MENUDid you think only you could get sunburn? Your trees can, too. It’s not a common problem in our area, but it does occur. It’s caused by the same conditions that sunburn us – sudden exposure to high heat and intense sun rays. Drought stress can also contribute to sunburned trees.The big difference between our sunburn and that of trees is the amount of time it takes for symptoms to show up. We turn red immediately, but it takes awhile for trees to exhibit any symptoms.Sunburn usually occurs on young trees and thin bark trees, especially those with dark bark. Sunburn damages the tissue just beneath the bark. The bark discolors and dries out, cracks and starts peeling off. These symptoms are quite similar to those for sunscald. However, sunscald occurs in the winter and is caused by freezing. Thus the more common name – frost cracking.In addition to drought stress, sunburn can be caused by sudden exposure to the sun. This can be caused by removing nearby shade, such as other trees or structures. If you are planting new trees, try not to plant them in the heat of summer. Otherwise, take special care to protect them until they become established.Protection measures start with watering. Be sure the tree receives one or two inches of water a week. Also, mulch and compost around the base of the tree. Organic mulch and compost will help the soil retain moisture and lower the soil temperature.Wrapping the trunk is another protective measure that I use very cautiously. Wraps include paper, cloth and even painting the trunk. The method most arborists, including me, prefer is to loosely wrap the trunk with light colored window screening This type of trunk guard reflects light, while allowing air and water to reach the bark.Tree roots are intended to keep the “plant” in its place. Thus, trees do not react well to environmental changes. Sunburn is one environmental change that we often don’t think of, but the results can be very devastating. However, sunburn can be prevented or treated. But prevention is much more effective than treatment. So, consider the effect on a specimen tree before removing the shade that has contributed to its good health for all these years.
At the height of the summer heat, your lawn suddenly turns brown, despite all the work that you put into maintaining it. Fear not; it isn’t dead. It is just dormant, riding out the hot spell.Nature has equipped turfgrass with the ability to go dormant when there is too much heat and too little water. If your neighbors’ grass is still green, it means that they have kept it watered. You can start watering now, and yours will come back, or you can wait for nature to take its course. Then, it will green up when temperatures cool and we get sufficient rain.It takes a lot of water to maintain a lawn during a hot, dry summer. Some people don’t have the time to water. Others are bound by municipal water restrictions. Still others do not want to spend the money to water their lawns. You will definitely see a spike in your water bill that quarter.Lawns need at least an inch of water a week, and it is best to apply it all in one watering. Just sprinkling will encourage shallow, unhealthy roots. Extended applications encourage deep, healthy roots.You have a wide choice of sprinklers. I prefer the oscillating sprinkler head. It provides the most consistent stream of water. How do you know when you have applied an inch of water? There is an easy, time-honored measurement method.Save a tuna (or cat food) can. They used to recommend coffee cans, but most coffee is now sold in either bags or plastic cans. Measure an inch on the can and place in the water stream and note the time it takes to fill the can to an inch. Then each time you reposition the sprinkler, water for the same amount of time. A tuna can is shallow enough that you can let it fill all the way to the top. If you don’t want to bother timing, you can place the can in the water stream and move the sprinkler each time the can fills up.If you choose not to water, here are a few recommendations for protecting the dormant grass:
The bottom line is that you have two choices. You can provide your lawn with an inch or more of water a week and enjoy it just as you do during the spring and fall, or you can let nature take its course and find recreational pursuits that do not require walking on the grass.It should take several good rains before a dormant lawn comes back to life. If patches fail to re-green, they need renovation. We (or you) rake out the dead grass, rough up the soil, scatter seed, rake the new seed into the soil, and water. Or, you can just lay sod.
