Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Prune Larger Shade Trees to Save Water and Be a Good Neighbor

Leave a Comment / African sumac, fruit trees, how to prune, pruning large limb, removing large limbs /

 Q. I have a 20-year-old African sumac nearly 30 feet tall which provides great shade in my backyard. It needs another pruning when it cools off. I did a major cutback last fall at the request of my neighbor because of leaf drop. Any suggestions on how best to do so and keep the shade and cooler temperatures it provides? Drop crotching an African Sumac that is too tall will save water. A. Two things you need to know if you are doing this yourself; drop crotching and how to do a 1-2-3 pruning cut. Stand away from the tree so that you can see all of it. Identify the limbs giving you the problems. Trace the limbs back to a lower crotch. A crotch is where at least two limbs come together. This is where the pruning cuts and lowering will be done. In a 1-2-3 cut the first cut is made 12 inches from the tree trunk and upward to prevent a large limb from pulling the bark from the trunk Make a 1-2-3 Pruning Cut During cooler weather remove the limbs that are offensive. Use a 1-2-3 cut to avoid stripping the bark from the tree. A 1-2-3 cut is done first by making an undercut six inches from a limb to about 1/3 of its diameter. The second cut is made outside of the first cut. Attached bark may strip down to the undercut, or first cut, so the falling limb will not tear the remaining limb and tree trunk. This is why the undercut is made first. A third cut is used to finally remove the remaining stub. It is a finished cut. The third cut is the smallest cut made that removes most of the stub remaining so the cut heals faster. If you have never done it, for safety reasons and a better-looking tree, hire a certified Arborist to make these pruning cuts so that it will make the tree smaller and keep it beautiful. Part of your payment is for decisions that result in a prettier tree than you could have done.

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When and How to Prune Lantana and Oleander?

4 Comments / how to prune, Pruning lantana, pruning oleander, when to prune /

Q. How and when should we prune our lantana and oleanders? This is a Lantana I saw pruned by a local company. Leaving this much wood remaining will make it very “twiggy” at the base. You can actually prune it much closer to the ground in this. You can see from this close-up that I took last February that suckering can occur much lower on the stems of Lantana. Don’t be afraid to cut it close to the ground. Leave about 1 inch for suckering. A. Both of these plants are pruned during the winter months since they both produce flowers on new growth during the summer months. After pruning, apply a high nitrogen and high phosphorus fertilizer to push new leaf and stem growth and dark green color. The phosphorus will help to promote flowering. Flowering will not occur until the top growth is large enough and comes into balance with the existing root size. This is sometimes referred to as the root to shoot ratio.  I would delay pruning them until late winter (late January) unless you don’t mind looking at “dead” space (the space is not occupied by anything). For lantana it normally freezes during winter months and you have a choice whether to leave the dead top of the plant in place or cut it down to the ground, leaving one inch of stems remaining to support the new growth beginning in February. You can prune oleander close to the ground, just like Lantana. Cut it back to within 2 to 3 inches of the soil surface. This is the time of year to do it up until about the end of January when it begins to push new growth all by itself.             Because the roots are fully grown, alive and healthy you will see very rapid growth in the spring. Fertilize the pruned plant in late January or early February to encourage new growth and flowers. Use a fertilizer that supports flowering plants such as a rose fertilizer blend or other fertilizer for flowering plants. You can see from this picture that new growth is beginning to sucker from the base just like Lantana. Apply a fertilizer near the base of the plant close to a source of water. Use the same fertilizer as the Lantana. A rose type fertilizer is fine. Oleander will regrow very quickly when cut back close to the ground, fertilized and watered. This was one month after pruning. Nitrogen in the fertilizer will push leaf and stem growth along with dark green color. Phosphorus in the fertilizer will push flower growth and flower size.             Oleander is pruned at the same time of year as lantana because it also blooms on new growth, not older growth. You can chose to remove 1/3 of the plant by cutting these largest stems to the ground for renewed growth at the base or you can cut the entire plant to the ground and let it regrow. Your choice. Either way you will see luxurious growth and lots of flowers next year. Again use a fertilizer that supports flower growth and apply it early in the spring. This is an example of a fertilizer that will push leaf and stem growth and dark green color. You would apply this immediately after pruning and water it in. A 10 pound bag sells locally for $7.95 This is an example of a fertilizer that it increases the number of flowers and their size. It should be applied about 4 to 6 weeks later. A 10 pound bag also sells for $7.95 .

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What’s Wrong with My Pampas Grass?

