Compost can be used as a soil conditioner to increase availability of the fertilizer you do add, and it can create a healthier environment for the microorganisms in the soil that do the real work of converting minerals into nutrients.

Broadcast fertilizer around your trees, using a pound of fertilizer for every inch of trunk diameter. Extend the fertilizer zone well beyond the drip line, as tree roots extend about three times as far from the trunk as the tree is tall. For shrubs, broadcast across the width and breadth, some five feet by 10 feet using about 1 to 2 pounds for 100 square feet.

PRUNING

Spring pruning encourages bushiness because of the exuberant production of new buds this time of year. Now's a good time to cut back the hibiscus, the ixoras and other shrubs. Wait to prune the bougainvillea until they finish flowering, or prune next fall before that final burst of growth at the end of the rainy season.

The poinsettias can be cut back now to 12 or 15 inches above the ground and planted in a well-draining, sunny spot. Make sure they receive no nighttime light to discourage timely flower development next year. Fertilize lightly when new growth appears.

If foundation shrubs are leggy, if the crotons or other elder statesmen in the landscape need rejuvenation, you may want to prune them this month to encourage a fuller look. Rather than cut them uniformly back to the ground, however, you can revitalize them this way: Cut one-third of the stems back to the base this spring; one-third next spring; the final third the following spring.

After pruning (if you didn't fertilize at the end of last month), fertilize lightly with 6-6-6, 8-8-8 or 7-3-7 at the rate of -1/2 to 1 pound per 100 square feet.

ORCHIDS

As the days brighten, your orchids may need more protection against the sun if they were exposed to it during the winter. Sunburn is not just a human affliction.

March winds will quickly pull moisture from clay pots and wooden baskets, so double your good intentions.

Water the vandas daily in the morning. Water cattleyas and dendrobiums to keep them from drying out entirely, which may mean every other day if it's windy and hot. Phals should be watered to keep their medium (usually sphagnum moss) from drying completely, but soggy wet conditions will make them rot.

Resume the growing season fertilizing schedule (every two weeks) if orchids don't need repotting. If they do, then set aside a weekend to work on them as the buds are pushing out.

Cattleyas and their tribe (epidendrums, laelias, brassavolas and more) like a fairly coarse, well-draining mix. They like to be wet and then dry quickly. Vandas and their hybrids may be grown in wooden baskets with no mix. Phals like to be watered and dry slowly, so a mix that includes sphagnum moss may be your choice. Paphiopedilums like a finer mix for their terrestrial root hairs.

Remember to sterilize tools between each pot or basket so you don't spread viral or other diseases.

Butterflies, dragonflies and insects on the increase

EARTH NOTES

Happy Easter. Maybe some of those lovely tulips we've been seeing in stores have found their way to your home. If so, enjoy them while they last, for they, like the season, quickly are gone.

We mentioned how spring-like it was three weeks ago to a Chicago visitor, who wanted to know how we could tell.

Here's how.

Butterflies, dragonflies and insects are on the increase. Ditto mosquitoes. They're after the Cordia globosa, Spanish needle, citrus flowers, the milkweed, the wild and not-so-wild flowers in bloom now.

Standing at the kitchen window last week, my gaze strayed to the shrub bed and a Knight anole -- one of those big, green lizards marked by a streak of chartreuse beneath the eye -- on the ground next to the salvia. I'd never seen one out of a tree before.

So I watched, while attending to another chore. When I realized the anole was digging, I leaned on the sill and paid closer attention. Maybe he was after a bug that wriggled into a hole? Maybe after a worm? He used his short front limbs, poked his head into the hole from time to time, then looked up and around, keeping a wary golden eye out for predators.

Then, he turned and backed over the hole and his tail trembled for a long while. Finally, my dim wits understood what was going on here. He was a she; the hole was a nest. And she laid an egg: oblong and bright white.

Like the sea turtles that come ashore in summer, the anole turned and began packing dirt around the egg, using her chin to pat it down. Adding a leaf or two for good measure, when she was satisfied with the camouflage she scooted away.

SEASONAL ACTIVITIES

Look for Nolo Bait, Semaspore or Grasshopper Killer, three trade names of the protozoa useful for baby lubber grasshoppers. The product has a short shelf-life, about three weeks. It is a biological control that infects the 'hoppers' fatty tissue. According to Common Sense Pest Control William Olkowski, Sheila Daar and Helga Olkowski, the protozoa, Nosema locustae, disrupts circulation, excretion and reproduction; infected eggs carry a disease from one generation to the next. The insecticide is EPA registered.