Drought conditions are almost upon us. Statistically, our rainfall is ahead of average for June by about an inch, but all of that came in the early part of the month. We have had less than a half-inch of rain in the last part of the month.As I look at customers’ and potential customers’ plants, I am seeing the start of stress that is caused by drought. Lawns are even starting to brown up.In the absence of rain, your landscape plants will be looking to you for water. Making sure that your landscape plants have at least an inch of water per week should be your number one gardening task this summer.I don’t know about you, but watering is not my favorite gardening task. However, it is critical to good plant health. Consequently, we just have to do it.Apply the inch of water in a single watering, or two applications if one is not possible. Do not just sprinkle a little bit every day. Sprinkled water never sinks deep into the soil. As a result, roots remain shallow and weak. Extended watering encourages deeper, stronger roots.Trees, shrubs and bedding plants should be watered differently from lawns. While lawns need to be sprayed due to their large area, other plants should be drip irrigated.The easiest, and most expensive, drip irrigation is an automatic irrigation system with drip heads. These are buried at the base of the plants and set to drip water over a long period of time. If you don’t want to invest in such a system, you can buy soaker hoses at any garden center. These do the same thing as a drip irrigator.Soaker hoses are porous rubber hoses, manufactured from recycled tires. They connect to any outside faucet, and the water is turned on only a quarter turn. Water then seeps out of the porous rubber. The third option is to just lay a hose, without a nozzle, at the base of a plant and open the faucet only until the water trickles out.Garden centers have a number of lawn sprayers to choose from. Some rotate back and forth like the windshield wipers on your car. Others spray like a fountain, but the model I like best is an oscillator because hey thoroughly water a wide swath. Commercial versions of these can be seen on golf courses and commercial properties.Early morning is the best time of day to water plants. Then they will be well hydrated during the heat of the day. If you can’t do it at that time, early evening, just before dusk, is the next best time. Don’t wait until it is dark, or the dampness you create can encourage mildew.If drought conditions get any worse, you may need to prioritize your watering regimen. You can prioritize by each plant’s sentimental or intrinsic value, its importance in the landscape, or its replacement value.We usually prioritize by replacement value. Trees are the most expensive to replace, but only young trees just getting established need supplemental watering. Large, well established trees have roots that extend deep enough to find water. Shrubs have the next highest replacement value, followed by perennials. Annuals can be replaced quite inexpensively. Often we change out annuals part way through the season anyway.Turfgrass has the ability to protect itself by going dormant during a drought. From a strictly economic standpoint, your lawn should be at the bottom of your watering priority. I will cover turfgrass survival during summer heat in another blog soon.
Your evergreens, especially conifers (pines, spruce, etc.) have been taking full advantage of our early spring weather conditions. You can tell this by the amount of new growth they are sporting. New growth is the lighter colored, softer needles that appear on the branch tips in spring.Soon that tender foliage will darken to the tree or shrub’s normal color. The branches will harden and the needles will stiffen. That usually happens in June, although it has been known to extend into July. When it happens, it’s time to prune.r needles that appear on the branch tips in spring.As with all pruning, evergreen pruning should be done with a specific purpose in mind. That may be to shape or thin the tree or shrub, or to reduce its size or raise its “crown.”Shrub pruning may be a relatively safe do-it-yourself job, but we don’t recommend it for major tree pruning. Pruning a large pine or spruce tree can be dangerous in a number of ways. First, you will, most likely, have to leave the ground to reach the upper branches. Not a good idea. Second, those needles are sharp, especially if they fall on you, or whip around and hit you. Third, each cut lets more messy sap ooze out and get all over you.Please wear eye protection, no matter what size evergreen you are pruning. If you are pruning over head, wear a hard hat. And, if you are using power tools, wear ear protection, too.If you have a taxus (yew) border or foundation planting, pruning and shaping is probably an annual task. I hope this is just maintenance pruning – removing the new growth. If that is the case, don’t wait until the new growth matures. It is much easier to prune when the new growth has finished growing but before it matures (turns color). The soft wood cuts easily and cleanly, and the color differentiation is a good guide for shaping. This year, the time to prune has arrived.Broadleaf evergreens like rhododendrons and boxwoods should also be pruned in June. They, too, put on new growth in early spring and are ready for pruning right now. Pruning evergreens should follow the same procedures as pruning deciduous trees.Prune only at a fork. In the case of tight plants like boxwood, cuts can be made just above a leaf’s attachment to the branch. Cuts on looser plants like rhododendrons should be made at a branch crotch or at the base of the offending branch.
