Missed Opportunities

 Seems there’s always an excuse for not pruning when you’re supposed to – it’s too cold, it’s too windy, it’s not time (when you’re in the mood and the weather’s perfect), or it’s past time and you missed it. So far this year, I’ve missed pruning the crape myrtles and the monster Rose-of-Sharon.

I’ve learned my lesson though. Where I work, I can watch the groundskeepers and if I do as they do, I should be all right. So far this year they have pruned roses and crape myrtles and added a ton of mulch to various beds. What have I done? Not a thing. Too cold, you know.

May is right around the corner and the things I have on the list I compiled years ago are azaleas if they’re through blooming and forsythia. I personally don’t care if I harm the forsythia and it really needs a good haircut. It has gotten way too big for its britches.

            Most everything I read says to prune forsythia before it blooms, but there you go, back out in the cold. Working with the shrub’s bare-naked branches, you would be able to prune it into a pleasing shape before spring.

If your forsythia looks like mine, however, it’s way out of control. So what I’ll have to do now that it has finished its show for this year is plan for next year. The oldest stems, which are probably the tallest, should be cut all the way to the ground. This may call for a saw instead of pruners, but stick with it and get rid of them. Next, look at the stems that are dipping close to the ground; cut those things before they take root in the soil and start to create a new forsythia forest.

As with any shrub or fruit tree, cut out any stems that are perversely growing in odd directions like crossing other stems or through the middle and out the other side. Remember to shape your plant like a vase – overall up and out.

You know the general rule of thumb when you’re pruning and this is not to remove more than one-third of the plant at one time. However, forsythia is like nandina – I don’t think you can kill it. I’m going to cut quite a bit of the height away, hoping that next year it will thicken up and provide a good screen to the property next door. I will not, however, compromise forsythia’s one endearing quality – its wild free form. No sculptured shapes in my yard.

Do your nandinas look like they’ve been hit with a blow torch? The winter was especially hard on them this time. The branches are mostly bare and what leaves are left are brown with none of the characteristic red tinge. I’ve checked nandinas in other yards and feel better about mine, not that I like them at all, you understand. Just don’t want to have to dig ‘em up.

My rosemary suffered terribly from the cold this year. I’m going to have to trim it way back, trying to preserve as much green as possible. On the other hand, the Russian sage I’ve had in a pot on the back steps for over a decade is full of new green. Sometimes you just never know what’s going to make it and what’s not.