Question: Is there any true perennial forget-me-not? When and where should it be planted? AA – Illinois.
Answer: Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides) is an excellent perennial with a low, prostrate habit of growth, blooming in early spring with tiny blue flowers. In a cool, damp place they will persist for many years. They may be divided and replanted if desired in early spring.
Question: Do crushed egg shells have any value in the flower and vegetable garden? LC – Ohio.
Answer: Crushed egg shells have no fertilizer value. They do contain lime. but it would be a slow unprofitable way to add lime where needed.
Question: My weeping willows were covered all last year with tiny dark purple bugs. What can I do to prevent their coming this spring? CS – Minnesota.
Answer: The willow beetle is a metallic blue bug about one-eighth inch long. It lives over winter under bark and in rubbish around the tree. The eggs are laid about the first of June and the larvae feed on the undersides of the leaves. reaching adult stage in July. They produce a second brood in August. While they are in the larvae stage, that is about the middle of June and the middle of August. Try Sevin as a control. Follow the labeled directions and add a little soap or detergent to act as a spreader.
Question: Could you tell us something about growing and caring for horseradish – when to plant and dig? When we dig it in the fall the roots are woody. GWF – Missouri.
Answer: Plant horseradish roots in early spring. from the middle to the last of March. Dig anytime between late fall and early spring. In the garden. when a root is dug in the early spring, cut off the top with an inch or so of the root and immediately replant this top. By the next fall it will have produced another root ready to dig. The strongest and best horseradish (lis from roots left in the ground and dug and used as needed during the winter and early spring. Old roots left two or more years become woody, rotten and worthless. Roots from cuttings set in the spring and harvested the following fall and winter are best.
Answered by CL Quear
