Got a chronic case of green thumb? Like getting your hands dirty? Adrian Higgins, garden editor for The Post's Home section, is here to help. Higgins is a firm believer in "tough plants for tough times" -- the varieties that combine good looks with stiff resistance to disease and pests. He currently rules over a garden filled with spring bulbs, daffodils, ornamental onions, perennials, asters, yarrows, hostas and day lilies. Higgins, an avid organic gardener who believes chemicals are a last resort, also tends his own herb and vegetable gardens where he grows peas, garlic, onions, lettuce, rhubarbs, radishes, carrots and more.

He was online Tuesday, May 27 to offer advice on lawns, flower beds, vegetable patches and window boxes.

A transcript follows.

Catch up on previous transcripts of The Garden Plot.

Higgins is the author of two books, "The Secret Gardens of Georgetown: Behind the Walls of Washington's Most Historic Neighborhood" and "The Washington Post Garden Book: The Ultimate Guide to Gardening in Greater Washington and the Mid-Atlantic Region."

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D.C.: How do you deal with chipmunks in your yard?

Adrian Higgins: I have not been plagued by them, and they're the one rodent I can live with. I have a juvenile rabbit that has destroyed half my poppy display by nibbling on the stems. If you have too many, I would fill in their holes, this does discourage them, in my experience. (The chipmunks, not the rabbits.)

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Moon Flowers?: what can you tell me about the plant referenced as a 'moon flower,' sold at farmers markets?

Description:

large green crenate leaves

large trumpet shaped flowers each evening that last till early morning

large, spiky fruits with seeds that explode several months after they begin to grow

seeds germinate the next spring

and the leaves smell like peanut butter.

Any detail, Latin name, or other information on this would be helpful.

Adrian Higgins: Fabulous late season annual vine with large green and white trumpet flowers, the back of the petals form this exquisite patterning and the bud is extraordinary too. It used to be called Calonyction aculeatum, but is now lumped with morning glories as Ipomoea alba. This is a vine worth starting early in the season because it takes a long time to develop to flowering stage, well into September some years. So get it going now. You will find faster germination if you rub the seeds on a metal file and soak them in warm water overnight.

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Anonymous: I've heard that dead-heading azaleas ensures better bloom the next year. My three azaleas are covered with hundred of flowers. Should I really take the time to pluck off the spent blooms?

Adrian Higgins: Azaleas really don't need to be deadheaded, the only benefit I can think of (other than making the shrub tidier for a while) is to remove the spores of petal blight. Even then, I wouldn't bother. Your time in the garden in better spent doing other things.

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Abandoned Rabbit Nest?: We have a rabbit nest outside our condo that appeared overnight last week.

I placed some orange marking flags near the nest to prevent the lawn guys from cutting up the nest.

I haven't seen any activity by the mother - no new grass covering, no fur bedding etc since.

Do you think she abandoned the nest or just built it early?

Adrian Higgins: Maybe they heard about my poppies, and decamped. I would not count on landscape crews "getting" the out of bounds signs, by the way.

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Clear Brook Va.: Good morning, Mr. Higgins. What is the value of adding magnesium sulfate/Epsom salts to the soil? My son, a horticulturist at Virginia Tech, told me after analyzing the soil, that I should add MgSO4 to the area that I plant my peppers in, and to give the side yard a dose of it also. Does it add acid or alkaline or is it a form of fertilizer?

Adrian Higgins: It promotes general plant health and a more compact and floriferous habit.

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Alexandria, Va.: While replacing a shrub, I dug out some Spanish bluebell bulbs. I'd like to pass them on to my mother. What should I do with them in the meantime - pot them, or leave them out?

Adrian Higgins: I'd either stick them in a pot until the foliage dies back, or heel them in a bed somewhere, but mark them so you know where they are after the foliage retreats.

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Philadelphia, Pa.: Hi, Adrian,

Can you suggest a suitable "street tree" to plant in front of a Philadelphia rowhouse? The tree will be in a sunny spot on a moderately busy street. Bonus points for a tree that flowers nicely in the spring and has colorful foliage in the fall. Finally, is it too late in the spring to plant a tree? Thank you!

