SEATTLE — Seattle gardening expert Ciscoe Morris has four chores he does in his garden every summer solstice.
Assasinate Aphids
“There's a few things you need to do right around the summer solstice to make your plants just thrive. So here's the first one: Get out there and inspect your plants. Roses so often are just covered with aphids!” said Ciscoe.
He said to look around buds, and UNDERNEATH leaves, where he found a bunch hiding out.
“Oh la la....you thought you could hide from me, huh guys. No such luck! I feel bad doing this because you are awful young, but El Kibotzky!” Ciscoe yelled, squishing the bugs with his fingers.
Yelling the words El Kibotzly is the key to a successful bare fingered bug squishing, according to Ciscoe. But, if your entire rose is covered in aphids, fear not, you don’t have to squish them all. Ciscoe has another solution for that.
“Use your hose nozzle!” Ciscoe said. A low pressure blast will take care of aphids, you may have to do it a few times to get them all.
Deadhead
"Now the next thing you gotta do is deadhead your plants. See these spent flowers? These are seedheads,” said Ciscoe, pointing out a poppy beginning to go to seed. “If you get these off, I guarantee you're gonna get a lot more flowers, this little Iceland Poppy has been blooming since early spring because I'm doing this and I do it as often as I can remember.”
Ciscoe says that when seedheads form, the plant puts all of its energy into those and doesn’t put energy into new blooms, so the best way to get new blooms is to get rid of spent flowers.
Fertilize flowering plants
“So, another really important job is to fertilize your roses. Maybe your delphiniums, anything that blooms all summer long, don't forget those dahlias too. My favorite fertilizer is 50/50 mix of alfalfa meal and organic rose food,” said Ciscoe, putting a couple cups of the fertilizer around his rose.
“Now there's one more thing we gotta do no matter what, we've gotta water that fertlizer in,” he said. “Now, I’ll have fat ‘n happy roses that are gonna bloom like mad for the rest of the summer.
Plant ‘em if you bought ‘em
Ciscoe’s final chore is a fun one.
“Last thing if you're not too exhausted. Remember all the plants you bought to plant in the spring? Get ‘em in the ground! They're gonna die in these pots! Oh la la!”
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