It seems that whatever your job or hobby involves, you develop a hyper observant eye for that craft or hobby. People who quilt may be particularly observant of all the barn quilts that have been popping up around the county. Those that are in the construction industry may be the first to notice a new structure as it is being built.
Whenever I drive with my husband, he is consistently pointing out schools where he has overseen the construction of gym floors. I notice plants.
About 6 years ago I noticed an evergreen tree in early March that I could not quite identify. It had a nice shape, the needles were full and long, but the color was slightly different than the color of any other evergreen tree that I had seen. The tree was planted in the front yard of someone’s home on a well traveled street in Sun City.
It took me about two weeks to figure out the tree had been spray painted. I can only surmise that the tree had died either the previous fall or over the winter. The well-meaning owners did not want a dead-looking tree in their front yard for an extended period of time, so they painted it.
When spring came and the ground was workable, the spray-painted tree was replaced with a new, healthy tree.
Life can be full of difficult decisions. One decision in gardening involves determining when a plant should be replaced with another one. Sometimes, as with the brown evergreen tree in the front yard, the decision is easy.
Other times, when you are simply looking at a group of twigs, the decision is a bit more subjective. Unfortunately, with last year’s drought, this is a decision that is going to have to be made quite a lot this spring.
When determining whether or not evergreen trees or shrubs need to be replaced, the color of the needles can tell you a lot. Although there are exceptions, most evergreen needles should be a healthy green color. Needles that are brown or orange often indicate that there is some problem with the plant.
Green needles that have turned orange do not turn back to green with time. Occasionally orange needles will drop off and new green needles will grow in that area. As a general rule of thumb, I would recommend that you consider replacing an evergreen tree or shrub if over half the needles are orange. Depending upon the situation, you may want to replace it sooner.
With deciduous plants – those that lose their leaves in the winter – the decision on whether or not to replace them can be more perplexing.
I visited with a customer homeowner yesterday. They were uncomfortable with the state of their backyard because they had three lilacs that they said died last year because of the drought.
The leaf buds on the branches were starting to swell. This is an indication that the plant was still alive. When I scratched the bark off several branches, I saw green colored tissue just beneath the bark. This was another indication that the plants were still showing some signs of life.
Can I say for sure that these lilacs will have beautiful flowers in May? No. I can say that, for right now, I would recommend that they not be removed.
“Without winter, there can be no spring. Without mistakes, there can be no learning. Without doubts, there can be no faith. Without fears, there can be no courage. My mistakes, my fears and my doubts are my path to wisdom.” Author Unknown.
• Kathleen Carr is the owner of The Growing Scene, Inc., a garden center and landscaping company. She can be reached by phone at 815-923-7322 by email at tgsinc12@msn.com or by mail at 17015 Harmony Road, Marengo, IL 60152. Have a gardening question? Please contact her. She will address it in an upcoming column.
