Spring has sprung?

Spring is finally making an appearance and we will all be spending more time in our yards. This is a great time to review your landscape structures, trees and shrubs to evaluate them for condition after the winter.

Look up at your trees, you can see much more of the branching before the leaves develop. Broken, hanging, or dead limbs should be fairly evident. To identify dead limbs look for bark of a different texture/ colour, fine twigs missing or the bark may be falling off.

Hazards need to be dealt with first. Broken, hanging or dead limbs need to be pruned off for safety. Proper pruning cuts will allow the sealing over of wounds by the tree if the wounds are not too large. Wound dressing or paints provide no advantage except perhaps for appearance. It has been proven that many wound treatments available on the market do more harm than good. Fresh wounds will darken with weathering in fairly short order anyway. Nothing will stop some wounds from weeping but they will eventually dry up and stop. The weeping of sap is not harmful to the tree.

Structural problems can be addressed at this time too. Poorly formed crotches, multiple stems, rubbing limbs or limbs growing through the center area of the tree are all issues that should be corrected to reduce future problems. Training of young trees at this time can pay huge dividends later. With a good start and early training a tree will have fewer problems later in its life. Problems left untreated can set a tree up for failure during wind or ice events; good branch structure and distribution on the tree helps prevent this sort of thing from happening. Often this training takes only a few minutes as opposed to hours and many more dollars some years later,

 to correct a situation.

If you have questions about the health or condition of your trees please contact us. We can supply trained people to evaluate your situation and make recommendations. There may be a fee for this consultation work depending on the scope of your needs. We will be glad to provide a free estimate for our services, including pruning, tree removal, deep root fertilizing or other treatments.

Get a jump on spring

It won’t be long before gardeners are getting back to their gardens. Early spring is a favorite time to prune many trees and shrubs. If you are one of these people take a few minutes to consider the following old but worthwhile practice not often done any more.

Many spring flowering trees and shrubs can be forced into bloom relatively easily and will provide a splash of colour for inside your home. For those of you who winter prune, bring some branches in where it is warm. This will trick the buds into “thinking” it is spring, which will result in some attractive spring colouring as flowers pop out. Check the flower buds to see if they have been damaged by the cold before you force them (they may appear desiccated or shriveled, they should be full and plump). This year has been very cold for an extended period so some damage is to be expected. If you can’t tell which are good and which are not, try it out, you have nothing but a bit of time to lose. If all you get are leaves, when you force your branches, then the flower buds were winter damaged.

Some forced branches will produce roots if left long enough and this can be a way to increase your plant supply (Pussy Willow and Forsythia come to mind).

If you want to keep your pussy willow stems for longer don’t keep them in water, let the catkins (the grey fuzzy buds) develop and then dry them before they go to flower (when the catkins produce yellow pollen), they can last for years.

Many spring flowering plants can be forced to bring a bit of spring into the house. Forcing 2 or 3 varieties or species with differing flower colours will provide an attractive mixed display. Branches can be forced for catkins, leaves or flowers. Instructions and some ideas for suitable plants can be found at the following link

www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/forcing-branches.aspx