Alternatively, step on the grasshoppers while you may. They can be killed by Diazinon and Sevin when still tiny, but they don't stay small for long.

The white scale on queen and king sagos will become much more active now that spring is here and summer approaches. They slow down in winter -- but don't disappear. This new insect has killed many large specimens of queen sago (Cycas rumphii) and smaller king sago (Cycas revoluta) by multiplying rapidly and sucking juices from the leaves. Use Cygon 2E alternately with Orthene and insecticidal soap. Include a light horticultural oil as one alternative spray until temperatures reach 85 degrees; in hotter weather, the oil can harm plants.

COLOR FOR SUMMER

Impatiens quickly wilt in this weather, so shop for summer color to replace them. Consider using salvia, now in many colors and sizes from burgundy and red to pink and white; torenia, the little Vietnamese plant with flowers that have fused lavender petals, a lower lip with dark violet edges and a yellow mark in the throat, sometimes called wishbone plant; always trustworthy zinnias and marigolds; bright yellow African bush daisies.

Caladiums can be planted in shady locations for their summer show of gloriously marked leaves. Plant bulbs just below the surface of a bed with some organic material, such as compost or peat moss.

April 30 is the annual color conference put on by the Dade Cooperative Extension Service at Fairchild Tropical Garden. Geared to landscape designers, the conference will cover new flowering annuals and perennials, antique roses for South Florida, flowering trees for spring, gingers and vines for South Florida, colorful palms of Cuba and bromeliads for spring color.

Just the topics alone should inspire you to look for color not only in annuals, but in a wide variety of plants.

One of the most beautiful colors for South Florida gardens can be found in the jade vine, a Philippine plant that produces long chains of aquamarine, claw-shaped flowers. Don't forget black-eyed Susan vine, with yellow and black flowers; stephanotis, with waxy white flowers that have a lovely perfume; sky vine, with large, light blue flowers; passion vine, with red, blue or pink flowers.

FERTILE MYRTLE

Did you fertilize the trees and shrubs in March? If not, do so. Don't forget the palms. Landscape trees and shrubs in alkaline soils (which take in much of South Florida) do well with a 7-3-7 fertilizer with micronutrients. This low middle number is phosphorus, already present in high quantities in our soils. It keeps micronutrients chemically tied up and unavailable to plants, so adding a lot more is not going to be of benefit.

A fertilizer that has a 3-1-3 ratio with extra magnesium as well as micronutrients is the palm fertilizer produced by Atlantic Fertilizer in Homestead. Its analysis is 12-4-12 with an additional 4 percent magnesium. The nitrogen and potassium are in slow-release form. Nitrogen and potassium are two elements that leach from rocky and sandy soils at about the same rate, so this fertilizer releases them gradually.

Dynamite, available in chain store garden centers, is also packaged for South Florida gardens with slow-release components. It comes in smaller packages and is more costly, but is good for small beds and containers, and is produced to last six months. (The palm fertilizer is available in 50-pound bags, which may be too much for townhouse gardens or zero-lot-line gardens.)

The smell and taste of summer is upon us

A swallowtail kite circled low over us last week, and we knew that summer has appeared. Summer also shows high in the red canopies of the poinciana trees.

This should be the last month of the dry season, when you say goodbye to spider mites and hello to aphids and scales. It's the turning point for tomatoes, which succumb to the heat, but a good time for the ripening lychees and mangoes. Begonias finally finish flowering, but the orchid Encyclia cordigerum produces purple and lavender blooms that smell of chocolate and vanilla.

The green season returns, so gather 'round the Maypole, children, to dance and drink sweet wine.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

May beetles are scarab-like beetles that are not the best and the brightest, but have their place in the scheme of things. They are showing up now, walnut brown to ebony in color. They feed at night, so you will find bites taken from rose leaves, cassias, mamey sapotes and lychee leaves.

The beetles are attracted to white. If you leave a white bucket of water near the roses at night, with a light shining on it, you will awaken the next morning to find said beetles are even worse swimmers than they are fliers.

BULBS

Caladiums have reappeared from sleep. From now until they disappear again, keep the soil moist and fertilize with a palm fertilizer, 8-4-12. For small bulbs, sprinkle only a teaspoonful; for large bulbs, use a tablespoon. Apply again in July and September. If you are applying a micronutrient spray to fruit trees or any other plants in your garden, hit the bulbs, too.

