As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for In The Garden / Spring Tasks

Rose Wrestling

by

Join Green Thumb Sunday

Join

tiffany3

Tiffany – Hybrid Tea Rose

I did some work in the garden yesterday. Yes I’m still trying to tidy it up and no, I haven’t planted any annuals or new perennials yet.

I did discover that some roses that I’d been hoping would recover from the one winter that I didn’t do winter protection have died. I’m sad to report that the lovely love and Peace is gone. So is the monster rose I talked about a lot last year – Antique 89. Zepherine Drouhn and Adriana didn’t make it either. So sad. I’ll have to see if I can find good replacements for these roses. I definitely want to get love and peace again though!

As I was saying on Tricia’s Musings my yard is full of blooms! Rose blooms. Oh and rose scent, lovely lovely rose perfume.

As I worked under the largest rose – 8 foot tall William Baffin (more like a tree!) it’s petals rained down on me. I was literally covered in rose petals at one point! How often can one say that?

I managed to tidy up and trim a number of roses. Lots of dead tips and dried out branches needed to be removed. The roses of course grew and bloomed around the unsightly dead twigs. My arms are now covered in scratches and I’ve probably still got a few thorns stuck in my fingers, hands and arms!

Oh yes, my back is aching too. I don’t get outside enough these days so I think over doing it just hits my back first when I do get out to the garden to work.

That’s what I get for rose wrestling!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.






Thin leafed poor blooming azaleas?

by

How did your Azaleas, and Rhododendrons do this year? Did they bloom well? Is the foliage lush and full?

If you azaleas didn’t seem to do as well this year as they have in the past, or if the leaf coverage is rather thin you might want to be proactive and take some measure to help them get healthy so they’ll bloom well next season.

Apply azalea fertilizer in the spring. You might want to give your plants one light dose before they begin to bloom, perhaps just as they come out of dormancy, and another dose shortly after they’ve finished blooming. Fertilizing will encourage better growth and the plant should get fuller looking.

Lightly pruning blooming branches and bringing the flowers indoors or lightly prune immediately after the blooming season ends.

You’ll be cutting off some of the new growth, but when pruning takes place near the beginning of the season it actually encourages new growth. By pruning, fertilizing and watering regularly throughout the season your azaleas should be stronger the following year.

You might even want to thin some of the older branches after the blooms fade in order to shape the tree for the following year. It make take a few years to prune your azalea into a nice shape that shows off it’s fullness as you do not want to prune too much off at once.

Keep slugs at bay

by

Here’s my Tip of The Day:

If you live in a zone 5 or lower climate do not put mulch on your garden beds until June!

If you put it on too early you’ll have lots of slugs. Instead, take this time to stir up the soil around your plants. This will expose tiny slugs and either kill them off, or expose them to birds and other predators that will eat them.

You’ll have far fewer slugs if you turn the soil around your plants at least once a week until the end of May. Then, to keep moisture in the ground, and to help keep your plants roots cool, do put mulch around your plants anytime from the beginning of June to mid-June. Your garden will be be happy, will be a little more drought tolerant and you’ll likely have less slugs to deal with.

This really works!

Meta