Even though this rose is not that old it probably should be replace and planted further from the house Q. Tried to find list of roses which will do well in Southern Nevada and unable to do so.  Also, what would be the lifespan of  a rosebush (HT or Floribunda) in Southern Nevada.   We have some which are 30 plus years old.  Thanks for your help. A. I just published some information on my blog this week on this subject and gave you a link to get the most recent recommendations from Weeks Roses. Please go there. Follow the link to Weeks Roses and their publications. Download their adobe acrobat (pdf) file on Recommended Varieties for Hot Dry Climates. This is an excellent publication. http://www.weeksroses.com/resources.htm             The life a rose depends on who is growing it. Rosarians (gardeners who belong to the American Rose Society or its affiliates such as the Las Vegas Valley Rose Society or the South Valley Rose Society). Rosarians may keep roses for a couple of years and pull them if they don’t like it or they may keep one that is their favorite for decades.             On the other hand, homeowners may keep roses as long as they are vigorous and may keep them for 8 to 10 years and replace them. I am not a Rosarian so I generally tell people that ten years is long enough. They will get fairly woody and start developing problems with age as we all do.             Besides, unless you have a real favorite it is nice to see a change after a few years. As far as their life expectancy, it could be decades but usually homeowners keep them far longer than they should.

Readers blood orange Q. My blood orange tree is looking healthy but my oranges are splitting as evidenced by the attached photo.  What if anything can I do to stop this?  A. To begin with we have to mention a couple facts about citrus in general and Pigmented (Blood) Oranges in particular . . !. Citrus set fruits right after blooming and the small fruits grow to a certain size and stay at that size all summer before beginning their ‘sizing’ phase in September  . . . All summer the small fruits have to hang on the branches exposed to the sun, wind, low humidity and heat potentially causing the rind on the more exposed fuits to get sun scalded . . .Then during the sizing phase the sun scalded areas of the rind have lost much of the suppleness and elasticity to expand and they often split . .. One early symptom can be the area that is sun scalded will color up earlier. . . (As can be seen by the yellowing around the split.) Of all the oranges, the Pigmented are notorious for having the least densely foliaged canopy; and of the Pigmented Oranges the Moro variety is the most notorious for sporting the least dense canopy . . That said the fruits during the summer may be more vulnerable to sun scald simply from the fewer leaves . . .With maturity the tree gets fuller and fuller and the sun scald drops off appreciable . . . So, this is sunscald from earlier in the summer expressing itself during the sizing phase . . . Now I know some will want to lay a guilt trip on you about poor watering or poor fertilizing or something else but that is rarely the case . . And with your description of the tree looking healthy that probably isn’t the case at all and just the sunscald showing up . . If, however you are into self blame and want to feel bad then: ‘It’s all your fault.” . .Just kidding . It will happen once in a while and the best thing you can do is keep the tree as healthy and well foliaged as possible to help shade and  thus mitigating the potential for sun scald . . . Terry Mikel