This is the one time of year when the emerald ash borer (EAB) can be seen, if you have good eyes. The tiny, metallic green adults have emerged from inside infested ash trees, and have taken flight in search of a mate.Your eyes have to be good to see EAB adults because they are tiny – a mere half inch long – and their goal is to lay eggs way up in the tree tops. This is the time of year to take action to protect your non-infested ash trees and treat any ash tree that may already be infested.Everyone in the green industry is looking for a way to help you do this and, of course, make a buck. Recently, a story appeared in a local newspaper in which a garden store recommended do-it-yourself treatment using a product containing Imidacloprid for soil drench and a product containing carbaryl to spray in the tree crowns. I am writing this to warn you that you will be wasting your money if you invest in this or any do-it-yourself remedy for this persistent pest. It is a job for tree health care professionals.Imidacloprid is the only material labeled for consumer use. However, the maximum legal strength for consumer use is so weak that it can only be effective on trees two to three inches in diameter. And, the more is better theory won’t work. Even using commercial strength Imidicloprid as a preventive measure requires annual applications, twice a year to treat an already infested tree.As for spraying carbaryl, you’ll likely only kill any bees near the spray. EAB adults are looking for love, not food.The only product I recommend is called TREEage, and is only sold to state licensed applicators who have been trained by the manufacturer in the use of its product and application equipment. The active ingredient in TREEage is Emanmectin Benzoate, and it only has to be applied every two years as a preventative, annually as a treatment.My conclusions were echoed by a research scientist with the Pennsylvania Department of Natural Resources and other scientists.Trying to treat this deadly pest yourself is really false economy. You can hire a tree health professional to apply TREEage every two years for a good many years for what it will cost to have a large, dead ash tree removed and replaced after the emerald ash borer kills it.
When tree or other plant damage is imminent, I will be the first to tell you about it. But, I won’t use scare tactics or try to sell you treatment for insects and diseases that might come some day. A disease called thousand cankers falls into that category.I have begun to hear rumors of its arrival here in upstate New York, but I haven’t really seen anything to support that.Thousand cankers is a disease that affects members of the walnut family. It was first discovered in the west, and Dr. Whitney Cranshaw, a professor at Colorado State University is one of the authorities on the subject. I first heard of his research back in 2009.Dr. Cranshaw explained that the fungal disease is carried by a little insect called the walnut twig beetle. When an insect carries a disease, it is called a vector. Thousand cankers was killing black walnut trees in the west. Dr. Cranshaw blamed that on the fact that black walnuts are eastern trees that were introduced to the west. He predicted that the disease would eventually come east, but that our black walnuts would be able to resist it. He was right so far. Like so many other landscape pest problems, the infected walnut twig beetle hitchhiked east aboard black walnut logs purchased by eastern craftsmen. Black walnut is a valuable, sought-after species of hardwood for such products as furniture.Thousand cankers has been identified in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia but not here. Here in the Rochester area, we have seen a similar disease in less valuable butternut trees. At first, we thought this disease was thousand cankers, but Dr. Gary Moorman, professor of plant pathology at Penn State, says, “Butternuts are being eliminated from the east by another fungus, one that is probably (also) insect vectored.” In his trade magazine article and trade show seminar in Connecticut last November, Dr. Moorman said that English walnuts are susceptible to Thousand Cankers.In the west, it takes eight to 10 years of continuous feeding by the beetle to kill a black walnut tree. We don’t know the impact in the east. The U.S. Forest Service has set up quarantines in all western states, and the three eastern states in which the disease has been found have set up quarantines. Several north central states in which black walnut trees grow have prohibited the importation of walnut, including black walnut, trees. New York is not one of them.Thousand cankers disease is high on my list of insects and diseases to keep my eye on, but there is no evidence that it is anywhere near our area, unless someone recently transported black walnut logs here from the west. I certainly hope that is not the case.
Gardeners and farmers used to depend on the calendar, almanacs and journals to schedule their planting. That’s not necessary today, thanks to research by dedicated horticulturists.One tradition that has lived on, however, is to keep a journal. Journals used to be important to gardeners and farmers. Important data were kept in them from previous seasons. The data included the dates on which the writer was able to begin working in the garden and when specific crops were planted and the weather conditions. Journals can help you plan your garden for the following year(s).The only difference between the journals of old and today is that today’s will probably be kept on your laptop or tablet.When I was growing up, planting flowers (annuals) on Memorial Day was a tradition. This was due partly to weather and partly to tradition. Today, however, you probably plant much earlier than Memorial Day. If you consult your journals, you will see that spring conditions are arriving earlier each year.By jotting down weather conditions in your journal for each day, you can track the date and the weather for your first foray into the garden each year. This will unshackle you from the calendar’s grip. This is as it should be. If spring warmth arrives early, there is no reason not to greet it with beautiful flowers. This way, you can extend the enjoyment you derive from your garden.The two biggest contributors to “G” Day (the day you launch the gardening season) are temperature and sunlight. Be sure that the chance of a spring frost is gone and be sure you have sufficient hours of sunlight.If you follow these simple ideas, you won’t have to sit inside with one eye on the calendar and one eye enjoying your neighbor’s flowers before Memorial Day. Your gardening season will be in full swing long before the parade.