Michelle Bell and Gary Wilfret of the University of Florida have a tip. You can de-eye the tubers, removing a small central portion of the dominant buds, to produce more, but smaller, leaves and a fuller plant. (The tip is for commercial producers, but you may want try it on a big bulb and see what happens.)

Filtered sun or morning sun is best for these bulbs. If you plant in too much shade, the leaf stalk or petiole may stretch out and become weak.

Amorphophalli would like fertilizer as they appear, too. These aroids have been made famous and popular for gardeners by Mr. Stinky at Fairchild Tropical Garden. Use an organic, such as fish emulsion or aged manure. Carefully work manure in around the bulb.

When we bought amaryllis last winter, we ordered bulb food as well. It contains water-soluble nitrogen, bone meal (for phosphorous and calcium) and iron, so if your bulbs begin to look a little stressed, you might turn to slow-acting bone meal and some iron.

OUT WITH IMPATIENS

Gazania, lantana, society garlic, moss roses, salvia, verbena, gaillardia, torenia, vinca, crossandra, marigold, wax begonias.

Bloomers are lovin' the tropical life

June is pure Florida, not from concentrate.

Sultry is a good way to describe these summer days. It is indeed oppressively hot and moist. If given the opportunity, though, we'll bet plants would describe it as a walk in the rain forest. Since many landscape plants come from such steamy environs, summer swaddles them in a nostalgic home-away-from-home atmosphere.

Early morning and late evening are infused with flowery perfume, from ylang-ylang, jasmine and various ladies of the night (blossoms, we mean), providing joggers and walkers with aromatic delights.

We, meanwhile, are swaddled in a sheen of sweat. We recently have learned what a real tropical summer is like, and, trust us, blessings come in many forms.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

Take a lingering walk through your yard and look carefully at leaves. If you find them yellowing, they are signaling ``feed me.''

Heavy rains have washed away and plants have absorbed about all that was left from the March application of fertilizer. Even slow-release fertilizer may need replenishment.

Reach for a 16-4-8 or 10-10-10 fertilizer for the lawn if you feed it more than twice a year.

Use a palm special, such as 8-4-12 with 4 percent magnesium, on palms, trees and shrubs. A 7-3-7 with micronutrients also is a good all-purpose fertilizer.

Small amounts of slow-release Dynamite 14-14-14 can be used on potted orchids (don't overdo or you'll end up with floppy new growth) if they are outside. In covered shade houses, use 20-20-20 at half strength every week, then use a bloom special once a month.

The same 14-14-14 is good for tropical heliconias, costus, philodendrons and similar plants, while ferns love fish emulsion in the summer.

TIME TO PLANT

We are at the peak season for planting.

Planting holes are ideally three to five times wider than the root ball of the tree or shrub, and just as deep. That puts the plant, when removed from its container, at the same level in the ground as it grew in the container, but loosens and readies the lateral surroundings for new roots.

In some areas your yards are made of rocky fill hauled up from beneath mucky soil. When compacted by heavy equipment, fill becomes almost like concrete, without any drainage capacity at all. You may want to build a mound of soil and plant on that. Eventually, roots will conquer the fill, worm their way into it and thrive, but this takes time.

In rocky and sandy soil, add about 30 percent composted manure, compost or peat moss, but no more. This gives roots a decent start, but doesn't make the growing hole so sweet that roots won't venture beyond it.

Use the hose to water in the soil as you back fill the planting area so you don't create air pockets that can kill new roots. And then mulch around the root zone, but keep mulch two inches from the trunk to avoid fungus.

Water daily for a couple or three weeks to keep the roots moist, then gradually decrease to every other day, then thrice weekly. The reason this is the ideal planting time is that rains can do some of this watering for you.

WINDS OF CHANGE

Hurricanes do bring change, but you avoid putting in a whole new landscape if you plan now. The early heat this year could mean earlier than normal storms, so don't delay.

Consult with an arborist about the condition of your trees. Some may require thinning to ready them for wind.

Please avoid hat-racking. It weakens bushy new growth and destroys the aesthetics of a tree.

Pruning should allow wind to flow through the canopy of a tree, not smack up against it like wind against a sail.

An arborist should provide references and should be insured.

LOOK FOR . . .

