It's anything grows in Las Vegas if you invest the time and effort

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Planting can be done any time now and the sooner in the season the better. We are generally past the late frost time of year. Still, anything could happen, but the chances are now remote. You should have gotten most of your landscape plants fertilized and pruned by now. They are all getting ready to break for 2006.

You can apply dormant oil to fruit trees after bloom or just before if they haven't started yet. We can apply dormant oil any time until it starts to get hot. It is still too early to put out tomato and pepper transplants yet, but you could start getting them hardened off if they have been in a greenhouse.

You can do this by just letting them get used to the cold weather, but not directly in it. This could be in an area with lots of protection from wind and some protection at night from the cold. It would be nice to keep them at temperatures above 45 degrees at night.

An introduction to beekeeping in Southern Nevada is being offered on March 25 on the UNLV campus. No prior experience is necessary. Bee veils, sturdy shoes, long sleeves and long pants are required.

Individuals without equipment can buy a veil, pant straps and gloves for an additional fee. E-mail michelle.baker@unlv.edu or call 895-3254 for more information. The course will include both in-class instruction and direct experience opening a managed colony.

Oftentimes I will write about plants that are not supposed to grow here. You know, we do live in a desert. However, my personal philosophy is that horticulture can be fun, not a pain. The fun about horticulture is to try things that aren't supposed to grow here and see if you can make them work.

I have had people write to me who are growing plants that I would have told them not to grow here but they have been doing it.

That's great! Keep up the good work and I believe you can grow anything in Las Vegas if you are willing to put the time and effort to get them to grow here. Horticulture is the manipulation of the plant and its environment to get it to do what you want it to do.

Question: I read that Cape Honeysuckle will grow in partial shade here, but I've had them for at least three years and they've never bloomed. Do I need to move them to a sunnier spot?

Answer: Cape honeysuckle does well here in full sun and in hot locations with not a lot of care. It is not blooming because it isn't getting enough sun. We have one in full sun on a southern location with roses. It gets to about 8 feet tall and about the same or more in width if left to sprawl. It will grow like crazy so you will have to keep it in check with some occasional pruning. Please don't box or gumdrop prune it. Flowers come in yellow through red. Commonly it is orange.

Cape honeysuckle is one of those plants, like bougainvillea, that won't take much freezing weather. But, like bougainvillea it will spring back from the ground when frozen with vigor if it is mulched.

This is a remarkable plant. It is drought tolerant, salt tolerant, has beautiful flowers, takes heat, direct sunlight, alkaline soils -- it is just plain tough. In a hot location, it will bloom all year long and it is great for attracting hummingbirds.

Q: Could you give some names of fruit-bearing, dwarf lemon and lime trees that can grow in Henderson? How tall do they get? How many years before it can bear fruit? Can it grow in a pot indoors or on the balcony? What size pots? Where can it be purchased?

A: In our climate, all citrus are iffy. Do not think of these plants as plants that will stay forever. We are due for some cold winters in the future and we have been lured into thinking citrus will grow here. Be careful.

With that disclaimer, the citrus that are most tolerant of cold will be the Meyer's lemon, grapefruit, kumquat and mandarin oranges. Most all others will be even more iffy. If you really want to get naughty, try some navel oranges and Key limes.

Find a warm location out of the prevailing winds in your yard. This would be a south or western exposure close to a wall that can collect and radiate some heat during the winter. If you have no place out of the wind, then see if you can plant some windbreaks or construct a windbreak for them.

Visit this Web site on citrus: edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS132. It is from the University of Florida, but there is a lot of good information there that can be used to glean some insight into growing citrus in Southern Nevada.

Bob Morris is a horticulture specialist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.

Question: I would really like to add gardenias and azaleas to my garden. I have tried several times to plant them but they always die on me. The gardenias I planted at the edge of the same tree's canopy where it got early morning sun but was protected from the hot midday sun. It did fine for a while but something caused the flower buds to get choked off as if someone tied a string tight below the buds. Not long after all the buds fell off, the plant started to turn brown and die. What am I doing wrong and how do I get them to grow here. By the way I did give them acidic type fertilizer when I planted them.

