Valentine's Day is for gardners

The old adage is "Valentine's Day is for lovers." Feb. 14 is celebrated by many countries as a day of love. I propose that we make this day of hearts and flowers for gardeners.

If you love a gardener, be creative this year in your celebration of your love. Send a cyclamen, a violet, a miniature rose plant, an orchid, a gerbera daisy or a beautiful green plant. Cyclamens make wonderful houseplants. Their flowers, in white, pink or purple, sit above the dark green patterned leaves like butterflies. With bright indirect light, they bloom for weeks. I received a cyclamen as a gift for Christmas. I placed it and its pot in a ceramic container and I water if from the bottom. It's still blooming all this time later.

Miniature roses are readily available as houseplants. They come in lovely colors and most can eventually be planted outside after the last freeze. They will often survive our winters, if allowed to acclimate through the summer and fall. Your love can look at this plant through the years and be reminded of your love.

Orchids come in a variety of colors, sizes and types. Cattleyas and cymbidiums can be as big as a hand. Orchids are a little trickier than many plants with strict light, water, soil and fertilizer requirements. They are worth the effort in a spot with bright, filtered light.

Green plants are often colors besides green. Leaves may be variegated with yellow, white or gray. Pick a plant to match the light available in your love's home. Heartleaf philodendrons and snake plants take low light. Most other philodendrons and dracaenas do best in a room with a bit better light. Ficus trees thrive in fairly bright light.

Consider scented geraniums. A rose-scented geranium will last a lot longer than a cut rose. Look for apple-, cinnamon- or chocolate-scented plants. Geraniums are hardy, easy to grow and have myriad colored flowers. They produce the best flowers in bright light.

This Valentine's Day, take care of your gardening sweetie.

For information, contact me, (775) 887-2252 or skellyj@unce.unr.edu, your local University of Nevada Cooperative Extension office or at www.unce.unr.edu. "Ask a Master Gardener" at mastergardeners@unce.unr.edu

n JoAnne Skelly is the Carson City/Storey County Extension educator for University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.