HORT Shorts
- If you haven’t pruned your vines and fruit trees, you’ll want to do this right away. Muscadine grapes should have been pruned in December, but January is not too late.
- Fruit and nut trees should be planted before the end of February. Good home orchard fruits include blueberries, Muscadine and bunch grapes, plums, strawberries, blackberries, figs, Japanese persimmons, dwarf apples and peaches.
- Nut trees make good lawn trees and provide good eating. Pecan trees are the most popular in the South, but Chinese chestnuts and black walnuts also do well and are gaining in popularity.
- Now’s the time to apply dormant sprays on apples, peaches, bunch grapes and berries. You will find a selection of sprays at garden nurseries and supply houses. Follow their advice, or contact your local county Cooperative Extension office.
- It is best to prune flowering vines right after they have bloomed so developing flower buds will not be removed later.
- ?Spring-flowering quince needs special treatment – very little pruning, except thinning. If pruned severely, there’s the chance that next season’s bloom count will be severely reduced in number.
- To produce well-shaped plants, young camellias may need some pruning before they begin blooming. Older plants are pruned to remove dead or diseased branches and to limit plant size—especially foundation plants. Prune after blooming but before new growth begins. Some pruning can be done when cutting blossoms for indoor use.
- Never shear a camellia. Remove individual branches at a point within the plant.
- Dwarf azaleas benefit from a light pruning which results in better shaped plants and more showy blooms.