Lobate lac scales. We hate to sound like a broken record, but they are spreading. The insects are dark brown with lobed shells, about the size of baby peas. They are fond of weakened plants and will kill twigs, branches and whole shrubs. They spread on wind and have voracious appetites, sucking cell juice from native and exotic plants, including wax myrtle, wild coffee, carambolas, you name it. If your plants are not thriving, if the leaves are yellowing and you have fertilized properly, then check out the twigs for the scale.

Horticultural oils are reportedly being used with some success. It's important to use only Superfine oil, made of paraffin, this time of year, as regular oils can burn plants when the temperature rises above 85 degrees.

Merit 75 WP (wettable powder) has been used successfully on ficus trees with the scale, as has Bayer's Advanced Tree and Shrub Insect Control. (Don't use this on fruit trees as it has a 12-month residual action.)

The heat is on: Take special care of your plants

So much rain. So much heat. So much new growth.

If climate change were not on the radar screen, we might well believe we have been transported several degrees closer to the Equator.

In the garden, heat and rain have had several effects.

Plants are feeling a constant push to send out new growth. With delicious and tender shoots plentiful, insects are plentiful, too. Use a hard spray of water to remove aphids or a light infestation of mealy bugs. Soapy water from a sprayer is good. Oil is tricky now because of temperatures above 85 degrees.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

In the orchid house, recent heat caused a Vanda hybrid to turn lemon yellow. We looked up the ancestry and found Vanda coerulea in its background. This species is from India, Burma and Thailand and it produces blue flowers. It grows at altitudes from 2,400 feet to almost 6,000 feet. That means it likes cooler weather than we've been having lately. Despite fans in the shade house, it fell victim to heat.

Another orchid in the same large vandal tribe, Trichoglottis philippensis var. brachiata, is happily flowering outside, hanging from a limb in a mango tree, with no artificial breezes blowing around it. This one, however, comes from the Philippines at much lower altitudes -- sea level to 900 feet. It can take the heat.

So when things begin to go awry with some orchids and not others, you may find your answer in the origin of the species.

These days, our vandaceous orchids (Vanda, Ascocenda, Ascocentrum, Phalaenopsis, Euanthe, Angrecum and others) are getting water twice a day if it's not cloudy and or raining in the afternoon. I mist them in the afternoon to cool them when heat becomes really intense.

I'm also adding Physan 20 to liquid fertilizer to keep disease at bay. This versatile chemical fights algae, fungi, bacteria and viruses.

If you grow your orchids in a medium that contains bark, check closely for snow mold. It thrives in bark mixes this time of year. If your plants (particularly cattleyas) aren't looking well, remove them from their pots and examine the roots and mix. You will recognize snow mold right away: It looks like white velvet. Hose off the mold, cut away brown roots and treat the remaining roots with Thiomyl or Cleary's 3-3-3-6. Throw away the mix. Repot into Aliflor or another rock-like mix.

Keep an eye out for wilt when the sun shines. Plant metabolism is going lickety-split.

Special care for orchids

AVIAN WATCH

Loud, discordant baby-bird mewlings from the top of the pine snag bring in an adult woodpecker. Apparently the aggressive forays of starlings were repelled a few weeks ago, and the woodpeckers have prevailed. A starling and a woodpecker went mano a mano one morning when I was in the garden, and, to my amazement, several times came within inches of the ground before unclasping each other to swoop skyward. It was a serious contest, and had prompted us to consider avianicide, however fleetingly.

Now, the main danger has been initiated by a climbing philodendron, which is pressing its adventitious roots to the snag's higher elevations and creeping within a foot or so of the nesting cavity. Hopefully, nestlings will take flight before too long.

Not only has the philodendron spread, but this summer's bounty of rain has set a green fire in the bamboo patch. Vandaceous orchids in red, orange, blue and pink/lavender are adding tongues of color to the orchid house, while the new teddy bear and king palms are lapping up the rain with appreciative roots. The garden looks as prosperous and fat as Wall Streeters these days.

Some yellowing of leaves in August is the result of the twin stresses of heat and fast growth. Hibiscus, gardenias and oleanders are among the plants that will turn leaves bright yellow when stressed. (If the leaves are generally an off-color, though, that may indicate a need for a liquid fertilizer boost, such as 20-20-20. If leaves are yellow with green veins, magnesium may be needed.) Heat-stressed leaves will be replaced.

Given these stresses, it's better to hold off transplanting anything this month.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

Orchids are growing at their fastest clip.

In really awful, sultry weather, you may want to mist the vanda-related orchids twice a day to prevent their leaves from overheating and shutting down photosynthesis. Keep the Phalaenopsis in cool, shady areas.