Adrian Higgins: It's not too late to plant a container grown or balled and burlapped tree, but you will have to care for it this year. Street trees are inherently stressed by poor and compacted soil and need a lot of care in getting established. There is a beautiful street tree being used in my town of late, the Japanese tree lilac, which is now in creamy bloom. It stays relatively small and doesn't seem to get the mildew problems of the French hybrids. However, it's not a particularly handsome tree in fall color. I love the fastigiate European hornbeam and would like to see it used more as a street tree.

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Cheverly, Md.: Hello! Can I use lonicera sempervirens as a ground cover at the top of a slight slope?

Adrian Higgins: I wonder if it will get too leggy. Perhaps if you trim it to encourage branching. It is normally grown as a small vine, as you know. Give it a go.

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Rockville, Md.: I have a 35 foot eastern white pine in my yard. Appears to have yellowed a bit over the past years (although it looks a little better this year than it did last year). Is there anything I can do to bring back that bluish-greenish healthy pine color?

Adrian Higgins: This may be natural leaf drop. However, if you have poor drainage, the tree will never flourish.

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Lavender plants: I have some lavender plants that I have had for 2 years now. They are about 18" tall and are getting ready to bloom in the next couple of weeks. I have the opportunity to move them to a location with more space and as much sun. Are they hard to transplant? When is the best time to do this? Thanks!

Adrian Higgins: They really don't like to be moved once established. They will sulk and may sulk to death. I would simply buy some more for the desired spot.

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Washington, D.C.: I hate squirrels!!! They continually invade my pots and dig things up. Cayenne pepper helps, as do lots of plastic forks stuck in the pots, tine side up. But I still have problems! I am thinking of rat poison. Any thoughts about this approach?

Adrian Higgins: Unwise and illegal to use rat poison.

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Reading, Pa.: Adrian :

My peach trees have lots of tiny fruit but last year about this time flies invaded and ruined it all -- I guess I need to spray them but hate the idea of chemicals. Can you advise with a more organic way to save my crop?

Adrian Higgins: I don't think it is possible to raise peaches without some sort of spraying regime against the plum curculio and brown rot. I would check online to see if you can find organic controls for that pest and that disease.

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what's sun versus shade: Planting bed A gets full on sun from 9 am to 2 pm. On the other side of the yard, bed B gets sun from 1 to 6 pm.

Are both shady? Both partial shade? Anything I should watch? I put shade plants in Bed A, and yesterday with the noon-day sun everything was looking a bit wilted (despite plenty of water). I just put some hostas in bed B, and am now worried they'll fry in the afternoon sun. Any tips?

Adrian Higgins: Generally morning sun equals partial shade. Afternoon sun equals full sun. It sounds though that your Planting Bed A almost qualifies for full sun, so you should have lots of fun with plants that like light but resent the withering conditions of a July afternoon.

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No name, no city: Is it legal to bring back a few commercially sealed seed packets to the US from an EU nation, for personal use and as gifts to local gardening friends?

I bought a few packets of unusual varieties while in Europe recently, which I (ahem) forget to declare on my Customs form while reentering the US. The Customs agent at the airport didn't inspect my luggage so I passed through unscathed. But I didn't know whether seeds were OK to bring into the country (as opposed to, say, live plant materials).

Could you please clarify on this topic, or at least provide a website link with the correct information, so I don't have to go through this again? Thanks.

Adrian Higgins: You are supposed to get a phytosanitary certificate from the host agricultural ministry, even for seeds. Good luck with that.

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Laurel, Md.: I'm a novice in this wonderful hobby of gardening. How do I fertilize? I purchased some plant-tone over the weekend. Do I put the fertilizer around the roots? have to dig up and mix? is there an easier way, like a spray?

Help! Thanks!

Adrian Higgins: If you want to give plants a quick jolt, you can make fertilizer up as a spray and apply directly to the leaves. This is called a foliar feed. You can do this with liquid fishmeal (stinky but effective)or liquid kelp (not so stinky). Dry feed should be sprinkled around the root zone and scratched in a bit, you can then water it in. If you are using synthetic fertilizers, you run the risk of applying too much and burning the roots and affecting the soil structure, so follow the label instructions. There is much less of a risk of overfeeding with organics.

