1. KNOW YOUR CLEMATIS

A (or 1): bloom in early spring: Flowers formed on last year's wood. Prune only when flowering is done.

B (or 2): bloom in late spring, early summer: In spring, before clematis blooms, prune stems back to a set of live buds.

C (or 3): bloom in summer/early fall: In spring, cut every stem back to a foot from the ground.

2. AN EASY MIX FOR ROSE FERTILIZER

Mix one cup bone meal, 1/2 cup blood meal, 1/2 cup epsom salts, plus a mulch of alfalfa pellets.

Fertilize after first pruning of the year, continue monthly until Aug. 1.

Don't let dogs eat blood and bone meal, which they will want to do. If you use cocoa mulch in your yard, keep your dog away as well. Eating it can be fatal.

3. WHAT IS DEADHEADING?

Removing dead flowers to encourage more to grow, and make the plant look better.

You can shear back plants with many tiny flowers instead of individual deadheading.

It's OK to deadhead spent blossoms from spring bloomers like tulips, daffodils and crocus.

Don't remove the foliage, though, or even braid it. Wait until it turns brown. The foliage needs to feed the bulb for next year's flowers.

Try planting hardy geranium (Rozanne is a long bloomer popular in local gardens), or columbine to help mask the old bulb foliage.

Also, be careful when deadheading rhododendrons. Twist off the flowers gently by hand so you don't disturb next year's blooms that are growing under the old flowers.

4. "HARDENING OFF"

Conditions your indoor seedlings for transplant in the garden. For about a week, set seedling flats outside in a sheltered place, not in direct sun. Bring them in at night.

5. THE WONDERS OF FALL PLANTING

Spring planting is popular, but fall planting will give your plants a headstart - a year's worth of growth in a few month's time.

Fall planting also gives plants more time to establish a deep, strong root system and be better able to endure the long, hot Idaho summer.

6. BE A FRIEND TO WILDLIFE

If possible, leave some spent plants standing for winter food and coverage for birds. Some roses will produce hips, which feed birds, or make super vitamin C tea for you. Don't deadhead to let the hips form.

Some fleshier plants, like peonies, should be cut back, though, and the foliage discarded.

Do not compost peony leaves. They can harbor disease.

OTHER HELPFUL HINTS:

INDOOR LIGHTING FOR SEEDLINGS

Statesman garden columnist Margaret Lauterbach says most seeds don't need much light to germinate, or sprout. Once they do germinate, it's a different story.

Get two inexpensive fluorescent bulbs - one warm bulb, one cool - at the hardware store.

Suspend the bulbs over your growing trays so that the light is always an inch over the sprouts.

Lauterbach has a friend who attaches the fluorescent bulbs to an old ski laid across the back of two chairs.

The bulbs are on chains, so they can be raised as the seedlings grow.

Seedlings need 12 hours of light a day, so put your bulbs on a timer if you can't be home to turn lights on and off.

Growing seeds on a bright windowsill doesn't work as well, because plants will bend to the light. Suspending light directly overhead will make them grow straight and strong.

MOST BUGS ARE GOOD

Separating the good guys from the bad guys is a must. Visit the University of Idaho Extension office Web site and follow the links to Idaho Landscapes & Gardens, and "Wildlife in the Garden."

Find out how to recognize the good guys - aphid-chomping lacewings, egg-sucking damsel bugs, et al - and attract them to your garden.