As the Garden Grows

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Rose growth

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I love the look of roses when they are growing and developing new leaves. The bright red edges of the new leaves as they unfurl is so pretty.

The rose that I’ve pictured above is called Breath of Life and it’s a climbing rose. This rose is attached to the archway/ trellis that is at the entrance to my backyard.

The bud that you see to the right just behind the new red tinged leaves is a clematis bud. The clematis is called clematis hybrid Seiboldiana, and it’s in full bloom right now. It’s flowers are at least three inches in diameter and are a blue/purple in color. Yes, photos of this clematis will be posted shortly.






Thin leafed poor blooming azaleas?

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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.

Insects on bearded iris leaves

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A visitor to As the garden grows told me that they’d seen some tiny red bugs on their bearded Iris leaves. Blasting the plant with water didn’t help because the bugs came back out again once the leaves dried off.

Spraying the plants with a blast of water was actually a good move and it can be helpful with many types of insect infestations. The insects that she saw were probably aphids. They love new growth on plants and you’ll often find them on tender young leaves or flower buds. They suck the plants juices and can get unsightly if they aren’t controlled.

Aphids breed quite quickly. If you have plants that are infested by aphids you should give them a blast of water daily. You might also add a drop or two of dishwashing liquid to a spray bottle and spray the areas of the plant that are heavily infested. The soap will smother the aphids.

Whatever you do you do not want to kill any ladybugs. Ladybugs love eating aphids and they are beneficial insects in your garden. So, if you use the soapy water method try to watch where you are spraying and avoid hitting any ladybugs.

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