You’ve enjoyed beautiful, early spring blooms on shrubs like forsythia and lilacs. While they looked like a good “hair cut” would have made them look even better, you resisted the temptation. Now that the flowers have faded, you can go ahead with your pruning plans. That way, the shrubs will look nice as foliage plants for the rest of the season.Most shrubs flower on last year’s wood. Others flower on this year’s wood. Distinguishing flower buds from leaf buds can be a challenge for the untrained eye. If you prune before the shrub flowers, there is a better than 50/50 chance that you will remove branches with flowers, rather than leaves. That’s why we advise you to not prune until after your shrubs flower.Forsythia, lilacs, rhododendrons and azaleas are examples of shrubs that bloom on last year’s (old) wood. Last fall, both flower and leaf buds formed and overwintered, waiting for spring’s arrival. This year, spring arrived early and many shrubs took advantage of the nice weather to flower early. So, they are now ready for grooming.Hydrangea and butterfly bushes are popular examples of shrubs that flower on new wood. As the new growth appears, so will new leaves and flowers. As a result, these plants bloom in late spring or early summer. Flowerless canes that are darker in color and older looking than those in flower can be removed while the plant is in flower. This is last year’s wood and will not flower again.After the leaves have fallen from shrubs that flower on new wood, they should be pruned heavily. Last year’s canes can be removed almost to ground level. Then new canes will grow and flower.Many of the same pruning practices apply to shrubs as to trees. Branches or canes should be removed at a fork or right at the base. While it may be more labor intensive, each branch should be pruned individually, not sheared. Shearing leaves unsightly stubs that are not healthy for the shrub. Often, power hedge shears also chew up the leaves, making them look as though they were attacked by some unknown leaf eating insect.The nice part about pruning shrubs is that you seldom have to climb; it is much safer to prune your own shrubs than it is your trees. The same rule applies, though. If you have to climb, even a ladder, call the pros. Ever see the results of someone falling from a ladder into a shrub? There are a lot of cuts, scrapes and bruises.Happy gardening. Let’s all make the most of this unusual season.
Good “dirt” is essential for gardening success. Every gardener yearns for good, rich topsoil. To realize that, however, you may need many dollars and a dream. That’s because the builder probably scraped the topsoil away when he excavated to build your house. Some builders stored topsoil on site until your property was ready for landscaping. The rest sold it and it was hauled away to another job.Have you priced the cost to return topsoil to your yard? I have, and it is expensive. So, we have to resort to other methods, like fertilization, to assure that your soil has the nutrients needed to sustain the plants in your landscape.While the term “fertilization” has become the accepted term for replenishing soil nutrients, a recently coined term has begun creeping into our vocabulary – soil care. I prefer soil care to fertilization because it more accurately describes the actual fertilization process. Soil care also clarifies some serious misinformation when it comes to fertilization.Over the years, many gardeners, garden communicators and even garden product manufacturers have referred to fertilization as feeding plants. The late plant physiologist, Dr. Alex Shigo (often referred to as the father of modern arboriculture), wrote and spoke extensively about fertilizer’s role in plant health.Dr. Shigo said that fertilizer is not plant food. Plants make their own food by photosynthesis. Fertilizer replenishes nutrients and, in some cases, organic matter in the soil. Plants absorb these nutrients, which help them make food. I like to compare fertilizer’s role in plant life to that of vitamin supplements. Just as vitamin supplements supply the essential nutrients missing from our diet, fertilizer replaces the essential nutrients missing from the soil in which you are growing your plants.I believe that, if you adopt the term soil care, you may actually be able to save money. You should test your soil, or have it tested, before fertilizing. If it is rich in all necessary nutrients and elements, soil care (fertilizing) may not be necessary. However, if you continue to refer to fertilization as feeding your plants, you will probably feel guilty if you don’t feed them, and this could lead to unnecessary fertilizer applications.If you are unsure of whether your landscape plants and lawn need to be fertilized this spring, call a professional to test your soil. Not only will a soil test determine whether your soil needs fertilizer, it will also indicate which nutrients are deficient. This way, the fertilizer’s nutrient content can be adjusted to be sure only the needed nutrients are replenished.Over my many years of conducting soil tests, I have found that nearly every lawn needs fertilization. This is because we mow grass, and the grass plants’ reaction is to replace the leaves (blades) of grass that were removed. For this, they need sun, water, and essential nutrients. Planting beds and the areas around the base of trees vary in their nutritional replenishment needs. If you regularly add organic matter like compost or mulch, nutrients will likely be at, or close to needed levels.We want to take care of our plants, but one of the most important ways that we can care for them is to care for the soil that is so important to their health, well being and, yes, their very life.
