News Article for August 18, 2008:
Since the introduction of shrub roses into the consumer horticulture markets roses are showing up everywhere. They are much easier to care for and less intimidating to the average gardener.
Many of you are familiar with the Knock Out shrub roses. Gardeners want a low maintenance rose and purchased 6.3 million Knock Out roses last year. Now that is a lot of roses!
August is the time of year of to perform a little rose maintenance to enhance your fall production. You will want to complete any pruning task by September so blooms will return by fall.
Pruning at this time of year should be much lighter than your February pruning. The objective now is to stimulate blooming, reduce disease pressure, remove some old growth and improve the overall vigor of the plant. Pruning can be used to shape the plant and control size.
If you have not been dead heading or removing the dead flowers, it is important to do that now. This will help the roses to put on more blooms since the flower is the reproductive mechanism for the plant. If the plant has produced lots of seed, via the flowers, then it will stop producing flowers, however if no flowers are maturing then the plant continues to try to reproduce by putting on more flowers.
Shrub style roses such as Knock Out and Homerun can be lightly pruned now. If they have been in the garden long enough to need some height reduction, limit your pruning to no more than one-third at this time.
Large roses can be cut back to 24 -30 inch canes. Be sure to use sharp pruning shears and make cuts just above outward-facing dormant buds.
In addition to pruning, rework your beds. Remove weeds and add new mulch if needed. You can apply a light application of fertilizer but do so before September 1st to avoid winter damage.
Since we have been having those frequent thundershowers you should be on a good preventative fungicide spray program to prevent black spot.
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Peach and plum trees are known for having holes in the trunk with sap flowing from them. This is common but not desirable. It usually means that the trees are infested with peach tree borers and the result is a jelly like material on the base of the tree.
Peach tree borers are controlled with a spray of Thiodan or Phaser (endosulfan) between August 2 and September 1. Best results are obtained the closer to September 1st you apply.
Spray the trunk of the tree from the crotch (where the main limbs start) down to the soil line. Drench the tree and allow the spray to puddle at the base of the tree.
For more information on these or related topics contact Kenny at 225-686-3020