DON'T FOLLOW MY LEAD.....

and forget to wrap your young trees in the fall. Even people who KNOW better forget sometimes. NOT happy to find my newly planted 'Snow Sweet' apple trees chewed by rabbits, (sorry Joe, got any more?) If your trees have this extensive damage, just pull them out, they will not recover. Sadly, this is not the first time I have overlooked this important fall job. Products you can use are paper tree wrap or mesh materials, wrapped directly around the trunk. Using a plastic tube may keep rabbits away. but mice may still be able to crawl inside. When the tree outgrows the plastic tube, you must remove it (actually long before it outgrows it) I am amazed at how many trees have plastics sleeves embedded in them. The fluids for the tree, run up and down the outer layers. When these are chewed up the flow stops, hence - death to the tree.
A bigger tree may struggle for a few years, but eventully die. So if they are tiny like these 2, why wait....get going on another, and wrap it! Trees most tasty to rabbits are young trees with thinner bark like fruit and maples trees. Before the tornado, we had a few rabbits here and there, now we are over run. Did all the rabbits west of us, like from Sky View Ridge blow over here? If you are missing some, please come and get, and take their family too.
Back to the trees.....Nearly all fruit trees are grafted.

They have a top piece called the scion, and the bottom piece called the rootstock. Even wonder what that lump is in the tree trunk? It's the graft union, where the 2 pieces grew together. The top part determines what type of tree it is like "Honeycrisp," and the rootstock determines the hardiness and growth rate and size, that's how we get standards, dwarfs and semi-dwarfs. So if you get sprouts growing at the base of your fruit trees cut the sprouts all the way back. They are not new fruiting branches but sucker growth from the rootstock. On occasion the top graft of your fruit tree might die but the stock is living and the sucker growth starts in earnest. It will NOT be your desired tree. To learn more about trees, attend week 4 of gardening classes. =)



Some overgrown shrubs will respond well to this type of pruning. Types are : lilacs, viburums, willow shrubs, spireas, ninebarks, potentilla and other multi branched shrubs. This is drastic but it can renew plants that are doing poorly or have been neglected. Of course, it will take a few years for some of them to recover or to have blooms on your lilac again. Regular, annual pruning will keep your shrubs in shape. At class, we will discuss, renewal pruning, heading back, pollarding, coppicing, shearing and thinning. The right hair cut at the right time for each plant.

This above photo taken on 2-09, is of a Pink Diamond Hydrangea . Even their winter flower is attractive. Well, I think so, I love drieds. These flowers resemble lilacs in shape and can be 12" long. Huge. Not to crazy about the 'Endless Summer' Hydrangea craze a few yrs. back. By the end of summer it was done! I guess I should have read more into the name! Other hydrangeas I grow are Limelight, Tardiva, White Moth & Quickfire. New for us this year will be 'Incrediball' (12"round flowers), and Pinkie Winkie. So if you know a bride looking for summer hydrangeas.....you know what to do.

This is a winter photo of Limelight Hydrangea. Just to give you another idea for the winter garden. I know, I know, I love the summer garden best, but don't we have winter for almost 1/2 the year? These will all be cut back to about 18-24". Limelight produces flowers on new and old wood. They can be pruned in November or very early spring. I like to leave them until early spring as the top growth helps to catch snow that protects the root zone, especially the first year. Getting antsy for spring? I think it's on the way. Still to early for you to start those tomatoes on the window sill. Wait...... 1-2 more weeks. Ok to start peppers & eggplants.