Garden Center & Landscape Gardening
Tips for 5-24-04
|
Archived Tips
April
|
Plants Late to Break Bud
|
|---|
If you are not seeing much happening yet this spring with your hardy hibiscus or butterfly bush, don't worry, they are some
of the last perennials to show life again in spring. Cut them back a few inches above the ground if you haven't already
done so. Then when the weather starts to warm up they will take off. So remember to just be patient with these late season budders.
|
Soil Amendments
|
|---|
Recently I saw a local competitor's WEB site recommend mushroom compost as a soil amendment, but is this the best material
to use in our plant beds? Mushroom compost is primarily steer manure that has been used to grow mushrooms.
It is a good organic and composted material, but my problem with this recommendation is that steer manure usually has a
very large concentration of salt. I have seen mushroom compost burn tender perennials due to this concentration of salt.
Because of the salt concentration in mushroom compost, I would never recommend this product as a soil amendment if you are
going to plant immediately into a freshly amended planting bed. Here at Flowerwood we use and recommend to our customers
a set of blended organic composted products. First is a bagged product known as "White's Premium Soil Amendment". The other
is Blended Organic Bark (BOB). This latter is a bulk product that we use in our landscape installations. Both are a blend
of composted leaf matter and pine bark fines. Composted leaf matter if the "King" of soil amendments. It adds both
humus and nutirents to your garden soils and niether product contains a significant quantity of salt. So please, consider
all the facts when choosing something as simple as your soil amendment or your garden center. Happy gardening!
|
|
|
Late Spring Frosts
|
|---|
|
If you are worried about your plants getting hit by a late spring frost, try to get up early and water your frosted
plants enough to melt off the frost. It is the sun hitting the frost on your plants that does the most amount of damage.
|
| A Fun Perennial for the Garden
|
|---|
|
A fun perennial to add to your garden in the variegated German Iris. The foliage is beautiful all summer and is a green and
white or yellow and green. The blooms are a lighter purple that smell just like grape bubble gum. You have to smell it to
believe it.
|
|
|
Overlooked Perennials
|
|---|
|
An often over-looked perennial for spring is Iberis or it's common name Candytuft. Candytuft looks like a mound
of white blooms and is a great front of the border plant that blooms in the spring. It works nice with mid-blooming tulips.
|
| Japanese Beetles
|
|---|
|
Were Japanese Beetles a problem on your roses and ornamentals last summer? I know we don't think much about Japanese
Beetles at this time of year as the adults hatch in July, but now is the time to plan for your defense against these critters.
Imidacloprid is a systemic insecticide that can control adult Japanese Beetles feeding on your prized foliage. For this
systemic to be effective, it must be absorbed by your plant and relocated to the leaves. This process, known as translocation,
can take a couple of months in larger trees and shrubs. Therefore, Imidiclopyrid should be applied (as directed by the label)
to your trees and shrubs NOW so that this systemic has time to be absorbed and relocated
to the leaves of your ornamentals. Happy gardening!
|
Flowerwood Flower Shop, Garden Center, Landscape & Nursery
Intersection of Routes 14 & 176; Crystal Lake, McHenry County, Illinois
Phone: 815.459.6200 or 847.658.1160
Click to see map
A popular gift idea ... Flowerwood Gift Certificates!
|