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Arlington, Va.: Adrian, I'm in my first full year with a community plot, so I'm enjoying your video series immensely. I just planted some eggplant seedlings (Ichiban type), and the leaves are turning yellowish purplish with tiny holes all over. (I threw a spoonful of lime into the dirt when I planted them.) I can't figure out what's eating them and a nontoxic way to help them. Ideas?

washingtonpost.com: Community Plotlines video series (washingtonpost.com)

Adrian Higgins: This is the flea beetle, which seems to be everywhere this spring. In the latest episode, you will see that Todd and Lissie Barbosa have been using rotenone on their mustard greens, and I don't like that stuff and have told them not to use it. What you should do is spray your eggplants with an insecticidal soap, and then cover them with a floating row cover until they get established. This will form a physical barrier against the pest while still letting light and moisture through.

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Ipomoea or Datura: The "moon flower" described by the previous poster sounds a lot like Angel Trumpet, AKA Datura. I don't think the vine moonflower has spiny seed cases, but small smooth ones like their relatives, the morning glories.

I can't spell or pronounce Latin names, but I'm learning to recognize them out of self-defense.

Adrian Higgins: I missed the spiny seed case, in which case, you're correct, it would be a datura or brugmansia.

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Crepe question: Know anything about the crepe Pocomoke variety? Saw it at the National Arboretum and liked its look - good for a rowhouse garden? Any special requirements? (Shade is an issue.)

Adrian Higgins: Anything we can do to get away from Natchez would be great. Natchez is a terrific ornamental tree, but simply over used and it also gets larger (30 feet) and denser that people expect. Pocomoke comes from the same breeding program at the National Arboretum, but it is a dwarf shrub which can be treated as a perennial. It grows to four feet, with rose pink flowers and the fall color is a bronze-red. It won't bloom so well in shade. I would consider an itea in those conditions.

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Lenten Rose in Nova Scotia question : Dear Dr. Higgins,

Desperate for hellebores but unable to find them in garden stores, I purchased seeds on the internet. They came with no instruction so I did a web search of how to grow hellebores from seed. How confusing!

What do I need to do to grow them? At $10.00 for 4 seeds I want to make sure they all turn into plants. Thanks!

Adrian Higgins: I'm in the wrong business. Your seed should be sown in a good potting mix now and kept evenly moist. A cold frame might help in Nova Scotia. They should sprout this season. I would keep them protected this winter, and plant them out in the spring.

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Great Falls, Va.: Adrian -

Since you mentioned poppies (sorry about your pesky wabbit): I just planted California poppies in my garden. How long do they take to sprout? Appreciate any tips.

Thanks!

Adrian Higgins: They are usually grown from seed earlier in the spring. They will bloom come mid summer, maybe earlier. .

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Arlington, Va.: Flea beetle, drat! thank you. Is it too late to start globe artichokes? I had some seedlings going, but they croaked when I left them outside, and now I'm having trouble finding more seeds. If I find some, can I plant straight in the ground at this point, or should I start as seedlings again?

Adrian Higgins: Seed grown artichokes are unlikely to crop this year, but will in subsequent seasons.

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New York, N.Y.: What do you recommend for getting rid of slugs?

Adrian Higgins: Walking ducks. Failing that, a beer trap or a water pistol filled with a chlorine bleach solution.

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Are copper containers a dang, ER: Greetings, Adrian!

I have a large copper container previously used as a firepit that I'd like to now use as a small rock garden. It has a removable stand made of short iron legs that it would normally sit upon, but I was thinking of nestling the container directly onto the plant bed.

My questions are two: first, can copper safely sit on the soil without adding unwelcome elements (literally) that would do harm to vegetation?

And two, does a 12" deep container need drainage holes if it is going to be filled with rocky soil and alpine-ish plants, anyway? Thank you!

Adrian Higgins: The difficulty is that the metal will get really hot in the summer, and the soil may become unbearably warm. The other thing is it would need perfect drainage. What if you were to use it as a little decorative pond, and throw in some dwarf aquatic plants (along with some Bt dunks for the mozzies).

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Moon Flower: Datura it is. The pictures on the wiki page confirmed.

Has anyone else noticed the peanut butter smell when they touch the leaves?

