Trumpet Vine Adds Color to Desert Landscapes

Trumpet vine is commonly used in much colder, arid climates. It is not a true desert plant but can tolerate arid environments and poor soils. It does really appreciate amended soils, wood mulch and regular irrigations. Fertilize once a year in February with a fertilizer that promotes flowering of woody plants. It is a climber and under the right conditions can be extremely aggressive. Restrain with pruning the longest and most aggressive.

Usual complaints are that the vine grows slowly or poorly. Make sure it receives enough water and mulch the base with wood chips. It may not do well in extremely hot microclimates.

Trumpet vine over a wall in Las Vegas

Prune Mexican Petunia Similar to Lantana

Q. I have a Mexican petunia (Ruellia) that is about 4 years old.  In 2013 the freeze caused all of the stems to die back. I cut all of them off at ground level and the plant grew back nicely and flowered beautifully.  Apparently, this winter the plant has very little dieback. Should I cut all of the stems off at ground level or just the ones that have frost damage?  Will it flower from the existing stems or does it only flower from “new wood”?

A. Mexican Petunia is considered an herbaceous perennial which means it freezes to the ground if it gets too cold and grows back from the base. It is summer flowering so the flowers develop on new growth. Flowers will develop on new growth from older wood as well as from new growth at the bottom.

You have two choices. You can prune it to the ground again just as if it froze back. It will grow from the base and flower just like it had in 2014. That’s the easy way.

Your second option is to keep it at this height and remove anything dead or weak to the ground. Next, you would cut the remaining stems back to a height where you want it to branch. Cutting it back or shearing it will cause it to grow more densely above where it is sheared and flower.

The second method will give you a taller plant if you want one. If you need to keep it small, then use the first method.

Remember to fertilize it now with an all-purpose fertilizer for promoting flowers such as a rose fertilizer, fruit tree fertilizer, tomato fertilizer or something similar. 

How to prune Lantana

Avocado May Shock When Moved Inside

Q. Last year I grew an avocado outdoors from its pit. As the temperatures began to dip I transplanted it to a pot and brought it inside.  The older leaves have begun to turn brown and dry up. I fertilized it once since bringing it indoors. I water it lightly every other day as the leaves begin to curl up due to lack of water.

A. The main reason leaves drop from an avocado brought inside is the change in light intensity or duration. Moving it from a soil to a container can cause leaf drop as well. Leaf drop can be caused by a watering problem. A fourth possibility are pests like mites.

Avocado. Picture from the California rare fruit growers.

Plants grown outside develop a different type of leaf than plants grown inside. The change in light intensity causes leaves grown outside, called sun leaves, to drop. The plant begins to add new growth with a thinner, larger leaf called a shade leaf.

Disruption of the root system can cause leaves to drop. We call this transplant shock. It is also possible that the change in watering could cause leaf drop. Avocados are prone to mite problems so if there are mites on your interior plants it’s very possible they were transferred to the avocado.

What to do? Make sure the avocado gets as much sunlight as possible. A south facing window is probably best. You need to provide several hours of sunlight to keep it healthy and prevent it from becoming spindly.

Spider mite damage on interior foliage plant

Water the soil in the container until water comes out the bottom. Do not water again until you can feel a dramatic change in the weight of the container. Another method to judge the moisture in the soil is to use a pencil or soil moisture meter.

Push a pencil in the soil and see how easily it pushes down. A pencil is more difficult to push in dry soil than wet soil. You will feel the end of the pencil after you remove it to see how moist it is. A third method is to use a soil moisture meter you can purchase at any nursery or garden center.

Mites are common problem for avocado. There are two methods you can use to inspect the plant for mites. First, take a white piece of paper and slap a yellowing leaf against its surface. Pick up the piece of paper and look at it carefully under a bright light.

If you have good eyes or a magnifying glass you’ll see very small mites the size of a pencil dot crawling along the surface. You can also drag your fingers lightly across the surface of the paper and the mites will leave a red smear.

Use a horticultural oil and spray the plant from head to toe to suffocate mites. Oils work well against active mites as well as soap sprays.

