Spring Cleaning in Your Landscape

Theresa Badurek
Urban Horticulture Extension Agent

Timing
Spring is here, and that means it’s time to prune many plants. There are a variety of reasons to prune, but the most important thing is to do it right. Part of that is having good timing. Pruning should be a regular part of your landscape maintenance and should not be put off until the landscape is overgrown. Overgrown plants may grow tall and leggy with little foliage near the ground. Once you wait this long they cannot be pruned to the desired size in a single pruning without severely damaging the plants. These plants will need to be pruned back gradually over a period of several years. So, keeping up with maintenance pruning is step number one.

Cold Damage
You can now prune those woody plants that were damaged by our few nights of freezing or near freezing temperatures. You will want to watch for new leaves sprouting along the branches and prune back to this point. Take care to maintain the natural shape of the plant; when correct pruning is done it should not be noticeable that you did it. You may find that some of your more cold sensitive plants will need to be pruned back to the ground. It will take them a bit longer to recover, but be patient.

Flowering Shrubs and Trees
Once azaleas, poinsettias, and camellias finish flowering they should be pruned. Pruning encourages new growth and produces a more compact, bushier plant. There is still time to prune out dead growth and crossing limbs on crape myrtles, but try not to remove the new sprouts since the flowers will be forming on this year’s new growth. Contrary to what you may have heard, pruning is not necessary for crape myrtles to flower. Simply prune them lightly to maintain a natural form. If necessary, heavy pruning of hibiscus is best done now as well. The new growth should produce flowers in about five to six weeks. Light maintenance pruning may be done any time of year to keep plants at desired heights.

Fruit Trees
One should always remove suckers below the bud or graft union on citrus, avocados, mangos, or any other grafted plant. These shoots will grow fast and rob much needed nutrients and water from the desirable upper portion of the plant and will not produce the desired flowers or fruit.

Palms
Only dead fronds should be removed from palms. Palms put on an average of one new frond per month during the growing season, although this varies greatly from one species to the next. The reason for mass removal of healthy green fronds is because it is more convenient for the pruner to remove everything and not have to prune the tree again for 6 to 12 months. It is not healthy for the palm. Constant leaf area removal results in damage and decline and eventual death of the palm from weakening. Do not let anyone talk you into removing more than the dead fronds or you may be contributing to the death of your palm. The “hurricane cut” you hear about for palms will actually make the palm more vulnerable to damage in the event of a hurricane or wind storm.

For More Information
Consult the University of Florida/IFAS Extension publication, Pruning Landscape Trees and Shrubs on the Internet at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG087 for additional detailed pruning information, including techniques, illustrations, and time of year for pruning all kinds of trees and landscape shrubs.

Timely Tips for March – Part 1

By Andy Wilson, Pinellas County Extension Horticulturist

This winter has brought us many warmer than average days as well as one night of below freezing temperatures that damaged some kinds of plants. March marks the end of the danger of any plant-damaging cold and many plants will be producing lots of new growth now. Here are some lawn and garden tips for March.

Cold Damaged Plants- Cold damaged woody plants can be pruned now. New growth may be already emerging, making it easier to determine where the wood is alive, if there is any wood that was killed by the cold that needs to be removed.

Pruning Hibiscus- Even if they were not seriously damaged by cold this winter, now is a good time to prune hibiscus if needed. New growth can be expected to come out quickly after pruning. Use sharp tools of the proper size for the size of the branches you need to remove. Hand pruners are used for branches less than ¼” diameter and pruning saws are used for larger branches. More information on proper pruning methods can be found here: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG087

Cannas- Cannas are easy to grow in Florida. Prized for their large, showy flowers borne at the ends of the stems, they are also valuable in the landscape for their bold green, maroon or variegated leaves. To keep the plants growing vigorously it is helpful to lift the thickened rhizomes from the soil, prune away the older, depleted parts and replant them. This can be done now. Cannas should be fertilized about once a month. More information on growing cannas can be found here: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG030

Leaf Drop- Over the next several weeks many broadleaved evergreen trees and shrubs will drop varying amounts of old leaves. Usually the leaves will discolor to some extent before dropping. This kind of leaf drop is common on Southern magnolia, hollies and many others. This is a natural process, and doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with the plant.

Oak Leaf Blister- Soon after the new leaves of laurel oaks and water oaks appear this spring you may see puckered spots in the leaf tissue. Some of the affected leaves may drop. This usually is an indication of oak leaf blister, a common fungal disease of oaks. Although spraying beginning when the new growth begins to emerge can be used with varying degrees of success to control the disease, it is usually not worth the trouble and expense to do this. The disease is strictly cosmetic and does not threaten the real health of the tree. Live oaks, with their more leathery leaves, have little problem with oak leaf blister.

Mangos- Continue spraying mangos with a copper fungicide once a week until all the fruit has set, then continue spraying once a month. This will help to control anthracnose, a very common disease that can attack the flowers, small fruits and new leaves.

Stay tuned until tomorrow for more tips on aphids, bananas and palms, plus other timely gardening information.