The First Cut is....permanent

Pruning plants can be intimidating, yet many of our shrubs, trees and flowering perennials are very forgiving. But I’ll start with the advice I learned very early from a gardening mentor:
“Think twice, cut once”.
(This is akin to the amateur carpenter’s motto: "Measure twice, cut once. Measure once, curse twice.")

So let’s think about why to cut, aka, prune a plant. Pruning is done for health, safety, and beauty. Health of the plant, safety of the people and homes nearby, and the beauty of the plant. (By the way, I use the term ‘pruning’ to talk about selective cuts of individual branches/limbs etc. I use ‘shearing’ to describe an overall haircut, taking a few inches off the whole top or sides of foliage, as in shearing a hedge.)
Pruning decisions about health and safety are mostly objective, driven by plant culture requirements, the need to protect the plant from pests, and (for safety) the need to protect your vehicles and home and self from injury.
Beauty is always subjective. If I want my Forsythia to look like it’s sprouted a couple dozen rooster tails, and you want yours to look like a glowing compact yellow ball, that is just fine.
Why would you prune for health? You might prune to open up interior air circulation, as with boxwoods and shrub roses. Or to remove a dead or diseased limb, to keep problems from spreading to the rest of the plant. Or to keep limbs from crossing, rubbing on each other and creating a wound.
Safety mainly refers to the pruning of shrubs and trees, rather than flowers: removing limbs that are in the path of a walkway or that may rub against the gutters of a house.
As for shrubs, I have pruned my quince for shape and size, pruned my crape myrtle to remove damaged limbs and twigs, and in the case of a cherished but small dogwood, to remove limbs that keep hitting me in the head when I bend over to weed, or push the lawn mower. Last summer I thinned my Forsythia by about a third, removing some of the oldest stems, for rejuvenation.

On to flowers. Annuals typically don’t require much pruning so let's talk about perennial flowers.
In the late winter or early spring (February, March here), I cut back the old leaves of perennials/ornamental grasses (e.g., monkey grasses, prairie grasses like miscanthus and pennisetums), as well as the previous year’s leaves of hellebores. If I kept roses, I would prune climbing roses now as well. In summer another helpful cut for perennials is “deadheading” which is snipping off the fading blooms (of roses, coneflowers, phlox, catmint, verbena, daisies, etc). This keeps them from going to seed, and therefore, producing more flower blooms.
A little more info at:
http://www.hortmag.com/weekly-tips/cultivation/all-about-deadheading-flowers
Then I cut back the fading leaves of many perennials in the late autumn to tidy up the garden.

Simple pruning rules for shrubs -
Think twice, cut once.
Never remove more than 1/3 of a shrub when pruning. It can cause the plant a shock, since plants rely on their leaves for nutrition, photosynthesis, and respiration.
If you’re unsure, never prune anything harshly from July to December (in middle Tennessee)
For shrubs that flower once a year (Forsythia, snowball, quince) prune shrubs immediately after flowering. Some shrubs are repeat bloomers, like butterfly bush (Buddleia) and some Spireas; you can prune or shear them lightly after their first bloom, and they will come back with another round of blooms.
Use a decent quality sharp tool. Use the right size tool; if you are struggling to cut a thick stem with your hand pruners, move up to the next size tool, loppers. If a limb or branch is too thick for the loppers, use a pruning saw. You can keep your blades sharp by using a bastard file or diamond file, or take them to a hardware store for sharpening.

NOW:
Prune Crape Myrtles now up through about Easter. Prune Forsythia after the blooms are gone. Cut back winter beaten Helleborus (Lenten Rose) leaves.
Shrubs which can you prune almost any time of year: Privet hedge, yews, hollies, Euonymous, red tip Photinia. But again, use some discretion. If it’s 95 degrees and you cut a plant in half….it may not survive.

It's the first day of Spring, get out there, and think twice.

Rain Gardens ...get educated!