Snails, Disease and Shade Are Related

Q. I have been noticing tiny little snails climbing up my red brick planter during the fall. I have thousands of those shells all through my planters and yard. My roses have now developed powdery mildew disease which they never have in the past. My lawn is thinning I think because of the snails. I have shade in my yard because of some older mulberries. I sent you some pictures of my yard.

Readers yard with shade

A. After seeing the pictures and reading your description I think that the shade is contributing to a number of things going on. Increased shade causes plants and the soil to stay wet longer.

Snail shells from another readers question

Staying wet longer favors snails and slugs. Increased shade increases the probability of powdery mildew and other diseases. Increased shade causes lawns to thin and eventually fail as well.

          You will see an improvement in everything if you remove some lower limbs of the trees. Limb removal will allow more light on your property and improve the roses, reduce disease problems, thicken the lawn and reduce snail problems.

Cool season lawn grasses like fescue and ryegrass needs direct sunlight at least five hours a day or filtered sunlight so that no more than 50% of the lawn is shaded. Shading lawns and flowering plants more than this is going to hurt them.

Shady lawns are not vigorous enough to withstand any kind of traffic. The lawn will thin and bare soil will appear in the more shaded areas.

Plants that flower, like roses, have fewer blooms and the blooms will be poor quality in the shade. Powdery mildew loves the shade. Powdery mildew also likes splashing water. If there is overhead irrigation that is splashing on the leaves of roses and they are shaded, it will spread powdery mildew from rose to rose.

          Snails are difficult to control. The usual control methods are trapping and baiting. Trap snails by placing wet newspapers or cardboard between the plants. When the sun comes up, snails and slugs like to have parties under wet paper or cardboard.

Powdery mildew on rose

Pick them off of the underside of the cardboard or from the ground and put them in a plastic bag for disposal. If you do this on a regular basis, say weekly, you will start to put a dent in their population.

Snail and slug baits also works well on snails. These are typically spread around the plants periodically and according to the label. These can be purchased in most nurseries and garden centers or online.

Persimmons Will Grow in the Mojave Desert

Q. I recently received a large bag of home-grown Fuyu persimmons given to me, grown in California. Will the Fuyu Persimmon tree survive our Las Vegas climate?  If the tree will grow here?

A. Nearly all of the persimmons will grow in this climate. I wouldn't recommend the variety called ‘Hachiya’ but Fuyu, giant Fuyu, Coffee Cake, and most of the others will grow here if they are planted correctly in amended soil and not part of a desert landscape surrounded by rock mulch.

Immature Hachiya persimmon. Hachiya may not be the best type of persimmon to grow in the desert unless you are in a backyard situation, protected from the wind and plenty of moist air.

The fruit is good quality but the fruit may sunburn because of our high light intensity.

It is important to surface mulch them with wood mulch, fertilize them once a year, prune them in a very similar manner to most other fruit trees and irrigate them as you would any other landscape plant.

 

Giant Fuyu which does well in the desert

Video Help Pruning Peach to Keep it Small

Q. I wonder if you can tell us how to prune our Elberta peach tree. We planted it in the spring and had one beautiful peach to enjoy. We are in our mid-70's and do not do ladders unless we have to and it is getting over 6' now and is supposed to be a semi dwarf.

A. You may begin to lower the heights of peach trees at the first sign of leaf drop and possibly sooner. The cuts that you should make to lower the height should be thinning cuts and not heading cuts. To see the difference visit my video on how to make heading cuts and thinning cuts and what the difference is.

Heading cuts vs thinning cuts video

Some of my videos on pruning peach tree

Pruning newly planted Peach tree

Pruning comparison of Newly planted and two-year-old peach tree

Pruning newly planted peach with rabbit protection

 On the peach tree, go to my YouTube videos on pruning fruit trees. I think that might help you. They can be found at

http://www.youtube.com/user/Extremehort

Those videos on pruning focus on size control so you don't need a ladder.
Controlling the size of fruit trees by pruning

Irrigating Fruit Trees After Planting and During the First Year

Fruit Tree Establishment

During the first few weeks after planting, new roots must grow from older roots and into the soil used for planting. Learn how to plant fruit trees here. The growth of new roots from older roots and into the surrounding soil after planting is called fruit tree establishment. New roots can only grow from healthy, living roots. The smallest roots are fragile, resembling hairs, and are called feeder roots. See some feeder roots here. Feeder roots are responsible for most of the water and fertilizer taken from the soil and transported to the leaves. Feeder roots do not survive for more than a few minutes without soil, air and water surrounding them.

