• Growth habit: An upright to rounded cool season annual growing to 18 inches tall and equally wide. The leaves are medium green, elliptic in shape and growing to 6 inches long and 2 inches wide.

• Light: Plant in full sun to lightly shaded locations.

• Water needs: Prefers a moist soil but tolerates short period of drought.

• Feedings: Apply a general garden fertilizer monthly to in ground plantings; every other week to container plantings.

• Propagation: Start from seed.

• Ease of culture: Easy.

• Hardiness: Hardy

• Major problems: Plants are susceptible to nematodes; plant in pest -free soils. Chewing insects and slugs are common feeders.

• Pruning: Trim faded blooms from plantings to keep calendulas attractive and encourage additional buds. Remove declining plants when the hot weather returns and replace with warm season annuals.

• Uses: A colorful traditional annual gardeners can count on for cool season flowers in beds and containers. Buds open November through April producing displays of over 2 inch diameter blossoms in shades of yellow to orange colors often with a dark center; flowers may be single or double depending on the variety. Petals from pesticide-free plantings are edible and sometimes added to salads, soups and rice.

• Florida native: No; native to Europe and North Africa.

TOM MacCUBBIN

Special to the Sentinel

Tasks for February

1. Time to update the vegetable garden for winter. Plant seedlings of cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, celery, silverbeet, spinach and leeks.
2. Plant more lettuce seedlings as you harvest to keep the summer salad supply going.
3. Sow seeds of beetroot, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cress, lettuce, leeks, spring onion, radish, silverbeet, swedes, kohl rabi, spinach and parsnip.
4. Sweetcorn, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, courgettes, garlic, onions, early carrots, new potatoes, peas, beans, and lettuces all come ready for harvest.
5. Pick sweetcorn when the tassels begin to dry.
6. Pick cucumbers and courgettes as they come ready (every day) to encourage continuous fruiting, and before courgettes turn into marrows!
7. Thin carrots and eat the finger sized thinnings.
8. Powdery mildew on cucumbers and pumpkins can be controlled by spraying with Yates fungus fighter.
9. Use Derris Dust to prevent white butterfly caterpillars on cabbages and cauliflower.
10. Feed seedlings regularly with fertiliser.

Fruit Trees

1. Keep fruit trees well watered for best quality fruit.
2. Prune pip and stone fruit trees as soon as fruit is picked. Seal wounds with pruning paste.
3. Trim excessive growth from grape vines before harvesting.
4. Feed citrus trees well with Gro plus Citrus applied around the drip line and watered in.

Flower Garden

1. Start planting spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils, freesias, anemones, ranunculus, sparaxis, ixias, grape hyacinths, tritonia and lachenalia.
2. Sow seeds of alyssum, aquilegia, arctotis, bellis, candytuft, cornflower, delphinium, dianthus, godetia, gypsophila, honesty, larspur, linaria, lobelia, lupin, nemesia, nigelia, pansy, polyanthus, scabiosa, snapdragon, stock and wallflower.
3. Spray roses with Super Shield at 2-3 weekly intervals.
4. Dead head roses, perennials and flowering annuals as flowers finish. This will extend the flowering season. Stake tall perennials.
5. Water roses (also trees and shrubs) by thoroughly soaking once a week. Shallow watering only encourages shallow root growth.
6. Control thrips on gladioli, azaleas, camellias and other shrubs with Super Shield.

   Houseplants and outdoor containers

• Plant out annuals in garden and containers; alyssum, cornflower, linaria, lupin, pansy, primula, stock, sweet pea, viola and wallflower.

Lawns

• Feed with lawn fertiliser to thicken grass sward and reduce weeds.

And there we were, gathering the dried curly seeds from the spent flowers, filling the little jar I’d brought outside to overflowing, requiring me to get a half-pint jar to house the wildly abundant cosmos seeds.

“We’ll give them as Christmas gifts!” I said exuberantly, and since then, my son has been industrious, helping me gather seeds from bachelor buttons, onions, and calendula. When I do laundry, I find sunflower seeds in his pockets. They’re the good ones — infrared, a startling and gorgeous almost black-red flower — so I save them.

Calendula and cosmos grow like weeds here in Portland, so it’s easy this month to gather them and sort by color (if any of the flowers are still growing on the plants from which you harvest seeds) and store them in airtight containers. You’ll want a relatively cool place; if you keep them in the fridge, be sure to find a moisture absorber to include in the container. Buy small envelopes or, even better, recycle spice jars and old manila envelopes into homemade wildflower seed packets. Have your kids help you decorate the envelopes. Flower seeds are not just a welcome gift (at least in my house) that will grow into beautiful flowers, but these species are all beneficial to other plants, mostly edible, and attract honeybees. What’s more, you can sneak a little science into your holiday preparation. It’s way better than going to the mall!