The terms IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and PHC (Plant Health Care) are now part our horticultural vocabulary. While you may be tempted to use them interchangeably, they are not synonymous.IPM and PHC are concepts, not just terms. And, the two best ways to distinguish them is to remember that IPM is just one facet of PHC, and that IPM is intended to treat plants that are sick while PHC is cradle-to-grave care to prevent plants from getting sick. If PHC is doing its job, IPM may not be needed.Integrated Pest Management is an agriculture process that has been adapted to horticulture. IPM involves ongoing monitoring of plants, like wellness care for humans. When insects and diseases are identified early, they may respond to less aggressive treatment than when the pest has gotten well established. Instead of multiple treatments with chemicals, pests that are detected early may be controlled with a single treatment using horticultural oil or other environmentally-friendly method. If the plant is in no danger, no action, other than continued monitoring, may be prescribed. If the pest gets more aggressive, then more aggressive control measures may be called for.Plant Health Care starts with the decision to buy a plant. Right plant, right place is the prevailing mantra. That means selecting a plant that will be happy in the location you have chosen to plant it. If the location is sunny, select a sun-loving plant. If it is shady, select a shade-tolerant plant. If it likes lots of water, don’t plant it in a dry location. If it is delicate, plant it in a sheltered location away from the wind.I am also guilty of using these terms interchangeably because I am usually called in after an existing tree has a problem. In these cases, my first job is to take care of the problem. This falls under IPM. However, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t suggest a PHC program to start at the current point in the plant’s life.Certainly we cannot move a mature shade-loving tree out of the sun, but there are things that I can do. One is to keep stress out of the plant’s life. I can maintain the proper soil fertility, add organic matter when it’s needed, keep it mulched, and be sure the owner knows it needs at least an inch of water a week, and prune when needed. Insects and diseases tend to leave healthy plants alone and pick on the underdogs – those that are stressed or in decline.Although a PHC program is, ideally, a cradle-to-grave program, in all practicality, it can be started at any time during a plant’s life. I have become quite proficient at compensating for earlier cultural errors.A happy plant is a healthy plant.
As plants awaken to begin life anew this spring, many trees in one genus will awake with much of their insides eaten away. As the weather warms up, the culprit that did this will eat its way out of the trees and fly away to satisfy another appetite – mating – so the carnage can start all over again.The genus is Fraxinus – ash – and the devourer is the dreaded emerald ash borer. The larvae have spent almost a year, inside ash trees, eating away. In spring, the tiny, green adults will eat their way out by making little “D” shaped holes. The adults will escape almost unnoticed because they often emerge high up in the tree, and they are very small insects. But, in this case, size doesn’t matter. They may be small, but they are hungry.Once just uttering the name, emerald ash borer, was a death sentence for a magnificent tree. I personally have seen the horrible damage the emerald ash borer has done to ash trees in Michigan, where it was first identified. Today, scientists have given us products that can prevent infestation and combat this pest after it has taken up residence.It is more economical to prevent emerald ash borer than it is to treat it after it has established itself in your ash tree. As a preventive, the product and application method I use needs to be reapplied only every two years. As a treatment, it has to be applied every year. The product is called Treeage, and is only sold to state licensed applicators who have been trained by the manufacturer in the use of its product and application equipment.There are several other products labeled for prevention and treatment of emerald ash borer. I have tried all of them, and Treeage is the only one that I found to be effective. My conclusions were echoed by a research scientist with the Pennsylvania Department of Natural Resources and other scientists.All preventives and treatments for emerald ash borer have to be applied systemically, either as a soil drench or trunk injection. So, if someone offers to spray your trees for emerald ash borer, don’t. You will be wasting your money.Only one of the labeled products is available to consumers, but the consumer strength of this product is not sufficient to prevent or kill this insect. So, don’t even think about trying to control the emerald ash borer on your own. It will be a waste of money.Speaking of money, protecting ash trees against emerald ash borer is not an inexpensive process. For this reason, I examine each tree to be sure it is healthy before recommending application of preventive or treatment. If the tree is unhealthy, it may be better to remove it and replace it. However, you need to think about this course of action carefully because several decades of preventive treatments cost less than removing and replacing most ash trees.