Garlic Polish White at the Orchard Garlic is easy to grow in southern Nevada. Both hardneck and softneck (the braiding types) will grow here. It is not difficult but you must have soil that is well prepared with plenty of compost and fertilized with a phosphorus fertilizer to a depth of 12 inches prior to planting. Some very good varieties to try include Polish White, Tuscan, Morado Gigante, Susanville, Red Janice, Kettle River Giant, Chesnok Red. I have never had a garlic failure with any variety. If you just want to try your luck the first year, buy some from the store (some people tell you not to because of disease but most gardeners do anyway) and plant them in a large container. The garlic will grow from the clove and stay frozen in time through the winter and resume growth and bulb up next spring. Separate the cloves from the bulb and keep them in the house overnight. This gives the small damaged area created when separating them heal a short time before planting. It is actually best to wait a week but actually 24 hours is enough. I like to soak the cloves in fresh, cool water for several hours before planting. This should cut off a day or two in the emergence time. Young garlic for grilling Plant them in a row, in a bed equally spaced or container three inches apart (if you want to harvest some early for grilling) or six inches apart if you want to give them enough room to reach their full potential size and dont want garlic for grilling. Garlic for grilling is usually harvested as the garlic is just starting to bulb or swell up underground. This will be like March or early April. Plant them with the pointy end up and about four inches deep, covering them with soil of course. Decide on your irrigation method. I like drip with inline emitters six inches apart. You could use soaker hose I guess or laser tubing but these will plug up and not last long. Acutally I like to use drip tape but I have to order it online from places like dripirrigation.com If planting in a bed, I like the drip tubing 12 inches apart. This way you can plant the entire bed with the cloves the same distance apart and not waste any space. You can plant three inches on either side of the drip tubing. In a container you will have to hand water or use a drip spray emitter probably. Garlic scape I usually sidedress nitrogen once a month during the growing season. (Sidedress just means you sprinkle some high nitrogen fertilizer six inches away from the bulbs and let the irrigation water move it toward the roots. Do not broadcast the fertilizer over the tops of the plants or you could damage them). Here are the basic procedures. Or you can install an inexpensive fertilizer injector that works by venturi system. Once planted and feritlized water them in deeply and mulch with straw or paper mulch. This helps to keep the soil moist and aids in even emergence. I would water about twice a week until you see emergence then you can probably water once a week at the most. Keep the bed free of weeds. Freshly harvested garlic at the Orchard. Morado Gigante. The first thing you can harvest is your garlic for grilling. I will usually stick my fingers down into the soil and feel if the bulb is starting to swell in early March. When it does and if you planted three inches apart, harvest every other one for grilling. If you planted six inches apart then wait for the next thing to harvest…. scapes. Scapes are the flower stalks that emerge from the plant in spring. This growth comes from the center of the growing top of hardneck garlics and will produce a flower. We usually harvest it before the flower opens and the scape has made nearly a complete circle. The last thing you harvest is the bulb itself. Watch the tops of the garlic plants. When the tops have died down about 1/3 (2/3 of the top is still green) lift the garlic plant with a spading fork or irrigate so the soil is very wet and pull the plants out of the ground.

Q. This is a Modesto or Texas ash tree that was planted 7 or 8 years ago in my lawn.  Do you think if I prune it back this winter that it would grow in to be fuller?  if so, how much should i prune off? A. For some reason I could not download your pictures but I have a pretty good idea what ash trees look like. In the early years of ash tree I would let them go and not prune them unless these were branches that were crossing, going down, too close together and the like… problem branches. Otherwise let them go and let it grow into its natural form. Basic limb structure of ash tree in summer and winter. These are not the readers trees but a much older trees. Once you start pruning a shade tree and changing its form it can create future pruning problems for you. If you begin to cut them back it may do what you want, create a fuller tree, but at the expense of faster growth. I hope this helps.

Q. I know you prune fruit trees when they’re dormant, but what about pine trees and other conifers? Mine get a couple of growth spurts a year and I didn’t know if there was a “better” time for pruning. Pine tree candles. A. Normally the decision to prune involves two pieces of information; when does it start growing for the season and if it has flowers or fruit that we value, we would normally prune after it finishes flowering or fruiting.             In the case of pine trees that grow well in the temperate climates (those climates which have distinctive four seasons) we always default to the winter season for major pruning. So the normal time to prune nearly everything is during the winter months.             In the case of pine trees that grow in temperate climates this is also the case. If we were talking about tropical pine trees (not in Las Vegas) then we would time or pruning to its normal season for dormancy which is the dry season.  Pine tree thinning to reduce blowover from high winds and the subsequent loss of branch taper or caliper. This practice can lead to branch breakage which it did (see my other post on this blog). It is best to selectively remove entire branches rather than lateral branches along a major branch.             An exception to this is a technique of pruning pine trees that encourages dwarfing and increased density of the canopy. This is a technique called “candling”. Candling is done when the new growth coming from the ends of the branches is about 4 to 6 inches long. This new growth as it is emerging resembles a candle.             Candling is done with your fingers and simply breaks the new growth as it is emerging in the spring. Usually we break the candle in half, we never cut the candle. Cutting the candle with a pruning shears causes the tips of the needles, which are cut in the process, to turn brown. This is unsightly.             By breaking the candle in half we cause the buds at the base of the candle to grow and instead of getting one branch to continue growing we may get three or four. These three or four new shoots will not grow as long as the single shoot we removed.  Pine tree thinned to reduce “sail” on the canopy resulting several years later in caliper loss in branch and subsequent limb breakage (bottom center).             This new growth remains more compact. Having three or four new shoots instead of a single shoot increases the canopy density. A recent problem has developed in pine tree pruning. This is the idea of “thinning” the pine tree canopy to prevent blowover. In some cases on shallow soils with shallow, frequent irrigations, pine trees might not have enough root structure to support the tree in heavy winds. With gale force winds these trees blowover damaging property.  One recent practice by arborists has been to offer “thinning” of the canopy by removal of branches thus reducing the “sail” effect of the canopy during high winds. This sounds good but you have to be careful WHICH branches are removed in the pruning process. If lateral or side branches are removed along a stem or branch, this might cause a decrease in the strength of this branch due to a future loss of branch “taper” or caliper. This decrease in strength due to a loss of branch taper can lead to breakage and dropping of these weak branches.

