Tag Archives: pruning tips

bouquets, color in the garden, cut flowers, flowers, mulching, organic gardening, perennials, plant diseases, pruning roses, roses

About Roses

Roses are the flower of love. Many of us have fond memories of favorites in our mother?s garden or of a beautiful bouquet given or received on Valentine?s Day. It?s dormant season for roses which is good for both pruning and adding a few to the garden.

David Austin rose

As a designer I have clients who have inherited roses and want to keep them as a remembrance. Others want to create a cutting garden filled with roses and other perennials. Don?t feel guilty for growing those beauties in your own garden. They use less resources than you think and there are many ways to grow them sustainably.

Roses, whether bush types, climber or ground cover carpet varieties, use a moderate amount of water in order to thrive according to the latest Water Use Classification of Landscape Species (WUCOLS) list. This amount of summer irrigation is the same as many of the plants on the list of Scotts Valley Water District?s 800 Approved Low Water-Use Plants for lawn replacement. Plants such as Emerald Carpet manzanita, Joyce Coulter ceanothus, Siskiyou Blue fescue grass, Pacific wax myrtle, butterfly bush, yarrow hybrids and Tapien verbena have similar water requirements.

Since now is the time to prune your roses here are a few tips.

Strike it Rich hybrid tea rose

Prune shrubs moderately to keep them compact. The goal is to keep the center of the plant open for good air circulation aiming for a vase-shaped bush with an open center. Cut out canes that cross, appear weak or are diseased, spindly or dead. Healthy canes appear green or reddish while old and dying canes are brown. Cut back the remaining stems by about one third. When pruning, cut canes at a 45-degree angle just above an outward facing leaf bud or a swelling on the cane. Clean pruners after every use to prevent the spread of disease and keep your pruners sharp.

Prune heirlooms roses such as David Austin and other old antique garden roses less because their open look is part of their charm.

Same goes for climbing roses. Cut out extra stems if there are too many and also cut back long established canes to about the place where they are slightly thicker than a pencil. Then cut each side stem down to several inches. This will make the cane flower along its complete length for a beautiful spring display.

Zepherine Drouhin climbing rose

Pluck off and rake away any old leaves. They can spread fungal spores. Consider spraying dormant plants with a combination of organic horticultural oil and copper soap or lime-sulfur. If you usually only have problems with black spot you can use a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda with a few drops of light horticultural oil in 1 quart water and spray every 7 to 10 days during the spring.

Prune your roses throughout the growing season, too. Deadheading, or cutting off spent flowers, encourages plants to re-bloom. Mulch around your roses to conserve water and encourage soil microorganisms.

Don’t worry whether you’re pruning job is perfect. Roses are super forgiving and you can always trim them up again later.

first freeze, gardening tips, hedge parsley, November garden tasks, pruning tips, sustainable gardening, weeds, wildflowers, wildlife gardening

November Tasks in the Santa Cruz Mountain Garden

Outside my window, the Forest Pansy redbud has started to display its spectacular orange fall color. There?s a suet feeder hanging from the branches so I get to enjoy the antics of the Pygmy Nuthatches, Purple Finches and the Chestnut-backed Chickadees all day long as I watch the changing colors of the foliage. Other than watch the birds and the changing foliage colors what should I be doing out there in the garden?

hedge_parsley_weed
Hedge parsley aka Torilis arvensis

Light weeding is easy now that the soil is soft and moist. The dreaded hedge parsley has germinated early with our October rains. With it’s spiny-ball seeds that stick to your dog’s fur and your socks it is not welcome on my property.? It’s invasive and a native of Europe. They?ll be easy to pull now.

Maybe I will plant a few more bulbs. The ground is cooling and there?s still plenty of time for them to receive adequate winter chilling. Come spring I?ll be happy I did.

california_poppies
California poppies

I just planted wildflower seeds on my hillside. I hoping for more California poppies. I see some of last year?s wildflowers have reseeded. Nature knows when the time is right. I spread the new seeds in swaths and worked them very lightly into the soil, first hoeing off some early weeds that would compete with them.

