Garden Questions of the Week

“Where are your garden stores moving to?” -Our new location will be at our nursery in Mason, Ohio! The address is 8601 Snider Rd. Go to our website for more information. Grand opening date is scheduled for September 6!

“My mums that I planted last fall are blooming and summer just started. I wanted flowers in the fall. Now what should I do?” -To prevent those mums from blooming late spring early summer, pinch them back and do not allow flower buds to form. This also helps keep the plants short and stocky, not floppy. The last pinch should be around July 15, to allow flower buds to form and bloom in September and early October. If they have buds now or are flowering, cut them back right away, feed them, and maybe they’ll set buds again for September flowering.

“The foliage on my boxwood hedge has cupped or curled. What happened and how can I correct it?” -The boxwood leaf curling or cupping is the results of the boxwood psyllid. It’s a small insect that lays eggs in the edges of the new foliage buds, and somehow causes the new leaves to curl and cup around the young insects as they hatch out…creating a house for them. It’s really more aesthetic than damaging to the plant, and can be sheared off with pruning, or the psyllid can be controlled with May sprayings of soaps, oils or spinosad, as well as systemic insecticides applied in the fall or early April. Or, you can do nothing and let it be.

“I have little clump of daffodils- the foliage has yellowed – and now I would like to move it. Can I do that now?” -Yes, spring flowering bulbs can be dug and transplanted now. Simply dig up the bulbs, remove the old foliage, and replant in the new location just like you would have done in the fall. Water in well and water as needed, as the bulbs settle in and re-root in their new location.

“What’s the general rule for amount of rainfall trees and shrubs need?” The general rule of thumb for existing trees, shrubs, the lawn, etc is about 1 inch of rain every 7-10 days for optimum growing conditions. Vegetable gardens would be twice that. And if you don’t get it naturally, then it’s time to supplement. And the best way to know – place a rain gauge in your yard so you’ll know exactly how much rain your yard received.
NOTE: Adding organic matter to your soil helps roots grow deeper and stronger, as well as helps your soils wick water from pass thru rain showers. Core aerating the lawns, vertical mulching the trees and evergreens, as well as vertical mulching planting beds, tilling in organic matter in the fall – these are all great ways to help encourage healthier root systems, and better rainfall penetration into the root areas.

“When can I prune my spirea?” – Depends on the selection of spirea! If they are the spring bloomers, prune after they finish flowering. And there is still time to prune. For the early summer / summer bloomers, prune in early spring, and then again after they finish flowering to flush up a second shot of summer colors!

“What is the low growing yellow flowering plant I’m seeing in lower maintained lawns and grassy areas (along the expressway and exits, etc)?” -Birdsfoot Trefoil.

“My tomato blossoms are dropping off. What can I do to stop them?” – Okay so your new tomato plants are developing yellow flowers, but they just dry up and fall off leaving your plants with flower stem stubs and no new tomatoes. What’s a gardener to do? Be patient! You’re experiencing Blossom Drop in tomatoes. What causes Blossom Drop? (There are several possible factors!) -Temperatures / Humidity Levels (too high / too low) – If daytime highs go above 85 degrees or below 55 degrees or if nighttime temperatures go below 55 or stay higher than 70 degrees flowers will abort. Best range is between 70 and 85 degrees. Choose early maturing varieties for cooler climates and heat tolerant for hot / humid climates. Ideal humidity levels are between 40% &70%. Too high or too low may interfere with pollen release or sticking. -Nitrogen (too much / too little) – Too much food and the plants produce all foliage and weak flowers. Not enough and the plants -Water – Usually the lack of or inconsistent levels of moisture in the soil.
Stressed Plants – Plants stressed from insect or disease issues, as well as moisture levels will abort flowers. Heavy Fruit Set – In some cases, plants that set too many tomatoes can only handle so many, so the flowers automatically get dropped. Lack of Pollination – Tomatoes are self pollinators, but still needs to be moved around. Lack of wind (or too much), insects, and plant movement may restrict pollination (too much rain as well).
These are just a few of the many factors that could cause Blossom Drop. Bottom line is – just be patient. In most cases, as the plants mature and the weather changes, the flowers eventually turn into fruit. And if you don’t want to be patient, you can always try spraying the flowers with ‘Blossom Set’.

Garden Questions of the Week

“I see the wonderful Magnolias down south and would love them in my yard here. Will they grow here?” -Absolutely! Two great southern bells are the Southern Magnolia and Sweetbay Magnolia. Southern Magnolia has the large shiny evergreen leaves, with wonderful fragrant white late spring early summer flowers. Truly a southern belle! And one on the best selections for growing in our area is ‘Brackens Brown Beauty’. Winter hardy, great foliage and flowers, and the name comes from the brown undersides of the leaves. Sweetbay Magnolia is another one from the south that does outstanding here! Bright green glossy semi evergreen leaves, usually multi-stemmed, and of course, those smaller white flowers starting late spring that have a wonderful sweet fragrance – thus the name ‘Sweetbay’.

“I heard you talking about a natural sugar substitute we can grow but I didn’t catch the name. What was it?” – It’s Stevia or sometimes called ‘Sweetleaf’. It’s grown as an annual here – great for containers to be taken inside over the winter – and the leaves, used fresh or dried, can be 10 to hundreds of times sweeter than sugar! Zero glycemic index, no carbs, and no calories – perfect for diabetics looking for a natural sweetener. Use stevia fresh when making a pitcher of tea or lemonade – simply pick 2-3 leaves, bruise them with a spoon, then poor in your liquids and let it sit. You may need to add a leaf of subtract a leaf, so sweeten to taste, the natural way with Stevia.

