Gardening
The Kerby's Nursery E-Newsletter
June 20, 2019   
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The Weekly Special  |   Crape Myrtle Care

Pancake Emojis
by Joey Bokor
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Emoji-cakes or Panmojis
A favorite breakfast in our family is pancakes. Actually, the most requested is waffles, but they take a lot longer to make, so we usually nudge the girls to pancakes. The other morning, I started a batch and as I was pouring batter on the griddle, Madeleine began to request all different kinds of shapes and faces. My freehand pancake skills are limited to Mickey Mouse, so I smiled and said, 'Okay honey I'll try to make a smiley face the next time', thinking I'd pour out a curved strip of batter and call it a smile. She was determined that we could make all kinds of faces and started rummaging through a kitchen cabinet looking for what she said were some kind of pancake molds. She ended up with this stack of green face molds that I think are supposed to be for sugar cookies. I told her that, but she was sure that they could work on pancakes. I said that I'd try when we flipped this batch. So we flipped, let them firm up a little and pressed the molds into the pancakes. And wouldn't you know, they left these perfect impressions of all different faces. Pretty cool. We are debating on the name for them and are between emoji-cakes or panmojis. Either way, we have now found a way to express our moods through breakfast and I don't have to worry about becoming a pancake artist.

One thing pancakes do, is fill you up really well at breakfast time for a day out in the garden. This week, crape myrtles are the weekly special, because they are in bloom and lighting up gardens with amazing color everywhere you look. They are easy to grow and care for and perfect for planting at this time of the year. See below for some of our crape myrtle tips, and we look forward to showing you all the beautiful colors and varieties at the nursery.
Happy Gardening,
The Kerby's Nursery Family

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The Weekly Special
Blooming Crape Myrtles
10% Off
Offer valid through 6/27/19
Cannot be combined with other offers.
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Summer in Florida means the bright blooms of crape myrtles showing up all over town. Get one planted today and enjoy the summer color every year in your own landscape.

Keep Cool this Summer

Garden Tip
Caring for Crape Myrtles

The beginning of June ushers in not only rainy season, but bloom season for crape myrtles. They come in a variety of colors, are cold-hardy and are easy-care for our area. Below are a few tips for getting the most out of your crape myrtles.

1) Prune in Winter - Crape myrtles should be pruned in the winter-time, when they don't have any leaves. How much you prune is up to you, there is no need to do a severe prune (sometimes called 'crape murder'), but trimming back overall height if needed and thinning the branches will help the tree flush out well in spring. If you missed the pruning time in the winter, you can always prune later, just wait until after bloom time, otherwise you will cut off all of those beautiful flowers.

2) Water Wisely - Like any new plant, crapes want plenty of water to get started. However, once established they don't need a lot of extra water to keep them going. One good soaking each week is all they need through the spring, summer and fall and once they are dormant in the winter, they won't need much at all.

3) Watch for Suckers - No, we aren't on the lookout for a gullible person. All crape myrtles are naturally bushes. Even the pretty single trunk 'trees' are naturally bushes and will sometimes grow shoots from the ground, or lower down on the trunk. These shoots are called suckers. It doesn't mean anything is wrong, just trim them off when you see them to keep the energy of the plant headed up into the canopy.

4) Fertilize for the Best Blooms - Crapes aren't heavy feeders, but a spring, summer and fall dose of The Kerby's Special fertilizer will keep them in top shape and ready to produce the biggest, brightest clusters of blooms.

5) Go for the Sequel - If you dead-head crape myrtles and trim off old blooms just as they are finishing you can sometimes get a second, lighter set of blooms to emerge. Tough on really big crapes (since the flowers are so high up), but for your younger or smaller bushes or trees, you can extend your flower enjoyment.


Kerby's Nursery

2311 S. Parsons Ave.

Seffner, FL 33584
(813) 685-3265
www.kerbysnursery.com


Store Hours

Monday - Saturday
9am - 5:30pm
Sunday
11am - 4pm
Thursday, July 4th
9am - 2pm