Thanks for helping me ID the plant.

Adrian Higgins: The plant is highly poisonous. Don't eat it, for God's sake.

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Stunted lilies: I have a large selection of turks cap lilies in my garden - but while my rubrums, black beauties, and tigers are tall and chugging along, the panther lilies (Lilium pardalinum) have completely stunted at half their supposed size and are not budging, while everything else progresses. Should I try and give them more space? Move them?

Adrian Higgins: I wonder if they are suffering from all the rain we have had. They like it moist but not wet. I'd wait for them to bloom and in the early fall lift and divide them, making sure their soil is enriched. Lilies generally like their feet in the shade and their heads in the sun.

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Washington, D.C.: Help! I started a mixed perennial flower mix in an egg carton and now I'm not sure where to go from here.

They're doing fine - I think (the true leaves have come in) and they get sufficient light but do I move them into individual containers now? should I just put one seedling in each small pot? do I fertilize?

Adrian Higgins: You should "pot them on" as we say. Gingerly extract them from the carton cells and place each in a four inch pot. This is best done on a cloudy day.

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Maryland: Is it okay to plant grass this time of year, or do I need to wait til after summer?

Adrian Higgins: Wait until early September.

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Potomac, Md.: Hi Adrian. What should I make of the fact that Whole Foods in Rockville and Silver Spring have Japanese Maples on sale for $70 lately? I cannot remember the varieties offhand but I did see a couple of lace-leaf varieties yesterday. I think they are in 1-gallon pots.

While it seems a good deal I know I can get ones a bit larger at a certain large retailer with orange signs on Shady Grove Road, for about $25.

And what is a good resource for Japanese Maples anyway? I have a couple of areas that I think would be excellent for large mounding varieties, but I am concerned about whether JM's are more appropriate for the part-shade areas that I seem to see most of them planted in (and which I lack in my yard mostly).

Adrian Higgins: Japanese maples are so precious a plant, either the pendant threadleaf forms, or the upright shrubs and trees, that I would never buy one impulsively or with scant regard to the named variety. I get mine from Eastwood Nurseries in Washington, Va.

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Falls Church: I have a tomato plant that's just stagnant. Not doing anything. Is it done?

Adrian Higgins: Lots of stagnant tomatoes at the moment. It's been cool and moist, but once it develops more roots and the weather turns hot and sticky, which it will, the vine will soon go nuts.

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Moonflower: Just because it smells like peanut butter, believe me, I won't eat it.

I've noticed that the ones in my parents' garden are ignored by the deer. Thus I've planted them around their property to compensate for the deer-eaten plants.

Is their toxicity known to the deer, thus they avoid it?

Maybe the person above can give some to their squirrels.

Adrian Higgins: Good idea. You're a tough crowd today when it comes to our little four footed friends.

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Indoor Plant: Hope you'll help. I want to find a plant that I can have in a pot in my apartment. Wants/needs: Flowers judicially over the course of the summer in indirect sun/shade. Is there such a plant? Thanks.

Adrian Higgins: I would try a kalanchoe.

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Native Gardening: Hi Dr. Higgins,

I was interested in starting a native garden that would attract birds and butterflies. I have a spot at the back of my lawn that I was thinking of, but it is very shady. Unfortunately, the shade is coming from mature trees on neighbors' property that I have no control over.

Is it possible to do a native garden in the shade? Do you have any recommendations on specific plants, or resources where I can learn more about this?

Adrian Higgins: You can have a splendid native shade garden, you just have to go more with leaf ornament than flower show. You could plant leafy perennials and shrubs that form the host plants for the butterfly larvae, rather than the adults. Two books come to mind, Timber Press pocket guide to Shade Perennials (which includes non natives) and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Native Alternative to Invasive Plants.

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Artichokes: Right, no artichokes for eating in year 1 (I'm in it for the long haul; my motto is "patience, Grasshopper"), but is it too late to start seeds, and can I just start them in the ground, or should I start seeds in little cells again (I like the egg carton idea)?

Adrian Higgins: No, you can start from seeds, just don't keep them out in blasting sun and make arrangements for care when you go away this summer. You could plant them out in the fall, in a bed that you have prepared well.

