Q I have one of the Arbequina olive trees you featured in one of your articles. I've had my olive tree for three years, and it is over 6 feet tall. I've seen the tiny white blooms in the early spring before, yet nothing materialized until this spring. Last winter, I kept the tree outside against the house facing the northeast. After it warmed up this spring I moved the tree to the front of my house facing the south and, presto! I had tons of baby olives and blooms. Had it not been for the annual chipmunk family visits, I think more would have survived. Like you, I got smart enough to cover the entire over-6-foot tree with netting, which seemed to work. Currently, I have dark-colored olives on the tree and quite a few plump/fat green ones. I need to know more information regarding harvesting this particular olive tree because next year I want to harvest, this year is simply observation. One of my Meyer lemon trees has over 27 large, beautiful lemons, the other two have almost that many. I bought some type of orange tree in Florida. It has taken it three years to harvest. I overwinter most of my citrus trees in my greenhouse. It only has three oranges, but they are large as any you find in the supermarkets and appear to be navel oranges.
A My blog post on olives generated a lot of responses. Since olives are not normally something grown in Arkansas, I am researching and it is trial and error on harvesting and brining. I harvested mine when they turned black. I soaked them in water which I changed daily for a week. Then I put them in brine. I cheated and just used some from a jar of black olives I had. I have eaten some and they taste like an olive, but I think I would make a fresh brine next time — these were not quite as salty as I am used to. But I grew my own black olives in Arkansas. I think that is pretty cool.
Q Can you tell me what this plant is? It is low-growing in shady, moist areas of the yard, but it appears to be quite drought tolerant. It is in many places in my yard in Redfield.
A The plant in question looks like the native Partridge berry (Mitchella repens). It is a wonderful evergreen groundcover that is never invasive. It can produce a small, white, star-shaped flower in the spring and lovely little red berries later in the season. It is somewhat slow growing when it is first planted, but will grow a bit faster later on, although it is never aggressive as are some groundcovers. Unfortunately, it is not an easy plant to find at many garden centers. Enjoy it!
Q I write to ask about ants. I live in a house built in the 1940s, and these little black "sugar ants" (if that's what they're called) invade my kitchen every spring and summer and keep coming back. They often show up in the most unexpected places; e.g., when I'm sitting on the sofa in my living room, suddenly there's a little ant crawling up my arm. I hate to spray with anything toxic, but I have been reduced to doing so. It seems that if I spray around the window and door frames, this discourages them, but nothing seems to do away with them permanently, even the ant traps that say ants will take their contents back to the nest and destroy it. The insecticide seems to last a while and then wear off. My major question is about ants nesting in the pots where I grow flowers and herbs on my deck. I recently had my deck boards replaced and in moving the pots, discovered that a number were infested by ants that scrambled around trying to remove their eggs from the bottoms of the pots. I can't figure out whether they do any damage to the plants or not and have no idea what to do to keep them out or get rid of them. I hate to spray the pots with insecticide and have no idea if this will harm the plants, which I suspect it will. What do you say? Are the ants harmful, and do you have any advice as to how to get rid of them?
A Ants can be a real nuisance in the house. I had my first infestation this year after the deluge of rain a few weeks ago. I had them coming in through a wall outlet. I used Terro bait, and they were gone in days. Some people haven't had the same success I did. While fire ants are a definite threat to humans and pets, small black ants are not as bad. That being said, I have some friends who got pretty eaten up with some other non-fire-ant species this year, so beware. In potted plants, ants are usually taking up housekeeping. They aren't harming your plants, but they can move indoors with the plant if you take your plants inside for the winter. Before moving pots inside, consider mixing up a bucket of soapy water and watering with that, or soak the pots from the bottom in a bucket of water. It hydrates the plants but should flush out the ants — don't leave it for too long, you don't want to drown your plants.
Q Is it too late to trim back my Knockout Roses?
A A light trimming of roses won't hurt anything, but don't do major pruning. That could encourage new growth that would not have a chance to harden off before cold winter sets in. The reason we wait to prune until late February is to get the plants through the winter protected, and then we cut them back to get them ready for the growing season.
Retired after 38 years with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, Janet Carson ranks among Arkansas' best known horticulture experts. Her blog is at arkansasonline.com/planitjanet. Write to her at P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, AR 72203 or email
jcarson@arkansasonline.com