Dirt Simple

Spring Pruning

The day you put a plant in the ground is the first day of a relationship. If you plant cosmos, that relationship constitutes one season. If you plant a tree, that relationship might survive for generations. If you plant shrubs, you could have a good many years of pleasure ahead of you-provided you prune. Woody shrubs, left to their own devices, go to rack and ruin. They spend no end of effort piling on enough wood to send the tips of their branches to the sky. What is the big attraction of the sky? No competition for light, air, and rain. No shrub feels any inclination to bloom where you want to see blooms-at eye level, that is. Plants grow with survival in mind. Should you have another idea in mind, wade in. Participate.

Shrubs will grow sideways, around an obstacle. They will sprout back, if cut to the ground. They will survive the indignity of a homeowner with a hedge trimmer gone amok. They will survive, even though the overall shape may be ungainly, or sheared to within an inch of its life. The instinct to live is strong. Lucky for me, and every other gardener who has learned on the job. Pruning a hydrangea is not hard-it just requires the patience to consider every branch, before you cut. I prune each branch, one at a time.

A well pruned hydrangea looks like it has had a shag haircut. Every branch has its our airspace. This means some branches get last year’s flowers cut off-only. Other branches get 8″ removed. Others get 16″ removed. Some old and thick branches in the middle get cut even harder, so air and light can reach down in to as many branches as possible. Some gardeners prune their Limelight hydrangeas to within 14″ to 24″ of the ground, forcing them to produce basal shoots which originate underground. This method tends to produce a shorter shrub, with fewer and larger flowers. I dislike cutting this hard-it takes so long for the shrub to regain a natural and airy shape. I would rather have lots of flowers, than a few gigantic flowers. I would rather plant the shorter growing version of Limelight- “Little Lime” – than prune a Limelight too hard.

I like my Limelight hydrangeas tall, and I like lots of flowers. My yews are 48″ tall at this end of the garden, and the arborvitae are 14′ tall. The hydrangeas grown 6′ to 8′ tall-perfect for this spot. For good flowering from top to bottom, the lower branches need to be left long, and the top branches need to be shorter. The finished shape should be very loosely pyramidal, or like an egg on its side. Step back frequently, to see how things are shaping up. This hydrangea blooms on new wood, so no matter how you prune, you will get flowers. Shearing a branch will encourage that branch to produce multiple shoots below the cut. Thicken up, and out. As long as the exterior shape is loosely described, the shrub will prosper. Shearing deciduous flowering shrubs may take less time, but produces less than desirable results. Renovating shrubs that have been sheared takes a long time. One cut at a time-this is my advice. Invest in a great pair of pruners-this makes the work easier. The moment that all I can hear is the birds, and the action of the pruner blades bypassing each other, is a spring gardening moment I treasure.

I do grow a few shrub roses. Sally Holmes, Carefree Beauty and Earthsong. I have read lots of articles about pruning roses, none of which I have paid much mind to. I stop dead heading my roses in mid-August. I actually love the rose hips in the fall and winter. In the spring, when the buds swell, I prune. The swelling of the buds? You will recognize swelling buds when you see them. My roses bloom on the new shoots. I never cut a branch back by more than 1/3rd. I prune the entire collection of roses as if they were a single plant. I leave them loose. Last fall I secured the summer’s growth of the climbing roses to the wall-not much needs to be done to them now.

Occasionally I will hard prune an old climbing rose cane low to the ground. This keeps new growth coming from the bottom. Pruning stimulates growth. Pruning a climbing rose cane 6 feet off the ground will result in a rash of shoots. A long stalk with a tuft of shoots on the top-not the best look. Any cane which you can train to grow horizontally will flower more heavily. If you think about the where the sun and rain comes from, this makes sense. Is the afore mentioned a guide to pruning roses-not really. Every gardener has to deal with their roses one to one. Look at them, and decide how to prune. I prune my roses so they have the best possible overall shape. Most roses are very ungainly growers, so pruning for a good shape is not always so easy. That’s why I grow asparagus with my roses. The ferny fronds conceal those awkward and ungainly branches. Do I prune my asparagus over the summer-oh yes. I keep them at a height which conceals those legs. Does this affect my asparagus crop? Maybe. But everything in the garden is about choices. I want great roses more than I want home grown asparagus.

I do not cut back my beech ferns in the fall. The dead fronds mulch and protect the European ginger over the winter. By April 1st, those fronds have cut loose from the crown. I do not need to prune. I rake them off. A rubber rake does a great job. My fingers do the best job.

The European ginger has already been busy, sending out new shoots. A steel rake, or a size 8 boot can damage these tender new shoots. One of the pleasures of the spring-the new growth. Friable soil. My housekeeping inside-rather rude and abrupt. I just want to get the job done. When I am cleaning the garden in the spring, I take my time. I do it-gently. I have a relationship with this garden that I intend to nurture.

Lifting a lower branch of a spruce, I see icy snow. The transition from winter to spring has been incredibly slow this year. Really shady spots in my garden are still frozen. The night temperatures are still below freezing. Frozen ground, frozen branches-my advice is to let them be.