 Leaves of citrus cupped and distorted. Q. Please see the attached photos of curly leaves. The one branch is from a citrus tree (lemon vs. tangerine) and the other is my grape.  The citrus has several small, green fruit, looks healthy otherwise.  The grape had many grapes which we have eaten, and doesn’t appear to be problematic, but I just want to be sure.  Are either of these concerning? Are they related?  I looked at your blog, and hate to admit it, but I do not know how to ask a question on that venue.   A. The leaves of your citrus look like they are cupped, twisted and distorted. The kind of distortion helps to identify what the cause might be. In the case of twisted or “stretched” leaves this can be because of damage from herbicides or weed killers that were sprayed a week or more before you saw the damage. This is typical of what we call phenoxy type herbicides. An example of a phenoxy type herbicide is 2,4-D, the dandelion killer commonly used for weed control in lawns. Usually the leaf has to be subjected to some sort of damage and then the leaf GROWS in a distorted fashion so it usually means the damage appears several days or a week or more after the damage occurs. In your case, I dont know but they leaves still look healthy but distorted. I would just continue to monitor it and hopefully the leaves will be distorted just for this year. Grape leaf distorted The plant SHOULD grow out of it and symptoms will probably be gone next year. The fruit is safe to eat next year.

Q. How do I protect my bougainvillea in the winter here in Las Vegas? I’ve read posts that say to water a lot and others that say don’t water at all.  Some say to drape frost cloth or burlap directly over the plant and others say to put stakes in the ground and don’t let the cloth/burlap touch the plant.  Last winter 3 of our 4 plants (small ones) survived, but it took a long time for them to come back.  Right now they are beautifully pink and very healthy.   A. This is a question I get asked frequently so I will post it on my blog very soon. So you are the lucky winner and I will soon post your question and the answer I provide below! Bougainvillea will not tolerate temperatures below freezing without some damage. The degree of damage will depend on how much below freezing the temperature dropped and for how many hours and if there was wind to go along with those low temperatures. In order to answer this I want to explain a few things about winter tender plants and how to manage them in general first before I speak directly about bougainvillea. Winter tender plants should be “hardened off” prior to freezing weather. This is by not fertilizing this plant with nitrogen fertilizers a couple of months prior to freezing temperatures and reducing the frequency of watering. In the Las Vegas valley freezing could be as soon as December 15 and, rarely, even soon than this. So generally speaking do not fertilize ANY cold sensitive, aka winter tender, freeze sensitive, frost sensitive, etc. plants after mid September. Secondly, begin giving these plants less water to improve their winter hardiness.   Those are the textbook answers. Actually holding back on water is very difficult to do with automatic irrigation systems. You SHOULD be cutting back on watering on all your plants in your landscape anyway at that time of year. The easiest thing to do and most realistic is to stop applying fertilizer in late summer. When you fertilize these plants and encourage growth late in the year they could push new succulent growth which will be more easily damaged in freezes. Cover the plant with something if you hear it might freeze that night and remove the covering in the morning a couple hours after the sun comes up. If you use plastic, this plastic must also cover something that releases heat back under the plastic. This can be a warm, south facing wall, the soil beneath the plant, big jugs of water that was warmed during the day, rabbits with their long warmth emitting ears, etc. Do not just wrap the plant in plastic or it will freeze AND it may possibly get even colder inside the plastic than the outside. Blame it on physics. The other problem is wind. Cold and wind together are more damaging than either alone. Try to keep the winter wind from the plant so an enclosed courtyard, patio or other protected area of the yard is a good idea for location for planting. As the plant gets older and larger it will withstand a few extra degrees. Its root system will also be larger and capable of storing more food. When freezing weather kills the top to the ground, the roots and collar region will regenerate the top very quickly. Just give it lots of water (bougainvillea likes deep watering) and fertilizer so it recovers quickly. If temperatures drop to the teens it is possible you could lose the entire plant so make sure the soil is mulched with several inches of wood or rock mulch to insulate the roots and collar as much as possible and give it some extra protection.