This month, you should consider feeding orchids lightly each week - at one-half or one-quarter strength of the normal recommendation on your fertilizer container - so they'll have needed supplies for producing carbohydrates and simple sugars. Add a spreader-sticker to your water soluble-fertilizer to help the solution cling to the roots so minerals may be taken in by the plants.

Brown spots or streaks on orchid leaves can be caused by leaf fungi. Kocide or Physan can be used, but don't get the copper-based Kocide on Cattleya flowers. Physan is a bacteriacide, fungicide, algacide. Routine or preventive spraying may cause resistance in the bacteria or fungi, so use when needed only.

Watch cattleyas for black rot. Fungi-caused water-soaked and oozy areas are characteristic of this disease that can occur in the leaf or the pseudobulb. There are two fungus organisms, pythium and phytophthora, working together to produce black rot. Control them with Subdue, Banrot or Captan. Cut off the infected portion of the leaves or remove the entire pseudobulb, and disinfect your knife afterward.

Bacterial rot, which loves high humidity, high heat and crowded conditions, may produce water-soaked sores on Phalaenopsis this time of year. A tell-tale characteristic is that this rot smells bad. It spreads quickly, so keep an eye peeled, and use Kocide with Manzate, one tablespoon each in a gallon of water. Cut off the infected area of the leaf, and hang the pots so the crowns of the plants drain after watering.

ROSES

Black spot on roses increases in rainy summer weather and high humidity. A fungicide for this bane of rose bushes is Fungiguard (containing Daconil). When mixing the fungicide, add two tablespoons of vinegar to a gallon of water to reduce the alkalinity and get more action from the fungicide. Or, commercial acidifiers with spreader-stickers are available at garden stores.

Fish emulsion or 20-20-20 can be used alternately on roses, applied weekly.

(Daconil 2728 is also a wide-acting fungicide for diseases of the lawn that cause spreading, brown areas.)

LOOK FOR

Convenient places to quickly store your outside potted plants, gardening equipment and lawn furniture in case of hurricanes.

Take the shade cloth off the shade house to prevent it from acting like a sail. Remove avocados or other fruit that can become mini-cannon balls in a storm.

Have supplies on hand that you are likely to need following a storm, such as hoses for watering roots of toppled trees; old sheets or covers to help shield upturned roots from sun; Kocide, the copper-based fungicide mentioned for orchids that will come in handy for palms; Manzate, that contains zinc for antibacterial action, also for palms, Aliette, a systemic fungicide to be used against bud rot in palms (don't use this with Manzate; an adverse reaction happens with Aliette and copper mix).

And remember that the aftermath will scare the dickens out of you on first sight. Clean up first, and carefully assess damage before reaching for a chain saw.

Enjoy flowers now; get the garden ready for veggies

Loquats, sometimes called Japanese plums, are flowering, although they do not threaten to depose poincianas from the beauty throne. Eriobotrya japonica is the botanical name, and the tree is in the rose family, which perhaps accounts for the blossoms' slight fragrance.

By the time the fruit have matured in December, we will have forgotten these steamy September mornings when the oppressiveness of air weighs like a guilty pleasure.

As we tear another paper month from the calendar, it is worth remembering these are things we can't retrieve.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

If you're planning a vegetable garden, have you solarized the soil? Using the sun to bake weed seeds, diseases, bacteria and nematodes from the soil takes four to six weeks. So: hup, two, three, four.

Remove the grass and weeds from your garden site and level the site so you don't have low spots where water can collect. Water. Cover with clear plastic, weighed down.

Sheets of plastic come in varying thicknesses. Ordinary garbage bags usually are less than a mil, sometimes .9 mil. Heavy plastic sheeting may reflect sun rather than allowing it to penetrate deeply into the earth. Two to four mil plastic is ideal.

Four to six weeks from now, remove the plastic and work compost into the soil. Allow three weeks for the microorganisms to begin converting compost into plant-friendly components.

SNIPPETS

Cut back those poinsettias by Sept. 15. And if you grow bougainvilleas, cut them back as well. Then give both a 4-6-8 or 4-8-8 fertilizer to strengthen cells for any coming cold, to reduce leaf production and encourage flowering.

ORCHID HOUSE

Seasonal things are happening in the shade house.

Catasetums and dendrobiums are coming into bloom. Once flowering is over, it will be time to reduce fertilizer and water. Many dendrobiums will be watered a couple of times a week, but catasetums go into dormancy over winter and once they drop their leaves, they receive no water other than what nature supplies.