Friday April 27 is Arbor Day in New York, but there’s nothing wrong with observing it the following day, on Saturday, when everyone is available for a family outing.That outing should start in your yard, not by piling in the car and going off to the garden center. Rather than buying a tree and then selecting a site for it, select the site before buying the tree.Note whether the planting site is in full sunlight, shade or partial shade. Is it at the top of a hill or the base of a hill? This will determine how much water it gets since water runs downhill. Also, take note of the prevailing wind and the site’s distance from buildings, walks, the driveway or the pool.At the garden store, check the information tag on the tree, or talk with a staff horticulturist, to be sure the tree you select will grow well on your site. “Right plant, right place” is today’s horticultural mantra. When a tree, shrub or other plant is planted on a site that fulfills its natural needs, it will be happy. It will grow well, and most insects and diseases will pass it by for a stressed or declining tree.Here are energy saving tips for selecting your Arbor Day tree. If you are planting on the south or east side of the house, consider a deciduous tree (one that loses its leaves in winter). As it grows, the leaves will shade the house in summer and its leafless branches will allow winter sunlight to help warm your home. Evergreens on the north and west sides will help block the wind.When you get your new tree home, dig a hole the depth of the root ball and two to three times wider than the root ball. It is OK if up to an inch of the root ball protrudes above the hole, but don’t plant it too deep. Don’t put fertilizer, mulch or compost in the hole. It is OK to mix them into the backfill, however.With the tree in place, backfill, tamping the soil just enough to eliminate air pockets. Then water and mulch with two or three inches of organic mulch like wood chips. Be careful not to let the mulch touch the tree trunk, and do not pile mulch against the tree like mulch volcanoes.Don’t stake your new tree unless you plant it in a location that is very windy. If you do have to stake it, use only one stake on the side of the prevailing wind. Use a soft material for the “guy”. Old panty hose or a similar fabric works well because the tree isn’t held rigid. Trees have to sway in the breeze to develop strong wood. Never use wire, not even wire encased in garden hose.If you are not able to plant a tree on the official Arbor Day, make your own Arbor Day. There are only two periods during the year when trees should not be planted – in the heat of summer and when the ground is frozen in winter.
There is always a touch of sadness, or at least melancholy, when your beautiful, potted Easter lilies begin to wither and die. That doesn’t have to be the last of them, however. You can plant them outside to continue giving you joy year after year.As the flowers fade, cut them off and throw them away. Do the same with withered foliage. Keep the plants indoors until the threat of frost has passed. Water them just enough to keep them alive, but don’t give them a lot of water.When the threat of frost is behind us, you can plant your Easter lilies outside. It is best to keep them away from the wind and out of direct sunlight.Prepare your planting hole just as you would for any bulb plant. However, give your Easter lilies an extra boost of nutrition by lining the hole with organic matter and mix organic matter with the backfill. After backfilling, water your new transplants thoroughly and enjoy.You may not enjoy new blooms right away. It isn’t likely that they will spring to life instantly. In fact, you may see more dieback. If so, just trim it off and put it on your compost pile.Your Easter lilies should grow just fine. However, they may not regenerate a new flush of foliage or flowers this season, but they should reappear after next year’s last frost.Many “naturalized” Easter lilies are hardy enough to survive the winter with a little “winterizing.” That includes applying several inches of mulch that you will then remove after that last frost in spring. If you are concerned about leaving the bulbs in the ground over the winter, you can dig them up and take them inside, just as you would do for dahlias or other tender plants.If you leave your Easter lilies in the ground over winter, it is doubtful that they will be in bloom next Easter. The potted Easter lilies that you buy for the holiday were forced into bloom. When you leave it to Mother Nature, the weather will have to be much warmer than our typical Easter weather for them to bloom.
Early January may seem like an inappropriate time to be thinking about lush, green lawns and healthy trees and shrubs. For those of us in the business of keeping them healthy, this is the season when we have to renew annual contracts so we can order products and put trained people in place.For this reason, lawn care and Plant Health Care customers found a thick envelope from Birchcrest among the holiday cards in their mail. The envelope contains your renewal information.Most of the packet is government-required technical information about the products we’ll be using. The first page is the actual contract, and an opportunity to pre-pay for the whole season.Customers tell us they appreciate pre-paying. Then, throughout the growing season, they can relax knowing that the only evidence that we’d been there are those ubiquitous yellow signs, rather than an invoice hanging from the door as well.If you aren’t currently on a lawn care and/or Plant Health Care program, call us and sign up for this peace of mind during the 2017 growing season.We don’t know what kind of a summer 2017 will be. Like always, though, we’ll be prepared and want to make it easy for you to be prepared, too.
