Pruning now could make roses vulnerable to damage

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: My Knockout roses really need to be pruned, and I know you said the best time to prune roses is in February but they really look shaggy now. Will I kill my Knockouts if I prune them now?

A: Maybe not, but you’ll certainly upset their normal growth rhythms and you could be putting them in jeopardy. If you prune them now, you’ll signal to them to get ready to start growing. That won’t be a problem if we have a mild fall and winter. But if your rose bushes are in full-fledged growth when a hard freeze hits, it will likely damage them and, depending on the severity of the freeze, could possibly kill them. That’s why we prune roses in February, so they can get a jump-start on growing after the freezing season.

They might look a little ragged now, but you’ll really be better off if you wait until February to do any hard pruning. This isn’t like pruning azaleas, which are evergreen. A late season pruning likely will remove any buds for next year’s azalea flowers but it won’t jeopardize the plant itself. It’s designed to live through frosts and freezes in our area. Pruning a rose too late in the season could do nothing or it could kill it. It all depends on the weather.

Q: I planted a small wildflower meadow but it didn’t produce many flowers. Should I reseed it for next year?

A: Yes, I would sow a few more seeds in your meadow this fall. So many things affect the germination rate of wildflower seed – the availability of water, heat, the age of the seeds – and it takes several years to establish a wildflower meadow. Scatter a few more seeds to increase the odds of germination and flower production. Once established, the flowers will re-seed each year.

Make sure you’re using a mix of wildflower seeds blended specifically for the Southeast for the greatest chance of success.

Internet Radio Show: Ms. Grow-It-All’s Internet radio show now broadcasts live at 6 p.m. Wednesdays at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Ms_Grow-It-All. Just cut and paste the link into your browser window. If you can’t join us live, you can download a podcast from my Web site. This week’s topic was preparing your lawn for winter. Next Wednesday, our topic will be planting a garden for wildlife.

Cutback perennials for continued blooms in fall

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: Some of the perennial flowers I planted in my garden, such as salvias, mums and black-eyed Susans, are starting to flop over and look pretty bedraggled. When I bought them, the tags said they would bloom summer to frost. What I have done wrong?

A: You’ve done nothing wrong, but there is one more step you need to do: Cut back your plants to rejuvenate new growth.

The tags don’t tell you that summer-blooming perennials usually grow vigorously during spring and early summer and then they get leggy and tired. To rejuvenate them, trim them back by a half to two-thirds.

If the stems are soft, you can pinch them back by hand. If the stems have become woody or the plant has become a sprawling mess, it probably would be easier to take hand-pruners or garden shears to the plant. It will look a little barren for a few days, but you’ll see new growth soon.

Q: I have a great crop of figs, but the birds are getting most of them. Someone suggested I buy netting and cover the tree, but the birds just peck through the webbing. Plus, the tree is so tall now, I can barely reach the fruit at the top. Do I have any chance of tasting a fig this year?

A: It sounds like you bought the netting sold in garden centers, which has an open weave – openings about an inch or so across -- and is great for creating net trellises for fruits and vegetables, but it’s not so great for protecting fruit. Go to a fabric store and ask for the netting used for little girls’ ballet costumes and princess outfits. It’s also used for lots of craft projects. It has a tighter weave but still lets rain and air through. It comes in lots of colors, too, if you want to amuse your neighbors.

You can also use the floating row covers that you use to protect your vegetables from frost. It’s a spun fabric-like material that lets rain and air through, but it also raises the temperature beneath it, so I don’t recommend using it in our summers.

If you live in the Tallahassee area, mark your calendar to prune your figs in December so you can reach the fruit easily next year.

Radio Show: Mid-summer garden chores

This week, we reviewed routine maintenance that needs to be done this time of year -- yes, it's hot, but there are few things you need to do, such as pruning and pinching perennials to keep the flowers blooming up to frost. We also reached into the mailbag to answer a few queries from readers/listeners.

Overgrown camellia causing problems

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL®

Q: We have a camellia at the corner of our house that is probably 15 or 20 feet tall, and it’s blocking our access to paint the house on that side. Can we cut it back?

A: This is an example of planting a tree or shrub without taking into account how big it can get. Your camellia is obviously too close to the house. If it’s preventing you from painting the side of the house, it might be holding in moisture and contributing to rot.