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Herndon, Va.: HI! Is it too late to plant lettuce? Or should it be put into pots to prevent bolting? I've had requests to put it in my veggie garden, but wasn't sure. Thanks!

Adrian Higgins: Getting late for lettuce, unless you want to harvest them as baby greens. You could sow more heat tolerant greens such as collards and Swiss chard.

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not telling!: Come on professor, live a little! Don't you think buying a Japanese maple from Whole Foods can be a little risky and a little fun? What is the harm in buying a cultivar that you don't know every little thing about, but like the way it looks. I say go for it, plant it, and see what happens.

Adrian Higgins: I'm a skinflint. If I'm shelling out 70 bucks I want the whole experience of a day in the country and ruminating over varietal choices.

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Arlington, Va.: Hi Adrian, I have planted a lot of your top trees in the last four years. Thanks for writing your great book!

My latest addition -- 2 Cherry Hally Jolivettes flanking my front yard. Now, my dilemma is -- what can I plant as companion plants? I'm hoping for some shrubs that bloom the same time as the cherries.

Thank You!

Adrian Higgins: Fothergilla, or perhaps a daphne or two.

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Washington, D.C.: Climbing roses - any particular variety work best for this area? I'd like to cover a 90 ft. chain link fence that gets full sun but wanted to avoid invasive vines such as clematis... Do you think this would work well or have any other suggestion? many thanks

Adrian Higgins: New Dawn is a classic vigorous climber. You should think about some of the once blooming ramblers, which get huge. This is a story I wrote on the topic:

Rambling Roses, Growing Wild

A Brookeville Garden Is Awash in a Sea Of Antique Climbers

By Adrian Higgins

Washington Post Staff Writer

Climbing roses occupy a special place in the gardener's heart. No other bower is quite as beautiful, fragrant or romantic.

And yet a plant so essential to the dreaminess of a garden is not grown much anymore. There are reasons for this: Antique varieties of climbers and ramblers are hard to find, they grow too big for today's smaller landscapes, and most bloom only once. People will snap up dogwoods and azaleas that bloom once, but not roses.

Nick Weber knows what they are missing. He is luxuriating in May and June in his garden and one-man rose nursery in Brookeville. On his second-floor balcony, a monstrous bower named Paul's Himalayan Musk now joins him and his wife, Rosanne, for a glass of wine in the evening. The blooms are a shade of lavender-pink and small, but the canes that bear them so profusely are now up about 20 feet.

In a garden of scores of such climbers and hundreds of old shrub roses, it is easy to stop studying the blossoms and foliage and to surrender, to let the rose bliss wash over you. This paradise has been 20 years in the making by a rosarian (and retired Food and Drug Administration scientist) who has become a quiet but persistent champion of forgotten heirloom roses.

Even hobby gardeners might be reluctant to follow his lead, to dedicate more than an acre to big roses that are bloomless after July. But you can capture the essence of this Shangri-La on a smaller scale. Just one or two (or better yet, five) plants will provide a sufficient level of enchantment.

A few of Weber's roses have taken more than a decade to mature (the most vigorous may be Mrs. Keays' Snowbush, now 50 feet into an Asian pear tree), but others have grown in five years or less into landscape plants -- bowers with as much presence as a tree or large shrub.

Climbing roses fall into two basic classes: the climbers that tend to be single-stemmed and large-flowered, and the ramblers, which are especially vigorous, developing multiple stems. Ramblers regenerate freely and their blooms are arranged in clusters. One variety, New Dawn, has always remained popular. This is a great rose, vigorous, re-blooming and with clean, blue-green foliage, but overused. There are so many more, each hitched to some distant point and place in time, such as the Aviateur Bleriot, bred in France around the time of the pioneer aviator. In a world consumed by novelty and supposed improvement, these stalwarts draw us back, and in.

Weber is particularly fond of a rose named Chevy Chase, bred in 1939 by Washington hybridizer Niels Hansen. It is a climber that is showy but not all-consuming, modest in height and with intense crimson flowers whose petals are arranged in whorls -- "quartered," in rosarian speak. "This is, of course," says Weber, "the ultimate red rambler."

