Pruning Roses

Late Winter / Early Spring Pruning

In late winter or early spring, when new growth begins to emerge, it is time to hard prune your roses. The first step in pruning any type of rose is to remove any dead, damaged, diseased, or weak and thin canes, cutting them off flush with the bud union at the base of the rose.

Next, remove any canes that are growing into the middle of the bush or are crossing one another. Always prune to an out-ward facing bud so that canes do not grow into the center of the plant. The ideal angle when making a cut is 45-degrees, slanted parallel to the direction of the bud growth.

Cut remaining canes back to 12-18 inches in height.

 

Crepe Myrtles

When it comes to pruning crepe myrtles, it would be better to leave them alone than to prune them improperly. We've all seen over-pruning - people chop back crepe myrtles to the knuckles each and every year.

When a crepe myrtle is pruned back too far it has two effects:

 

1. Reduces the number of blooms that will be produced during summer.
2. New branches will grow far too long and therefore not be able to support the weight of heavy blooms - particularly when wet. These long branches weep over and often break off during heavy rains.

When a crepe myrtle is pruned properly:

 

1. It will produce twice the number of branches and therefore twice the number blooms as it did during the previous year.
2. The new branches will be strong enough to support blooms.

The Time To Prune Crepe Myrtles

Wrong-season pruning would mean November and December. Don't let "peer pressure" by neighbors and commercial gardening crews get to you. If you trim the crapes in the last two months of the year, and we get a warming trend in January or February, the trees might actually start putting on new growth. That new growth will be highly susceptible to freezing weather should it come on the heals of a warm spell. New growth will also tend to draw the cold right into the plant, causing needless damage to a tree that should be resting in dormancy.

So, the best time to trim crepes in is late winter or early spring - just prior to new growth emerging. For years, we've suggested this as a great time to trim them, because at that time we're also trimming back our roses and many other plants and trees.

Spring Cleanup

Welcome to Macgyver Spring Cleanup page. Offerd here are the services in detail for Spring cleanups.

1. Blow Raking: Flower beds are blown out of any left over leaves from last fall. Light yard debris (if any) will be cleaned up including small sticks and branches, accorns off trees that have fallen. All items will be bagged and curbed for local trash pickup. (restrictions: A "per bag" charge may apply if excessive leaves are still left over from previous fall.)

2. Edging: All areas of your lawn's edges to curbs, driveways, or walkways will be trimmed to give a neat look.

3. Vacuum mow entire lawn to collect any left over leaves from previous fall. (restrictions apply listed in blow raking above)

4. Trim hedges if needed

5. Cleanout gutters

6. Prune Crepe Myrtles, bundle trimmings for local trash pickup.

7. Prune Roses

8. Blow surfaces clear

The spring cleanup charges will vary due to yard sizes and amount of work you may have for us to do on your property.

 

Gardeners!

March 2010 is the time to have your garden plowed and rows made by Macgyver Services for your spring vegetable gardens. Use the bottom of our website's home page and fill out your request information today!