“Can I still feed my lawn in June?” -Getting late, but if you haven’t fed this spring and feel your lawn could use a booster, yes, still time to apply a lawn fertilizer in June, assuming we’re not under a drought situation. Another option to green up the lawn is to apply Ironite. Low nitrogen for greening, as well as the quick release iron for greening, without creating a lot of new growth.

“Can I still spot treat weeds in my lawn during the month of June?” -Absolutely! If the lawn and weeds are growing and not under drought stress, technically spot treating lawn weeds can happen pretty much all summer. Remember, the best time for controlling lawn weeds is in mid October.

“I want to protect my lawn from grubs. When is the best time to apply a grub preventer?” -The best time to apply a grub preventer is in June, and can be applied thru July as well. And make sure it’s a grub preventer, not a grub killer. Grub preventers last around 90 days – grub killers are used later in the season and are a one shot / quick kill.
Couple lawn care reminders; your best defense against weeds, disease and insects is a healthy lawn. A healthy lawn can withstand the attack of 8-10-12 grubs per square foot without showing any damage. So keep that lawn as healthy as you can. And using a sharp lawn mower blade when you mow is another important part of lawn care. Hey, when’s the last time you had your lawn mower blade sharpened?

Garden Questions of the Week

“Does drilling holes to apply Tree-age in our ash tree (EAB protection) cause problems for the tree as far as healing or causing other problems?” -Nope. Granted, ideally we would rather not have to wound a tree (which by the way pruning, drilling a small hole in the tree, etc is actually a wound), but these small holes typically ‘seal’ over quickly and are not an issue currently or long term for the Ash trees. This process is usually done on larger Ash trees, not the smaller ones (soil drench at base of tree with imidacloprid is used for smaller trees, but can be used for larger trees if you prefer to not drill small holes).

“I treated my Ash with the soil drench recommended (imidacloprid), but now have discovered it has Emerald Ash Borer! Why? I thought I was protecting it!” -Although these products are 100% effective against EAB, there are many factors that will play into the overall effectiveness once applied to the tree including dilution rate, soil moisture, time of the year the product was applied, weather conditions, health of the tree, etc. And assuming all are correct, the tree itself still has to cooperate and move the insecticide throughout the tree. The products do work and should be used for EAB protection, but there can be a few Ash trees where it simply didn’t do the job for, again, various reasons.

“My peony leaves are silver! What happened and how do I get rid of the silvery stuff?”
-That’s powdery mildew and we’ve seen it more and more on peonies the last 2-3 years. At this stage, it’s a matter of cutting off really badly covered leaves, and spraying with a fungicide (labeled for powdery mildew) to get it into check, and protect any new foliage. Next year, you’ll need to start earlier in the year with the fungicides for leaf protection, or monitor closely and as soon as you see any start to appear, start spraying. Be sure to remove and pitch all foliage at the end of the season.

“Should I be deadheading my Knock Out roses now? Anything else I should do for them?” – No doubt about it. The Knock Out rose series has brought roses back into the gardens and landscape. And even thought they’re basically a low maintenance rose, there are always a few questions on taking care of them like how often should they be fed, do I need to deadhead them, and in some cases, what’s causing the small holes in the leaves?
Although Knock Out roses are somewhat self deadheading, and you do not have to deadhead the spent flowers, it does help to speed up the re-flowering process and increase flowers as well. You can see where the spend flower stem has already started to lose color, and the new growth is coming out below. But by clipping that spent flower out earlier, we can speed up the re-blooming process. Again, you don’t have to, but it does help. And if a branch grows faster than the rest of the plant, feel free to clip it back during the season to give the rose bush a more even look. When it comes to feeding, again this low maintenance rose gets by on light feedings, but for optimum re-growth and flowering, feed once every month with a rose food, and stop feeding around late August.
And as for those small holes in the leaves – they’re from a very hard to see leaf eating caterpillar like critter called ‘rose slug’. It’s not a slug, but actually a saw fly larvae. They’re lime green, look just like the veins on the leaves, and feed on the undersides of the foliage. Systemic insecticides applied around the root system in mid spring helps to control rose slugs, as well as foliar sprays of insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils. Remember to spray the undersides of the leaves, rather than the tops. Now if you haven’t applied a systemic earlier, you can still do it, as there are multiple generations of the rose slug. And even if you did nothing at all, these Knock Out roses leaves will look bad, but they take the lickin’ and keep on tickin’ with colorful flowers, all season long – in most cases until late fall.

“Some of my onions have started to flower. Should I cut that off?” -Always different opinions here, but you may as well leave it be. Once the flower stalk forms, its already in the bulb as well, so cutting it out won’t help. Use those onions first as they usually won’t last as long in storage. If you want to cut it off the stalk, go ahead.

“How often do you feed your tomatoes in containers?” – I usually work in some Osmocote for a very light feeding all season. I will feed with Espoma’s Tomato Tone at planting, and again after a good solid fruit set. If during the rest of the year they look a little off color, I may hit them with a quick shot of Miracle Gro. Make sure you have a source of calcium, to help prevent blossom end rot.