Bangor Garden Show to bloom March 19-21

Once a month, I answer your questions, sent to me by mail or e-mail. You are welcome to send along your useful gardening tips, which I will be delighted to pass along to readers, if appropriate. Use the information below to address your correspondence.

Q. Any chance you know when the Bangor Flower Show is planned this year? One person told me mid-March and another told me mid-April. – P.A., e-mail

A. The show will be held on March 19-21, with the gala opening on the evening of March 18. For more information and a discount coupon for $1 off admission, visit www.bangorgardenshow.com.

Q. We have had this palmlike plant-small tree for over two years now. It has dozens of thin, semiflexible, bladelike leaves that are each about 17 inches long, 2 inches across at the center, with one end tapering somewhat from its connection to the “trunk” and the other end tapering to a point. The outside edges of the leaves are a medium to dark green, with the middle section of the leaves being a lighter green in two different parallel strands.

In its current pot, the plant-tree stands about 41/2 feet tall, about 2 feet taller than when we bought it two years ago. I’m providing all this description because I haven’t learned the name of this particular flora.

By all appearances, it’s a healthy, thriving specimen, and we’d like to help it continue that way, especially since it has become like a member of the family: early on, we named it “Spike,” and he-she seems happy near our sunny bedroom window.

Spike is in the pot that Agway sold him in, a 9-inch plastic one that is now barely wide enough at the base to be reliably stable for the size of plant he’s become; plus, his “trunk” at the top of the soil is about 2 inches in diameter, and I’m seeing little roots poking their way out of slots at the bottom edge of the pot – altogether, my guess is that Spike is getting a dite crowded.

So, we bought him a new, 12-inch clay pot and are about to re-pot. My question is this: we bought a 20-pound bag of “organic rich sterilized” potting soil, sold commercially by Country Farms of Clinton, Conn. As a palm (or at least we think he’s a palm), would Spike appreciate any added substances to the potting soil, such as sand, etc?

Sorry to take so long getting to my question. My wife probably would have been briefer! – R.E., Orono

A. Palms prefer a well-drained potting mix. Unless the potting soil you purchased has a hearty amount of perlite and vermiculite, you may want to “lighten” the mix. Most commercial palm growers use course sand (#12) as a significant component to their medium. You might consider creating a mix of 2 parts potting soil, 1 part sand and 1 part perlite and see what Spike thinks of that.

Remember, the mix has to be dense enough to support the plant, but light enough to provide adequate drainage. The more you “lighten” a mix, the less change you’ll create a stable root environment. The “heavier” you make the mix (through the addition of dense top soil, etc.), the greater risk of hindering drainage.

Q. I have a question about propagation. I would like to know how to propagate apple trees and flowering crabs either by seed or cuttings. – R.H., Island Falls

A. It is perhaps most rapid and effective to propagate apple trees and crabapple trees by cutting. Softwood cuttings (new growth) may be taken in late spring, dipped in rooting compound (available at farm-garden stores) and placed in a peat-perlite medium. Kept misted and damp, these cuttings should quickly yield new roots and be ready for transplanting to the nursery in late summer.

It is possible to propagate some apples and crab apples from seed, but since some varieties do not come true to seed (they will not yield plants like the parent plant) and others are sterile, this process is not always reliable.

Remember that many commercially propagated apples and crabapples are grafted onto vigorous or disease resistant root stock, which produces more lively trees. Naturally, a cutting yields its own root stock, which may not be as vigorous or as disease resistant as root stock of the commercially produced parent plant from which the cutting was harvested. This may have little practical effect for your purposes, but it is worth noting.

You may wish to learn more about this interesting procedure. If the cutting, grafting and budding of fruit trees interest you, look for The American Horticultural Society’s “Plant Propagation.” It is an exceptionally useful and comprehensive resource on propagating woody and herbaceous plants.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, 512 North Ridge Road, Montville 04941 or e-mail dianagc@midcoast.com. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.