About now, gardeners’ green thumbs begin to twitch from inactivity. That need not be the case. There are plenty of things gardeners can do in the winter.The first winter gardening activity that I suggest is planning for this spring. Depending on what you are thinking about for spring, 2012, you can sketch out plans for new beds and other significant improvements that you want to make. You can then take those plans to a professional landscape designer and have him/her provide you with finished plans that you can then use in the spring or give to your landscape contractor to install.If you are planning less extensive projects, you may be able to just list the projects and then jot down a timeline and notes that you can refer to in spring. Keep these notes handy as you browse seed and nursery catalogs that have already begun arriving in the mail. This will give you plenty of time to order or, better yet, to check with your local, independent garden center(s) to be sure they stock or are willing to order your selections. Come springtime, you will only have to wait for the ground to dry sufficiently and the weather warm up and you will be ready to begin planting or construction.Meanwhile, stay inside where it’s warm and give your houseplants a little extra tender, loving care.
The Ides of March signal the first awakening of spring. Other signs are all over your yard as your plants begin to wake up from their winter dormancy. Often, however, you have to look carefully to see them because they wake up with a whispering yawn rather than a great big shout.Right now, you can check your trees and shrub for buds. I can assure you that they will be on the branches, because the buds were set before last year’s leaves fell. In spring, buds swell before they open up to reveal their green or colored contents, and many spring flowering trees and shrubs will dazzle us with their colorful displays before the green leaves emerge and begin their task of making food.Keep watch and you will see nature unfold before your very eyes. I have been associated with plants for more than 30 years and spring never ceases to amaze me. Mother Nature sure had her act together when she made all of her marvelous, living machines – in both the plant and the animal kingdoms.Don’t confine your moments of awe to just looking up at tree buds or looking straight ahead at budding shrubs, look down at the ground, too. Be careful where you step. Perennials and spring bulbs are poking up, checking out whether it’s time for them to get up from their winter nap. Be careful not to step on them. In a few weeks, or even days, bulbs like crocus will be the advance party to let us know that spring is right around the corner. They are probably more reliable than the groundhog, too.Crocus can be anywhere. Besides the early risers in your spring bulb beds, they may also grow in your lawn. If you didn’t plant them there, try it in the fall so your lawn will come alive with color before greening up. I first saw crocus growing up out of a lawn on the grounds of the horticulture school at the Niagara Falls, Ontario botanical garden. You pass it on the way in the driveway to the Butterfly Conservatory parking area.Crocus is the only spring bulb that you can safely plant in the lawn. It is the lowest growing, as well as the first bloomer. So, its leaves will not go through the lawnmower. In fact, the show will probably be over and the crocuses will be back to bed before you have to get out your lawnmower.This year, don’t just sit inside and wait for spring; go outdoors and be a part of it. The late, great tree guru, Dr. Alex Shigo, preached that we need to “touch” trees. You wouldn’t mark the return of an old friend without so much as handshake. Why not welcome your trees and shrubs back to life by touching them? Watching them wake up by being up close, carefully examining their buds as they prepare to break open and bring fourth their bounty of beauty.
By the end of February, gardeners are crawling the walls, eager to get out and get dirt under their fingernails. Even many non-gardeners have developed bad cases of cabin fever by now. Everyone wants to get outside.I don’t have any magic cure for bad weather, but I do have some thoughts on how you can satisfy your green thumb while housebound. That is to get a head start on the growing season by doing some fun, family activities that you may have never tried before.Have you tried growing plants from seed since grade school? If you can do it in grade school, you can do it now. Granted, buying annuals and vegetable plants in pots from the garden store is easier, and the outcome more predictable. But, growing from seed can be more satisfying, and it will go a long way towards curing that cabin fever.Include the children and their creative ideas. They may think of a way to make this task into a game, like whose plant will sprout first, whose will look the best, whose will bear first fruit when planted outdoors, and numerous other games we adults can’t imagine. The best thing is that these games don’t use electronic controllers, so they are not expensive.You may have some expenses growing plants from seed. It just depends on how deeply you want to get into it. At minimum, you need containers for the seeds. These can range from peat pots, which are fine for just a few plants, to flats if you are starting a whole garden. How you provide your seeds, and seedlings, with light also depends on how many plants you are growing. A few plants will do fine on window sills, provided the windows and sills aren’t cold. For flats, you may need a Grow Light – a special fluorescent lamp that emit light that emulates the sun. You turn it on for the number of hours each day that the seeds need to germinate.Most plants start out as seeds anyway, so starting your garden as Mother Nature does can be a satisfying experience and a valuable lesson for your children. Just be sure your timing is correct for the variety that you are planting. If the seeds germinate too early, the plants may outgrow their pots or trays and you will have to transfer each little seedling to a bigger container, rather than right out into the ground.
