Two highly focused rants to get this weekend off right (ha ha)

[stoney321]

But seriously. One political, one gardening, equally passionate about both.

#1: WHY JOHN MCCAIN SHOULD NOT BE OUR PRESIDENT. John McCain financially and morally supported one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted (a list that includes Osama, btw.) What am I talking about? Warren Jeffs, of course. McCain routinely got funds from the plygs of Short Creek (so the gov't would leave them alone.) McCain also VISITED them every so often (to pick up his check) and knew of this group of thousands that flaunted law-breaking and swindling taxpayers for millions. Also, McCain asboth congressman and senator made sure Warren Jeffs had a FEDERALLY FUNDED AIRPORT that no one but Jeffs was allowed to use (and FBI agents believe was being used as a drug smuggling hub. And it's still there, running. Uh...) So, like Mitt Romney, McCain isn't fit to be our President.

(Note that none of the charges against the misappropriation of federal fund have not moved forward since 2006. And they've got Jeffs. Here's info on that airport as of yesterday - sitting there, not being used, taking up federal resources. Trying to keep a clean doorstep? Yeah.)

#2: STOP THE CREPE MURDER. One of the most beautiful trees starts getting killed all over the south about this time of year. Don't be one of the killers! *tears out hair, but only figuratively, because I really like my hair* note to newbies: I'm a Texas Master Gardener, and it's my unpaid JOB to help the public not ruin their landscape/enjoy gardening/understand what the hell to do.

In case you didn't know, topping a tree is bad. It kills the tree. What's tree topping? When you take a saw/blade/great white shark and you whack off the limbs. Here, let me show you:



(this one isn't easy to see, but when it was first pruned, it looked like a Saguaro cactus. Um, that is not a pretty mulberry tree, home owner! A is a massive chainsaw cut and B is the weetiny, thin, weak branches circling in a bird's nest formation around the fat cut. NOT HEALTHY.) And something that made me drop my dog's leash and gasp, covering my mouth, and I am not exaggerating:



ACK!! Double Ack!! Stop it! Why do people do this? Well, I'll tell you. One, if it's a landscaping company, it's because they have nothing else to do right now. No, really. If it's a homeowner, it's because they've been taught wrong. Here's what the poor dears think: these beautiful trees flower on new wood. So, cut off the wood and make it grow new branches, which equals more blooms.

WRONG.

Here's what it really does. When you make a pruning cut (on any plant) a hormone is released that sends the plant into panic. "I've been wounded! I must make new branches, so I can have more leaves, so I can photosynthesize, so I don't DIE." Except they don't say anything, because that would get annoying. So you, have this:




(notice at A. that they clearly don't want the branches hitting the gutter, but they made a cut under the gutter which will lead to MORE BRANCHES IN THE GUTTER, and B. is just an ugly cut they made) which becomes this:





so you cut off those limbs, and then every year, you get lovely (read: hideous) knees on your branches like this:





And then over time, you get this:





Way to go, murderer. You could have had a beautiful flowering tree (that feeds many kinds of birds, looks beautiful, and smells lovely) that looked like this:





Here's a little tip: ALL flowering plants bloom on new growth. And guess where new growth is? ON THE OUTSIDE WHERE YOUR PEEPERS CAN SEE THEM. There's no need to hack at your trees to get them to flower. They'll do that all on their own, because Mother Nature is smart.

Now, there are things to prune on these trees to give them such a lovely look. Only prune the following: suckers growing up from the bottom (see picture) or when a branch is rubbing against another branch - that can lead to open wounds, which leads to disease. But when you cut, cut ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM of the sucker/offending branch. That way, you don't get EIGHT new thin suckers at the point of cutting. See? Very easy.





Poor, poor trees. They live for well over 75 years and get as tall in feet. They're beautiful. The multi-stem bases are architecturally interesting in the landscape. Again: birds love the berries at the tips. Birds eat pests. Stop ruining this cycle! When you continually hack these trees, you'll get MAYBE 10 years out of them. <-- actual study done by aggie-hort at A&M.

Nature has winter for a reason: to rest. Why would you go out there and work in the nasty cold when you don't need to? And note to anyone in the south with ornamental grasses: stop cutting them to the ground in February, as well. If you leave them alone, they'll green up and the dead blades will fall off, like daylilies. People, I'm trying to save you chores. If you don't have to prune, isn't that easier?

Finally, because I want my neighbors humiliation complete (hahaha, these are all from my block, or by my dad's house. For shame, landscapers!) Notice that often times people plant trees without looking up. Here's a tip: don't plant a ginormous oak/maple/etc under POWER LINES. Slide that baby over ten/fifteen feet and go crazy nuts. Otherwise, you've just given yourself a major yearly headache.



*cries* I can't imagine why my dad's neighborhood loses power in big storms all the time. Can't be from limbs landing on power lines, could it?