Davidson County Master Gardeners and the Cumberland River Compact are conducting a Rain Barrel & Rain Garden Workshop on Saturday March 10, 2012 9:00 a.m. - 12 N

Rain Gardens are gardens that kill several birds with one stone. Great metaphor: does anybody have an alternative phrase that doesn't talk about beating down birds? Send it my way.
So, Rain Gardens are simply an arrangement of plants that can 1) control or ease flooding in your yard/parking area/ neighborhood, 2) help reduce water pollution in local water systems by providing layers of filtration and 3) make a lovely garden to look at and provide bird habitat.

Rain barrels are of course just the smallest of any cachement to save some of the free water from above and store it until you want it a little later.

Saturday March 10, 2012 9:00 a.m. – 12 Noon
Saturday April 28, 2012 9:00 a.m. – 12 Noon
Where: The Demonstration Garden at the UT Regional Office at the Ellington Agricultural Center 5201 Marchant Drive Nashville, TN 37211
Cost: $60 per household, cash or check only and payable upon arrival the day of the workshop. (This includes you taking home a finished rain barrel.)
Registration: Pre-register for the Rain Barrel & Rain Garden Workshop by calling (615) 834-7143 to confirm your choice of workshop dates as well as number of attendees.



http://dcmg-demogarden.blogspot.com/2012/02/seeds-for-sale.html

http://www.cumberlandrivercompact.org/

http://www.12000raingardens.org/index.phtml (interesting project in one town)

Crocus

About 3 years ago we planted several dozen crocus in our lawn. These have been starting to show up for about a week now. Not particularly early, as our yard warms up slowly.
Crocus are pretty easy way to get early spring color...plant the bulbs in the fall (a typical bulb-planting rule is to plant the bulb at a depth that's the same as 3x the width of the bulb). Just plant them and walk away.
Easy: they multiply, they return year after year, the squirrels don't seem to eat them. But the deer will nibble on the flowers.
One of the easiest gardening projects there is!

A Mild Winter Day

...was perfect for exploring Bell’s Bend Park for the first time last weekend. There are several miles of walking trails along this mostly flat meadowland near the river. The subtle rich colors of the meadow, and the hills in the distance made a comforting Tennessee scene.

But winter offers more challenge to the identification of favorite wildlfowers; with less vibrant color and fewer leaves, I had to focus on height, location, shapes of dried seed heads.


Pictured: Broom Sedge, Milkweed,Queen Annes' Lace, Ironweed, Goldenrod.

Visit the 808 acres of Bell’s Bend Outdoor Center (a Davidson County metropolitan park) by taking Briley Parkway off White Bridge Road, north to Exit 12, Ashland City Hiway west-ish, left on Old Hickory Boulevard. No crowds, fantastic visitor’s center, good programs led by the staff
naturalists.
LINKS
http://www.nashville.gov/parks/nature/bbnc/index.asp
http://www.beamanpark.org/

More Fall Beauty

This Aster is on a woodsy hillside in southern Davidson County.
I think this is the Late Purple Aster (Aster patens).

The pink and white Aster is ‘Prince Calico’ (Aster lateriflorus) and grows in my garden in a partly sunny spot. I like to pinch it back, like a mum, to get some side shoots and let it bunch up.





And…a tulip poplar seed and leaf (Liriodendron tulipifera). Tulip poplar is a fast grower, and a tall one.








Fall leaf color is complicated..but is essentially brought to us by a lack of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll production slows down as nighttime lengthens..and the underlying carotenoids and anthocyanins are revealed. Leaf tissue is tender and could not survive freezing weather, as can the bark, twigs and stems. The veins leading into the leaves close off gradually in autumn and eventually the leaf is no longer connected to the twig.
Here’s a simple tutorial on fall leaf color and leaf drop, from the Forest Service:
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/pubs/leaves/leaves.shtm

Falling Leaves

"the leaves believe/such letting go is love.../"

The poem by Lucille Clifton affirms how I feel about Autumn. While I love the mystery and surprise of early Spring, fall makes me feel restful and hopeful at once. The hours of daylight always seem slanted, urging me to value my day, either for work or for leisure.


























Read the full poem at :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124113507

Blog on Vacation

Summer has been so busy...and so I'm throwing in some photos from my travels...plants from around the country:

Fossilized sequoia in Florissant Fossil Beds, near Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Fall Color (coming soon!) along the Cumberland River in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Meadow at the base of the FlatIrons, front range, Colorado