Plants & Pests with Nicole

It has been a fairly mild winter, with the exception of early January. The temperatures recently are consistently in the high 50s through the 60s. This doesn't mean that spring is here. There is still plenty of time for winter to reappear. Don't clean off your landscape beds too soon this year. The mulch and plant debris that has been covering the plant crowns all winter is protecting the plant. If that mulch or plant material is removed too soon in the spring it can lead to winter injury on those exposed plants. Also, leaving the plant material will help allow overwintering pollinator insects to grow to adults prior to emerging from that plant material. Wait until mid to late April before cleaning up landscape beds. If plants green up underneath the cover, that is fine and it doesn't mean it needs cleaned off.

Summer blooming shrubs should be pruned during dormancy to renovate or thin the plant, typically in late February or March. Wait until after blooming to prune spring blooming shrubs. Thinning is the removal of the oldest and largest diameter stems. These branches are removed back to the base of the plant or where they attach to another branch. Ideally, about one-third of the largest branches are removed annually. On spring blooming shrubs, thinning can also be done just after blooming to avoid removing flower buds and reducing bloom. Renovation pruning can be used on overgrown or leggy shrubs. The entire shrub is cut back to a height of 4 to 8 inches from the ground. While thinning on a regular basis helps preserve the shrubs natural form, and is preferred over rejuvenation; most multi-stemmed shrubs tolerate rejuvenation pruning. Evergreen shrubs will not tolerate rejuvenation pruning.