Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 02/14/2011 02:23 PM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 02/20/2011 08:46 AM
Expires: 01/01/2016 12:00 AM
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"Gardening Can Be Fun!"~ by Sue's Custom Gardens
Hello, my name is Sue Funkey and I am the owner of Sue’s Custom Gardens, a landscape business and Sue’s Garden Service a Garden Maintenance business. I’ve been around for coming on 9 years so many of you know me. This is my new column for ThePineTree.net so if you have any comments, suggestions or need any help feel free to contact me.....Well, it’s the first of the season, you’re looking outdoors sort of wondering what to do. There’s a ton of things your garden is looking for. In most cases my references are from Murphy’s to Copper, Valley Springs and including Tuolumne county. Higher up the hill from Murphy’s, some of my ideas may not be the greatest as the weather is so much different. .....
As you know, January/February is pruning season (below 2500’). It time to make those roses and fruit trees amazing and remember, cutting radically is not an issue. First to help you out with how to trim, make your hand into a tulip shape, now just do it while your reading this. Make sure your hand is open and you can see the center of it. This may not seem important but when you do this, you will know just how to prune your roses and fruit trees. Ok, so now let’s prune your roses. The first thing to look at is what is dead, simple, take it out. Don’t worry about how far you cut just take it out.
Second, look at anything in the center? Take it out also. Sunshine cannot penetrate though leaves so this will give the sun an opportunity to get into the center. Third, take out any crosses. If you have one branch that is crossing another, remove it or cut it back so it doesn’t cross. Also remember if you have any canes that are coming out of the bottom and are not the actual rose stock remove them as they can just take the water from the beautiful rose you have. Think you’re done, nope. Now cut the exterior back. Weather you cut it back with a straight cut or a slanted cut doesn’t matter what does matter is that you do not cut the node. (the node is the next place that a branch or leaf will come out of). Make sure you cut right above it. You’re almost finished. Now take the leaves off of the entire rose. If you had new ones this year and you are now just pruning, that’s ok, they will come back! I promise.
Now is the time to fertilize. You may like the Bayer rose food, or my favorite rose food is hamster food. Yes, I mean go to the local feed store (we have a lot of them in the county) and buy some alfalfa pellets. You can buy them by the sack at 50lbs but you will have it forever, unless you have a hamster or other animal to feed as well as your roses. For small roses, put ½ cup around them, larger roses a full cup. Now water it in. Why alfalfa pellets? Its pure nitrogen and they love it. They will grow like you won’t believe. If you don’t believe me, go buy a handful and try it on one plant, you’ll be really surprised.
Now onto your fruit trees. Remember that tulip shaped hand? Well the same applies to fruit trees too. You may want to look up your specific type of tree, as they grow differently. A peach tree, for example, puts fruit out on last years wood, and other trees put out on this years wood. So.. they’re are tons of sites to help you. So check it out. But again, to prune it, you want it to look like a tulip. Young trees, you can cut back gently and older trees more radically. Remember, cut the dead wood out, then the crosses, then the whips that came out last spring. (Whips are the really long branches that grew after the fruit was off, easy to recognize), now shape your tree into a tulip. Easy, now you’re done. Remember to fertilize these trees too, but find a good fertilizer at your Nursery, Garden Center or hardware store.
If this helped but you still have questions, please feel free to email me at tacktoday@gmail.com or call me at 209.890.6013, my cell. I will always get back you right away!
Happy pruning!
Sue Funkey
Sue's Custom Gardens
209 736 2216
209 890 6013 cell
C27 899727
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