During planting it is normal that feeder roots and some of the larger roots will die. As the amount of time that roots are not in moist soil increases, more roots and more roots begin to die. As more roots die, the time needed for establishment increases and leaf and stem growth is delayed or the tree may become damaged.

More on transplant shock.
Still more on transplant shock.
Stop it, you're killing me, even more!

Fruit tree establishment takes time after planting. Fruit trees use energy stored in the roots for establishment. This same energy is used by fruit trees to grow new leaves and stems. Energy must be shared between the growth of the roots and growth of leaves and stems. The more energy needed by roots for establishment means less energy is available for the growth of leaves and stems.

After planting, fruit trees favor root growth more than leaf and stem growth. After the roots have grown significantly and can absorb enough water and nutrients, leaf and stem growth become increasingly more vigorous. Rapid and vigorous leaf and stem growth after planting is an indicator that roots have become established in the soil. This observation is when the Orchard manager can claim that the fruit tree has become established.

The time of day and weather conditions at planting time also affects establishment. The ideal conditions for planting fruit trees is early in the morning when temperatures are cool, the sky is cloudy and there is very little wind. Warm temperatures, bright sunlight and strong winds are the worst conditions for planting.

Irrigation after Planting

Drip irrigation on almonds. The first 2 to 3 years only requires one drip line. As they get older they will require two drip lines, one on either side of the tree.

All fruit trees must be irrigated immediately after planting. The reasons for this are several. When fruit trees are planted and soil is placed around the roots by hand or with machinery, large spaces filled with air are left in the soil surrounding the roots. If spaces in the soil are too large to hold water, tree roots cannot grow into these spaces.

Micro sprinkler beneath fruit trees.

Wetted area from a micro sprinkler on almonds.

Sprinkler from Jain irrigation

It is very important to collapse these spaces around the roots of trees. This helps the tree to remain upright and the collapsed soil surrounding the roots can more easily hold water. The easiest way to collapse these spaces is through irrigation. Irrigating the soil around the roots helps to collapse air spaces around the roots. After soil spaces have collapsed, roots can grow into these spaces and take water and nutrients.

To maintain rapid growth after establishment, adequate amounts of water is needed by the roots. Watering too frequently results in the roots “drowning” or suffocating from a lack of air. Not watering frequently enough results in roots dying from dehydration or a lack of water. The Orchard manager must determine when to irrigate with observations of the soil, not the tree. If the fruit tree shows signs that water is needed such as the dropping of leaves or wilting, establishment will be slow.

It is best to judge when to irrigate by observing the soil. The ideal time for the second and following irrigations can be determined easily by using a shovel, a sample of the soil and your hands. Use the shovel to dig and remove a handful of soil at the depth of the roots close to a tree. Squeeze the soil tightly with your hand. Lightly bounce the soil in your hand. If the soil falls apart easily after bouncing, it is time to irrigate. Soils that contain a lot of sand must be irrigated more often than soils which do not. As the summer months approach, fruit trees real require irrigations more often.

How to Prune Fruit Trees

In case you missed my classes this spring, below is an updated version of some short notes on pruning fruit trees. This covers most of the major temperate fruit trees such as peach, nectarine, apricot, Apple, pear, plum, pluot and the rest of that group.

Unfortunately it does not cover pomegranates, citrus and nut trees. I  post something in another post on citrus and nut trees. Pomegranate is a different animal altogether and I will post something soon on this as well.

Below are my updated notes on pruning that I put together for training purposes in Tajkistan for a project working with local tra and fruit growers.

If this doesn't work for you, here is the link by clicking HERE

Don't forget to visit my YouTube videos on pruning which can be found 

Lowering the Height of Fruit Trees

Pruning Young Fruit Trees

Pruning Newly Planted Peach Tree

Types of Pruning Cuts

Sharpening, Adjusting and Sanitizing Pruning Equipment

Happy Pruning!