The hellebores are awake. Last years foliage has collapsed in a heap on the ground. Every day I think about cutting that old foliage away. Clean and bare is not always the best situation. The newly emerging flowers benefit from all that fluff. The transition from winter to spring can be a rocky journey. Sometimes, the best thing to do is to do nothing.

Last year’s foliage protects those flowering stalks, ready to emerge. A warm spell in March proved to be damaging. The buds sensed it was time to grow. Nature had a different idea in mind. We have had a run of really cold weather, the past 3 weeks. Some of the exposed buds on this plant are black with the rot produced by freezing temperatures.

Cutting away last years foliage exposes new flower buds. Very tender flower buds. Just to look at them, you would know they are not armed against the cold. I cut the dead leaves away, and put them back over the top of these buds. It is too soon to clean here. What constitutes better days? Warmer nights. The ground is still very cold. It will be 2 months before the soil really warms up in my zone. Hellebores do not require warm soil, but the flowers will be damaged by night air temperatures in the mid to low 20′s. They need all that litter on the ground over them. It’s not time yet to wash and put away the blanket.

I am shocked and pleased to see that I have hellebore seedlings sprouting. I spent a few moments taking this in, before I covered them up. I am not sure how long it will be, before I expose them to the light of the new season. The pruning and the cleaning-all in good time. A slow spring-this is what we have now.

Posted on: April 4, 2013 18 Comments

At A Glance: Easter Sunday

Posted on: March 31, 2013 4 Comments

Filed Under: Spring Tagged With: Spring

Pruning Trees

There are plenty of reasons to prune. The branch of a tree, shrub, or rose may be dead, and need removal. It may be growing across the sidewalk, and need some heading back. An old lilac may be blooming only at the top, 15 feet above ground, and need rejuvenation. Branches of shrubs that cross over each other, and rub off the bark is an invitation to disease or insect damage. Intact bark protects the life inside. Pruning can help keep woody plants vigorous, healthy, and beautiful.

Plants maintained as hedges require regular pruning. The lindens at the shop form a hedge the body of which is above ground. The branches at ground level have been removed over the years so people may walk underneath them. Regular pruning of the trees promotes a good framework of branches that represent the desired shape. These lindens were overdue. Though I am a serviceable pruner of shrubs and roses, this job asks for an expert. Someone who knows how to safely navigate high above the ground, and someone who understands the consequences of each cut, deliberately pruning in anticipation of a desired result.
Trees that are trained as an overhead hedge are pruned with the idea of encouraging lateral growth. Anyone who has ever topped a shrub knows that the plant responds to a single cut with multiple sprouting shoots. This results in a dense pattern of twigs on top, which blocks the light to the interior. Every branch of a plant needs light. Shrubs that are repeatedly cut back so every branch is the same length eventually decline on the interior, and will need more drastic pruning to restore them to health from the inside out.

Pruning trees in late winter means there will only be a short time before growth resumes, and the healing of the cuts can begin. Another reason to prune now is that the cuts will stimulate growth at a time of year when new growth is expected. Trees actually stop growing and begin to go dormant in late summer. This is part of the process by which they are eventually able to go totally dormant, and endure the winter without injury. I do not like to prune seriously at the end of the summer or in the fall-the plants should be going to sleep. Not shocked into growth. Pruning these trees the end of March will encourage dormant buds to flush out.

The roof next to the trees turned out to be handy. This perch, and a long and very sharp pole pruner, enabled Jack Richardson, owner of Guardian Tree Experts, to trim the inside flat sides of the lindens.

When the trees leaf out, those leaves will make a giant rectangle above ground. They will represent this better next year than they will this year. Pruning that waits too long means more time will be needed for the trees to grow in how you envision. The trees were originally planted far enough away from the building so the shape would be easy to see. This also permits light to wash that dark wall. The relationship of the sun to the shade is a feature of this space in the summer.

The big cuts make it easy to understand the concept of lateral growth. The thick branches are pruned back to a smaller branch which is already growing in the proper plane. The smaller branch will benefit from the growth energy in the tree directed its way. Dormant buds at this point will emerge, and grow into the space around the larger branch.

The overall vertical plane has been reestablished. In a year, a decision can be made about whether to prune again, or wait until the following year. That said, frequent and less drastic pruning makes for a quicker recovery time. Regular pruning from the beginning helps to create a strong and healthy structure.

The ultimate pruning means taking a tree down to the ground. This maple, suffering from girdling roots and severe injury from lightning has become a hazard. The large left lateral branch is at such a near horizontal angle that the branch has begun to split. The original wound never really healed, and now the tree has begun to rot. No one could foresee the exact moment that this big tree will give way, but all of the signs are there. This tree needs to come down.

