For a healthier plant that will bloom longer, maintain the temperature between 65 and 75 degrees. Avoid drafts from windows and heating vents, as this may cause premature leaf drop. That means that you cannot leave your poinsettias outside overnight during the winter. To add color at your doorstep, try cyclamen instead.

After all danger of frost has past, cut the stems back to 2 or 3 buds above the ground and put it outdoors in a sunny, but protected area. Pinch the new growth as it reaches 6 inches; two pinchings is usually sufficient.

• Ranunculus provide longer lasting color than any other spring flowering bulb. Each large-sized tuberous root will give as many as fifty to seventy-five blooms.
• Choose a spot in full sun where ranunculus haven't grown for three or four years. (If sprinklers keep the bed soggy, prespout the tubers in flats of damp sand; as soon as they've grown some roots plant them in the bed.)
• Cultivate the soil deeply, adding organic soil amendment, bone meal, and flower fertilizer according to package directions. Water the bed and let it settle overnight.
• Toss the tubers in drifts onto the bed. Rearrange them slightly so they're approximately 6 inches apart.
• Plant each tuber where it fell, making sure the points face down. Cover them with 1 1/2 inches of soil in heavy ground or 2 inches in light, sandy soil.
• Soak the bed deeply. Except in dry, sandy soil or very dry weather, don't water again until green growth shows. Then, if rains are mere sprinkles, water often enough to keep the soil moist but not soggy. The tubers can rot if they're soaked prior to planting or if they're planted in soil that stays soggy wet.
• Protect the sprouts from birds with wire or plastic garden netting until they're up about 4 inches.

Peaches, apricots and nectarines are all susceptible to peach leaf curl, an airborne fungus disease that thickens and stunts new shoots and causes new leaves to pucker, thicken and curl as they emerge in the spring. Affected foliage is red or orange at first, later turning pale green or yellow. A grayish white powder coats the diseased leaves and finally the leaves drop prematurely. Infected trees bear poorly and the surviving fruit is usually deformed by wrinkles, raised areas and, irregular lesions.

Only fungicides applied during the winter (while the trees are dormant) can prevent or cure peach leaf curl. The airborne fungus can reach any tree and virtually all unsprayed peaches, nectarines and apricots fall prey to it eventually. Be sure to spray all such trees (including dwarf trees in containers) even if they have never shown symptoms of the disease – once the leaves have emerged no cure will be effective until the following winter.

Although the traditional lime sulfur (calcium polysulfide) dormant spray can be used against peach leaf curl we feel that copper-based sprays are more effective. Monterey LIQUI-COP is an easy-to-apply liquid available in pint and quart bottles of concentrate. Lilly Miller MICROCOP uses a resinous compound to bind it to the trees and is particularly effective in wet weather.

First remove any remaining leaves and mummified fruit, and rake debris from under the tree. Bag this and destroy it, or remove it from your property so it cannot serve as a source of re-infection. Then spray the entire tree and the ground around it, carefully coating the entire surface of the tree. Spray at least twice during the winter while the trees are dormant; once as soon as the leaves have fallen and again before the buds swell in the spring.