Fruit Tree Pruning Class in 29 Palms Saturday

I will be giving a fruit tree pruning class in 29 Palms, California,  which will cover basic pruning techniques of all major fruit trees that will grow in the Mojave Desert on Saturday, February 31, 2015, from Noon to 4 pm. Open to the public and free of charges.

A link for this event can be found here
https://www.facebook.com/events/1544245095859961/

2/2/15 - It was a great event and we all had fun. Here are some pictures taken by 29 Palms Inn at the event in the Faultline Garden.

Below are the notes for the workshop

Crape Myrtle Requires Additional Care in Desert

Q. I want to plant a crape myrtle tree. Will it survive in the northwest area of the Las Vegas Valley? When is the best time to plant and how should it be done? How do you care for this tree so it still looks good in this climate and soils?

A. Crape myrtle does fine here if the whole is dug wide enough and the soil is amended with a good quality compost at the time of planting. This tree is not a difficult tree to grow here but it’s not the easiest either.

Crape myrtle can handle full sun but it should not be placed in a total desert landscape surrounded by cacti and rock mulch. It will perform best in a wetter part of the landscape, surrounded by other plants and with the soil covered in wood mulch.

The three biggest issues to address are modifying the soil enough at the time of planting, mulching the soil surface with wood mulch and using a fertilizer that prevents the yellowing of the leaves occurs because of iron chlorosis.

I would not trust landscapers to plant this tree properly on their own. This tree will not do well if it’s planted in a cheap hole.

The hole does not have to be dug deep; just deep enough to accommodate the tree. But the hole needs to be dug wide. Make sure the planting hole is dug at least three times the diameter of its container or box.

The soil used for planting around the tree’s roots should have plenty of good compost mixed with it. An equal volume of good compost to native soil would be the right amount.

Fertilize once in the spring, around mid-February, with a fertilizer formulated for flowering woody plants, trees and shrubs. A rose or tomato fertilizer could be used as a substitute.

When you fertilize this tree in February give it 2 to 3 ounces of EDDHA iron chelate as a supplement to the fertilizer. Apply it to the soil and water it in.

If you want to give it a little extra attention and have it look even better than apply a foliar fertilizer a few weeks after the leaves come out. Use a product like a Miracle Gro or Peters that is designed to encourage flowering.

Make sure this tree is watered as frequently as your other woody landscape plants and with the same volume of water as plants of a similar size. They are nearly pest free.

Other questions about crape myrtle on this blog:

http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2012/05/crape-myrtle-and-mimosa-silk-tree.html

http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2012/09/fertilizer-formula-for-keeping-crepe.html

Tree Trunk Damage Best Left Alone

Q. I have a beautiful 10 foot tall oak that has provided privacy with it's wonderful light green, very dense foliage. I enclosed a picture of a rapidly expanding bark rot-looking area that seems to be circling the trunk and moving upward at the same time. Can this be stopped, cured, or is it life threatening to the tree?

Damage to trunk of oak from reader

A. From your picture, which I posted on my blog, this damaged area of the trunk near the ground seems to be on the mend. You can see the bark “rolling” in over the wound. Allow for the tree trunk to heal on its own. Pull away any rock or wood mulch touching the trunk and make sure irrigation is not too frequent.

Tree tissue rolling over large wound

From the looks of the damage, this was a “traumatic” event and not a disease. After damage like this the living layer around the damage forms a “compartment” that isolates the damage and heals over and around the wound. This reaction is normal to a healthy plant after an injury that is a one-time event and not getting worse.

At first it looked like collar rot, a disease, that was developing but I don’t think so. Just to be on the safe side, pull any gravel or would surface mulch away from the trunk a distance of 12 inches and keep the trunk as dry as possible.

If there is irrigation water applied close to the trunk, then move the source of the water a distance of 18 to 24 inches away from the trunk. When you are watering, avoid daily or every other day irrigations which might keep the soil wet.

Deliver the water the tree needs for several days all at once, not a little bit every day. Judging from the size of your tree this might be around 20 gallons at a time.

