Garden Jobs

Things to do this week:

* Plant early tomatoes. In warmer areas, including most of the Los Angeles Basin and Orange County, where frosts are unlikely, try putting in transplants of ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes now and they may have tasty ripe fruit before Memorial Day. Choose a sunny spot protected from cool, coastal breezes (against a warm, south-facing wall is perfect). Don’t follow the normal advice to plant tomato transplants deep, since the soil is considerably warmer near the surface at this time of the year.

If frost does threaten, cover the plants with plastic for the night. Although some nurseries have other tomato varieties for sale, it’s way too early to plant any but ‘Early Girl.’

* Start tuberous begonias. In shade, nothing is as bright and bold as tuberous begonias, and the fat tubers they grow from begin showing up at nurseries now. If you are going to grow them in the ground, sprout the tubers in a shallow container of potting soil, leaving the upper half of the tuber uncovered. Keep them moist, not wet (“they can’t swim” is how one expert put it) and in a warm spot, even indoors if need be. What you want to do is force them to sprout before you put them in the ground so you can see which direction the first leaf faces--that is the direction the flowers will face. In pots, this is less important, since you can turn them, but it is crucial for those planted in the ground.

* Plant summer bulbs. They are not nearly as popular as fall bulbs but perhaps should be, since many are quite spectacular. Amaryllis, caladiums, calla lilies, cannas, dahlias, gladiolus, sternbergia, tigridia and fragrant tuberose can all be planted now and will bloom at various times in summer.

* Move cymbidiums. Although cymbidiums need to grow in quite a bit of sun to flower--enough to turn the leaves slightly yellow--the blooms will last longer if they are moved into more shade while in flower.