And consider the rose whose floral bounty is wrapped up in its Latin name, Rosa polyantha grandiflora. Now 12 feet high and moving another 12 feet in opposite directions, the rose is draped over a hedgerow and is festooned with single white blossoms with showy yellow stamens. It has a sweet fragrance. As a wildling, it sets decorative orange fruit -- rose hips -- in late summer into fall.

In another part of the garden, Weber has constructed four trellises of post and wire, each about 100 feet long, propping up a total of 60 climbers and ramblers. The Chevy Chase is demure in comparison to, say, May Queen, which looks like the blanket that covers the winner of the Kentucky Derby, except the plant is 10 feet high and 15 feet across, and the blooms are a lavender-pink, semi-double with two rows of petals.

It is also exceedingly fragrant, disease-resistant and happy with the limited sunlight in this area, bounded by tall evergreens.

Others catch the eye, including two huge bedfellows: the Garland, a 12-foot bower of salmon-colored buds opening a creamy white, and next to it the Seagull, here 15 feet high and 20 feet across, a semi-double white with yellow stamens and unforgettable in its floral excess. My vote for the most handsome rose of the day went to the Francis E. Lester, which had climbed a metal arch and was now reaching far along the railing on both sides. Its blossoms (single, hot pink and white with yellow stamens) are borne above the leaf planes in showy clusters.

Around the corner, where the fence becomes a wooden picket, was another keeper. It formed a long garland at waist height, but because it was bare below it gave a lightness that would make it suitable for any garden, big or small. It is the aforementioned Aviateur Bleriot, a sweet-scented rambler with yellow buds opening cream. It was already 30 feet long. "You ain't seen nothing yet," said Weber, leading on to another French rambler, Francois Juranville, with flowers 2 1/2 inches in diameter in a clear, quartered pink. His four-year-old plant is 50 feet long, three times what the books say it will grow to. "It should be pruned."

The lesson is that all these roses can and probably should be cut back, and will happily occupy a space just 10 feet across with methodical care. Otherwise, let them go. The roses in the climbing rose garden are pruned only to keep the canes from interfering with the grass paths, and they flower freely and with little evident disease problems.

I had called to invite myself to Weber's Heritage Rosarium after it dawned on me that my one lone and splendid rambler, Moonlight, was waning for the season and that I had no others. At my previous garden, I had lots of climbers, but Moonlight alone was carrying the flag, and, after 12 years, it was time to send in reinforcements.

The peril of visiting Nick Weber's is that, once home, you need to go on an ambitious construction program to support all the roses you desire (see the box above). Fortunately, he had sold out of some of his gems, so I bagged just three with the promise of more to come (after he propagates them by cuttings). I crammed into the trunk of my car a Mrs. F.W. Flight, an Aviateur Bleriot and a Debutante. To the unsuspecting spouse, they all look young and cuddly. Like polar bear cubs, I suppose.

Weber's nose is keenly attuned to the differences in rose fragrances and their blends, much as a wine expert can distinguish between grapes and labels. Musks, damasks, teas and Chinas all have nuanced scents. After plunging his nose into a flower, he might say, "I get some myrrh on it," or "It's got clove, and it's got damask on it."

Now 64, Weber had a potentially serious illness diagnosed five years ago. It has been held in check with medication, but the episode played a big part in his decision to retire and to let the rose bliss wash over him. "It made me stop and smell the roses," he said.

Heritage Rosarium is open by appointment. The season is past peak, but roses are still in bloom. Call 301-774-2806 or e-mail heritagero@aol.com. The rosarium's Web address is http://home.comcast.net/heritagerosarium. Stock is limited for 2006. Other sources of old garden climbers: The Uncommon Rose, Corvallis, Ore., 541-753-8871 or 541-223-1940, http://www.uncommonrose.com. Many out-of-stock varieties will be available in September after the summer break. Antique Rose Emporium, Brenham, Tex., 800-441-0002, http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com. The new shipping season begins in early fall.

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Rockville Md.: We have two mature maple trees that are extremely "dirty." Unfortunately, they hang over the pool and make a huge mess all summer. We are thinking of taking them down... is there someone who would want the intact trees to use the lumber?

Adrian Higgins: Use 'em for firewood. Or get a monster rabbit. Well, we're out of time. Look for more gardening coverage in Thursday's Home section.

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