Trees of this size should receive water from drip emitters in at least four different locations under the tree canopy. If you are delivering 20 gallons and you have four emitters then they need to run long enough for each of them to deliver 5 gallons each.

In winter, irrigate about once every 7 to 10 days or possibly longer if you can determine the soil still has moisture. In summer time you might water once or possibly twice a week if you have several inches of mulch laying on the soil surface. 

Diversity of Plants Help in Butterfly Gardens

Q. I've been thinking about growing milkweed plants to help in the Monarch butterfly fight. Any thoughts?

A. I agree with you wholeheartedly on encouraging our local populations of butterflies and moths. They add a lot of beauty and grace to our landscape and provide some pollination and act as a food supply.

Butterflies can be pollinators

To my knowledge the Monarch butterfly does not pass through southern Nevada in its migration. I understand there are two migration routes; one from the Eastern population and the other supports the Western population.

The Eastern population misses us completely in its migration routes to Mexico. The Western population is restricted for the most part by the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Instead of focusing just on milkweeds I think a diversity of plant material for attracting these insects might be important. I have posted some reading material on my blog regarding butterfly gardens.

Reducing or eliminating pesticide use in the butterfly garden area would be wise. There are a number of pesticides that are harmful including two that I recommend frequently to organic gardeners: Bt and Spinosad. When considering pollinators both of these insecticides can be lethal to butterflies.

Always apply pesticides, if they must be applied, at times when these creatures are not active. This means the very early morning hours. Many of our moths fly at night so I would avoid applying pesticides at dusk if a major concern are night flying moths.

I put together some links on general information on Monarch butterflies, moths and butterflies of southern Nevada and how to make a butterfly garden. I wish you much success.

Wikipedia on Monarch butterflies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly_migration

Threats to Monarch butterflies

http://www.flightofthebutterflies.com/conservation-preservation/

Map of Monarch routes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly_migration#mediaviewer/File:MonarchWanderungKlein.gif

Butterflies of southern Nevada.

http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2005/sp0525.pdf

How to make a butterfly garden in the southwestern desert of the US

http://www.dbg.org/system/files/253/original/Butterfly%20Gardens%208-11.pdf?1315954953

http://gardenoracle.com/butterfly_garden.html

Containers Add Benefits to the Balcony Gardening

Pepper in container

Q. I would like to plant roses or tree roses or possibly a shrub on my balcony in containers. They will be getting morning sun and afternoon shade. When should I plant them? Can the pot rest directly on the plate or should there be a space between the pot and the plate? I want to make sure it drains properly and I don’t want the water staining my white balcony.

A. You have a lot of flexibility in this location because they are in container soil and receive late afternoon shade. The limitations would be the total hours of sunlight the plants receive and winter low temperatures. Flowering or fruiting plants need six hours of very bright sunlight at a minimum to do well.

Best times for planting are in February through April or May. Another great time is in the fall from late September to mid-November. The winter months are okay for winter hardy plants but plants don’t establish quickly when container soils are cold.

Roses and other flowering or fruiting plants will be well as long as they get at least six hours of direct sunlight. Weight is a problem on balconies so use lightweight soil mixes that contain a large percentage of perlite or vermiculite. These types of soils need water frequently.

Mint in container

Because of weight, stay with containers no larger than 15 gallon. The plate under the container that catching the water can be in direct contact with the container with no problems.

If you are using tap water then about about 20% of the water that you apply should drain out the bottom of the container to move salts flushed and not accumulating.

You might also consider vegetables, herbs and smaller citrus such as kumquat or lime. 

Second Fruit Tree Workshop Scheduled for Henderson January 27

I will be holding a second fruit tree pruning workshop in the Henderson area, in the Warm Springs and Lake Mead area, on Tuesday, January 27 from 1 to 4 PM in the afternoon. The primary focus of this workshop is on citrus and pomegranates.

Other fruit trees we will discuss include almond and fig. The workshop is free to the public but limited to  25 participants on a first-come, first served basis. Registration is through Eventbrite

Register for the event here

We will also be discussing controlling the leaf footed plant bug and correcting the yellowing of leaves on citrus. I will cover all of the management aspects for these trees here in Las Vegas

Online Ticketing for Pruning Citrus and Pomegranate powered by Eventbrite

What Caused the Holes in My Tree?

