Pruning. You stand in front of the shrub, shaking hands clutching the shears. Where to start? What if I clip off too much? Maybe I’ll just leave it…

Actually, pruning doesn’t have to be scary. Unless you are severely brutal, like the arboreal version of a slasher movie villain, you are unlikely to do irreparable damage.

QUESTION: “I planted about 8 Knockout roses last spring. They did nicely through the summer and fall. What do I need to do to get them ready for another good year?” – Bob B.

ANSWER: This is a good time of year to prune those roses. Clip out all dead, broken and damaged branches, and those that are crossing, and touching. Once that is accomplished, you can decide if you want to take any off the top as this is when you can shape your rose shrubs.

If you want to apply any fertilizer to them, this would also be the time. I should say that, better than fertilizer, you can put a fresh supply of aged compost around the base of each one (leaving a well area at the base of the plant so that the trunk doesn’t touch the compost).

They don’t require deadheading, but I always clip the tops of the plants back around the latter part of July. They flush out beautifully for the last part of summer and early fall. Enjoy those beautiful Knockout roses!

QUESTION: “We planted Sunburst Honeylocust trees 2 and 3 years ago. They have had very rapid growth this season. The problem is this. The new growth is growing so fast that it is getting a weeping form with branches weeping too low to the ground. If I remove the entire branch it will really become top heavy. Even the top branches of the leader steam are weeping – a lot.

“From what I have read, I don’t want to tip the tree branches, but how do I trim the top heavy weeping from a young Honeylocust without completely removing the branch? There aren’t that many branches on the tree so I don’t really want to remove any. They are all weeping but the lowest and the highest are the most bothersome. It appears that the new young growth is so soft it cannot support its own length. What do I do? I’m afraid they won’t make it through the winter without substantial breakage if I leave them the way they are.” — Alysia Iosty

ANSWER: This one should be fairly simple. When removing the lower branches just remember the fewer branches for growth, the more energy will go into what is left. If the lower branches need to be removed because of the need to mow under the tree or just for esthetics I would simply go ahead and remove them.

The top leader is the only one to be concerned with, but again, not that much! You can take a ladder if necessary, go to the top part of the tree and snip back right above the bud where you will top the tree. The following season, it will create another top leader but by doing this you will cause it to do more branching down below. This is more desirable in the overall appearance and strength of the tree. Side branches can be trimmed the same way back to where it is not weeping. Trimming will make it a more desirable tree.

QUESTION: “Our hostas have holes in their leaves! They appear to be eaten by a bug. Any recommendations on what we should do?” — Pat Smith

ANSWER: From what you tell me, an educated guess would be that the culprits are the common garden variety of slugs. We also have them. You can find molluscicides at many garden centers, but a popular home remedy is a bowl of beer. Slugs are attracted to the beer, get in the bowl and drown. Use a container that slugs would find easy to climb into.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

If your knees creak and your back aches when you are gardening, perhaps you should build some raised beds to make your life easier.

There are several advantages to raised beds. The first and most obvious benefit is to your health and wellbeing Regardless of your age, kneeling or bending over your plants even for a few minutes can cause aches and pains. After a while, you can be tempted to leave plants untended and bed beds unweeded. A raised bed avoids that temptation!

Additionally, standing or walking on your garden can compact the soil which can adversely affect drainage and the flow of oxygen to the plants’ roots. Hopefully, you wouldn’t be standing on a raised bed!

When you have a raised bed, you can plant, weed and harvest while sitting or standing, which eliminates pressure on the soil and on your bones and muscles. In many cases you can’t plant earlier in the spring and harvest later in the fall because raised beds warm up earlier in the spring and stay warm later in the fall. And a raised bed is the ideal location for potentially invasive plants such as horseradish or mint.

If someone in your family is elderly or physically challenged, a raised bed can allow them to enjoy gardening again, perhaps for the first time in many years. A recent Plant Man column on the subject of gardening for the physically challenged brought a number of responses from readers, showing me just how important a topic this is. Here’s an e-mail I received from Shelby Snider in Virginia.

“As a Virginia Master Gardener, I do Horticultural Therapy at an Assisted Living home near me. With the help of a few good companies donating material and the help of my husband with the labor, we put in a therapy garden for the residents a couple of years ago.

“I am sending some pictures of the residents working there. Sometimes the residents just go out and sit in the chairs and enjoy the gardens. Before this there was nothing there but grass.

“We have two brick companies near us and they donated brick pavers for all the walking area. A block company donated concrete blocks for the raised beds which are four feet wide by 10 ft long. After we put the blocks up for the beds I sprayed the inside of the beds with a spray adhesive and lined the beds with a heavy grade of black plastic. I did this so the concrete blocks would not change the pH of my soil. I folded the top of the plastic back under the concrete caps that were put on top of the wall. I then painted the blocks and did a faux finish on the outside.

“I like the blocks because if the residents want to sit while they work or just enjoy the garden, they have a place to sit. This same concept could be done on a smaller scale. Yes, you can use concrete blocks if you do what I did.”

Although building a raised bed can be quite a labor-intensive project, it is not exceptionally difficult nor does it require advanced carpentry skills. You can find a lot of information on the Internet when you initiate a search for “raised plant beds.”

You can use concrete blocks, as Shelby did, or opt for wood instead. For a low bed, railroad ties or landscape timbers are fine. For taller beds, 2 x 12 lumber is a better choice.

