When You Should Prune

• The best time to prune is during the plant's dormant season, generally in the winter.
• The exceptions are ornamental trees and shrubs grown especially for their spring flowers. Most of these should be pruned just after they bloom in the spring so the flowering buds are not removed.
• Evergreen plants can be pruned any time of year, but the best time is late winter or late summer just before seasonal new growth begins.
• Evergreen plants susceptible to frost damage should be pruned after there is any danger of frost.
• Tip: when you purchase a plant, ask us the best time to prune it.
• Dead, injured, or diseased limbs should be pruned immediately.

Technique

Pruning techniques vary, depending on what you are pruning and why you are pruning. We will cover the specifics in other articles. But here are some universals:

• The sharper the tool, the better. Using dull or rusty tools can harm the plant rather than help it.
• When pruning dormant plants, dormant spraying should be done immediately after pruning. If you feel lazy and decide to wait for a few days, you may find that new growth has begun to emerge. Your dormant spray will damage that tender new growth, setting your plant back and possibly resulting in deformed growth.
• When removing diseased limbs, get them away from the plant immediately and do not use the leaves for mulch, as that could spread the disease.

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We frequently hear "I can't grow pansies." Here are some tips to get at the "root of the problem."

First of all, it may not be your fault. Pansies often succumb to a fungal disease called rhizectonia, which thrives in wet soil.

Tips:

1. Don't bury them too deeply - plant with the root ball slightly above soil level.
2. Be careful not to overwater.
3. Don't prop up floppy plants with soil!
4. Plant violas, they're a little stronger.
5. Plant them in pots, with a good potting soil.
6. Grow the pansies in a different area of your yard for 2 years (to give the disease time to disappear from the usual spot).

Almost all lawns will react to the cooler weather in the fall months by entering a period of dormancy. We believe the most important lawn feeding of the year should take place in the fall to "winterize" your lawn and the product we recommend is Scotts Super Winterizer. But what exactly is winterizing, and why is it important to the lawn? Well — winterizing has several benefits.

First, it strengthens grass roots for winter. During the fall, grass is actually storing nutrients for the cold weather that is approaching. This is typical of most perennials — and most turfgrasses are perennials. When plants like grass are storing energy, the single most important nutrient at that time is phosphorus. Its key role is in the storage and transfer of energy within the plant and root growth — and that is what grass is doing in the late fall. Phosphorus also promotes strong roots and helps grass become more tolerant of diseases, heat, cold and drought.

A Super Winterizer application also has the appropriate amount of nitrogren for the season. Nitrogen is the key ingredient in keeping grass green and lawn grasses use more of it than any other nutrient. Insufficient nitrogen also makes a lawn more prone to disease problems. Finally, Super Winterizer has a healthy dose of potassium, which helps to protect the lawn during winter, as it promotes tolerance to cold weather and foot traffic, which can severely damage a lawn during extremely cold weather.

For those of you with fescue lawns, it is particularly important to make sure that your lawn is fed and green going into the cold months, because if a fescue lawn is allowed to turn yellow in the winter, it will not respond to fertilizer and turn green again until it warms up in spring. So make the neighbors green with envy and winterize your lawn today!

Steve was born in Bakersfield, raised in Los Gatos. In 2nd grade he broke his Catholic school's strict dress code by not wearing a belt, and was promptly banished to playing hopscotch with the girls. When he moved in 3rd grade, the same nun moved to his new school also to keep an eye on him. Ever the one with women, he eventually charmed the ruthless nun into liking him and he became her teacher's pet.

His closest brush with fame was having his picture taken with Willie Mays in Pony League.

Not ones to shy away from an adventure, Steve and his high school buddies snuck into the high school Ag-science department at night to ride the giant pig and were promptly thrown into the fence.

Steve has been in the nursery and landscape industry for the past 14 years, having previously managed another garden center in San Jose. He has been a part of our family for the past 5 years.

Steve loves to play golf, go fishing and camping. He once got a hole in one while playing golf, which he followed up by landing the "big" one on the banks of the Klamath River. (Neither episode has ever been documented.) Steve has lived with his best friend Jeanne for the past three years.