As painful as it is to let a mature camellia go, that’s exactly what you need to do. If you cut it back, eventually you or the next homeowner will have the same problem. You can cut it back, dig it up and move it if you’re really attached to it, or you can plant another one a more appropriate distance from the house. Remember: Any plant in the wrong place is a weed.

More on bottlebrushes: A couple of weeks ago, a reader wanted advice on how to tell whether her bottlebrush trees had survived winter freezes. David McManus, assistant director of grounds at The Florida State University, wrote to say that while common types of Callistemon are susceptible to cold damage, one seems to recover quickly. In addition, there’s a cold-tolerant one.

“I love bottlebrushes but unfortunately the local nurseries often carry Callistemon viminalis (large weeping) and Callistemon citrinus (fast-growing upright), which are more tender than Callistemon rigidus, which is a slower grower with narrower leaves,” said McManus, who earned a horticulture degree at the University of Florida. “Those two are frequently hurt by hard freezes, but viminalis has made fast recoveries in past years” at Tallahassee Community College.

Although the literature says C. rigidus is hardy only to Zone 9 -- Central Florida and points south -- McManus said it is dependable throughout Zone 8. “I have been growing rigidus at my family’s farm near High Springs since the early '80's and at my home near Havana since 2000 and I have not seen any injury from cold,” he wrote.

“Woodlander’s Hardy” is a cultivar that reportedly has high cold tolerance, he said, although he has never grown it.

Hummingbirds love Callistemon, so a cold-hardy variety is a treasure for gardeners wanting to attract hummers.

More on fertilizing dogwood trees: Last week’s column answered a reader’s specific question about the best time to apply fertilizer to dogwood trees. My answer might have left the impression that you must fertilize your dogwood trees, and that’s not true. If you want your trees to grow faster, apply fertilizer. But if you picked a good location that meets the trees’ needs and have good soil with adequate moisture, they’ll grow just fine without fertilizer. Many gardeners tend to overuse fertilizer, and the excess runs off and pollutes our springs, rivers and trees. If you use fertilizer, use a light hand.

Take care when placing, pruning pyracantha

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL®

Q: I need to know how to take care of two pyracantha bushes, which are side by side. I'd like for them to bush more as opposed to shooting out long arms. When should I prune them and fertilize them, and which fertilizer, etc.? I'm not a gardener but I love flowers and flowering bushes.

A: Unfortunately, what you’re asking for is not easily attained, and if you are able to get it, it could come at a price you’re not willing to pay.

Pyracantha, commonly called firethorn, is a member of the rose family, and both relatives have thorns. But roses are nothing compared to firethorn when it comes to aggressive growth habits. Firethorn throws out long, shooting branches that look really attractive when they’re planted in an out-of-the-way location but pose extreme danger in close proximity. It really needs to be planted far away from traffic areas.

To keep the firethorn in check and force a more bush-type shape, you’ll have to prune it severely and do it several times a year. It will eventually conform to the shape you’re seeking, but it will continue to put out long, leggy shoots each year that need to be chopped back.

What do you love about your pyracanthas? I suspect it’s a little bit the white flowers in spring and a lot the red berries in the fall and winter. And those flowers and berries form on year-old wood, so all that pruning and chopping to keep the shrub in bounds will results in loss of what you really value in your pyracantha.

My advice is to let the pyracantha do what it does naturally. It eventually will form a dense arching shrub that is a haven for wildlife and a source of beautiful flowers and fruit. Pyracantha needs little or no supplemental food, so don’t worry about fertilizing it. It’s also drought-tolerant once established.

If you want more rounded, bushy shrubs, I suggest planting hydrangeas or old-garden shrub roses in an appropriate spot. Your arms and hands will thank for skipping the pruning and the thorns.

Q: I have several bottlebrush planted in my yard, and almost all are mature, about 10 feet tall. They all bloom profusely and the hummers enjoy them. However, the freezes we had a couple of weeks ago have really done a number on them and all of them – their leaves – are brown and quite burnt-dead. Should I prune the dead branches now and risk no blooms, or should I let them go and see what happens to all the dead leaves?

A: There are a couple of shrubs called bottlebrush. One, Callistemon, is hardy only in USDA Zone 9 – Central Florida -- and points south. It can be expected to sustain serious damage in a hard freeze.

More cold tolerant is the bottlebrush buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, which is cold-tolerant to Zone 5. A hard freeze would throw it into dormancy, which means it looks dead but isn't.

