Q: All my life I have been told that ants on peonies are a must. Recently I was told that this thinking is way out of date. Should I get rid of the ants? -- Lloyd Humphries, e-mail
A: The new information is correct; ants are not necessary and, further, they are not harmful to the peony. Ants crawl over peony blooms looking for nectar. They don't pull back the petals to help the flower open. The only time you'd want to manage ants is when you plan to take peony flowers indoors. The easiest control in this case is to soak the flower heads in a bucket of water for a few minutes. Ants will swim to the surface, where they can be scooped out.
Q: I have several trilliums in my yard, some with small blossoms on them. Is it possible to propagate them from seed? -- Dina Deaton, e-mail
A: It's not easy. Not all trilliums set seed each year. If you see a swollen pod in the center of the three leaves, collect it and squeeze out the seed to plant in a woodland area. It may take four years for the plants to bloom. Trillium expert William Cullina has an excellent guide to seed propagation at xrl.us/TRILLIUMSEED. If you want trilliums more quickly, attend the wildflower plant sales at Georgia Perimeter College Botanical Gardens. Details at xrl.us/NATIVEPLANT.
Q: I have a Bermuda lawn. Soil analysis by a private lab shows that the soil pH is 6.2 . My lawn company wants to put down lime to raise the pH to 6.5. Do I really need to do this? -- Sherwin Levinson, e-mail
A: Soils in different parts of the country react differently to the application of lime. The Georgia Soil Test Handbook, written by University of Georgia experts, recommends liming to correct soil pH for Bermuda grass only when it is lower than 5.5. I think 6.2 is fine for your lawn and no liming is necessary.
Q: I have more than 40 oaks in my yard. I have huge numbers of these tendrillike things dropping everywhere from the trees. What are they, and can I use them in compost? -- Suzy Davis, e-mail
A: The "tendrils" are male oak tree flowers. They disperse pollen to pollinate the small female flowers you might see at the ends of oak branches. This was a huge year for oak flowers (and pollen) because last summer had such good growing conditions. Anything that drops from your trees is fine to compost.
Q: Please tell me how many peach blossoms to remove from my tree. There were quite a few on it, and I was told you should take them off to have bigger fruit. Two years ago we didn't remove any and we had a whole lot of small peaches. -- Charles Wilf, e-mail
A: Wait until the fruit is marble-size. Examine the clusters of fruit and note the smallest and largest. Twist off the small ones to give a spacing of 6 inches between adjacent fruit. This results in the right ratio of leaves to peaches. Lots more peach growing details are at xrl.us/GAPEACH.
Listen to Walter Reeves on NewsTalk 750 WSB-AM from 6 to 10 a.m. Saturdays. Go to www.yoursoutherngarden.com for details on his TV show or visit his website, www.walterreeves.com.
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