Readers tulip bed attacked by probably ground squirrels. Q. I am attaching a photo showing damage to my tulip bed. Yesterday I found three deep very round holes dug about 6” apart at the edge of my raised garden where I have had tulips planted for years. Dirt was kicked out and baby tulip bulbs were scattered.  Not one large bulb was there and no pieces of large bulbs present.  These were very mature bulbs and bloomed well. We have an over abundance of rabbits (near the golf course) and huge “flocks” of quail, but don’t know of other critters here. Do you think rabbits have done this damage?  A. You have an interesting story to tell. To my knowledge, rabbits typically focus on foliage. I have not heard of them digging for tulip bulbs. ground squirrel   We have both jackrabbits and the desert cottontail. The Jackrabbit will stand on its hind legs and eat fruit tree limbs and stems up to nearly an inch in diameter. Damage to fruit trees can extend to nearly 3 feet above ground from jackrabbits. I have never had them go after root crops in the Orchard, only the leafy greens including garlic and onions.   Our biggest pest problems for underground crops have been ground squirrels and gophers. As you know golfers attack from the ground but the ground squirrels can do damage similar to what you have observed.   Jackrabbit My guess would be this is due to ground squirrels. There are only two options for you. You can put screening around these areas or you can use poison bait. If you choose screening you must not use chicken wire as the holes are too large. You must use wire mesh or wire cloth with very small diameter holes. I hope this helps.

Ash whitefly on pomegranate. Q. Because of an overwhelming whitefly infestation in summer, I cut down my eggplant in the heat when it no longer had blossoms. Cut it flat to the ground. Left it to rot so removal would be easier in a week or so. Well, what do you think? It came back like all get out and blossomed in late September and set eggplants. Some whiteflies remained but with the cool nights they are giving up. This is similar to advice about keeping tomatoes until fall and getting a late crop in December.             It never worked for me…until this year. In late summer, I let the tomato plant just be. It was an Early Girl, indeterminate in growth. I figured I would remove it with the eggplant corpse. Well, it started to blossom in late September and is setting tomatoes. Has some whitefly boarders but not too bad. My question is: The success of trying to prolong summer tomato plants for a second crop in fall is dependent on whether or not the tomato growth is determinate or indeterminate? Thanks for all your help. Eggplant Thai Purple grown for evaluation at the UNCE Orchard. Probably 4 on a 5 point scale. A. Those are some great observations that you made in your garden. That was pretty radical to cut the eggplant down to the ground and still have it come back. I realize that was not your intent but I am sure you could see, with an already established root system, how quickly that eggplant grew back to the point where it could begin flowering again. This one advantage of cutting plants back and letting them regrow.             Of course once it started to flower and set fruit the energy was taken away from new growth and focused into reproductive growth thus slowing its vegetative growth. So, ideally if someone were to do something like you did and wanted a fall crop they would cut it back about 30 days before temperatures dropped back into the mid-90’s, probably about the first of August or thereabouts.             Also your thoughts of determinate vs. indeterminate was something I really had not mentioned. Both will work but certainly indeterminate types will give you more growth to work with. Cutting back tomato in midsummer can lead to sunburn of remaining fruit (cream color on the green fruit on the left and cream color on ripening fruit on right) or even sunburn on stems that were previously shaded.             For early flowering and fruit set you usually want determinate types. They typically will set fruit earlier than indeterminate types. The other option of course is to replant in mid-July for a fall harvest. But transplants are hard to come by that time of year so you have to grow them yourself or grow plants from seed directly in the garden which is easy to do that time of year.             A major problem when cutting them back is sunburn. After cutting them back you have a plant with a canopy that is shading the stems. The canopy is cut back and if it is cut back too far, the stems will sunburn. This is why I usually try to have people cut them back to some side branches along the stems so that there is canopy left to shade the stems and help reduce sunburn or shade the plants until new growth begins.             In your case though I could see why you would want to cut them back just to eliminate some pest problems. Remove the food and you remove the pest problem.