February Garden Guide: Planting, Pruning, and Valentine's Day Gifts

Buy

Sunset zones 7–9, 14–17: Give a living Valentine—a lemon tree with a red ribbon, a bare-root rose, or a flowering plant that can move outdoors after bloom. Choices: azaleas, camellias, carnations, gardenias, Oriental lilies.

Plant

Easy climbers (15–20 ft): fragrant yellow Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), white evergreen clematis (C. armandii), purple Hardenbergia violacea 'Happy Wanderer', pink H. v. 'Rosea', fragrant pinkish-white Jasminum polyanthum, pink/white Pandorea jasminoides, violet trumpet vine (Clytostoma callistegioides).

Roses need 6–8 hours of sun, but some tolerate partial shade. Easy-care shrubs: 'Carefree Beauty', 'Carefree Delight', 'Flutterbye', 'Marjorie Fair'. Climbers: 'Altissimo', 'Blaze', 'Coral Dawn', 'Fourth of July'.

Top tomato varieties for Northern California: 'Brandywine', 'Early Girl', 'Gardener's Delight', 'Green Grape', 'Stupice', 'Sun Gold', 'SunSugar'. For hot inland areas: 'Ace-High Improved', 'Celebrity'. Start seeds now for late March/April planting.

Set out artichoke and asparagus roots; broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery (zones 15–17), green onions, kohlrabi, lettuce seedlings. Sow beets, carrots, chard, lettuce, peas, spinach directly. Start eggplant, peppers, tomatoes indoors with bottom heat (heat mat or water heater); allow 6–8 weeks to transplant size. Zones 1–2: start broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower indoors/greenhouse late month; transplant in 6–8 weeks under floating row covers.

Maintain

Cut back woody shrubs (Zones 7–9, 14–17): Stimulate lush growth on artemisia, butterfly bush, fuchsia, Mexican bush sage by cutting woody stems to a few inches above ground. Unpruned plants become leggy.

Repot cymbidium orchids if bulging or bark decomposed. Do between mid-February and early July for next season's bloom. Remove old bark, cut dead roots, discard soft/rotted bulbs. Repot into larger container or divide into groups of 3–5 pseudobulbs. Use medium bark or cymbidium mix.