
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 1, 1995                   TAG: 9501040039
SECTION: HOMES                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: JOHN K ARBOGAST
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GROWING AN EVERGRENN HEDGE

Q: I am replacing a fence at the rear of my property and have decided to use an evergreen hedge for privacy, beauty and ease of maintenance. I am considering hemlock, which I have on one side of my lot, or white pines. Hemlock seems to grow more slowly and provides a dense hedge. If I get hemlock, how many plants would you advise for a 120-foot rear border? If pines, how many seedlings? C.H.S., Salem

A: You must answer your own species selection and spacing questions based on these factors: your preference for appearance; how much pruning or shearing will you be able to do or will want to do each year (unsheared white pines tend to be more open compared to unsheared Canadian hemlocks); how many years are you willing to wait until the small plants you'll install touch or form a single mass; what types of hedges or landscapes do your neighbors have; whether you want hemlocks by your new fence to echo the hemlocks already on one side; and site-related factors that a nurseryman or landscaper looks at, such as sun or shade, amount of windiness, quality of the soil, drainage and others.

According to Michael Dirr in "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants,'' the minimum, mature unpruned spread of these two plants is: Eastern white pine, 20 feet; Canadian hemlock, 25 feet.

Q: This year for Christmas we purchased a white pine from a tree farm. It appeared to be a very healthy - very green, full and no visible problems. However, after a few days in the tree stand, it began to pour sap and drop small black bugs by the hundreds. What was this, and what could have been done? We don't want to switch to an artificial tree. J.M.B., Roanoke

A: The tree had aphids, an insect pest that sucks pine sap and can survive in cold weather. I've read that many tree growers treat their trees in late summer to limit the number of aphids that will be on the tree when it is cut and sold. But some years I get calls from consumers faced with a situation like yours.

Next year, in addition to the things you checked this year, carefully look inside the outer greenery before you buy a tree and avoid those that have a lot of white, woolly patches on the trunk, the bases of the needles and/or on the buds.

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 stamps, stamped envelopes, samples or pictures.

by CNB