I guess all the tourist are very happy nowadays, all of these beautiful clear and nice dry days. Not so good for gardeners who are struggling to keep all their plantings potted or otherwise, properly watered.

It sure is hard to go anywhere near a garden center right now and resist all the pretty flowers, trees and shrubs that are just waiting to be taken home to some good soil.

You can plant just about anything now. Bedding plants will want to be watered well, and kept from becoming too dry for the first week, maybe two if they are set out in the sun.

I notice a slight increase in prices for some of the smaller pots of bedding plants. However, most everything else is priced well.

Poinsettia plants during the holidays were noticeably less costly. There are plenty of Geraniums available, pretty scented white and violet Alyssum Perky Marigolds available in several varieties and Petunias.

If you have room for a patch of something try planting gillardia, sometimes called blanket flower. They are a perennial, so they will reseed when the time comes and you will have some more next year which is fun. They are for sunny spots and do not require a lot of care, once settled in. A spot of sun is about all you will need for some sunny daisies .

This is a good time to check on your Gardenia bush. You might be surprised and find a new bloom, already. I do not trim a Gardenia much in spring, just a little clip to pretty up the shape. Watch for sooty mold, which can start fast and sneak up on you right now because of the lack of rain to keep the leaves cleaned. A small amount can be washed off with a hose. A large amount will need some extra help, with a spray or two of Oil of Volic, or a sudsy rinse, repeated a couple of times. Now would be a good time to fertilize the plant with an acid fertilizer.

Hibiscus can probably stand a nice pruning. They will recover nicely from a big trim. The cold weather has made them leggy and even though a few blooms will be lost at trimming, they will fill out pretty quickly. Bushes that look really bad may have a pest, such as aphids, or a new pest that is making the rounds. Rinse them with sudsy spray a couple of times and if they still look bad check with the Lee County Extension Service for the latest information on what could be a more serious problem, this year.

Bare root roses and trees can still be planted this month. Palms should be feed by now. Seeds that have been started earlier should be safe to plant now. I have two good-sized tomato plants – a Patio tomato and a regular size- and one Bell Pepper plant. I will probably buy another one now so that I can let the first one grow and grow until I have red peppers to go with the later-producing green ones.

That is the extent of my veggie garden. I leave them in large black plastic pots so I will not have to worry about earth-bound critters getting into the soil.

The tomatoes do not like to become real dry in between watering, the peppers do not seem to mind being a little dry. Be sure and plant the Tomato plants deeply. I take off one or two sets of the bottom leaf stems before planting them in deep to cover what was just pulled off. Always do a staking or use a tomato cage. These tomatoes down here will grow and grow, BIG.

The Peppers will be bushy and not quite as tall but I still put a tomato cage around them. Tie them both up on a lattice or other supporting material.

I have a gardening friend who has an oblong pot of lettuce, a mixture of lettuces, so she can make a lettuce and tomato salad. There are a lot of things to be doing in the garden now, so start looking around and doing some reading. Talk with other people to see what they are doing. Come to Garden Club and bring some questions.

H.Jean Shields, past president, Garden Club of Cape Coral