I'm trying to find a picture I took last year of someone that planted Arborvitae on either side of their door, not realizing that is a 75 ft. tree. They cut a hole into the bush to get in and out of their house. That's a fun weekend project just to be able to use your front door! Ack. (For those of you that envision hobbit like dwellings, those plants were covered EVERY SUMMER by bag worms, spider webs, etc. Just what you want three feet from your entryway, right?


In conclusion, I want to be gardening today. Hurry up, Spring! (And I might print this and stick it in my neighbor's mail boxes...)

Comments

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up about the crepe myrtles. Several neighbors' lawn companies come in every winter and do a number on their trees. Do you mind if I forward this bit to them?

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Don't mind at all! The more people I can help with this, the better, imo. POOR TREES! (Not to mention the home owner's pocket books!)

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I am actually heading outside today to do the winter pruning on the Ispahan damask, which doesn't like post-bloom pruning any better than I like working in the heat, luckily. I need to get that done before it's time to do the legit spring pruning started, since that rightly includes fertilizer and other things inappropriate to February above the 47th parallel.

Have you read Cass Turnbull's books, or been to the Plant Amnesty (http://www.plantamnesty.org/) site? Your photos remind me very much of hers, although you don't have the sad, sad poodle-balled forsythias.

Learning to prune correctly is like mastering a really demanding meditation technique, I think, there are a whole set of variables you have to keep in mind at all times, but the overwhelming discipline is will the result of this cut be beautiful? for values of "beautiful" which include healthy, vigorous, and shaped to the need of the plant.

My worst doorside planting ever was... Aucuba? I think? "Spotted Laurel" anyway, on either side of the kitchen door at the house I rented when I first got married. It's a fast-growing evergreen broadleaf, and holds water like you wouldn't believe. Walking out the door in the morning was always a bit of an adventure, since the combination of a growth spurt and a heavy dew could leave you soaked to the skin. And of course it was the landlord's late wife's favorite plant, so cutting it down was out of the question.

And doesn't John McCain look tired?

Julia, viral campaining suggested by the Ninth Doctor.

[tabaqui]

McCain makes me ill. I mean - seriously ill. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
*flails*

WHY WHY WHY is this stuff not being talked about in the public arena? Why?

[xochitl42.livejournal.com]

Did not know scary Jeffs stuff about McCain. My head hurts like it's been hit by an aneurysm.

Also, I love your gardening posts.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I love plant amnesty! I swear, if I had eaten breakfast before starting this post, there would have been a good twenty more pictures up here.

The thing that kills me about crepe murder (the official term from TAMU, ha!) is that they are so beautiful when left alone! Why work when you don't have to? Bah.

(Oooh, he does. Just worn out. Obama, on the other hand, looks vibrant. *g*)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I DON'T KNOW! I keep trying to foist this topic on everyone... :D

I get tears when I see Obama. (I've met him - he's WONDERFUL.) Let's keep reminding people about McCain sucking, shall we? *g*

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Yeah - something MOST people don't know about McCain! Ack.

Oh, thank you! I am getting itchy to be outside in warm sunshine, little blooms and buds popping up everywhere...

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Forgot to say- your "How is this pretty?" slide reminds me of the old way the flowering cherries at the Washington State Capitol were pruned. My first professor at Evdergreen, whose mother was a professor of landscape architecture at Cornell said they looked as if they has Minimata disease.

Julia, will remember to take "Before" pics of the Ispahan, this time

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Ack, the pollarding! I know that in old, urban settings like parts of London, Italy, etc. they have to do that to keep any sort of tree on the street side, but there's no excuse for it here in our wide open spaces!

Hacking randomly at a flowering cherry should be punishable by law.

[madam-rptr.livejournal.com]

1) I am very grateful to you for enlightening me on part of McCain's backstory. I know very little to nothing about this man (and, admittedly, haven't bothered to learn more as I knew I wouldn't be voting for him).

2) I need someone like you to come live in SoCal if and when I buy my own home then, someday, I can learn to be a California Master Gardener!!!! (As of now, I only know how to grow chemical tasting orange and red bell peppers and two very, very tenuous hydrangea).

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

There's one of my pics kicking around at the PA site that I call "Malus Aforethought" because it's ov a nice little pie cherry tree dying of being pruned as if it were an apple.

Which... we had a hellishing wind/sleet storm the othernight which killed two cows and took out half of the Northern Spy, which hates, hates, hates winter or spring pruning. The watersprout patrol is going to be no fun at all.

Julia, and I have no boys with the muscles and free time to do it, this year.

[copykween.livejournal.com]

Re: the second pic.....What the HELL?? I mean...seriously.

I do have a question though. Several years ago, a bad storm tore off a very large branch of my Cottonless Cottonwood. Now, where the stump of a branch meets the tree, there is a soury smelling wetness seeping out of the tree (it'll dry up when it gets hot, but starts seeping again after every rain). Er...I guess I'm asking: Why is this finally happening several years AFTER the branch tore off, and is it BAD?

[tabaqui]

Gods, yes. That and his freaking insistence that it'll all be just *fiiiiiiiiiine* if we stay in Iraq for a hundred years, and attack Iran, and just try and *take over the fucking world*!!