Norway maples are especially prone to girdling roots. A root that encircles a tree trunk can eventually grow enough to strangle the tree. At a certain point, the pruning of the offending root is too late to make a difference. Every one of the maples on my property had significant girdling roots when I moved there. Knowing that this tree would eventually die, I planted other trees around it. The loss of a large tree can be devastating to the community planted underneath it. This maple had been in serious decline for many years. Very little remained of its crown.

There are 5 trees that were planted fairly close to the maple-2 magnolias, and 3 parrotias. Those trees had been in ground and growing long enough for their upper branches to reach the height of the lower branches of the maple. The time was right to take the maple down. The 5 remaining trees will prosper from the light, space, and less competition for water. They should grow very fast now; their filtered shade will be just what the garden underneath them will need. Guardian Tree Experts in Ann Arbor-they do first rate work. The trees are ready for a little spring weather.

Posted on: March 31, 2013 2 Comments

Filed Under: garden maintenance, Woody Plants Tagged With: proper pruning, pruning, pruning trees

Garden Designers Roundtable: Mistaken

The topic for the Garden Designers Roundtable-mistakes. I appreciate the timing of this topic, as blunder season is just about here. I invariably misinterpret nature’s intent with regard to spring. I am sure that spring has arrived, always weeks in advance of the real thing. I am anxiously poking around, looking for the crocus and the hellebores. If I am lucky, that poking will not damage tender shoots just emerging from the ground. The true meaning of misstep? Tulip leaves when they first emerge in my zone are the same color as the muddy soil. Given that I never remember where I have planted them, I am as likely to smash them flat as not. Every step I make on soil that is soaking wet from the thaw forces the life giving oxygen out of the soil. Plants thrive in friable soil, and generally dislike compacted soil. Why am I milling about in the garden when I know better? The leaves of the hellebores are limp and brown now-and crying for a cleanup. I am sure the number of emerging flowers I have snipped off thinking they were leaf stalks is appallingly high. Were I to endure the mess for another week, the difference between leaf stalks and flower stalks would be obvious. Yet here I am, in error. Franklin P Jones put it so eloquently: Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

Once the perennials begin to emerge, the bare spaces that would be perfect for spring bulbs are painfully obvious. Spots for snowdrops-how is it that I failed to see them 5 months ago, when I could have planted? The chionodoxa I did plant at the edge of a path as the spot was easy to get to-could I really have forgotten the edge of this path is part of the Corgi path? Was that outcome not as obvious last fall as it is right now? It will be months before my small perennial garden will be anything to look at. I could have tulips and daffodils on the way. Phlox divaricata-every year I long for it. Every year I do not plant it. A lost opportunity is one thing, but a lost opportunity that repeats itself year after year-a whopper blooper.

Later I will find those mistakes that simply represent deficient knowledge. Plants are very specific about what they want. When they don’t get what they want, they have that listless and unenthusiastic look about them. Or they die. Wanting that catmint to thrive in a slightly too shady spot in slightly too heavy soil-that want washes over me all the time. What would prosper in that spot, I don’t want. The idea that the nature will suspend disbelief just for me-what is that? Off sides is off sides. I would conservatively estimate that my plant reference library has 50 volumes. And I have a computer that works. In spite of that, I persist in putting plants in the wrong place. On rare occasions, I get lucky. I had to have a clematis growing on my garden bench-the romance of tat idea was irresistible. Though the spot had failure written all over it, I planted anyway. Turns out, there is enough sun 4 feet off the ground to keep that clematis happy. I know a certain gardener with a gift for making a mistake seem like a brilliant choice. From Henry James, She had an unequalled gift… of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities.

Gardeners derive satisfaction from many different things. Some gardeners choose to grow food. Others like tropical plants in pots. Others want to grow plants and sell them. Others swoon over conifers, or rock garden plants. Others intend to reforest a city. A relationship with nature is not necessarily a garden-it could be a wild place untouched by designing hands. Entertaining outdoors, putting up lights at the holidays, and camping.-these are as much an experience of gardening as the parterres at Vaux Le Vicomte. Given that the sky is the limit, that the opportunity for self expression is always there, I think it is a mistake-not to garden. Gardening is good for people. Your garden should be just that-yours. From Oscar Wilde, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”.

The most grievous error I see gardeners make is to give up a dream of having a garden environment because they could not have it all at once. The best part about plants is that they grow. A bareroot tree planted in the spring and looked after will grow. Yes, the mighty oak from the little acorn grew. A slew of boxwood cuttings, placed in and grown on in a nursery bed, can one day become the most gorgeous knot garden imaginable. Hellebores are gorgeous-but notoriously slow growing. Large plants are pricey, for just that reason. But little hellebores are readily available, and will grow into specimen sized beauties before you know it. Now is a very good time to plant one. From Edmund Burke: Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

The other members of the Roundtable no doubt will have their own views on mistakes-please read on!

Mary Gallagher Gray : Black Walnut Dispatch : Washington, D.C.

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

David Cristani: The Desert Edge: New Mexico

Posted on: March 26, 2013 11 Comments

Filed Under: Garden Design, Garden Stories, Strictly Opinion, Upon Reflection Tagged With: Garden Designers Roundtable