PREPARE PLANTS NOW FOR SUMMER AHEAD
The warmer days of winter are allowing landscaper cleanup in preparation for spring growth. Early March landscape and garden chores can influence plant performance for the coming year.
Pruning and fertilizing are two tasks that stimulate plant growth. Pruning is a method of revitalizing plants. Many shrubs and trees have been stressed and damaged by the extreme temperature changes. Eliminating sunburned, freeze damaged or weakened stems and limbs will encourage new growth.
Most trees and shrubs make around 90 percent of their new growth in the first 60 days of spring in our area. Pruning now gets them ready.
Top-killed or scraggly perennial plants such as plumbago, and salvias should be pruned now. Deadwood should be removed. This means some plants will be cut to the ground, while others may be trimmed by half or more.
The salvias that we are frequently using in our landscapes because of their low water requirements and summer long bloom, despite excessive heat, can become wild and unkept looking after a full growing season.
It is best to start the spring with them groomed and heavily pruned. This will encourage a more compact and full plant that will not stretch so fast by fall.
Overgrown evergreen shrubs can be pruned from now until new growth begins. Pruning spring bloomers, such as Indian hawthorn, should be delayed until flowering is complete in spring.
Older, mature shrubs that require annual pruning just to make them fit their space are good candidates for replacement with more suitable shrubs. Shrubs that require little pruning when mature and do not get out of bounds, such as dwarf selections, can be better choices.
Pruning of many shrub or bush-type roses should be completed before new growth begins. It is OK to prune most roses now, but delay pruning climbers and rambling roses until after the spring flush of blooms.
Fertilizer is the next most important step in rejuvenating damaged plants. Timing is as important as is what kind of fertilizer and how much. Do not be fooled by these warm spells in winter. Wait until later in spring to fertilize as plants have broken dormancy and are actively growing.
The most needed nutrient for plants in our area is nitrogen, and since nitrogen is easily lost by volatilization and leaching, nitrogen can disappear within 30 days of application, we should schedule our first application on trees and shrubs around April 1 and delay yard fertilization until at least April 15. Earlier fertilization on yards only promotes growth of weeds.
Some information contained in this article was provided by John Begnaud, retired Extension Horticulturist.
