Nature’s Way Resources is proud to bring you this free weekly newsletter. While we don’t run ads, generous sponsors help support this project as a public service. Their names are listed below, please consider showing your appreciation by supporting their businesses!
Nature’s Way Resources honors the contributions of our late owner, John Ferguson. “The Lazy Gardener” Brenda Beust Smith and Shelby Cassano welcome your feedback and remain grateful to the many horticulturists who share their expertise.
by Brenda Beust Smith | The Lazy Gardener
Most of us now are wondering how long our beautiful garden bloomers will hold once true cold weather hits (seems it’s closer than I’d like!). Some sources said warmer weather ahead, but another predicts snow maybe in mid-November. Knowing us, probably both! That’s not warmer-than-normal for us — tho maybe it’s becoming so! Whatever, now’s a good time for expert advice on making our current plants do double-duty by starting new plants.
That’s what Stephen F. Austin Gardens Greenhouse and Nursery Manager Jordan Cunningham is offering in today’s Spotlight Article (below). If you don’t know the best way to propagate individual common bloomers, you may be missing out on free new plants! (See Spotlight Article below.)
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Speaking of our area’s Great Gardens: The John Fairey Garden in Hempstead (collections of rare, threatened, and unusual plants that thrive in central/southeast Texas) has announced it’s going to start supplying seeds from selected plants! Keep up with JFG’s newsletter (jfgarden.org) or attend the garden’s final sale of the year, Sat., Nov. 8. John Fairey Garden Sale, 20559 FM 359 Road, Hempstead, TX 77445.
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In case, you didn’t know, November’s official flower is the chrysanthemum (above) after the Greek words chryos [gold] and anthemon (flower). One of the world’s largest plant families, Chrysanthemums have been around (and used!) for over 3,000 years!
Sad we seldom plant mums much here anymore. They bloom twice a year for us, now and in spring. Our once-active Chrysanthemum Society sadly is no more. Can’t plant a football mum (too treated) but plants are easily found in nurseries, grocery stores, etc. Lots of kinds now: singles, anemones, decoratives, pompons, spoons, spiders, and standards! Almost everything I know about mums, I learned from the late Jackie Yarotsky (Houston Chrysanthemum Society president and more!). HCS is no longer, very sad loss for Houston gardeners.
But Jackie would be happy to know lots of us still love her favorite plant and are still sharing growing advice. Mums are said to trigger feelings of peace, tranquility, positive energy and good luck. National flower of Japan and medicinal aid in China, not to mention belief dreaming of mums symbolizes good fortune, success and happiness! And this only skims the surface!
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DON’T OVERLOOK
SEEDS OR CUTTINGS
FOR PROPAGATION!
By JORDAN CUNNINGHAM
STEPHAN F. AUSTIN GARDENS
Greenhouse and Nursery Manager
When you are considering which propagation method to use to produce more of your favorite plants, consider this rule of thumb: annuals are propagated best by planting seeds, while perennials are propagated best by rooting cuttings.
Annuals such as Salvia coccinea (Scarlet Sage, pictured at top) produce plenty of seeds and their seeds are easier to keep over the winter and plant in the spring.
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, (Fall Aster), on the other hand, is a perennial and can be propagated much faster by cuttings. Collecting and growing seeds is a lengthy process and can only be conducted when seed is being produced. Cuttings can be taken at just about any time during the growing season.
But the rule of thumb doesn’t work for everything!
Trees are perennial, they can live for many years, but rooting cuttings taken from woody stems can be very difficult, especially cuttings taken from older branches. Better to collect acorns from your favorite oak tree or samaras from the maple tree at your childhood home.
Remember, when you propagate plants from seeds, the new plants may not have the same characteristics as the plant their seeds came from because each seed is a combination of genetic material from the parent plant. Plants grown from seeds can express many different genetic traits.
If you love the coleus plants in your garden this year and want the exact same color pattern next year, then it would be best to take cuttings from this year’s coleus plant. Cuttings are exact clones of the plant they are taken from. Plus, coleus are easy to propagate by cuttings, no rooting hormone required!
Plants like Rudbeckia maxima (Giant Coneflower) and Echinacea sp. (Purple Coneflower) are perennials, but cuttings can be tricky because the plants grow as rosettes and have very small true stems. Better to collect seeds for planting next year and enjoy the genetic variation!
But the true gardening mantra when it comes to propagation is try it out and see! Plants with plump herbaceous stems will probably make great cuttings. Plants with super tiny seeds may be difficult to collect and easy to lose, try cuttings instead! If it seeds out in the garden, seeds are the way to go. Plants that are sterile or that make very few seeds are good candidates for rooting cuttings!
When propagating plants, the time of year matters too. Even in a greenhouse some annual seeds may wait until the days are longer to start germinating, and cuttings tend to be more successful in rooting during the warmer months with some plants being more sensitive to cooler weather than others. Even a very woody plant may flush out young green stems in the spring that are worth trying for cuttings.
Jordan Cunningham
SFA Gardens | Greenhouse and Nursery Manager
mcgeej1@sfasu.edu | sfagardens@gmail.com
EDITOR’S NOTE: Upcoming events at SFA Gardens. Sign up for sales and other activities
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WILDFLOWERS NOW? SALLY MISSON in Fort Bend County asks how she can find out what wildflowers are blooming in her nearest prairie right now. She wants fall bloomers. A good reference book: Coastal Prairie Plant Growers’ Handbook (2nd Edition) is published/sold by the Coastal Prairie Conservancy (formerly the Katy Prairie Conservancy), now a joint project that also includes Houston Audubon, Galveston Bay Chapter/Texas Master Naturalists and the National Wetlands Research Center. Related source:Texas Prairie Org’s free online upcoming annual meet.