Whether it’s for practical reasons or purely aesthetic, a raised bed can be a great addition to your garden.
The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

If neighborhood cats or other critters are digging in your flower beds, try this neat tip from reader Nancy Jones:

“I have tried something I read about to help keep the neighbors’ seven cats out of my side flower garden where the soil is loose and rich with peat moss and they love that for their personal bathroom. “I go to an apartment complex near my house and gather up laundry baskets of pine cones and then spread them around in my garden. This seems to work. “I have noticed the fecal matter problem has disappeared since I started doing this. Of course, it will need a little renewal of the pine cones, but they seem to last and last. “I should say that I don’t put them down really thick. I just sort of sprinkle them around the plants. The reason this is supposed to work is because the cats don’t like the feeling on their little paws. I have done this for about ten years and it works for me!”

QUESTION: “My husband & I planted a Bradford pear tree in our front yard when we built our house six years ago. We don’t have a sprinkler system and the yard gets direct sun most of the day. The tree has not grown much in this six year period. Our next door neighbor planted the same type of tree after ours and theirs is huge.

“We planted two autumn maples two years ago and they are not growing either. We are concerned that we did not dig the holes wide enough and that the roots are not spreading as they should. What do you think? If the holes are not wide enough, can we dig around the trees to widen the holes?” – Sheri Brooks

ANSWER: Maples are slow growing trees, so don’t count on a lot of activity (at least noticeable activity) with them for awhile. Regarding the Bradford Pear, if it is producing any growth at all, then what you are seeing may be the plant’s natural growth rate. Is the tree beginning to bloom in early spring, followed by normal leafing out? If it is, then it has settled into a slower growing phase.

All factors would be based on the environment, which will include maintenance, unless you have noticed any health issues with the tree. Although it is difficult not to make comparisons with your neighbor’s tree, plants are living things just like people and will grow and develop at their own rate. I wouldn’t recommend digging around the tree’s root system as you suggest because you are likely to cut off growth that the tree has made over the past 6 years.

If you believe that there is a problem with the plant, you can contact your local Conservation District Office (also known as NRCS) which will be listed in your local phone directory under your state’s department of agriculture.

QUESTION: “I have an amateur greenhouse and want to start some seeds. Every time I have started seeds in the past they come up spindly and I still don’t know what I need to do to correct this.

”I have panoramic light, air circulation and regulated heat, as well as good humidity. All my plants I winter in the greenhouse thrive in these conditions. Thanks for any info!” – Bonnie Meador

ANSWER: When seeds are allowed to sprout and grow too fast they become spindly. Once the seeds have sprouted they need to be “tempered” by placing them into a less desirable environment. In your case you could try cutting back on the water and reduce the humidity by taking the extra hothouse-type screen off the top. The environment in the rest of the greenhouse works for your developed plants but is not good for your new sprouts once they come up. It just sounds as if you are babying them too much after they emerge. Just cut back some on the water and nutrients until they begin to fatten up.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org

One of the delights of owning a nursery, as Cheryl and I do, is the continual discovery of new plants or plants we never before knew existed.

Just when we think we must have seen it all, botanists and horticulturists surprise us with new varieties that still make us say, “Wow!” after all these years.

Often, these new varieties are developed under a cloak of secrecy with as high a regard for security as, say, an automobile company designing and testing a new car. It might surprise you to know that botanists submit their new varieties to the U.S. Patent Office, along with lengthy descriptions and illustrations of their “inventions.” Highly precise detail is required in order to demonstrate that the plant in question really is a new variety, developed by the horticulturists who are submitting it.

If you would like to see what a plant patent submission looks like, you can find one for a peach tree named Corinthian Rose at http://www.freepatentsonline.com/PP11564.html You can click on a direct link when you find this column at my Web site, www.landsteward.org

The Corinthian Rose (Prunus persica Corinthian Rose to be precise) really is a spectacular flowering tree judging from the pictures I’ve seen. We have planted some already and we are looking forward to watching them develop, as we do with all of our new “discoveries.”

If you’re looking to start a peach orchard, this isn’t the tree for you. Corinthian Rose bears little or no fruit. This new cultivar is intended for ornamental use in the home landscape.

One of its most distinct characteristics is its narrowly columnar growth habit. The tree will reach a height of 20 to 30 feet at maturity with a spread of only 10 to 15 feet.

So why is “rose” part of its name?

Around May and June, it bursts forth with double pink rose-colored blooms, giving the appearance of an unusually large and impressive rose bush, rather than an ornamental peach tree. When the blooms are gone, Corinthian Rose can still be enjoyed for its distinctive dark purple leaves.

I think this would be the ideal tree to enhance a patio area for any sunny spot in the garden that could become a focal point of its surrounding landscape. It has a vigorous growth pattern, reaching 14 to 16 feet in about four years. You would need to follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season in order to establish a deep and extensive root system. Before new growth begins in spring, feed it with a general purpose fertilizer.

You can find more information and where to buy Corinthian Rose peach trees by going to Google and simply typing in the words Corinthian Rose.

Horticulturists develop new varieties to create plants that are beautiful and esthetically pleasing to the eye. However, they will also develop cultivars for more practical reasons.

Take, for example, Wintercreeper. It is an attractive family of plants but some varieties are known for their spreading characteristics.

As a result, a relatively new variety was developed that has a much-reduced spread pattern. Known as Emerald Gaiety Wintercreeper or Euonymus Emerald Gaiety, this variety is a versatile and undemanding shrub that does fine in full sun or fairly deep shade and even in quite dry soil.

Emerald Gaiety has green and cream variegated foliage that turns to pinkish red in winter. It can reach 4 to 5 feet in height and a width of about 3 feet with a dense, erect branching habit that makes it a good choice for a hedge or screen.

Of course there are times when a spreading or climbing plant is exactly what you need. For example, Emerald Gaiety’s smaller cousin, Purple Wintercreeper, is an ideal choice if you’re looking for a low-growing groundcover for a hard-to-mow slope with the added benefit that it can help to control soil erosion.

New varieties can please the senses and serve practical purposes. There’s always something new to grow in the garden!
The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org