January garden tips

1. Get those tulip bulbs that have been chilling in your refrigerator planted as soon as possible.

2. Plant trees and shrubs so they can get a good root system started before the stress of next summer’s heat.

3. Camellias are likely to be in bloom, so you can choose the flower color and form you like best.

4. Start tomato seeds indoors in late January for transplanting into the garden after danger of frost is over.

5. Trim dead or freeze-damaged perennials.

6. Deadhead cool-season annuals.

7. Transplant established trees and shrubs while they are dormant.

8. Prune trees and shrubs that don’t flower in the spring, if necessary.

9. Get your soil tested. If amendments are required, a winter application will make them available for spring planting. We have LSU AgCenter soil test kits available.

10. Don’t overwater indoor plants, which need less moisture during winter than during the growing season.

11. Protect or bring indoors less-hardy cool-season plants, such as cyclamen, if temperatures are expected to drop below freezing. Hardy plants, such as pansies, violas and dianthus, may be burned by a hard freeze, but should recover.

12. Cut the faded flower stalk from the amaryllis plants you forced to bloom inside, then place them in a bright window until spring when they can be planted outdoors.

13. Plant your forced paperwhite bulbs outside after their blooms have faded. They should revert to their natural schedule and bloom again.

14. Plant seeds of rye grass or wheat grass in containers for a spot of fresh green on your window sill.

15. Begin cutting back the dead foliage on ornamental grasses.

16. Don’t let fallen leaves stay on your lawn all winter to avoid disease problems. Either mow over them to add organic matter to the lawn, build a compost bin or set aside an area for a compost pile.

17. Spray trees affected by scale insects with Hi-Yield Systemic Insect Spray or horticultural oil.

18. Prepare beds you plan to plant in spring by removing weeds, working in chopped leaves and compost and covering with mulch. No compost? We recommend Vital Earth compost.