The Spring Lawn And Garden Planner

Gardening in Dallas
The best lawn care and gardening advice from the Dallas Arboretum’s horticultural staff.

Treat your landscape to the same planning, installation, and maintenance secrets these experts use to create and care for the Arboretum’s breathtaking, year-round, 66-acre botanical display at 8525 Garland Road—on the shores of White Rock Lake.

Lawn & Garden Projects for March

In the Flower Garden

• Fertilize roses, annuals,and perennials with slow-release, high-nitrogen fertilizer.
• Dig up and divide summer and fall blooming perennials to control the size of your current plantings or create new plantings.
• Water new plants regularly until rooted in.
• Do not remove bulb foliage until leaves die down naturally. This will lead to a nicer display next year.

In the Vegetable Garden

• Keep seeds evenly watered until sprouted.
• Plant cool season crops like lettuce, radishes, broccoli, onions, and spinach.
• After danger of frost, plant warm season crops: tomatoes, peppers, and green beans.

Maintaining Trees & Shrubs

• Prune trees and shrubs, except red oaks and live oaks  (wait until June). 
• Finish planting bare-root fruit trees.
• Spray fruit trees before flowering and after petal fall, but not while in bloom. 
• Rejuvenate evergreen shrubs, such as holly, by shearing hard before new growth.
• Fertilize new and established trees.

Lawn Care

• Control emerging weeds with a post-emergent herbicide or pull them by hand, if it’s practical.
• Water lawn if weather has been dry.
• If crab grass is a problem, apply pre-emergent herbicide.

Lawn & Garden Projects for April

In the Flower Garden

• Plant warm season annuals such as celosia, cosmos, zinnias, and marigolds early in the month. Wait until the latter part to plant heat-lovers such as moss rose, fire bush, periwinkle, and lantana.
• Choose small well-rooted transplants; avoid overgrown, root-bound plants.
• Mulch new plants and established perennials. 
• Plant summer bulbs, including canna lilies and caladiums.
• Pinch growing tips of summer- and fall-blooming perennials to encourage
  compact growth.

In the Vegetable Garden

• Continue planting warm season vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, and okra.
• Harvest early crops on a regular basis.
• Plant out successions of vegetables and herbs.
• Thin seedlings of earlier plantings.
• Put up stakes and supports for plants as needed.
• Plant strawberries.

Maintaining Trees & Shrubs

• Spray fruit trees every two weeks.
• Continue to plant container grown trees.
• Prune spring flowering shrubs and trees, if needed, but only after blooming is finished.
• Azaleas should be fertilized after they have stopped blooming and again 30 days later.
• Roses will need to be fertilized this month and again every four to six weeks.

Lawn Care

• Fertilize lawn with an organic or 4-1-2-ratio fertilizer.
• Fertilize every six to eight weeks until October.
• Plant St. Augustine and Bermuda sod towards end of month as temperatures warm.

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CARING FOR FERNS:
Most ferns like acidic soil, except Wavy Cloak, which prefers alkaline soil. 
Water evenly; ferns like steady moisture.
Afternoon shade is best. Most ferns can only take the sun until 11 a.m.
Container grown ferns may be planted any time.

CARING FOR ROSES: The Dallas Arboretum recommends EarthKind roses, which do especially well in Dallas. Roses are not picky about soil, but they should be planted in full sun. They’ll sulk in shade. Water roses regularly, letting the soil dry out between waterings. Keep the foliage dry. Plant roses in spring or fall.

CARING FOR PERENNIALS: Soil preparation is the most important step in planting perennials. Add 4 to 6 inches of organic matter to soil annually. You can add half in the summer and half in the winter. Plant in clumps of 3 to 5 for best effect. Fertilize every other month. Plant year round.

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The Dallas Arboretum’s Picks for the Best Performing Plants

Shade Annuals
Lemon Lollipops Pachystachys lutea
Persian shield Strobilanthes dyerianus
Begonia ’Dragonwing’ series
Caladium
Impatiens
Plectranthus ’Mona Lavender’

Summer Annuals
Torenia ’Summer Wave’ series
Petunia ’Tidal Wave Silver’
Coleus Merlot
Plectranthus
Begonia ’Dragonwing’ series
Lantana ’New Gold’
’Weeping lantana’ Lantana montevedensis
Purslane ’Yubi’ series
Zinnia ’Dreamland’ series
Fire bush Hamelia patens
Pentas lanceolata ’Galaxy’ series
Cape leadwort Plumbago auriculata
Narrow-leaf Zinnia Zinnia angustifolia ’Crystal’ series

Shade Perennials
Wood fern Thelypteris kunthii
Japanese Holly fern Cyrtomium falcatum
Hosta ’Sugar & Cream’
Hosta ’Honeybells’
Cast-iron plant Aspidistra elatior
Japanese Sedge Carex morrowii
Inland sea oats Chasmanthium latifolium
Turk’s Cap Malvaviscus drumondii
Chinese Ground Orchid Bletilla striata
Bears breeches Acanthus mollis
Lenten rose Helleborous orientalis
Gulf coast Penstemon Penstemon tenuis
Texas Gold Columbine Aquilegia hinckleyana
Sweet Violet Viola odorata
Grape-leaved Anemone
Anemone vitifolia
 Robustissima

Sun Perennials
Artemisia ’Powis Castle’
Autumn Aster Aster oblongifolius
Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia fulgida ’Goldsturm’
Speedwell Veronica peduncularis ’Georgia Blue’
Brazilian rock rose Pavonia braziliensis
Catmint Nepeta faassenii ’Walkers Low’
Dianthus ’Firewitch’
Daylily Hemerocallis
Coneflower Rudbeckia nitida ’Herbestonne’
Lamb’s ear Stachys lanata ’Countess Helene von Stein’
Hardy hibiscus Hibiscus moscheutos
Jerusalem Sage Phlomis fruiticosa
Mealy-cup sage Salvia farinacea
Mexican bush sage Salvia leucantha ’Santa Barbara’
Mexican oregano Poliomentha longiflora
Pincushion flower Scabiosa ’Pink Passion’
Purple coneflower Echinacea purpurea
Rosemallow Pavonia lasiopetala
Salvia ’Indigo Spires’
Summer Phlox Phlox paniculata John Fannick
Verbena Verbena canadensis ’Homestead Purple’
Pink Skullcap Scuttelaria suffrutescens

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