YEWS DON’T NEED A LOT OF WATER, BUT THEY NEED AIR
Q Last fall our seven margarita yews turned from a beautiful lime green to an orange-brown colour. Can you tell me why, and is there any hope for them?
A They are certainly deceased. If you had told me this problem happened after the winter we have had I would have been inclined to say that winter damage is the cause. But, having happened in the fall, we have to look at different reasons for their demise.
There are some environmental factors that can affect these yews and cause them to turn brown. One of the first things that comes to mind is that they do not like to have their roots wet. The area in which they are planted has to be well drained.
You should also be watering sparingly, unless the conditions are very dry.
If your yews are surrounded by a rock/stone mulch, the depth of the mulch may be a factor as well. If the mulch is too deep, the roots may in fact be suffocating from a lack of air. River rock or stone mulch should be installed with a depth of one to three inches. Anything deeper can affect the roots with a lack of airflow, or even the weight of the rock compacting the soil. Q I acquired a bamboo plant (Phyllostachys nigra) two-plus years ago in late fall. It’s still alive inside our Edmonton home and has two new shoots. The problem is that the culms are very thin (pencil-like at best, some are dead) and the leaves are not dark green and they’re browning at the tips. The plant is still in its original 11-inch by nine-inch container and about four inches tall. I have been watering it with my aquarium water weekly. A Black bamboo is a relatively easy plant to care for, but it does have some requirements. I would suspect that the reason the culms (from the Latin word ‘culmus’ or stalk) are so thin is that the soil is tired and the plant needs to be repotted with fresh soil. I would suggest using a container at least twice as big as the one that the plant is in now, as these plants like to grow unimpeded. When repotting, add a generous amount of compost to the potting mix, as this plant needs a good supply of organic matter in the soil to look and perform at its best.
Q We have a 30-year-old double flowering plum in our backyard. We are having some renovations done in the area where the shrub is, and the contractor says that the bush has to go. The renovations will be done in late spring. Is it possible to dig up the bush and replant it after the renos are completed? Would we need to hire someone to do this for us?
A With a shrub that old and large it would be very difficult to dig it up without damaging the root system severely. The rule of thumb is that shrubs older than 25 years should be removed or left alone. You can try inquiring with some landscape contractors to see if anyone would be willing to tackle this job, but my hunch is that you might have a hard time finding someone willing to do this work. That is the realistic part of the answer.
The hopeful part of the answer is that I never like to leave anyone without a possible solution, so I will tell you what I might do to try to save this plant. You will need to root prune the shrub. Root pruning simply is inserting a spade into the soil in a circle around the base of the shrub. The circle should be around 60 centimetres from the middle of the plant.
Do this technique roughly eight weeks before the move. Four weeks before the move root prune it again.
Root pruning cuts back the older roots and encourages them to send out new rootlets. It will also make the root ball smaller, and perhaps a little easier to handle, since you will need several people to lift even the smaller root ball. Or you can ask if a contractor would be willing to do the job after the root pruning. Keep the root ball wrapped in a tarp, or even better, dig a temporary hole and plant the shrub in the hole until the renovations have been done, and then move it back to its original home and hope for the best.