Our deadheading poo-poo'd,
much pruning to do
What's Up summary of this week's news
Janet Macunovich and Steven Nikkila help you grow
Issue #186, July 27, 2012*
*(Click here if you
expected
to find a different
issue...)
Green thumbs up and down
This week our nod and "No!" go to:
Up to telling others what you're doing and why.
Maybe they listen, maybe they don't. You can call it teaching or
just admit you talk to yourself as you garden -- in every case it
will help you grow. We share with you a classic
but unexpected example. 
Down to oiling your plants. They're hot enough
as it is. What, you say you don't oil your plants? Maybe you do.
Maybe a neighbor does. Find out!
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Tip cuttings
Pruning tops the charts in our email and Forum questions.
To cut boldly
It's what we do and help others do -- from the extreme "Holey
moley" cuts to the more modest modifications often reviewed as,
"Have you clipped that yet?" This article is a jumping-off point to help you
build pruning confidence. Features pines and yews illustrating
the basics and will expand with real-time coverage of other
landscape standard plants and situations as we complete our summer
pruning hit list.
Come cut with us
How to join us to learn with your hands, and
why you should not miss the August 8 session.
Timelines for trimming
Lists, dates and examples for
determining a best time of year for the plant and the effect you
want. Includes a summary of options for out of control plants, from
cut-all-at-once to gradual makeovers.
Restoring character to a pinched mugo pine
Certainly you can simply pinch the "candles" on a pine, but if
you don't like the dumpling form that develops, here's how to reshape the
plant. Reassurance through photos of an 18 month
transformation.
Porky pyramidal yews
If your vision was for crisp cones but the plants have
not cooperated, here's how to bring them back into focus and
then keep them in line. Viewers please be prepared for shocking
cuts... and accept our lifesaver links to hold-the-line and gradual
reclamation techniques.
Wondering if now is the time to cut your (your plant's name
here)? Want to see what we're planning to prune? Here's an
illustrated, evolving line-up.
No matter what it is it can be kept small with five steps that
settle into a two-step dance. This article lists and illustrates
the steps, first with simple diagrams and then with photographs of
bringing that all-too-common overgrown yew hedge into line.
Topiary: Yew can be more than a
meatball!
It's shaped unnaturally and you object -- not to the artifice
but to the shape. How to create your own fanciful form.
Confidence comes with experience, so take some of ours --
please! Here's what a hard-cut yew or arb will look like during,
immediately after your work, and 12 months later.
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