Q. Please advise me on how to trim roses properly. Also if you have any other suggestions regarding growing roses. Yes, these roses are growing in southern Nevada A. That’s a whole treatise in itself. The basics of rose growing are the following. Fertilize in January with a good rose fertilizer or flower fertilizer plus iron.   Follow it up with fertilizer applications about every 8 weeks, avoiding the hot summer months. Use compost applied to the soil around roses and make sure it is watered in well. Use wood mulch around roses to a depth of three to four inches. Water as you would any other nondesert shrub. Enough water should be applied each time to wet the soil to a depth of 18 inches. Use at least two emitters if using drip irrigation. Remove old roses from the bushes as the flowers are spent. Prune roses in late January after the worst of the winter is over. Here are some great roses to plant in our hot desert climate from Weeks Roses. Open publication – Free publishing – More care

 Volunteers planting garlic We planted garlic at the Orchard about two weeks ago. It should be in the ground and irrigated by mid-November. Garlic is planted in the late fall when the soil is still warm but the air temperature is dropping. The concept of late fall planting is to produce roots but keep the top growth from getting away from  you. Just as a side note, we are always looking for volunteers out there. The Orchard has a “learn-by-doing” philosophy.  The soil was prepared for garlic with compost and a good starter fertilizer high phosphorus. Rocks larger than a golf ball are being removed from the planting beds. Since garlic is a root crop, we must have good drainage. The soil is being prepared to a depth of 18 to 24 inches to accommodate for these root crops. Other planting beds are being prepared to a depth of 12 inches. Garlic plots at the orchard mulched with straw The garlic commonly found in the grocery stores is a mild form that accommodates for the taste of the general public. However, if you like to experiment with food, the garlic palette is huge. But planting garlic from selections at the store will give you some hands-on experience if you have never grown garlic before. You can produce a lot of garlic in a very small area and it is relatively easy to grow. They can also be produced in containers. Pick up some garlic bulbs from your local grocer and separate it into cloves. You can leave the papery outer covering still attached to the clove when planting. Next year you can order some from online vendors but for now, just get the experience of working with garlic.  One of our specialty garlics pushed for size As I’ve mentioned before, the hardest part about growing garlic is the soil preparation. You cannot skimp on this part of the growing procedures. I like to soak the cloves for a few hours before planting if the cloves look a little dehydrated. The bottom, flat plate of the clove should be pointing down when planting. This means the pointy end is up. Space the cloves about 4 inches apart and about 2 inches deep. Firm the soil above the cloves but do not compress it with your feet. In fact, never put your feet on the prepared rows. Mulch the soil with straw or shredded paper to help keep it moist. I like to give garlic a small amount of high nitrogen fertilizer once a month during its growing season and hold off on it the last two months before harvest (April and May). Make sure they don’t go dry between irrigations when the bulbs are expanding (when you see new growth in the spring). You should be harvesting late May or June depending on the variety. When the plant browns about 1/3 of its height then use a spading fork and lift them from the ground.

Sapsucker damage on almond (Neplus) not borers and not my neighbor’s drill Q. I have a nine year old semi-dwarf green gage plum tree in my yard. About a month ago I noticed about 20 small holes grouped together on one of the limbs. Each hole is a little less than 1/4 ” in diameter. I can see no other holes on the tree. It is as if someone had taken a drill and drilled several small holes on the limb, and deep enough to get through the bark and slightly into the flesh of the tree. Any idea what may be causing this? This has never happened before. I did dormant spray the tree in early January. Do I need to spray the tree with insecticide? A. This is most likely sapsucker damage to the tree. Sapsuckers are birds in the woodpecker family of birds that make holes in trees and feed on the sap or look for insects. I believe they are migratory here and cause damage as they pass through this part of the country. There’s the varmint! Who, me?  If I am seeing the image in my mind correctly this is not due to insects or borers. This is what the damage looks like. The best control is to protect the trunk or limbs with wire cloth or chicken wire. We have trees that get damaged in the orchard by these birds and they have survived this way many years as long as they are healthy. It is definitely not good for the trees but there are not many other alternatives They seem to like some varieties of fruit trees more than others.

Q. I recently moved into a home in Henderson and I have a large back yard with about seven pine trees lining the property.  The trees are spaced approximately 8 feet apart.  I am contemplating planting fruit trees between the pines and once they reach maturity I would remove the pine trees.  What do you think about this approach? Tree growth of young tree due to shade A. Fruit trees will need about 8 hours of full sun to produce a goodly amount of fruit. If the trees are limited in light by the pine trees then the amount of fruit produced is affected. If you can provide near optimum light for the trees by leaving the pines then it should be fine. If the pines are too large and too close together then the fruit trees will not do well in these locations.             If light is restricted during part of the day they will tend to grow (lean) toward the light. If most of the light is from above and shaded by trees early and later in the day then they will tend to grow upright with narrower branch angles and be less productive.             If most of the light is coming from the east, they will grow (lean) toward the east. If light is from the west then they will grow toward the west. How light is received early in their lives determines the branch angles and the tree’s overall architecture. It is always best to give them as much free light, evenly, throughout the day as possible. In other words, I would not do it.