Summer is Almost Here!
For those of us who endlessly complain about the weather, we have had plenty to complain about this year. The past few days of temperatures in the 90s during the last days of May feels too soon for that kind of heat. Even though my feet might be cold a good bit of the time, the rest of me is usually much too warm. I would rather put on more clothes to get warm because it is not my best look with less clothes. (No wise cracks, please!)
To follow up on our discussion from last time, many plants, especially trees that have been weather damaged are still trying to push leaves. Montana State Extension has reissued the Urban Pest Alert reminding folks to be patient. Check it out: MSU Urban IPM Alerts If you are not already signed up to receive these alerts you can do so at this website to stay up to date on pests all year long. Extension says to be patient until July 4th before you completely give up on your trees. If you are anxious to be doing something, scout the tree for dead, brittle branches and do the scratch test to check for green under the bark. You can always prune out dead or diseased branches at any time.
We have talked before about a few plants that are better pruned in the late spring or early summer. Lilacs should be pruned after they are done blooming. You can lightly shape the bush or do a renovation of cleaning out older stems down to the ground. If you prune lilac in spring or fall you will cut off more flowers than you want. Lilac can get powdery mildew. The best prevention for powdery mildew is full sunlight, watering in the early day so the leaves are not wet going into the evening. Keeping the water off the plant leaves might mean adjusting your sprinkler heads. If you need more help, there are several fungicides that you can use but you need to apply before you see the mildew. Treating the mildew before you see it is best. After you see the mildew, sprays will help prevent it on new foliage but it will not correct the already infected leaves.
Ian and I have been watching videos from Peter Chan who started Herons Bonsai Nursery in England. Since we sell pine trees that have been made into Hindu Pan shapes we watched his video of pruning the four Scotch Pines he has been growing on his property. He recommends evergreen pruning after they have candled out for the season and he is not afraid to get in there and cut anything that doesn’t please his eye because he is in it for the long game. Ian has developed a renewed interest in learning bonsai (it was a phase in his middle school days along with fish, geckos, turtles and water dragons) and more plant experience now to understand the long game with plants, especially for bonsai.
The idea of planning for the long game applies to our home gardening too. It starts with choosing the right trees for your yard and working your way from that. Select trees that will have the features you want and will fit the size space you have for the long term. For example: don’t plant a cottonwood if you don’t have space for it in 20 to 50 years; don’t plant aspen if you don’t want to deal with the underground root system and pop up sprouts; don’t plant an apple or flowering crab tree if you can’t deal with the fruit drop, and don’t plant a tree over the septic tank. Seems like a lot of don’ts! Planting a tree is hard work and attention to care for many years down the road. It hurts my heart when folks tell me they have to take down healthy trees that are overgrown because they were planted in the wrong place. Let me add one more “don’t”: don’t plant any kind of tree too close to the house. We are happy to walk you through all the questions to consider when choosing a tree for your yard.
As we go into the upcoming HOT days it is time to go through your irrigation system and be sure everything is working like it should. Your trees and grown shrubs will need the drippers moved farther out on the root ball or you may need additional drippers to get enough water now that they have grown larger. There is no magic formula for how much water to give everything and every shrub or tree probably has its own need. I know I sound like a broken record but the goal is to keep the root zone of each plant evenly moist out to the drip line and the drip line changes as the plant grows. If you are on automatic irrigation you may be able to adjust your clock timer for more time on a zone. If that is not possible you may have to add additional emitters or larger emitters to get the water you need. Shrubs and trees benefit from deep watering less frequently to promote deep root growth. I visited with a customer last week with questions about her aspen trees. Turns out that the aspens have outgrown the X she made in the landscape fabric when she planted the trees. When she pulled the fabric back off the trunk she found that the aspen roots were at the surface under the weed fabric. The only way to know for sure what is going on with the root ball is to dig a hole 2 feet deep at the side of the root ball and check the moisture all the way down in the hole. It needs to be evenly moist all the way down, not soggy, not dry. This can be different on each side of the tree depending on the water the tree is getting. You know I am not a fan of putting fabric and rocks or grass around the drip line of a tree as it tends to hide what is going on with your tree. Trees with a surface root system can be more susceptible to hot or cold weather damage, drought, and blowing over in the wind. Ok, enough preaching on that.
On a fun note, the roses are starting to bloom! We also have perennial salvia, penstemon, pink oenothera, nepeta and yarrow blooming right now. The Crystal Blue salvia has almost finished its first bloom and we will deadhead the spent flowers so it will bloom again later this summer. Some of the darker blue and purple salvia are just starting to bloom which makes a good case for having more than one variety to extend your bloom time. For those of you looking for hops and trumpet vine we finally have them in stock along with a great selection of starter perennials in 3.5” pots including more hosta varieties. We still have a good selection of fruit trees and fruiting shrubs. The spirea and mockorange have been blooming as well. It took a while, but we did get some bare root water lily. The instructions were to pot them up and set them in 2-3” of water until they start pushing leaves and then move them to deeper water. So, they are starting to push leaves and are ready to go into the deeper water. We will be working on our water plant technique as we go in the hope of having water lily earlier in the season. The water lettuce and hyacinth floaters that are annual need to have warm water, 70 degrees or more and protection from the hot afternoon sun to be happy. They can also be sensitive to water with high iron or potassium. They help shade your pond if you have fish and they help keep the fish waste and algae in check. For fans of hardy hibiscus, we have noticed that they are coming up slowly this year. They always want warm soil before they peek up. We have several varieties in stock and they are the perfect size for transplanting now.
The bug for this week’s quiz will be leaf miner. There are many varieties of leaf miner to choose from as they like elm, cottonwood, lilac, aspen, columbine and spinach. For the most part leaf miners are cosmetic and not harmful to mature trees. Insecticide treatments are not generally recommended as other bugs and birds like to eat the larvae and it is difficult to get your spray on the bug after they have taken up residence inside the leaf. I will say from personal experience that leave miners in columbine can eat a plant in a couple of days and I have not had much luck or time at home to figure out how to get ahead of them. If you have leaf miners in the spinach the best control is picking the effected leaves and putting them in the trash. If you drop the leaves on the ground, the leaf miners can still grow to maturity. Check out this publication from Colorado State Extension: Leafmining Insects
Again this year we have beehives here at the nursery. The bees have been taking full advantage of all the blooming trees, shrubs and perennials and they are fun to watch. Since we have a great greenhouse space where it is easy to social distance we will be hosting the Yellowstone Valley BeeKeepers Club here at the nursery Tuesday, June 9th at 6:30pm. Meetings are open to all levels of beekeeping experience and it is a chance to learn what to do with your bees and ask questions. Remember, the only dumb question is the one you didn’t ask.
Please stop out at the nursery to check out our selection. We have finished the landscape around our pond so we have the opportunity so show you what some of our plants look like as they grow.