July Garden Tips

ALSTROEMERIA (left):
These beautiful plants flower off and on throughout the year. They are generally not blooming in the hottest months and the foliage can get sparse. But don't think they are dead or they are not going to come back. These plants are drought resistant meaning if you stop watering them they will generally live. But the foliage will die back but the roots and tuber of the plant will stay alive and come back when watering. This plant will bloom on an off most of the year with sufficient water and fertilizer. Garden View Crews will often use this plant in annual flower beds and supplement it with annual flowers

COLEUS (right) is a valued plant for light shade. Its colorful leaf is as prized as the flowers on many annuals. It is necessary to cut the flowers off regularly or the plant looses shape and can become unattractive. The pinching also keeps the plant compact.

WISTERIAS (left):
On established plants, this is the time of the first of three annual prunings. A good schedule for these three prunings is June, August and December. Cut any and all unwanted new growth to three buds above last years resting point. The point where the current years growth began and last years ended can be located by noticing the change in the stem/bark color. This pruning should be done to encourage flower bud development and to contain the size of the plant.

CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANTS (right):
Be very cautious irrigating most of our native plants during the summer. Most are adapted to a wet winters and dry summer moisture cycle. Too frequent irrigations now (especially in soils with a clay content) will most likely cause problems.

AZALEAS:
Keep azaleas well irrigated now that the weather is warming up. Azaleas are shallow rooted and will dry dically through the warm months but you can keep it compact and increase the quality of blooms in the future by pruning now.out quickly. Avoid cultivating or allowing other plants to grow in competition with the roots.

COLEONEMA - BREATH OF HEAVEN (left):
Trim after its main blooming season: Spring and early summer. It still will bloom spora

SALVIA LEUCANTHA (right):
This plant has abundant blooms for a long season. Prune sparingly now to limit plant size and renew flower stems. Limit watering now to enough to keep it alive, it may be able to survive nicely on watering only once every two weeks. Remove blossoms as soon as they fade.

Many of us waste a lot of water through run off, especially on slopes. When watering on a slope if we put a lot of water down at once the water will run down to the bottom of the slope. The lower slope will be getting a lot of water through percolation and the top of the slope much less. When this has happened the plants at the bottom of the slope are probably being over watered and plants on top are getting under watered. Also a lot of water may have simply run off to the street, driveway or what ever is at the bottom of the slope.

We can reduce this problem by dividing watering times into cycles with shorter run times. For instance instead of watering for 10 minutes, water in cycles for three minutes. Set your controller to repeat cycles to be finished within a few hours.

There are additional benefits to this. You will develop deeper root systems allowing greater water and nutrient storage capacity for the plants resulting in watering less often and better slope stabilization due to the larger root systems.

Our own Doug Gordon Blackwood who has scores of Horti-Groupies (Horticultural Groupies) at our nursery scored in the top 20 in the United States at the Professional Land Care Network Student Career Days 2010. Maintenance, Cost Estimating and Annual/Perennial Plant ID competition.