Since I don’t know which kind of bottlebrushes you have, I suggest you wait until they start to sprout before you prune. If your plants are Aesculus, the shrubs are simply dormant and will come back. If they’re Callistemon, you’ll see lots of dead branches. You can prune them, or decide to replace the entire shrub with the more cold-hardy type.

Prune roses in February

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL®

It’s February, and that means it’s time to prune roses here in our corner of the gardening world (USDA Zone 8b). The general rule is to prune around Valentine’s Day, which was last Saturday, but we still have a few weeks to get the job done before the big flush of spring growth begins.

As with any task, gathering the right tools make the job much easier. You’ll need sharp hand-pruners and loppers. You’ll need to wear gloves, too. I suggest getting long gloves that cover your forearms as well as your hands, because rose thorns hurt. If you can’t find long gardening gloves, use long fireplace gloves.

Make sure your cutting tools are sharp and clean. If you don’t want to sharpen your tools yourself, local garden centers can either sharpen them for you for a fee or direct you to a business that offers tool-sharpening. Once your tools are sharp and you’re ready to begin, clean and disinfect them with a bleach solution (1 cup of bleach to a gallon of water) and keep a bucket of fresh bleach solution handy, in case you encounter diseased canes on your roses.

First, identify any dead or diseased canes and remove them back to the ground, dipping your cutting tool in the bleach solution between cuts. Then, from the remaining canes, identify which ones are younger and which ones of the older ones can be removed.

As you’re deciding which canes to remove, be mindful of the overall shape of the bush and the direction you want each cane to grow. For younger, healthy canes on bushes that have been pruned annually, remove oldest canes, usually two or three, and cut back the younger canes by about half.

For bushes that haven’t been pruned annually, remove the really old canes – they’re tough and gnarly; you’ll recognize them. Cut back the remaining canes back to half their length. Then cut a third of those back farther, to about a third of the length they were before you began. Make cuts at a 45-degree angle just above a bud or “eye,” making sure the bud is pointing outward from the plant. Next year, identify the canes that didn’t get the most severe cut this year, and cut half of those back to one-third. The following year, do the rest. That’s the “rule of thirds” for rejuvenating roses and many other shrubs.

Remember that keeping the plant to a reasonable size is only part of the reason for pruning. You also want to open up the inside of the bush to light and air circulation. Remove any canes that cross back into the bush, as well as any of the twiggy branches that are smaller than a pencil in diameter. Remove any foliage that remains on the plant.

If any suckers have sprouted below the graft, break them off flush instead of cutting them. That way, you’ll get the basal bud, too.

Overgrown figs need special treatment

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Last week’s column on pruning fig trees generated quite a bit of reader response and several more questions on the topic, attesting to the popularity of figs in the home landscape.

Q: I, too, need to prune my fig trees, but my tree already has buds on it. Can I still prune it now or should I wait until after the fruit makes?

A: If your fig tree already has buds on it, you might want to wait until fall to prune it. Although we’ve had several hard freezes, we’ve also had many very warm days and several readers report that their figs have already gone into bud. While the trees will re-sprout and likely bud again in summer if you prune now – the kinds of figs that grow in the Southeast fruit on new wood, unlike figs in California, which fruit on last year’s wood – your yield could be reduced.

Plus, the milky sap, or latex, has started to rise and the tree will likely “bleed.” You’ll have to take off this year’s growth as well as last year’s when you prune in November or December, but these are resilient trees and should recover.

Q: Our fig tree has gone untrimmed for about 20 years. We have had good crops every year. We do no fertilizing. Last year, we couldn’t reach about half the crop. Since I am only 6 feet tall and the fig is on a sharp slope, ladders don't work. We’re willing to do without figs this year if that’s what it takes to resurrect the tree and get fruit next year. Or are the birds destined to get the top of the crop?

A: You have options. You can shorten the tree over the next few years, you can do nothing and leave the top fruit to the birds, or you can bend the tall branches down to where you or a taller friend can reach the fruit. Fig branches will lean with a gentle tug, as the reader who sent in last week’s question noted, because the wood is soft.

Considering how long your tree has gone without pruning and how tall it has become, I suggest you pick a couple of really long main stems each year and prune them back to the point where a younger, thinner side shoot is growing toward the outside of the plant. You don’t want branches crossing back over the plant. Cut the main stem flush with the lower side branch; that side branch now becomes a main stem.

