May 15, 2008 -- Carol Stocker gardening chat
Carol_Stocker: Greetings Gardeners! I am Boston Globe garden writer Carol Stocker and I will be chatting with you for the next hour and trying to answer you gardening questions.
Carol_Stocker: Garden Event of the Week:Best Plant Sale of the month!
Carol_Stocker: Society Row Plant Sale, Sunday, May 18, at Elm Bank Horticultural Center, 900 Washington St., Wellesley, MA,10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Carol_Stocker: These are the members of many plant societies, including the Herb Society and the Daylily Society and the Rhododendron Society who are often selling plants from their own backyards that are unavailable elsewhere. And they really know their stuff and can answer your questions. Best of all...There's a flower show of Rhododendrons in the old Mansion House, which has not been open to the general public. But it was gussied up by a film crew and used to shoot a movie this spring with Matthew McConaughy and Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas. Get a preview of the decore by touring the first floor rhododendron displays. And some of the rare varieties on view will even be for sale!
9-u9b-__Guest_: carol are lilacs easy to move ? They are 8-10' tall
Carol_Stocker: I've moved lilacs successfully, but when they are large like that it is not an easy job. the good news is that if you cut the top way back, it will usually grow back. Since spring is whizzing by, you could do it as soon as your lilacs finish blooming, but September would be a better time. Be sure to water transplanted shrubs weekly the first year after you move them.
absent_minded__Guest_: is my memory fading or my garden or has the weather slowed down my plants from growing and blooming?
Carol_Stocker: There's a saying that a watched pot never boils. We are always impatient for our plants to grow and flower,but they seem to be on schedule to me this year, and even a few days early.
farmer_brown__Guest_: i have an onamental plum tree red leaves and beautiful pink blossoms about 3 years old outgrowing its location. i't about 12' tall but the trunk is only 2" in diiameter.how far from the trunk should i dig to move this beauty.
Carol_Stocker: Rootballs are very heavy so you may save your back by hiring someone else, with heavy equipment, to do it for you. If you want to do it yourself, try to have a helper and plant to slide the rootball on a tarp or a dolly, not lift it because even a modest size tree rootball will weigh a couple of hundred pounds. The roots extend two or three times as far as the drip line of the branches. So if the branches extend five feet from the trunk, the roots extend ten feet. That's much to heavy to move, so you'll have to sever the more distant roots. What I would do is root prune by taking a sharp shovel and using it like an ax to sever the tree's roots three feet from the trunk all the way around. Then keep it well watered through the summer and move it in September after it has had time to recover from the shock of losing much of its roots. Don't pull it out by the trunk. Lift from underneath with shovels and garden forks and pry bar to pry it out. For more info, see my answer to u9 above.
green_thunb__Guest_: i have plants that i don't know the name of but this happend to a few different plants anyway. They seem to mushroom and forma bowl in the middle any idea what's happening?
Carol_Stocker: They are overcrowded, so the stems and flowers are moving to the edges of the crown of the plant where there is fresh soil and nutrients while the middle dies out. The results is like a plant doughnut. The solution is to stick a garden fork under this doughnut from several different sides until you have pried it from the soil. Then pry or cut or hack or pull the roots into separate pieces and replant the pieces (preferably in soil refreshed with compost) six inches apart so they have room to grow for years before they become overcrowded again. Plant the piece of root at the same depth it was previously growing, not too deep. Plant roots like to be just under the surface in general. You will find you may have more new plants than you have room for, so give the extras away! This is one way to make new gardeners out of your neighbors.
j_crockett__Guest_: last year i used round up to kill some poison ivory can i plant day lillies there now?
Carol_Stocker: Yes, if you managed to kill all the poison ivy successfully! You don't want to be handling soil full of poison ivy roots. So look closely for tiny red leaves which are just sprouting now. Poison ivy is hard to kill with Round Up and sometimes requires repeat applications. It is most effective now, while the Poison Ivy leaves are small and red. It works less well on the older green leaves.
softball101__Guest_: Last week, you discussed treatments for woolly adelgid on hemlocks. You said you preferred the root injections over the spraying. Could you please explain why? I have estimates for getting this work done--$500 for spraying vs. $2500 for the root injections. It is recommended that the spraying be done at least three times ($500 each): now, in the fall, and again next spring. I'm not sure if the root injections need to be repeated. Do the root injections remain in the tree longer, giving protection over a longer span of time? Is the spray likely to wash off in a rainstorm? Is it too late in the year for either treatment?
Carol_Stocker: I prefer the root injections because they do last longer, a couple of years vs. a few months, and they are more effective. But $2500 sounds like a lot of money. I would get a couple of other estimates. Perhaps you have a hedge with a lot of small hemlocks? If your hemlocks are small and you have a lot of them, you might use the spray instead. I would favor the root injections for a few tall trees, in part because it is hard to get total coverage with spray when trees are tall. I don't think you need to do both methods.
Saramiah__Guest_: My forsythia has just stopped blooming. Can I move it now or should I wait until September?
Carol_Stocker: You can move it now or you can wait until September. Forsythia are very tough so it is hard to make a mistake with them.
JMS__Guest_: My apple tree is in bloom, wjha t can I spray it with to help me get it to produce fruit that is organic
Carol_Stocker: Organic apples are a huge challenge. I did it once and it required repeated sprayings, each perfectly timed, and it cost a fortune. So now I don't spray and I squeeze the deformed apples for cider or use them in cooking. Of all the fruit trees, apples have accumulated the most diseases because they have been grown here the longest. I also grow chinese pear trees organically and find that relatively easy because they don't have many natural enemies here since they have not been grown for long here. One thing ou can spray with that is organic is dormant oil sprays when the apple tree leaves are "the size of a mouse's ear."
Jeff_2__Guest_: Hi. We'd like to plant an apple tree in the backyard - West Roxbury - partial sun. It's mostly for looks and shade and separating property from the neighbors. Any suggestions?
Carol_Stocker: Why not plant a flowering crab apple? They are better bloomers and can produce apples for wildlife and preserves. But be sure to get a disease resistant variety such as Donald Wyman, Professor Sprenger, Adams, Indian Summer, Snowdrift or Harvest Gold. Regular apple trees with disease resistance include Liberty and Jonamac, Empire.
coops__Guest_: I have a Tree Peony and some 'regular' peonies which are grown together at the base (found that way when I moved in) Is it safe to separate them? beneficial? since the tree peony should be partly shaded, I thnk
Carol_Stocker: Hmm. The tree peony is a shrub while the regular peonies are herbacious perennials. Tree peonies are slow growing. I think I would leave them all alone for fear or damaging the tree peony, which is much rarer, if you start digging around its roots.
Carol_Stocker: That's all we have time for this week. I'll be back on line at 1 p.m. a couple of weeks from today and I'll answer more questions then. Meanwhile, you can order my book which tells you what to do in the New England garden each week of the year from globestore.com. It's called the Boston Globe New England Gardening Almanac.