*sporks*

[drusplace.livejournal.com]

Oh those trees are so pretty. Why would anyone hack them up? MURDERERS!

I can't wait to get into my garden, although I have to wait until the end of May in case of frost. I planted bulbs last year and I'm anxious to see if they come up!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

1) it is my pleasure! Which sounds mean, but you know what I mean. :)

2) That's a great (and challenging!) program - you should go for it! It sounds like you need to sweeten up the soil. The "sweeter" the soil, the better tasting the fruit. Mulch with compost around your plants and spray them weekly with fish emulsion (not Miracle Gro, or something like that) and they'll grow healthier and tastier. (And the same goes for the hydrangea. Afternoon shade and acidy soil is what they love. Dump your coffee grounds a few inches from the base of your plant and it'll thank you. *g*)

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

The thing about pollarding is that you only do it on plants like Salix, Tillea, Corylus, some Populus, and Crateagus which will set new buds on old wood, and then either stool them (to the ground) or rotate the cuts so that every three-five years you cut right back to the trunk. It's the sort of technique which assumes having lots of serfs to go out a few hours a nmonth to clean up extra sprouts, too.

And since the modern world is full of compact cultivars that fit the space, there's no point in doing it unless you're actually making cricket bats or whicker baskets.

Julia, still trying to figure out how th get rid of the damned Washington Hawthorne that's eating the east yard, planted because Mom thought it was a Paulii when she gave it to me for my birthday the year she died.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! *cries over poor tree* They have FOUR that they've done this to!

Hmmm, it sounds like the whole tree isn't doing well. Has there been any construction around the tree? Other wounds? Do you notice any dieback from the other branches? (As in, it's not leafing out all the way to the tips like it used to.)

A good start would be to treat your lawn with compost. No weed and feed, ever! It kills ALL broadleafs, and trees/shrubs are broadleafed plants. Keep me posted when it starts to leaf out - that will tell us a lot of the health of the tree.

(I'm sorry. I looooooove Cottonwoods.)

[mere-ubu.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor myrtle babies! I have the Black Thumb of Death, but even I know that's wrong. Our next-door neighbor (whose yard we have to view from our dining table every day--hello Shirtless Septuagenarian!) staged a giant myrtle massacre as soon as they bought the house. One day I sat and watched as S.S. cut all of the beauties that had overhung our driveway WITH A HANDHELD CIRCULAR SAW!! Once he'd gotten as far as he could with that, he started whacking at head-level with an axe. I finally got up and grabbed the portable phone so that I could dial 911 if he screwed up and buried the thing in his skull. *sigh* I miss the former occupant, who was an ancient maiden schoolteacher who let her myrtles go and gave us Goo-Goo Clusters every time she was out in her yard.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I don't know!! Talk about wasting time and energy...

I don't know how y'all can stand such a short gardening period! (I know, I know, you don't have 100+ degrees for two months, there's the pay off) but I'm having a hard time waiting until March 15th, our final winter frost date!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

See, clearly he was just dealing with frustration over his manboobs, or something. My neighbor (the one that has ACK on the picture) does the SAME THING. I think he's justifying his chainsaw purchase. I mean, why have it if you don't use it? *cries for Argentina crepe myrtles everywhere*

[copykween.livejournal.com]

No construction or wounds, it's as lovely and leafy as ever and it keeps getting bigger. In fact, I'm always afraid that one of our massive wind/thunderstorms are going to tear it down. I'd really hate to lose that tree!

I'd considered getting it trimmed, but after reading above that the "pros" suck balls, I think I'll just take my chances. Although one part is starting to touch the roof, so I'll have to do something there. Blah.

I didn't know that about the weed and feed! Uh... we do use that :( But I'll ask about it later, once the leaves return (it starts a little later than most other trees).

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

What you want is a professional ARBORIST, not a landscaping company. The latter just goes from mowing lawns to cutting things without training. A CERTIFIED arborist will treat you well, and do what's best for the tree, not their bottom line. I highly recommend having one come look at/prune your tree. Pruning is fine, just have it done in a proper method, that's all. *doesn't want to scare you from ever pruning*

(Yeah - stop using it. No judgement, because again, y'all don't know it's terrible, everyone sells it, so....) But it kills all broadleafed plants, and I'll assume your trees have leaves? :)

I'm going to my favorite nursery this weekend, and they have a magnificent cottonwood. I'll ask about the seeping/what needs to be done and let you know. If your tree's leafing out, that is a GOOD SIGN. Help it along by not putting WnF products out, and give the ol' lawn a top dressing of compost this spring - all of your plants will love you for it.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Someone in my subdivision comes along and murders the crepes at our subdivision entrance every year!

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

And, don't know if you know, how does one go about pruning overgrown antique tea roses (actual china tea roses on their own root systems, not hybrid tea roses). I have one that's spread to about 8 ft wide and another that's about 6ft high and I have no idea what to do about them. Any advice?