Pick about a third of the main stems to remove this year and repeat the process over the next two years. At the end of three years, you should have a fig tree that’s a manageable size. Annual pruning should keep it in bounds.

You can shorten an isolated stem that has shot up far beyond the rest of the branches by cutting it back to just above a bud or twig that is growing out from the branch.

Radio Show: Care and pruning of roses

This week's show was all about care and pruning of roses, an appropriate topic for this Valentine's Day. Click on the link to Blog Talk Radio in the right rail to listen to the show for seven days after its initial broadcast. If you missed that one-week window, an archive of all our shows can be found at http://www.freeworldradionetwork.net/.

Prune figs annually for best production

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: I failed to prune my fig trees the past few years since I planted them, and now I have to grab the branches and pull them down to pick the figs. What’s the best time and way to prune them?

A: The fig, Ficus carica, is one of the easiest fruits to grow. The large leaves make the plant an attractive addition to your home landscape. The fruit is one of the luscious treats of summer –provided you can keep the birds – and dogs -- away from it. More than one southern gardener has talked about having to prune his or her fig trees beyond the reach of Fido.
Ideally, you would’ve pruned your fig trees every year since you planted them, to train them to grow in a certain shape. Since you didn’t, we’ll have to do a bit of drastic pruning but the trees will be better for it. You’re going to have to prune the tree as though it’s a new planting, and now is the time of year to do it here in North Florida.
As a new planting, it should’ve been pruned it to 2 or 3 feet tall. Over the next year, side shoots would’ve developed where it was topped to form the basis of the tree’s framework. Over the next couple of years, continued selection of the strongest side shoots while pruning the rest would’ve produced a strong, healthy canopy.
Now, since your figs didn’t get that disciplined treatment, we have to send them through a rehabilitative process. Cut your trees back to 3 to 4 feet tall and let the process begin. As the side branches grow and develop side branches of their own each year, keep the three to five strongest and prune the rest back flush with the branch from which it grows. Remove any branches that cross over each other or grow back toward the main trunk.
If your figs sustain freeze-damage in winter, wait until all danger of frost has passed before pruning. Prune diseased, dead or damaged limbs.
Once you have your fig trees rejuvenated, after three or four years, plan on cutting them back about one-third each year. Figs need vigorous pruning or else they’ll get woody, lose vigor and reduce fruit production.
Note: Figs, the fruit of the trees of the same name, produce a white latex that promotes the decomposition of protein, similar to the papain found in meat tenderizers, which irritates skin. Use gloves when harvesting the fruit.

Prune fall bloomer in early spring and mid-summer

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: I have a very healthy cassia (Senna bicapsularis) that gets extremely overgrown and "leggy" during the summertime. Because this is a fall-blooming plant, I am afraid to prune it back during this time. Can you please tell me what time of the year is the very latest that this plant can handle pruning?

A: Most plants should be pruned shortly after their bloom-period is over, and cassia is no exception. It blooms in fall and in mild climates will continue to bloom throughout winter. You can prune it now through March to get it ready for the next season's growth, but that shouldn't be the only time you prune it.

Fall bloomers such as cassia need pruning in early spring to get them ready for their growth cycle, and again in mid-summer to shape them for bloom season. So trim back your cassia again in mid-summer to keep it from getting leggy. July is best, but you can prune through mid-August and still ensure fall flowers on your cassia. Pruning any time after that means you risk having an early frost interrupt your bloom cycle.

Q: I have a rose bush that needs to be moved. A tree has grown to shade the location where it was planted over seven years ago. I know the rose is still healthy as it manages some blooms after the tree sheds its leaves in the fall. When should I move it to a sunnier location? The bush has some wicked thorns and would be next to impossible to move without pruning.

A: February is the time to prune roses, and it makes sense to move them at the same time. Don't try to fight the thorns. Cut your rose bush back to about 24 inches, then dig it out and move it to a sunnier spot.

Tool time: Larry Hale e-mailed to remind everyone that now is the time to make sure our tools are in proper shape to help us garden over the next year.

"This is the time of year gardeners should take a file and sharpen all their tools. Sharpen shovels and hoes to make spring soil prep easy. In old Tallahassee, we could always depend on a gentleman coming by once a year to sharpen all our tools. He was always seen traveling with his mule and wagon.

"I'm amazed at people who try to dig with blunt shovels."

Larry's right. It's much easier with sharp tools. If you don't have a file or don't want to do the work, most local garden centers either offer the service or can recommend someone to do it.