QI have a large backyard in Fayetteville that is pretty much a blank canvas with some large trees in the perimeter, allowing areas of full sun, deep shade and dappled shade. I’d like to plant all native shrubs and flowers to benefit the birds and insects. Are there any hardy favorites that you’d recommend?
AThe list would be too long to put here, but there are many great natives you could use.
Some of my favorites are beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), ninebark (Physocarpus), itea, clethra, buckeyes (both red and bottlebrush), native ferns and azaleas, and a myriad of wildflowers like Echinacea (purple coneflower), coreopsis, gaillardia, wild phlox and more. Check out Carl Hunter’s books Wildflowers of Arkansas or Trees, Shrubs and Vines of Arkansas to get more ideas. Many of the above plants are common in the nursery trade, but some suitable natives are more obscure and would be more of a challenge to find. Never dig plants from the wild unless you are on private property and have permission of the property owner.
Q I have sold my house and want to take my Zephirine Drouhin and New Dawn roses with me. I planted them just last year. They will have to stay in pots until I find a new home. Any suggestions for a successful move would be much appreciated.
A Get the largest pots you can handle, dig up the root ball and pot them up. Prune them back enough to make moving manageable and keep them watered. If you do it now - and the temperatures are predicted to be ridiculously low, below 25 - move them to a protected spot and don’t forget to water. I would group them together and put them as close to the house as possible, behind planted shrubs if you can. When spring comes, move them into sunshine. The reason for using large pots is that they will be making new roots, and if they stay in any pot in one place long enough, they will try to root through the container to the soil below.
Q I live in Bella Vista. I have a Japanese Bloodgood maple that stands 10 or 12 feet tall. It was planted in the summer of 2010. The tree is clinging to most of its dead leaves now. Is this a bad omen? Should I be concerned?
A There are leaves still attached to many normally deciduous plants, from Japanese maples to oakleaf hydrangeas, deciduous azaleas and more. We had an earlier than normal hard freeze this year, and some of our plants had not completed their normal life cycle. The abscission layer that normally forms on stems of deciduous plants and causes the leaves to drop didn’t have time to form on some plants, so the freeze caught them unaware and the leaves were killed but are still attached. I have had some old leaves come down in the heavy winds we have had recently, but it may take the push of new foliage this spring to get the rest of them off. In a normal year, we say that if dead leaves stay attached it can mean a plant has been damaged, but for this unusual situation, I think we will be fine. That doesn’t mean we might not have winter damage on some plants, but I think that for now, your Japanese maple should be fine.
Q My rosemary plant that I have had for three years looks awful. It is more brown than green. Should I replace it or just prune it back? And when? Why do you think this happened? It has overwintered before.
A Many herbs look a little peaked right now, rosemary being one of them. We have had an unusually cold winter and our plants weren’t used to it (nor were we). Many plants have been burned back. Do nothing until late March or April. Let’s make sure winter is behind us before we start pruning. I do think that the rosemary will rebound in most cases. I did have a new potted one that is toast, but my established plants are already rebounding, some even trying to bloom. If you prune them back now to make them look better, and we get another wave of cold weather, you could lose even more, so just try not to look at them for a while. I know they aren’t that attractive, but be patient.
Q There are mimosa and privet trees coming up all over my yard and in the flower beds. I’ve been trying to get rid of them for several years now, to no avail. I cut them down, and they just grow right back, bigger and with more trunks than before. Is there something I can paint on the stumps that will kill them? Or is there some other way to get rid of them once and for all?
A Have you considered moving? While that might be easier, with perseverance and patience you can take control. But it takes time. If there is any way to dig out the roots, that will help, but they will still send up sprouts. Chances are also good that there are privets in other areas in your community that are being allowed to flower and then set seeds, which the birds eat and drop, resulting in more privet.
Pruning, mowing or taking a strong weed trimmer to any plants you see, treating the cut area with Roundup or Brush-B-Gon can help (be sure to read label directions and only apply where you don’t have desirable plants that could be damaged). Late summer through fall is a good time to poison woody perennials because they tend to be storing reserves for the winter and will move the chemicals downward better then too. But total kill is rarely attained in one season. Good luck.
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 email her at jcarson@arkansasonline.com
HomeStyle, Pages 33 on 01/25/2014