Pruning, Pruning, Pruning.

4-26-08 SHORT HILLS: We finally had a bit of rain last night, and I turned the sprinklers off. All the trees are showing leaves and flowers, and grass is growing in random clumps, probably in responce to canine contributions.

As the season moves along, the need for more pruning becomes evident. On junipers, for example, in March they look fine, by late April new growth has started on most branches, but on those branches that were broken or died during the winter, the green fades to brown, and you know what to snip off. With deciduous shrubs and trees, they are bare limbed in winter and cover up in April. The dead branches, without new leaves, become obvious. Yesterday I took down two large dead rhododendrons and most of a dead viburnum. I pruned junipers and cut down wisteria by the front doors that refused to bloom.

The day before I fertilized everything for the second application.

New blooms: apple, redbud, Carolina allspice, yellow viola that I forgot to mention a few days ago.


Snowball Viburnum-very perfumed aroma.