What not to do in the garden now? I don?t need to prune trees and shrubs at this time of year. Other than clipping a few well placed branches to use for holiday decorations, I?m off the hook for this task. Deciduous trees are still in the process of losing their leaves and are not fully dormant. Evergreen shrubs and conifers can be trimmed lightly but most shaping is done when they start growing in late winter or very early spring. Fall is not a good time to prune. Wounds heal slowly, leaving them more susceptible to disease. As a general rule, don’t prune when leaves are falling or forming. To avoid sap flow on birches and maples prune after leaves mature next year.

hakonechloa_winter
Japanese Forest grass in winter

The growing season is pretty much over for me except to enjoy what?s left of fall color and the ornamental grasses waving their seed heads in the wind. A lot of perennials are dying back but I?m not in a hurry to neaten things up. The seed heads left in the garden supply food for birds and other creatures while the foliage provides shelter for the plant in the cold and frost. Remove anything that has turned slimy or just plain unattractive but leave berries and seed heads for food and winter interest.

At this time of year my garden is visited also by Lesser goldfinches and warblers who will spend the winter and I?m doing them a big favor by not cutting back brown foliage containing nutrient-rich seed heads. Some of the reliable seed producers that I won?t have to clean up this weekend include artemisia, aster, coreopsis, penstemon, sedum, lupine, salvia, black-eye Susan, coneflower, phlomis, monarda, agapanthus and grasses.

Used to be the first frost in our area came about the first or second week of November but not anymore. Be prepared whenever it comes by moving frost tender plants under overhangs if possible or having frost blankets ready to cover frost tender plants.

gardening tips, grass-like plants, grasses, ornamental grasses, pruning grasses, pruning tips

Pruning Ornamental Grasses

Who doesn?t love a garden filled with the movement and beauty of ornamental grasses especially during the fall? But how do you take care of them after the show is over for the season?

lomandra
Lomandra and NZ flax in mixed planting

When I recently received an email asking what to do with an ornamental grass that had already turned that soft tawny color I figured it was time to brush up on how to care for them. To prune or not to prune? That is the question.

Grasses are distinguished from other plant families by their growth habit. They grow upward from the base of a leaf or shoot and can regrow from the crown when cut back. True grasses generally have extensive root systems which help control erosion. There are other grass-like plants like chondropetalum, New Zealand flax, kangaroo paw and lomandra that resemble grasses in their growth habits and are often some of the best companions for interplanting with grasses.

Most grasses require little care, minimal fertilizer and only occasional grooming. Some flourish with just enough water to meet their needs while others need regular irrigation. Diseases and insect pests are rare and they are not attractive to deer. They have succeeded because of their adaptability and have evolved to suit almost every environment and climate on earth.

japanese_blood_grass
Japanese Blood grass – small and goes dormant

Basically, grasses and grass-like plants fall into 4 different pruning types: Large or small types that go dormant and large or small types that stay evergreen.

Large grasses that go dormant such as miscanthus and calamagrostis are pruned yearly in late fall to late winter. It?s best to hold off on pruning as long as possible to preserve the winter interest and to provide food for birds. When they turn brown and start shedding it?s time to prune. Gather the blades together with a bungee cord or rope and cut down to 10 inches.

Small grasses that go dormant such as Japanese blood grass or fountain grass should be pruned yearly at the same time. Don?t cut them too close to the crown or you risk losing a few clumps. Cut those under 3 feet tall down to 3 inches and those that grow taller down to 6 inches.

guardsman_flax
The Guardsman- NZ flax large & stays evergreen

Large, evergreen grass-like flax and cordyline can be pruned anytime to cleanup and resize but rejuvenation should be done mid-spring. When pruning to freshen up the foliage, select the most damaged leaves and cut them out at the base. If your plant is overgrown or suffered winter damage, prune severely in mid-spring cutting off all the foliage at the base. Tall cordyline varieties can be cut off a few feet from the ground and they will re-sprout below the cut or from the base.

Lastly, small evergreen grasses like carex, acorus, blue oat grass and blue fescue grass can be cleaned up in spring by putting on rubber gloves and combing through the grass. If this kind of cleanup isn?t enough you can reduce the height by two-thirds and in a couple of months they will look good again.