Leave a Comment / Center is dying out, how to prune, when to fertilize /

Q. My question is about our pampas grass which is now about six or seven years old. In the beginning the plumes were white, but now are brownish yellow. In fact, they look dirty. I notice too most of the plumes are coming on only half of the plant.  Pampas grass flowering A. Pampas grass is native to the grasslands and plains of South America. It has evolved with fire which is a clue about how to manage it. In the wild, range fires every few years keep these things burned to the ground and renewed naturally.             By the way, the standard size pampas grass is very large and should not be used in landscapes that do not have the room to support its growth. There are dwarf forms of this plant that would be more suitable and in a variety of colors. They are a pain in the neck to prune and some people burn them to the ground every three or four years where burning is permitted. If burning is not permitted, they may be cut to the ground and hauled off. This avoids the problems surrounding fire. Burning or pruning helps renew the plant and keeps its growth more evenly balanced.  When pampas grass first blooms, the plumes may be an assortment of colors depending on the type of pampas grass. After a short time the flowers may begin to turn an off shade of the same color. Pampas grass continually puts on new growth from short rhizomes on the periphery of the plant. As it does this, the center may stop being very productive. In some cases parts of the plant may die as they get older, larger and overgrown.  Giving the plant adequate water, fertilizer in early spring and pruning it properly should help quite a bit in maintaining good growth and color.

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Reviving Crepe Myrtle After Neglect

Leave a Comment / crape myrtle, crepe myrtle, how to fertilize, how to prune /

Crepe myrtle with annual fertilizer applications Q. I inherited an established crepe or crape myrtle tree when we moved into a bank-owned vacant home two years ago.  The landscaping was pretty distressed.  I replaced the rock mulch with bark and the drip system seems to be working fine.  The tips of the leaves are dry and brittle and it blooms very little. A. You are probably going to have to give this crepe myrtle a jumpstart. It is good you put down a wood mulch with this type of tree. I hope this is wood and not bark mulch.             Since it is summer now you want it to push some new growth so you can see the tree’s strengths. Fertilizer is okay to apply now to trees and shrubs.             Use a normal tree and shrub fertilizer and apply it a foot or two away from the trunk and close to its source or sources of water. Water it in with a hose.             Construct a moat or a doughnut around the trunk of the tree at least 4 feet in diameter and 4 inches tall. This is nothing more than an irrigation basin to hold water. Fill this basin with water from a hose once a week for the next four weeks. Let your irrigation system run normally during this time. Crepe myrtle trunk and bark             Let irrigations push the fertilizer into the root area of the soil over the next couple of weeks. At the same time, add an iron chelate along with the fertilizer. The best iron chelate is iron EDDHA. You can find it in most nurseries now.             When the weather cools off in the fall, around September, spray the foliage with Miracle Gro fertilizer used for the promotion of flowering. Try using a hose end fertilizer applicator so you can get it to spray that high.             If you can’t spray that high, apply it to the soil and water it in.             Next spring start pruning out the deadwood in the canopy. Don’t climb in the tree, but rather I would use a ladder. This is time-consuming because you will be cutting a lot of tiny branches along with some larger ones. Basically you are thinning out the canopy and getting rid of branches on top of each other or crossing each other.             I question if your tree is getting enough water. If it is a sizeable tree it will require 30 or more gallons during each watering. You will have to look at your irrigation emitters and the time on your irrigation valve to figure this out.

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Bamboo Damaged Just After Winter

Leave a Comment / fertilizer, how to prune, how to recover, winter cold, winter damage /

Q. Do you have any advice on what I can do to green up these bamboo planted in rock mulch? Give them iron perhaps? Bamboo from reader just after winter cold. A. I hesitated a bit because I was not sure which bamboo this was so I am guessing it is golden bamboo, a runner. The new leaves will come in this spring and cover most of the damaged ones. Otherwise you are left to removing the leaves by hand if it is unsightly. Come back? Fertilizer and water. An option is to cut them back and let them regrow with new shoots. The running bamboo grows from rhizomes or runners underground. Clumping bamboo grow like an iris and the clump just keeps getting larger. These can handle pruning but I would not top them. I would selectively cut out stems at the ground level where you don’t want them. Hope this helps.

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How to Prune My Blackberries?

