Sussex County Garden Helpline now ready for calls

"Is it OK to plant daffodils this late?" "Can you recommend the best variety of sweet potato for Delaware?" "Can I prune river birch in spring?"

These are just some of the questions that have been posed recently on the Sussex County Garden Helpline. Residents also have taken samples of plants for diagnosis of disease or what's causing an injury, or just for identification, to the Sussex County Extension Office. That office, the Elbert N. and Ann V. Carvel Research and Education Center, is at 16483 County Seat Highway west of Georgetown.

Master Gardeners, members of the community who have received extensive training in order to extend the home garden outreach of Delaware Cooperative Extension, volunteer to handle phone calls and receive plant samples from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Messages can be left on the answering machine at other hours. Sometimes an answer is immediately available; often the Master Gardener can do a little research and return a phone call. Some calls require more information from the caller or are referred to Cooperative Extension experts.

Information also is available at extension.udel.edu/lawngarden. Fact sheets or publications are available that can be downloaded at no charge.

To get information on garden problems, call the Sussex County Garden Helpline at 302-856-2585, Ext. 535. It is the policy of the Delaware Cooperative Extension System that no person shall be subjected to discrimination on the grounds of race, color, sex, disability, age or national origin.