Q. I noticed that woodpeckers attacked our Palo Verde tree. There are probably 60 holes around the truck and main limbs. The sap is running even though the holes are just under the surface, not deep. Any advice how to prevent further damage and do you think this can eventually kill the tree?

A. This is probably one of the sapsuckers. Sapsuckers are type of woodpecker and a couple different types have been documented in southern Nevada. Some sapsuckers migrate through the valley and others maintain a year-round presence.

Sapsucker damage to eucalyptus

They damage a variety of trees including fruit trees and many different types of landscape trees. They frequently come back to the same tree over and over.

 The only thing you can realistically do is exclude them from the tree. This means putting up some wire mesh, burlap or other barrier to keep them from the trunk and larger limbs. They will still get into limbs where it is hard to put a barrier.

I have seen the same fruit trees damaged year after year for the past 20 years and the trees still seem to be still doing well. Damaged trees repair themselves more quickly if they are in good health; watered and fertilized adequately. I know it causes damage but it seems to be not life threatening so I would let it go unless the damage gets extensive.

If this seems to be seasonal, you could try some hot pepper sprays just before they begin damaging plants. Mark the event on your calendar and time your applications accordingly.

Lantana Is Get Leggy If Not Cared for

Q. My friend has a lantana plant and the leaves look good from the top to about the bottom few inches and then they turn yellow. What might be the cause of this condition? My lantanas are getting very thin and "leggy". Do you think I should wait until December to cut them to the ground as some say?

A. These plants originate from wetter climates and richer soils. As these plants get older and woodier at the base, they tend to lose their leaves toward the bottom and keep the leaves on the more succulent stems and new growth.

Different Lantanas for home landscaping in the desert

This is worse if the plant is not in full sun or if it is very dense. Regular applications of fertilizer helps along with correctly pruning the plant. Prune these plants to within an inch or two of the soil surface in February if they are leggy. They also need plenty of water so if water is being restricted they will also look pretty bad.

Pruned Lantana 2 to 3 inches high in February if there is cold damage or it has become leggy

Lantana loves full sun and do very well provided the soil has been enriched and it is receiving fertilizer. If planted in rock mulch the soil will become mineralized or lose its organic matter content over time and the plant then does poorly.

Get lantana on a schedule every couple of months with a decent fertilizer for flowering plants. In the spring apply compost or composted chicken manure or something similar around the plant and water it in thoroughly with a hose. You want to re-build some organic matter back in that soil again.

I had several reports of grubs feeding on the roots of these plants. When this happens, the plant begins to decline. It might not be obvious to you unless you dug the plant up and examined the soil.

If you believe this could be a problem, you would apply a granular insecticide or a liquid drench around the outside perimeter of the plant. Granular organic insecticides containing rosemary and thyme oil work as well as conventional insecticides containing imidicloprid.

Climate and Soil Change the Quality of Fruit

Q. Last week I heard about a variety of apple called the Pink Pearl, not Pink Lady.  Will Pink Pearl apple trees survive the Las Vegas growing season?  Do you know where I can get a sapling?

A. I have heard of Pink Pearl apple but I don't how it will perform here. Nearly any apple tree will grow in our climate but it’s really a question of how good the fruit will be. It originated in Humboldt County, Northern California, and it ripens sometime in late August or September. In Las Vegas it might ripen a couple of weeks earlier than that.

Pink lady Apple fully ripe in mid to late November in Las Vegas

The eating quality of a specific variety of fruit is affected by the climate where it is grown, the soils and how it is managed. Pink Pearl has a good reputation in northern California but its quality is unknown in our hot desert climate. I would hate to see you wait four or five years only to find out the fruit is not good quality.

I am confident it will set fruit for you provided it gets pollinated. In its place, I would advise you to select an apple that ripens very early in the summer or in the fall months and avoid apples that ripen during the hot summer months. My experience with apples that ripen in July through August here has not been promising. 

Avoid Bad Haircut When Pruning Rosemary

Q. I have a rosemary bush in the front yard that's very healthy but has grown quite big in the seven years since it was planted. Is there a technique to trimming? I tried once before and it looked like a really bad haircut.

