THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603010088
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
THE TIME HAS come to prune. Or has it?
With last weekend so warm, gardeners got itchy with electric hedge clippers and pruners. But don't rush into pruning too fast. The Farmer's Almanac still predicts a big snow for our area before spring.
Local meteorologist Duane Harding has a list of the dates for the probability of a spring freeze. According to Harding, the last freeze at Back Bay in Virginia Beach should be around March 4 and about a day later in Norfolk. In inland communities such as Chesapeake and Suffolk, temperatures are often 5 degrees colder, so the freeze may come later. Harding says the last frost normally occurs about three weeks after the freeze.
Remembering that there still may be a few weeks of cold weather ahead, here are some things you can do:
Prune trees. Do it before they leaf out, while you can easily see broken limbs and crossing limbs. Thin out your trees so they get more sunshine and air. That helps prevent disease and wind damage. Bradford pears especially should be thinned. If you have any doubt about your ability or your health, call a Certified Arborist, listed in the Yellow Pages.
Prune evergreen shrubs such as wax myrtle, photinia, holly and other tough plants. Boxwood can also be pruned now. Cut back as much as you want, up to one-third of the plant. If you do more than that, you may kill the plant or you'll look at an ugly skeleton much of the year. Fertilize after pruning, and by May 15, the plant should have covered over the pruned spots.
Start rose pruning, remembering that roses bloom on new growth. You can prune tea roses down to 12 to 18 inches. Climbing roses should have old, large canes pruned out at ground level so new lively canes will replace them. Fertilize roses immediately after pruning with a rose fertilizer. Spray your roses with a fungicide to prevent black spot and other diseases.
Prune off the ugly canes of hibiscus, goldenrod and smartweed. Any dead annuals left in your garden should be pulled up or pruned off and destroyed, because they can carry diseases into the new growing season.
Here are the things you should not do yet:
Do not prune spring-blooming shrubs, such as azaleas, camellias, forsythia, flowering quince, flowering almond and redbud. Such plants should be pruned after they bloom. You can fertilize them now with an organic shrub fertilizer.
Do not prune perennials yet. A hard freeze could kill them if you prune off their brown tops now. Yoder Bros., the large chrysanthemum grower, says do not prune off the brown top foliage of mums before March 15. The same applies to artemisia and dusty miller.
In the last few months, I've received letters from many wives complaining about their husbands' pruning habits. They usually say something like, ``My husband got carried away with the pruning clippers.'' Let's not let our wives say that again. Be prudent in your pruning.
Prune only those tough plants that can withstand the winter weather that may still be ahead. And don't prune away more than one-third of the plant at any one time.
Also make sure your pruning tools are sharp. To get rid of the rust, use a little sandpaper and WD-40. ILLUSTRATION: FILE COLOR PHOTO
If you want flower-covered azaleas like these, don't prune until
after this year's blooms.
by CNB