August Gardening Chores
by Dr. Robert Black, Consumer Horticultural Specialist

August is a rough month for gardening in Florida. It's too late to plant many summer flowers and too early for winter varieties. And furthermore, it's just too darn hot to spend all day slaving in the yard. But don't despair, there are plenty of easy jobs left to do. Here's a potpourri of easy-to-do garden chores.

Roses grow quite large in South Florida and a late August pruning is recommended. Remove healthy top growth as well as twigs and branches that are dead, diseased, injured, unsightly or thin and spindly. Shorten main canes and lateral branches removing small twigs and some of the oldest canes. Leave at least half the length of each main cane that is one to three years old. The first flowers can be expected eight to nine weeks after pruning.

If you're growing mums or poinsettias for winter color, this is the last month you should pinch these plants to increase blooms. Pinching back the stem tips will promote heavier flowering because of increased branching. But, if you wait too late, pinching will remove flower buds and thus reduce flowers this fall.

It's also about time to begin disbudding camellias to increase flower size. As soon as you can distinguish the rounded flower buds from the pointed vegetative bud, twist off all but one of the flower buds at each tip. Be careful not to injure the remaining bud which should develop into a larger flower. Sasanquas and japonicas that are prized for multi blooms, need not be pinched.

Common ornamentals like oleander, hydrangeas and azaleas can be propagated by cuttings this time of year. For azaleas, take tip cuttings 3 to 5 inches long with several leaves left attached. Many rooting mediums can be used such as sand or a mixture of peat and perlite. Place the cuttings in the media and keep moist by covering with a plastic bag or use a mist system. A rooting hormone may hasten root growth. If you have any cold sensitive ornamentals, try rooting cuttings before winter and keep the young plants in a protected spot this winter. Then, if the ornamental freezes, you'll have replacements for the spring.

If you want to plant things this time of year, try bulbs of Louisiana iris, gingers, crinums, daylilies, amaryllis and zephyr lilies. Of course, you can still plant woody ornamentals, but hurry up so that they'll be well established before the winter arrives.

If you intend to plant winter annuals like Baby's Breath, calendulas or pansies, start ordering your seed and preparing the flowerbeds.

Keep watching for insects of lawns and ornamentals. Chinch bugs and mole crickets are very active on lawns and white flies, scales, aphids, and caterpillars are damaging to ornamentals.

There are lots of other activities you can think of, but these will keep you busy for a while.