Although farmers and orchard owners are rightly concerned about tonight’s impending frost, there is no need for you as a gardener to panic. Granted, we have a number of landscape plants flowering earlier than usual. While the blooms that are already showing may be vulnerable, these plants should be hardy enough to survive and thrive this season.I have two PJM Rhododendrons that are in full bloom and two that have swollen buds that have not yet broken. The only way to save the flowers would be to cover the two that are in full bloom. However, the flowers are so delicate that the blanket, or other cover, I put over them would probably dislodge the pedals and ruin the flowers anyway. Confident that the unbroken buds will flower when it warms up again, and having the satisfaction of knowing that we had a whole weekend to enjoy the early blooms, I’ll just let nature take its course.Forsythia and spring bulbs, especially crocus and daffodils, are the primary flowers that will be subject to tonight’s frost. However, I think both flowers are hardy enough to survive. They are often subject to a hard freezes when they bloom at their usual time, and they come through just fine.If your early leafing trees and shrubs are worrying you, rest assured that they, too, will survive.This is predicted to be only a one night freeze. In an ordinary year, we would not think twice about it. The early onset of spring, however, is causing us unnecessary concern. In my experience, conditions this year are no different than they would be in any other year, except that it happens to be earlier on the calendar.
Many people express concern to me when they see our arborists working in the dead of winter. I’m really not the reincarnation of Simon Legree. Arborists love trees, and they brave the elements because winter is actually a good time to prune most non-flowering, deciduous trees. Deciduous trees are those that lose their leaves in winter.Arborists can see a tree's structure better in winter when there are no leaves on the branches, so they can shape the tree more precisely. Without leaves, it's also easier to spot dead or broken branches. These need to be removed to help avoid breakage resulting from harsh winter weather.Deciduous trees are dormant in the winter, and dormancy acts as nature’s anesthetic. No sap will ooze out of the wound and run down the tree. Best of all, the tree will get a head start on recovery while insects and disease organisms are still dormant. Then by spring, insect and disease resistant tissue will be well established and the wounds closed by the time pests wake up.From a practical standpoint, frozen ground supports heavy equipment better and there is less debris to clean up.Tree pruning is not a do-it-yourself job. Deciding what and where to prune involves an understanding of basic tree biology, sharp tools, and an artful eye. Also, tree pruning is one of most dangerous jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s why tree care workers wear special protective clothing and equipment.The best pruning advice I can give you is to call a pro. If you decide to try pruning a tree in your yard, and you have to leave the ground to reach branches you want to remove, or if you need to use power equipment, call a Certified Arborist. Your life is much too valuable to end it as a statistic.
An old song goes, “April showers bring May flowers.” However, spring brings much more, including some pests you don’t want.Many insects, especially aphids, mites and scale, overwinter on trees. When spring arrives, buds break and green leaves unfurl. That’s also a signal for overwintering insects to wake up and begin chomping on the new leaves. They don’t have to wake up. They can be smothered in their sleep with a product called dormant oil.I like dormant oil. It’s easy to apply, it’s effective and it has very little environmental impact. As soon as the temperature rises above freezing for awhile, I apply dormant oil to the trees and shrubs in my yard. Because of its low environmental impact, I don’t have to closely examine whether my trees have aphids or other overwintering insects. If a tree or shrub had any of these pests last year, I can simply spray them this year, confident that I am not harming the environment. These would be very definite concerns with more aggressive pesticides.Dormant oil is one in a family of products called horticultural oils. These products are highly refined petroleum jelly like you use on burns. They are applied to coat the insects and smother them. Dormant oil is the thickest, and the most effective. Due to its thickness, it has to be applied while the both the pest and the tree are still in winter dormancy. It cannot be applied when the tree has leafed out and it cannot be applied when the air is too cold. If you spray it when it is too cold, it will coagulate and get all sticky. If you spray it after the tree leafs out, the coating of oil can interfere with the tree’s respiration and kill it, right along with the bugs. There is definitely a small window of opportunity, but one that is worth taking advantage of.Due to the warm weather we’ve seen this winter, our plant health care professionals have already begun applying dormant oil but it’s not too late to make applications until the leaf buds break.Other horticultural oils can be applied after the leaves are out. These oils may be called summer oil, superior or just horticultural oil. It is more highly refined than dormant oil, which means it is thinner and won’t damage leaves. Like dormant oil, however, these oils cover insects and smother them.
