LITTLE ROCK — Q I have been reading about and seeing all the storm damage, and I am so sad. I, too, have a magnolia tree that has broken limbs from the ice. My problem is that two of them broke out of the very top of the tree.
Is there anything that can be done?
I have heard several times that trees should not be cut at the top.
A Intentionally topping a tree - removing the entire top or crown - can be devastating for a tree.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature did it for many trees this year. When you have no choice, you have to remove the damage. With a magnolia tree, you can try to retrain a new central leader to give it that more traditional shape, but if it is high up in the tree, you probably don’t have a lot of choices but to prune and see what happens.
Topping a tree doesn’t kill it, but it does cause internal decay that can lead to potential storm damage down the road.
Do what you can to get the damage out, and let nature take its course and see how it re-grows. The problem is worse on a large shade tree, which has the potential to fall on a house later in life.
Q My crape myrtle, like many others, was broken in the winter storm. Limbs and trunks have cracked about 6 feet off the ground and will now need to be pruned back. Can I do that now or should I wait until spring? I assume it will grow back in the style of a “crape murdered” tree, which irritates me, but it is still better than no crape myrtle at all.
A I would prune out the visible damage now, and then if it needs more shaping, do that in late February, when we are sure winter weather is over. As you know, crape myrtles are resilient trees and don’t die from bad pruning; they just don’t look all that attractive. For some, pruning all the way back to the ground and starting over is needed. If yours needs to be pruned only 6 feet off the ground, you can easily retrain them into the glorious trees they were meant to be. Sort of like a bad haircut - in time it will grow out.
Q Please recommend a ground cover that will survive intense sun and heat. The past summer weather destroyed the English ivy, and I need to replace it.
A English ivy, as you have discovered, is best left in the shade, but there it can become a nuisance.
For full sun you have several options. Asiatic jasmine will take the heat and spread fairly quickly. Monkey grass, or liriope, will also do well. Creeping junipers love heat, but are not my personal favorite.
Santolina or lavender cotton is a heat and sun lover, as is the perennial verbena - although it won’t stay solid year after year. There are many varieties of sedums; and the prostrate rosemary or creeping thyme thrive in hot, sunny locations and can be used in cooking. Make sure you do a thorough job of killing weeds and grass before establishing a ground cover - especially in the sun. Weeds are very opportunistic and will encroach easily.
Q I was in Houston, Texas, this summer, and liked how hummingbirds came to a shrub called a bottlebrush, so I purchased one. Since I live in Bentonville, I planted it in a very large pot so it could move inside through the winter. It is in the garage and losing some of the narrow thin leaves. Will this plant survive here in Northwest Arkansas? Also in the garage is a fairly nice-sized rosemary plant that has lost all of its leaves. Is it supposed to die back also for the winter?
A Callistemon is the Latin name of the bottlebrush plant, and it is spectacular in bloom. Who can say for sure where a plant is or isn’t winter hardy these days?
They shouldn’t survive in central Arkansas, but I have seen them in gardens surviving for more than five years.
If you want to take a gamble, plant it outside this spring in full sun on the eastern side of the house - full morning sun is much more protective than full afternoon sun. Give it a protected spot next to the house, plant after all chances of frost are over and mulch well. Give it good soil and great care this year. A strong, healthy root system with a year in the ground before winter, mulched heavily after a killing frost next fall, can give it a fighting chance; but the severity of our next winter will determine whether it will make it. I would keep another one in a pot as a backup. Rosemary should be quite winter hardy and should not shed its leaves. It prefers to be in the ground in a well-drained, “poor” soil.
Rosemary plants are very drought tolerant. A few, more tender varieties may be susceptible to winter damage, but given a full year’s growing season, yours should make it - except in the most severe winters.
Janet Carson is a horticulture specialist for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. Write to her at 2301 S. University Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72204 or e-mail her at
HomeStyle, Pages 35 on 02/02/2013