Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1993 TAG: 9309220301
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: John Arbogast
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: Don't prune any shrubs or trees this late in the growing season except for removal of dead or damaged parts. Suggested pruning times are based on flowering or foliage characteristics of plants as well as when chances for the healing of pruning cuts and regrowth are best.
Boxwoods can be pruned according to the time rule for non-flowering landscape plants. That would be in very late winter or early spring. Since boxwoods are a plant (as opposed to a needled plant), they can be cut back drastically if necessary, removing most of the smaller growth and outer leaves.
The term "shrubbery" is pretty broad, and it's difficult to make proper pruning recommendations without the name or characteristics of that plant. If your "shrubbery" is not grown for flowers, it can be pruned at the same time as the boxwoods. However, if your shrubbery is a needled plant, such as a juniper, pruning should only be light. Cutting back into older branch portions of most needled evergreens will not leave any living buds to produce continued growth from that branch.
Azaleas can be pruned according to the time rule for spring flowering plants, which means the work should be done right after the flowers are fading. This is based on the fact that the new growth should be produced just following the flowering and must have adequate time to mature before producing small flower buds in late summer for the next spring.
Q: I have planted a rose bush hedge along my concrete driveway. The plants are thriving but during the summer through the fall the bushes get orange-colored balls on them about an inch round. What are they and what's the purpose of them? Also, I have planted tulip bulbs in my flower bed. Some of them come all the way up and bloom and some of them only come up halfway and stop growing. Why is this and what can I do? I got all the tulip bulbs the same time and same place. A.F.W., Buchanan
A: Those orange-colored balls produced by your roses sound like "rose hips," which is the name for the fruit of the rose. Your letter did not state what variety of hedge rose you planted. Most varieties of roses can produce a few small "hips," but rugosa roses often produce an abundance of "hips" of the size you mentioned. I am aware that the rugosa rose is an outstanding hedge-type rose.
Did all your tulip bulbs, including the short ones, bloom? If so, the short stature of some of them could be explained by an inadequate period of winter chilling which is necessary for spring flowering bulbs to grow to their normal height. If we assume that of your bulbs received the same amount of chilling, the fact that some were affected but not all could be based on winter sunshine warming parts of your soil differently, or that some of the bulbs were just not as strong as others. If there was adequate chilling and if those bulbs that stopped growing did not flower, the likely cause is that those individual bulbs had become weakened.
If you don't want to dig up the whole bulb bed and replant this fall, wait until next spring and see what happens. If the bulbs that stopped growing prematurely last spring don't come back at all, you will know that those bulbs have died or maybe rotted in the soil. If that is the situation, improve drainage before you replant bulbs in fall of '94 and be sure that individual bulbs you plant do not have any nicks, gouges or blemishes.
Send short questions about your lawn, garden, plants or insects to Dear John, c/o the Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010-2491. We need your mail, but this column can't reply to all letters. Those of wide appeal will be answered each week. Personal replies cannot be given. Please don't send stamped envelopes, samples or pictures.
John Arbogast is the agricultural extension agent for Roanoke.
by CNB