The American Orchid Society's culture recommendations for nobile-type dendrobiums are to quit fertilizing these plants after August. They lose their leaves in winter, and watering should be every 10 to 14 days. After several nights of cool temperatures, buds are initiated and the plants produce flowers on bare, upright canes in the spring.

Miltonias and Brassias are full of flowers, while the cattleyas have promising flower sheaths. These, the vandas and bulbos, the oncidiums and renantheras remain on summer schedules for a little longer.

LOOK FOR . . .

Big weather events. The prudent among us will have on hand fungicides, such as Clary's 3-3-3-6, kocide (not for use on bromeliads) and manzate, to combat fungus; extra shade cloth if the shade house and the treetops blow away; rope, pruning shears and sturdy garden gloves; DEET and Gatorade.

Time to grow vegetables

WEATHER WATCH

A little of the edge of summer already has been blunted, however briefly, and if you hold still you can sense the slight shift in the seasons.

The redstarts first brought it to our attention, then the warbler we couldn't identify, no matter how many bird books we tried. And now, on our late afternoon dog walk, the color of the leaves against the sky is more potent, deeper, the sunlight less blindingly white.

Thinking back, we remember how impatient we used to be with such things, racing from one season to the next. We couldn't wait for Halloween at the onset of September; we longed endlessly for Christmas; dragged despondently through winter; snubbed spring for summer.

Now, age and gardens have a way of bringing a fullness to each season. The tilting, whirling planet, our perpetual motion machine, allows each portion of the yearly cycle, each act of the birth-death-rebirth melodrama, to spin round in full time, and, quite to our astonishment, often faster than we wish.

This is the time of year when we watch the floss silk trees come into bloom (occasionally migrating ruby-throat hummingbirds dance around the flowers if the parrots aren't too rambunctious), when avocados left dangling on the trees begin to yellow, when we intuit the shift of the sun before we actually notice a change in the shadows. Winter is on the horizon. We are charmed by its approach.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

Plan for at least a container of tomatoes in the coming vegetable gardening season. Even if you have but a windowsill or a balcony, you can grow vegetables. In pots, of course. A 4-inch pot is enough for chives. A 6-inch pot is fine for your favorite loose-leaf lettuce or basil. Even beans and squash can be corralled into a half-bushel basket (line the basket with plastic to keep it from leaking).

A commercial potting soil will work for vegetables. Fertilize with water-soluble fertilizer every couple of weeks; allow the soil to dry on the surface between watering.

If your balcony is windy, check the soil frequently for moisture levels. Wind pulls moisture from soil, and clay pots, especially, allow soil to dry quite rapidly. Plastic pots may be more suitable. Remember that vegetables like six hours of sun a day.

ORCHIDS

The phalaenopsis dendrobiums are full of flowers, as are the clamshell orchids, the fragrant Oncidium 'Sherry Baby', some vandas. The winter care schedule goes into effect this month.

Once, when we had actual shadecloth over the frame of the shade house, we moved out the vandas onto the limbs of the deciduous floss silk to bask in the winter sun. Now, the tree has grown so large it provides shade and the cloth is stored in the garage with other essentials that might cause us emotional harm should they be discarded. This means that the tree's leaves drop at just about the time the orchids need more light. It also means a good deal of raking and picking leaves from orchid pots.

Reduce fertilizing to once a month now through February, or switch to a 10-30-20 bloom booster that will direct less nitrogen to leaf production. Watering schedules still are in place: vandas every sunny day; cattleyas when they are not quite dry and phals to keep the medium moist. Dendrobiums seem to do well on a cattleya schedule.

FERTILIZER

By the end of the month, apply fertilizer for the last time this year. Use a low nitrogen (4-6-8 or 4-8-8) to strengthen cell walls and roots against cooler weather.

El Nino is predicted to make winter a rainy one. If so, it will follow a summer of ample rainfall, so fertilizer has been leaching from the soil at a good clip and a new supply of nutrients now will meet the demands ahead.

Replenish the mulch supply. Ours simply disappeared over the summer, so a new batch of eucalyptus chips recently went down. Doesn't the garden look great with mulch and a haircut?

We checked a few things here and there. In pruning groups, bougainvillea is assigned to group 12; the instructions are to cut back side shoots to within three or four buds of the permanent framework of branches, and thin out overcrowded shoots. (We prune bougainvillea hard after flowering, which is mentioned here; we also nip and tuck again in the fall on vigorous vining types to increase flower formation during the dry season, which is not mentioned. We would buy the book anyway.)