1 Comment / canes, desert, how to prune, varieties, vines /

Q. Last summer I planted one blackberry bush in my little garden plot.  I got about 10 blackberries and they were delicious.  The problem I have is how to prune it.   These are pictures the reader submitted. I hope he is not training it like a vine, or, if he is, he will be replacing the vine each season with the new growth. The second year growth dies in the second year and must be replaced by the first years growth. Some blackberries will grow like vines while others are erect or somewhat erect and need little to no support. If this is blackberry it is the “trailing” type that is normally draped over trellis wires to keep it off the ground. After it produces it is cut to the ground and the new trailing growth is used for producing berries the next year. A. Blackberries can be a bit confusing at first. You are managing two stages of growth with blackberries; the canes that emerged from the ground and grew last year (two year old canes) and the canes that will emerge this year (one year old canes).             Fruit this year is produced on canes that grew last year (two year old canes). Canes that grow this year (one year old canes) produce fruit next year.             When canes produce fruit, they must then be removed or pruned to the ground. The easiest way to do it is to remove them soon after you pick the fruit.             If you wait too long to prune it can sometimes be difficult to see which canes to prune out and which ones to leave for next year.             In our climate, vigorous blackberries seldom reach the heights they can get in milder climates. However, if you have a vigorous blackberry that will get quite tall then cut the tips off of the canes when they reach about four feet in height. This helps to make them stiffer and more capable of carrying a fruit load.             Some blackberries grow along the ground and others grow more erect. If the one year old canes grow along the ground then you will have to wrap them around some trellis wires. If they are fairly erect in growth you may not need to. A bit of a disclaimer. Blackberries do not do that well in our hot desert climate with our highly alkaline soils and salts. We have followed the advice of some work done in Yuma by the University of Arizona and grew both Rosborough and Womack varieties in Las Vegas which are erect forms. Even under good growing conditions they seldom get above 5 1/2 ft tall. However, Brazos did not do well for us. Others that have not performed well in the valley include Arapahoe,  Navaho,  Cherokee, Apache,  and Kiowa. Some people have reported success with some cultivars but upon checking these plants are only one to two years old and they frequently fail after that. You will need at least five years of success, as we do at the Orchard, to call it a “success” or plant it as a biennial.

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Not Too Late to Trim and Fertilize Lantana

Leave a Comment / camara, desert, how to prune, lantana, Las Vegas, Mohave Desert, Mojave Desert, montevideo, nevada, pruning, when to prune /

We generally grow two types of lantana in the landscapes in southern Nevada; the purple one and the one that is multi-colored, usually with some yellow and rose or pink flowers. Both are handled about the same way in watering, pruning and fertilizing. Multi-colored lantana (L. camara) but at this point only showing just yellow flowers but can change to orange or pink later. The flowers can vary in color.   This is the purple species (L. montevidensis) sometimes called trailing lantana or weeping lantana. It was collected and propagated for sale near Montevideo, Uruguay, hence the Latin name. Come take a tour of Montevideo and see where L. montevidensis came from Both of these plants came out of South America, around Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay area where it does not freeze where it is a widespread native. Not truly a ‘desert’ plant but tolerates dry or semiarid environments near the coastline. It is now widely planted all over the tropics and subtropical parts of the world where it does not freeze back in the winter. It showed some promise in the desert and arid parts of the southern US and now is quite common. Some people would say now it is over planted but it still gives a nice show of color in the summer with little care. It will freeze back here and rebound in the spring. Pruning or Cutting the Back. The purple lantana is common now and I get alot of questions about how far back you can trim them. Take a close look at this picture. I took it a short time back when I first saw green coming from a winter pruned shrub.They can get kind of lanky and loose some eye appeal as well as die back in our colder climate so many people cut them back in the winter. It is always a good idea to wait until the coldest part of the winter has past before you cut them back or the may freeze back further. Lantana pruned back. This is fine.   See how the new growth is coming from the “joints” or “nobs” on the stems? These are nodes where buds or stems were located. They are places that contain the potential for new growth. Cut them back leaving a couple of these or more between your cut and the ground. Then they will have these spots to generate some new growth for this season. Fertilizer. Just before the really start pushing some new growth (late January or even into Februray), fertilize them. Liquid fertilizers like Miracle Gro or Peters do a great job as long as you apply enough water when the plant is growing. Less expensive fertilizers will work as well but just make sure you use one that is used for flowers or tomatoes or other flowering plants. You can apply the fertilizer dissolved or diluted in water in a plastic bucket and pour it slowly around the plants or you can apply it dry just under the drip emitters. One application is normally enough until next year. Never apply it after about August or you could affect how much winter dieback you get. It normally does not need any iron added but doesn’t hurt either. Hmmm…. none say to use on Lantana! What do I do now? You like the flowers. Promote the flowers. Use a fertilizer that promotes flowers. So you can use tomato fertilizer or rose fertilizer as a substitute. What’s wrong with this lantana? Just TLC; water, soil improvement and fertilizer. AND it was planted too close to the curb. It should be back in about three feet. It’s growing toward the south where there is more light and probably the one emitter it has.

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