Water conservation in concert with successful gardening. Special events. Favorite plants. Great offers. It's all in this month's e-gardens. We hope you enjoy it!

This rusty iron arch, for which I paid less than $200, is the doorway from one garden "room" of our landscape to another. Click here, and I'll tell you a little about what's beside and behind me.

Have a gardening question burning a hole in your e-mail box? Send it, along with a pertinent photo, to Neil here at e-gardens. For each issue, he selects the six or seven of most general reader interest. Click here to send him your question and photo. (Neil selects only questions with photos for this column. Otherwise, he invites you to call one of his radio programs.) Click here to see this month's questions and Neil's answers.

Don't garden without Neil's 2012 Texas Gardening Calendar. It tells when to plant, prune, fertilize and spray all of the plants that you're growing. Supplies are dwindling quickly. Click for our special offer.

A day at Mineral Wells State Park finds our native son eavesdropping on a conversation between father and son. Click here to read Steven Chamblee's article about magical natural places and rusty blackhaw viburnum.

The Plant Hardiness Zone Map that we gardeners all depend on has been redrawn with more accuracy and detail -- the first revision since 1990. Click here to read the news release sent yesterday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and to find a link to the new map.

I have to confess that, for the Sperry home gardens, ornamental Swiss chard is one of my favorite cool-season annual plants of them all. And, with new colors available over the past several years, the best has only gotten better. Click for details.

Haven't signed up for our Home Landscape School? You can do so by calling our office before noon tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 27) at 800-752-4769. We have a few seats remaining. Click here for the details.

February is a critical time in the lives of Texas gardeners. Our 2012 Texas Garden Calendar has a complete list of things to do. Click for a great offer. For the highlight items, click here.

For the 31st year, on Sunday, Feb. 5, Dr. George Ray McEachern, Texas A&M fruit and pecan specialist, will join Neil for his entire program 8-11 a.m. on WBAP) (820AM and 96.7FM). Call then with your fruit and pecan questions: 800-288-9227.

People living in the service area of the North Texas Municipal Water District (Collin and surrounding counties, where many of our e-gardens readers live and garden) are being asked to make 15 percent cuts in water consumption. I've put together a list of several dozen of my own ideas as a starting point. Wherever you live, however, these will be of use. Click to see that set of tips.

This month Mike Shoup of the Antique Rose Emporium reminds us of the massively beautiful displays offered by the Banksia roses. Click here to read his article.

We've all seen them by now: leaves that are singed by the heat or turning brown in the drought. This month tree expert Steve Houser explains what can happen to our treasured trees during record-breaking hot, dry spells. Click here to read his article.

If you're looking for the finest fertilizers and potting soil available anywhere, look for "Neil Sperry's Texas Best" products. Ask your nurseryman or seed store to handle them for you. Click here for more information.

All across Texas, botanical gardens and gardening organizations are gearing up for spring by scheduling festivals and offering classes on everything from rose pruning to bug identification. Click here to see the February calendar of events.

A small outbreak of citrus greening, a serious problem in tropical commercial citrus areas, has developed in the Rio Grande Valley. It has prompted a quarantine in moving citrus plants in that specific area. Click here for a Texas A&M release of giant importance to readers in the Valley and anyone growing citrus.

Want Neil's help and advice, but wondering where you can find him? He's not as far away as you might think. Click here to visit his website. Or, here's information on where and when you can find him on radio. Why, click here, and he's on Facebook. He and a bunch of his fellow horticulturists are in his magazine, and Neil writes for the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the San Antonio Express News and 10 other newspapers weekly. But, click here to see where he was when this photo was taken.

In the January/February issue of Neil Sperry's GARDENS Magazine, you'll find articles about success with succulents, kitchen garden winners, and bluebirds in the landscape. Mike Sutton warns readers about misleading turfgrass advertising. Click here to read his article.

Like our flowers and vegetables, circulation of e-gardens grows best in the spring. But, we need your help. Please click forward at the bottom of this e-mail to send us along to your friends and relatives who also enjoy gardening. Remember that we never spam, nor do we give or sell e-mail addresses to anyone.

We are happy to offer this helpful article about tree bark symptoms that cause alarm. It comes to us from Gretchen Riley of the Texas Forest Service and as a courtesy of the Cross Timbers Urban Forestry Council. Click here to read about sloughing or peeling bark.

Neil Sperry's e-gardens newsletter
400 W Louisiana St
McKinney, TX 75069


Neil Sperry - Publisher
Carolyn Skei - Editor
Gretchen Drew - Administrator

This month the SPCA introduces you to Chad, Minx, Corbin and Georgia. They are Metroplex-area pets that deserve a second chance at loving new homes. Click here to read about them and to learn ways to give your pet a special Valentine's Day!

Another issue of e-gardens completed! If you've enjoyed it, we hope you'll share us with friends. We'll be back with the next installment the last Thursday of February. Until then, happy gardening!

Neil Sperry