LOOK FOR

Caterpillars to munch on above-mentioned bougainvillea. Use Dipel or another product with Bacillus thuringiensis, a stomach poison.

A sunny place to locate some tropical bulbs, such as amaryllis, society garlic, walking iris. They need rich, well-draining soil with a teaspoon of bone meal in the planting hole.

Rains wash away fertilizer

November's change of season brings with it a hopeful new feeling, a lifting of the summer's oppressive heat and rain, a quicker step.

Emily Dickinson called hope a thing with feathers. Miriam MacGillis says hope is a choice.

MacGillis is a Dominican nun who, with other nuns, runs an organic farm in New Jersey. She says increasing environmental crises around the globe signal the end of the biological era. But, she says, ''We make a choice to hope.''

In The Fate of the Earth, an essay in the book The Soul of Nature, MacGillis says thinking humans are the Earth able to reflect on itself. Having evolved with and from the earth, we are its consciousness. The fluids of the earth, the oceans, flow through us, too, she says, making up our saline fluids. We share with the earth's crust our body minerals.

To poison the oceans is to poison ourselves; to kill the earth is to kill ourselves. But, she says, we can make choices, we can start thinking of ourselves as part of the earth and its community instead of separate from them. We can choose to act differently. We can choose to hope.

So, if you think about it, Emily Dickinson was right.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

The heavy rains no doubt washed away any fertilizer you may have put out. The St. Augustine in front is showing streaks of yellow-green, which is a reminder that it needs some nutritional help. Palms could use some antifreeze for the winter, as could the rest of the landscape.

If you like to use 12-4-12-4 fertilizer for palms with slow release nitrogen and potassium, do so early in the month before cool weather begins to slow palm metabolism. The 4-6-8 for citrus is good for other landscape plants and trees now because it will not push leafy new growth, but will strengthen roots and plant cells for cool weather.

If you are mulching and adding compost to your mulch, you may not have to use as much fertilizer as the label or package directs. You can tell by watching the color of the leaves. Light green tells you the plants are hungry; light green in specific areas tell you which minerals they require.

A bloom special, with a low first number indicating low nitrogen content, is good for the bougainvillea and the poinsettias.

ORCHIDS

Switch from 20-20-20 to a bloom-booster fertilizer on cattleyas if leaves are dark green and have been growing in deep shade. If cattleyas have flower sheaths, you may want to support the pseudobulbs so they remain upright and stable as flowers develop. A metal ring or a stake may give support if the bulbs are leaning. Make sure the plants have more light now, and face the new growth in the direction of strongest light -- to the south-southeast.

Relocate oncidiums, miltonias, vandas and ascocendas to get more light now that days are shorter and light less intense. Use a high-phosphorus, 10-30-20 in phalaenopsis and increase their light, too. Some commercial growers like to use Epsom salts on phals this time of year to strengthen their bloom spikes (1 tablespoon per gallon of water) that may begin development now.

Orchids that undergo dormancy or a period of rest over winter, such as nobile dendrobiums, cynoches and catasetums, should be watered sparingly and not fertilized until new growth begins.

GRASS

The lawn may be beyond the stage of fertilizing and into acute care or even replacement mode after the rains. You can still resod in early November if fungus has gotten the better of the St. Augustine. Or, you can opt to rake up the dead runners and reseed with ryegrass (for winter only) or centipede.

VEGGIES

High vegetable gardening time. Plant the cool-weather veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, peas and lettuce (replant others washed away or beaten by the heavy rains). Use raised beds -- gardening areas built inside concrete blocks or wood borders, usually 18 or 24 inches high.

LOOK FOR

Hawks to fly over and wading birds to return to South Florida; goldenrod, asters, primrose willow, lobelia and blazing stars; shooting stars; ways to spend more time out of doors, where you can witness the diversity of it all.

How to buy holiday plants

A cold front was coming in as we crossed Alligator Alley heading west. It wasn't preceded by rain, but the wind picked up, bending golden sawgrass in fading golden light. Winter sunsets occur in the middle of the afternoon, it seems.

On the return trip, winter's birds were apparent, especially woodstorks near the Naples end of the Alley. Here and there, flocks of ibis collected in cypress trees like large, white ornaments. As if on a count of three, the birds would rise together, circle up and over the flat marsh and disappear at the horizon. A solitary heron feeding, or flying with those slow graceful wingbeats, is as thrilling to watch as certain music is to hear.