Answer: Boy, you want a miracle worker. Both of them will have it tough here and you will have to be diligent if that is really what you want. Azaleas are not meant for this climate or these soils and really neither are gardenias for that matter. However, if you are willing to put the time, money and work into it you can have some reasonable success.

Gardenias will take direct sun with some afternoon protection better than azaleas here. Azaleas should be on the east side of a building with shade for most of the day, midday on. They also will work on the north side if there is plenty of indirect light available to them. The soils for both plants MUST be modified tremendously for them to work.

I would dig down for gardenias at least a foot deep and bring in new planting soil, modified with good compost. Peat moss added to the soil as an amendment also would be a nice addition. These plants must be mulched with wood or organic mulch that decomposes back into the soil to continue to add organics that will help to modify the soil and keep it more acidic.

Use acid forming fertilizers. Specialty fertilizers will have names that will clue you in on whether they are acid forming. Otherwise you can use aluminum sulfate to help acidify the soil but high quality organics would be a better choice.

I actually know of a hedge of gardenias that were growing here in town for a few years. Of course they are not meant for here but you can still have fun trying. These are shallow rooted plants and they are subject to overwatering problems if kept too wet and will not tolerate dry soils either. You have to be a good irrigator. Flower drop on gardenias could be a number of things including drying soils, too hot of a location, flower thrips, cold nights.

On the azaleas, I would look for varieties called the Brooks hybrids, which were developed in Modesto for heat resistance, compact growth and large flowers. An example is Madonna. You also might try the Encore line of azaleas which have fared well in north Central Texas and Oklahoma where temperatures frequently get above 100 degrees and they have alkaline soils.

Of the greenhouse types of azaleas (gift azaleas you see in stores) the Southern Indica types might be the best suited here as a third choice due to their increased tolerance to sunlight. Some examples might be Brilliant, Duc de Rohan, Red Ruffles, Southern Charm or Little John.

Generally speaking, do not use greenhouse azaleas, the kind you get for a gift unless you know what variety it is. You can try it but they will not have much of a chance of success at all. There are probably a thousand varieties of azaleas out there. Keep trying them. Let me know if you have any success.

Q: I read that Cape Honeysuckle will grow in partial shade here but I've had them for at least three years and they've never bloomed. Do I need to move them to a sunnier spot?

A: Cape honeysuckle does well here in full sun and in hot locations with not a lot of care. It is not blooming because it isn't getting enough sun. We have one in full sun on a southern location with roses. It gets to about eight feet tall and about the same or more in width if left to sprawl. It will grow like crazy so you will have to keep it in check with some occasional pruning. Please don't box or gumdrop prune it. Flowers come in yellow through red. Commonly it is orange.

Cape honeysuckle is one of those plants, like bougainvillea, that won't take much freezing weather. But, like bougainvillea it will spring back from the ground when frozen with vigor if it is mulched.

This is a remarkable plant. It is drought tolerant, salt tolerant, has beautiful flowers, takes heat, direct sunlight, alkaline soils, it is just plain tough. In a hot location it will bloom all year long and it is great for attracting hummingbirds.

Q: Could you give some names of fruit bearing, dwarf lemon and lime trees that can grow in Henderson? How tall do they get? How many years before it can bear fruit? Can it grow in a pot indoors or on the balcony, what size pots? Where can it be purchased?

A: In our climate all citrus are iffy. Do not think of these plants as plants that will stay forever. We are due for some cold winters in the future and we have been lured into thinking citrus will grow here. Be careful.

With that disclaimer the citrus that are most tolerant of cold will be the Meyer's lemon, grapefruit, kumquat and mandarin oranges. Most all others will be even more iffy. If you really want to get naughty try some navel oranges and Key limes.

Find a warm location out of the prevailing winds in your yard. This would be a south or western exposure close to a wall that can collect and radiate some heat during the winter. If you have no place out of the wind, then see if you can plant some windbreaks or construct a windbreak for them.

Visit this Web site on citrus edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS132. It is from the University of Florida but there is a lot of good information here that can be used to glean some insight into growing citrus in southern Nevada.

Bob Morris is a horticulture specialist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.