Last-minute gardener gifts, the power of water and the life of paperwhites

The window is now open for some holiday pruning

Well, it鈥檚 still not looking a lot like Christmas, but at least nighttime temperatures will drop below freezing this weekend, which is good news for holiday decoration procrastinators still looking to harvest some holly and evergreen branches from their landscape.

I called out the first 鈥渟afe鈥� time to perform this festive chore back on Nov. 21, when we had a short but perfect stretch of cold weather. But if you snoozed back then, you lost your chance because virtually every day since then has been much too warm to prune without the risk of stimulating new growth. Causing that new growth can severely injure plants at this time of year.

But . It’s expected to be cold Friday night, and it will be cold again Saturday night. But don鈥檛 delay, because the weather is going to warm up again right after that.

Yes; it鈥檚 a tight window. But safe times to prune have been few and far between this season.

Take yacht club fire as a reminder about watering trees

The recent hit me hard for two reasons:

1) I鈥檝e had many memorable dinners there with dear friends who were members.

2) The fire has initially been blamed on a dried-out Christmas tree.

Well, if you listen to the radio on Saturdays, you know my drill for keeping a cut tree not only fire-safe, but also so supple you won鈥榯 have a new carpet made of needles after the holidays: Cut an extra inch off the bottom of the trunk and let the freshly cut stump sit in a big container of water for 24 hours before you set it up.

And keep an eye on that container, because it will probably need to be refilled. You will be amazed at how many gallons even a fresh tree sucks up.

And then — and聽fire officials also stress this — never let the water reservoir in the tree stand dry out. If it does, the tree may lose its ability to take up new water.

Stunning stats on the safety of well-watered trees

In light of that fire, a lot of people are echoing the classic words of Lucy Van Pelt, who told Charlie Brown to “get a shiny aluminum Christmas tree.” (Which is terrible advice. Unless you also get the color wheel, and then it鈥檚 retro cool …)

But as I鈥檝e been saying every holiday for the past 17 years, the only thing a real tree needs to be super-safe and supple is that聽constant supply of water. And experts not only agree, they supply stunning details.

In a earlier this week, tests confirmed that cut trees watered every day retained a stunning 73 percent of their moisture after TWO MONTHS (!), and basically refused to burn. Trees that were water-neglected dropped to a tinderbox level of 17 percent and ignited in seconds.

So forget pennies, sugar and magic formulas: Just keep that reservoir in the tree stand filled with fresh clean water alladatime.

A tale of two Christmas blooming bulbs

Big bold amaryllis bulbs and pretty little paperwhites make great gifts to give or receive for the holidays. And while both are tropical bulbs, only one will reliably re-bloom and that鈥檚 the dramatic amaryllis.

Place newly potted amaryllis bulbs (or plants purchased already in flower) in a cool bright spot, water lightly and enjoy the big blooms. When the flowers fade, clip off the seed heads at the top of the stalk and give the plant鈥檚 green leaves as much light as possible. I鈥檒l tell you what to do after that when the holidays are over.

But those heavily fragrant paperwhites are one-time wonders that are impossible even for experts to coax back into bloom. So enjoy the stinky show and then toss the spent bulbs afterward without guilt.