It's a glorious time of year.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

Cool weather, arriving earlier than in the recent years, is a heads-up: gather ye rosebuds while ye may, but keep the burlap handy. Tropical and recently planted shrubs and trees can be set back by severe cold or frost, and covering them is one of those activities gardeners must perform.

Most orchids, sealing wax palms, and tender ferns need protection in below 50-degree weather, not to mention a freeze. To be safe, bring the sealing wax palm inside when the vandas come in: at 50 to 55 degrees.

A few - ixoras, for instance - develop brown leaves in 40-degree weather. Have on hand old sheets, blankets, large boxes with which to cover tender plants if a freeze threatens.

We have saved pruned bamboo, trimmed the side shoots, and stashed the poles to use as tripods over which we can throw protective cloth. Cold fronts may be windy; bricks, rocks, half-full fertilizer bags can weigh down the covers. Water root zones well before nightfall (don't water the leaves as this can chill them), and pull back mulch so warmth can rise from the soil.

Cover your shadehouse with plastic to keep out wind and cold. Be sure the sides can come up during warmer daylight, lest the plants be cooked instead of coddled.

After a freeze, avoid pruning until spring so the new growth can tell you how much dead wood may be cut away. Allow browned leaves to remain on the plants to protect leaves beneath them.

HOLIDAY PLANTS

The poinsettia from Mexico, the Christmas cactus from Brazil, the amaryllis from South America by way of Holland - these have become so embedded in our holiday celebrations it hardly would seem like the season without them.

When buying poinsettias, look for fully green leaves and bright bracts, colorful leaves that surround small flowers. The actual flowers are the tiny green and yellow bud-sized parts in the center.

Curling, drying, dropped leaves mean the plant is old before its time. Poinsettias grown for indoors like bright light, evenly cool temperatures; keep them out of the downdraft of central heat, should you turn it on. Water when the top of the soil feels dry. If aluminum foil wraps the pot, be sure you create drainage holes in it; poinsettias don't like to have their roots in water.

Christmas cactus flower when nighttime temperatures are cool - or after you provide 14 hours of darkness for six to eight weeks before you want the flowers to appear. During this period, reduce watering and withhold fertilizer.

The bell-shaped flowers hang from the tips of slender, arching cactus pads. Christmas cactus likes humidity, so mist every couple of days. If you run air conditioning/heating, mist daily or set pots in a tray of moist rocks.

Amaryllis is really in the genus Hippeastrum , not Amaryllis. The true amaryllis is pink and flowers in the fall. The Dutch have bred the Barbados lily into the Christmas favorite it is today, a huge and sexy pot plant.

A favorite mail-order gift, the bulbs sprout magically indoors once watered. Soil should be kept moist but not wet because bulbs rot easily. For planting outside, however, Florida-grown plants are best. Remember that Christmas bulbs are forced, and spring is the normal time for Hippeastrum to bloom.

SPICE OF LIFE

Hot mulled cider may contain allspice, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon; eggnog is flavored with vanilla and nutmeg; gingerbread with cloves, cinnamon, ginger. Many holiday spices are from tropical plants, so a little holiday botany is in order:

Allspice is from the unripe berries of Pimenta dioica, the allspice tree from the West Indies and Central America.

Cloves are flower buds from Syzygium aromaticum, a member of the myrtle family that originated in the Molucca Islands in the Malay Archipelago of the southern Pacific (it has cousins roaming South Florida's hammocks).

Nutmeg is the dried seed of Myristica fragrans, a plant also from the Moluccas, now widely grown in the Leeward Islands in the eastern Caribbean.

Cinnamon comes from the bark of trees in the genus Cinnamomum, one from Ceylon and India, the other from Southern China and Burma.

Ginger is from the rhizome or underground stem of Zingiber officinale, originally from tropical Asia.

Vanilla is derived from dried fruits of Vanilla planifolia, an orchid from Central America and the West Indies.

VEGETABLE GARDENS

Vegetable gardens may be at about the halfway point when side-dressing will be necessary. Four ounces of fertilizer such as 8-8-8 are recommended for a 10-foot row of vegetables. Apply in a band along the row just at the drip line of the leaves. If using manure, scatter down each side of a row at the edge of the roots (pulling back any mulch to do so) and lightly work this into the soil with a rake or trowel.