Between 7:05 and 8:15 a.m. is one of my favorite times of the day in our home. At 7:06 after my daughters have rushed straight from the bathroom to the bus, I gently wake up my son and say âGood Morning.â He gets up and begins his morning routine while I begin mine. His involves, showering, his iPod, and breakfast. Mine involves feeding the dog, laundry, and dishes. During one recent morning, as he was eating his cereal, he looked up, and said, “Mom our yard is filled with those white things, I mean um, um, petals.” Lifting my eyes away from the sink full of dirty dishes, I looked at our yard.
âYes, Christopher, we have two flowering pear trees and one serviceberry tree,â I replied.
He is right, spring is finally here and many of our yards are filled with colorful things.
Many colorful things have not started to show signs of growth yet, though. Although I find it hard to give general recommendations sometimes, here are a few things that I have observed so far this gardening season, along with a few general recommendations.
Many, many plants have been very slow to leaf out this year. Plants benefit from warm weather by fostering the swelling of buds and the pushing out of new growth. With our cold spring season, many plants are at least three weeks behind where their growth would typically be this time of year. That being said, it can be difficult to determine whether a plant is alive or dead right now. The absence of leaves doesnât always correspond to a plant being void of life. I would recommend that unless you are 100% sure a plant is dead, you not remove any plants quite yet. I would grant any questionable plants an extension of their existence in your yard until early June. If you really donât see any growth in early to mid June, it would be safe to assume they are probably dead. Rose of Sharon may be an exception to that, they tend to leaf out very late.
You may also want to be careful about pruning. Again, just because a branch doesnât have any leaves right now, doesnât mean it wonât get leaves as the season progresses. The same advice would apply if a branch on a tree or shrub doesnât have any leave by early June. It probably is dead, and it would be wise to prune it off. Most roses and big leaf hydrangea seem to be leafing up or growing from the ground, not on existing branches from last year.
I have received more calls regarding spongy grey stuff growing on trees this year that I have received in the past 17 years combined. Lichens are often found growing on shrubs and trees. They do not hurt the tree in any way. The lichen is actually a combination of two separate organisms. It is a symbiotic combination of an algae plant and a fungus. It is not necessary to try to kill it. It will not hurt the growth of the plant.
Some evergreen shrubs are slowly starting to recover from the winter burn they suffered earlier this year. Dwarf Alberta Spruce began to push out new growth. The brown needles are starting to fall off, the new growth emerging, and the plants are looking a bit better and better each day. While I discussed this in more detail in the March 27 edition of this newspaper, because it is such a prevalent problem, I think it bears repeating. If you have evergreens that have brown needles on the tips of the stems, it is a sign that they may have winter burn. Winter burn occurs when the wind dries out the needles during the winter. IF your evergreen shrubs have green needles, you may want to apply a fertilizer specifically for evergreen trees or shrubs in an effort to encourage new growth. The hope is that the brown needles are other evergreens such as junipers and yews would drop off and the new growth would emerge masking the devastating effects of the winter burn. We have just started to sparingly prune the tan leaves off of the boxwood. Anti-desiccant sprays applied in the fall assist the plant in retaining moisture and perhaps prevent winter burn. You may want to mark on your calendar to spray this on your evergreens in the fall to help protect them next winter.
Kathleen Carr is the owner of The Growing Scene, Inc., a garden center and landscaping company. She can be reached by calling 815-923-7322 or tgsinc12@msn.com. Have a gardening question? Please contact her. She may address it in an upcoming column.