Rosemary with a bad haircut from overzealous hedge shears

A. Any older, woody plant will have its leafy growth on the perimeter of its canopy. If the plant canopy is dense, which is typical of rosemary, all of the leafy growth will be in a 2 inch layer along the outside of its canopy.

Leafy growth needs sunlight. Shade causes leaf drop and prevents leaves from developing. Dense plant canopies don’t allow sunlight to the interior. This means that the woody growth in the interior will be leafless, bare, naked. If you begin cutting away deeper than 2 inches then you will expose the interior, bare wood. This does look like a bad haircut.

The good thing is that bad haircuts are not permanent. New growth emerges from these bad haircut areas because of sunlight and the stimulation the plant receives when it is pruned.

Rosemary pruned around the tree

Shaping plants should begin when they are young. You cannot wait until they are several years old to begin shaping them unless you are willing for that plant to have a bad haircut for a while.

Pruning rosemary depends whether you want it as an ornamental or you plan to harvest the rosemary for cooking. If you are harvesting rosemary for cooking you want to harvest soft succulent growth.

Alternatively you can harvest the woody growth and strip the leaves off. Commercially pruning is done with a shears because it is faster. Again, if you cut too deeply with a shears it will look like a bad haircut.

After pruning always make sure there is enough warm weather for regrowth to occur. Water and fertilize the plant to stimulate new growth and recover from pruning.

If you want your rosemary to be an ornamental, it can adhere to any shape you want to give it. It can be sheared or it can be pruned with a hand pruners. During this last holiday season we saw upright rosemary pruned into small Christmas trees available at nurseries and garden centers. Just don’t cut the plant too deeply.

Rosemary pruned more formally like bangs in a haircut

I prefer a more normal look. This is done by reaching deep inside the plant and removing older wood with a hand shears. By reaching inside to make cuts they are hidden by the remaining growth. If you prune like this, it will never look like the plant was pruned; just smaller.

Rosemary pruned informally

Look for the longest growth, follow the stem back inside the canopy to a place where it joins another branch. Cut and remove the longer stem and leave the shorter one. This would be done in several places each year to keep it restrained.

Pick the Right Variety of Roses for the Desert

Q. I have some of these roses that are the kind that they said are ground cover type but they did very poorly in the Summer, when it was hot. Now I have planted them in the shade and they leaves are turning white then falling off. Could it be that these expensive roses from the Cal coast will not do well here? My other roses are looking great now and getting higher and higher.  These ground cover roses have never looked or done well.

A. Some of the best roses available to us are from Weeks Roses http://www.weeksroses.com/ out of Ontario, California. 

Actually this is a very good climate for roses. The very worst time of the year for them is Midsummer. When planting roses they need full sun and lots of soil amendment at the time of planting. They benefit from 2 to 3 inches of wood chip mulch on the surface of the soil surrounding the plants. 

They don't have a lot of pest problems like they would in wetter parts of the country but in the shade you might expect powdery mildew. Powdery mildew will cause the upper surface of the leaves to turn white and fall from the plant. Powdery mildew seldom occurs if roses are growing in full sun and if they are irrigated through drip irrigation, not overhead irrigation. Overhead irrigation encourages the development of powdery mildew on rose leaves and flowers.

 

Powdery mildew of roses

When selecting roses stay with recommended varieties for the desert. This list of roses can be found on the weeks roses website at http://www.weeksroses.com/_RoseInfo/climate.html

Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop Saturday AM January 24

Location: South Jones and Patrick Lane area. Exact location will be sent to participants after they register for this class on Eventbrite. There is no fee for this workshop.

Older and fruitful Gravenstein apple

 Limited to 25 people only due to the size of the yard. I will be demonstrating how to prepare your equipment, make correct pruning cuts and how to prune apple (20+ years old and one young one), apricot (5 to 7 yrs old), peach (3 to 5 year old), dwarf peach (container), fig (3 to 5 yr old) and pomegranate.(3 to 5 yr old). Location is a residential property in the Southwest of the Las Vegas Valley near South Jones and Patrick Ln. (north of CC 215, southern part of the loop).

Older and fruitful apricot

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