ATTN. GARDEN/PLANT GROUPS
— Nature’s Way Resources offers free guided tours of NWR’s extensive nursery/soil/mulch facilities for garden clubs, plant societies and other plant-oriented, organized groups. As usual, NWR’s now-expanded meeting site is free to above groups. Reservations a must for both. Great time to visit.
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John’s Corner
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS
Subject: Remembering John Ferguson
As we take a moment to reflect on Johns passing, we would like to share Issue #245 from John’s Corner.
John’s passion was displayed throughout all aspects of his life. In recent years, he and his wife moved to La Grange, TX, to enjoy a well-deserved retirement, but if you know John, he never truly retired.
He continued his lifelong pursuit of learning, conducting research on his land and sharing new discoveries with his signature curiosity and enthusiasm.
Please take a moment to honor John’s legacy by revisiting his words and sharing in the passion that guided his life’s work.
Shelby Cassano
Technical Editor
Click below to learn more about all of the different types of mulch in detail.
Explore our article library to learn more information about various mulches and other topics.
Calender Submittal Rules
WANT EVENT IN RIGHT AWAY? FOLLOW RULES!— ONLY GREATER HOUSTON AREA NONPROFIT GROUP EVENTS —
Expect delay if we must reformat: 3-LINE (max) EXACT FORMAT:
DAY, DATE: TITLE (by NAME if talk), time, site. Sponsor (if not in title). website/phone (NOTE CAPITALS VS lower case)
- Gardening events ONLY! No harvest, cooking, arranging, etc.
- ONLY events sent SPECIFICALLY TO US FOR CALENDAR are used!
- NO events picked up from flyers — NO PDFS! TYPE IN EMAIL ONLY.
- Don’t add city unless not “Houston.” (Don’t add “Houston”)
- Submit to: lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com. Check published entry!
Sponsorship
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at 936-273-1200 or send an e-mail to: lazygardenerandfriends@gmail.com
About Us
BRENDA BEUST SMITH
WE KNOW HER BEST AS THE LAZY GARDENER . . .
but Brenda Beust Smith is also:
- a national award-winning writer & editor
- a nationally-published writer & photographer
- a national horticultural speaker
- a former Houston Chronicle reporter
When the Chronicle discontinued Brenda’s 45-year-old Lazy Gardener” print column — started in the early ’70s as a fun side-project to reporting, it then ranked as the longestrunning, continuously-published local newspaper column in the Greater Houston area. The name, she says, is not just fun, it’s true.
Brenda’s gradual sideways step from reporter into gardening writing led first to an 18-year series of when-to-do-what Lazy Gardener Calendars, then to her Lazy Gardener’s Guide book which morphed into her Lazy Gardener’s Guide on CD, which she now emails free upon request.
Brenda became a Harris County Master Gardener and, over the years, served on theboards of many Greater Houston area horticulture organizations. She hosted local radio and TV shows, most notably a 10+-year Lazy Gardener specialty shows on HoustonPBS (Ch. 8) and her call-in “EcoGardening” show on KPFT-FM.
For over three decades, Brenda served as Assistant Production Manager of the GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA’S “BULLETIN” magazine. Although still an active broad-based freelance writer, Brenda’s main focus now is THE LAZY GARDENER & FRIENDS HOUSTON GARDEN NEWSLETTER with John Ferguson and Pablo Hernandez of Nature’s Way Resources.
A native of New Orleans and graduate of St. Agnes Academy and the University of Houston, Brenda lives in Humble, TX, and is married to the retired Aldine High School Coach Bill Smith. They have one son, Blake.
Regarding this newsletter, Brenda is the lead writer, originator of it and the daily inspiration for it. We so appreciate the way she has made gardening such a fun way to celebrate life together for such a long time.
About her column, Brenda says: “I don’t consider myself a ‘garden writer.” I started out 50+ years ago as a very lazy “gardening reporter.” I still feel that way today. I hope my columns inspire/help newcomers, but I do not write to them. I write to very experienced gardeners who want to expand their horizons.
JOHN FERGUSON (1951-2025)
John was a native Houstonian with more than 35 years of business experience. He founded Nature’s Way Resources, a composting company known for producing high-quality compost, mulch, and soil mixes. He held an MS in Physics and Geology and was a licensed Soil Scientist in Texas.
Throughout his career, John received numerous awards in horticulture and environmental work. He represented the composting industry for many years on the Houston-Galveston Area Council for solid waste. His personal garden was featured in several horticultural books and in Better Homes and Gardens. His business was recognized by The Wall Street Journal for the quality and value of its products. He was a member of the Physics Honor Society and several professional organizations, and he co-authored Organic Management for the Professional.
John contributed articles regularly to this newsletter and oversaw its publication. We continue to share his past articles each week alongside The Lazy Gardener column to keep his passion, knowledge, and spirit alive for our readers.
SHELBY CASSANO is the communications and marketing lead for Nature’s Way Resources and the editor of The Lazy Gardener and Friends newsletter. Through her business, Leaf and Ledger, she exclusively partners with NWR to direct all marketing efforts, from campaign strategy and content planning to technical production of the newsletter. Shelby holds a B.S. in Agriculture with a concentration in Horticulture from Stephen F. Austin State University and previously managed the company’s nursery.
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Conroe, TX 77385
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