Selective pruning helps prepare for spring
Q: My garden looks shabby from winter freezes. What can I prune to tidy things up? Lauren Adams, Houston
A: During the winter, remove any soggy impatiens and begonia foliage after a freeze.
It’s now safe to remove dead ginger stalks; new shoots will emerge in spring. Cut frost-damaged toad lily as well as pigeonberry stems to the ground. Remove freeze-dried fern fronds. Cut back clumps of ornamental grasses. Wear gloves as the foliage can cut your hands.
Prune dead, crossing, weak wood from crape myrtles.
For more on when to prune, consider attending horticulturist Linda Gay’s Pruning 101 at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Arbor Gate, 15635 FM 2920, Tomball.
Prune roses around Valentine’s Day. Get pruning tips at the Houston Rose Society’s free Pruning for Better Blooming program, 7 p.m. Feb. 8 in the Cherie Flores Garden Pavilion, McGovern Centennial Gardens,1500 Hermann Drive; houstonrose.org.
Keep an eye on the long-term forecast so you can prune angel trumpet, hibiscus, bougainvillea, duranta, esperanza and orchid tree (bauhinia) after the last freeze. While the last frost varies year to year, we’re often clear of freezing temps by mid-February.
Wait until after early- mid-spring blooms to prune spirea, azaleas, redbuds and deciduous magnolias.
Late-spring flowering hydran-
geas look awful. But don’t snip now or you’ll remove buds that become May-June floods. Prune to shape after flowering.
Q: I have Norfolk pines planted in large urns in morning sun on my front porch. What trailing plants can I add to soften the look? Mary Huber, Houston
A: There are several trailing flowers and foliage to consider. Select those with the same light and water requirements as the Norfolk pine — part sun to bright light and a moist, but well-draining soil.
You can create a winterspring container with cool-season annual trailing plants and change when it’s hot. Or plant a longterm container garden with perennials.
Cool-season “spillers” that cascade and soften container edges include alyssum, bacopa, calibrachoa, edging lobelia, nasturtiums, trailing pansies and violas. Warm-season types include chartreuse or burgundy sweet potato vine, trailing coleuses and torenia.
Perennial trailing plant choices are creeping jenny, silver dichondra, ivy (variegated would be showier) and wire vine.
Plant shades of the same color for subtle harmony.
For livelier contrast, combine colors on the opposite side of the color wheel. Purple enhances yellow. Orange enlivens blue.
Repeat one color in a flower or leaf to unify your container composition.
Q: We planted four ‘Silverado Sage’ shrubs about a year and a half ago. The first week of November, a crew put out new mulch and unfortunately pruned the sages. They have lost almost all their foliage. I’m not sure if it’s the extremely wet weather we have had or the shock from being cut back so severely. Prior to this, they were a little rangy but bloomed profusely. What can I do? Maxine Kelley, Tomball
A: I think weeks of wet soil helped prompt the leaf drop. We’ve had so many rainy, cloudy days, and when these conditions are combined with lower temperatures, evaporation stalls, and soils stay wet for extended periods.
‘Silverado,’ as well as other cultivars of the drought-tolerant native Texas sage, reacts to overly wet conditions with yellowing and dropping leaves.
In addition, while these butterfly-attracting shrubs are cold-tolerant, hard pruning so late in the year, and just before a hard freeze, could have generated some shock.
Make sure the mulch does not cover the crown of your shrubs. Remove any mulch that covers the center of a shrub, and push it back so air and light can penetrate the soil at the immediate base of each plant.
The native Texas sage and all its cultivars are best in full sun, excellent drainage, and because high humidity can be a nuisance, in a spot with good air flow. For best results, plant in raised beds that include expanded shale. For the most part, the shrubs don’t need fertilization.
Since your shrubs are now established, avoid winter watering. If there are irrigation heads near the beds with these plants, shut off any that might water the ‘Silverado’ plants. Keep summer watering to a minimum. Some gardeners avoid watering year-round, relying only on rain.
Hopefully, warm, sunny days will dry the soil and encourage new foliage. If your plants don’t greatly improve in the weeks ahead, you might consult with a professional about improving drainage, with amendments, aeration or an underground drainage system. Or create raised beds.
‘Silverado’ is a cultivar of the drought-tolerant, native shrub with fuzzy, silver-gray foliage, Leucophyllum frutescens.
The native shrub has several common names, including silverleaf sage, Texas sage, purple sage, cenizo, wild lilac and barometer bush, which refers to the open, bellshaped, purple blooms that appear off and on during the year, but especially after summer rains.
Texas sage can reach 8 feet in height; some cultivars are more compact. But all can get leggy and become less dense, especially without full sun. You can encourage bushier growth with heavier pruning in late winter and early spring. Try pruning up to a third of a shrub.
For a more natural shape, snip branches individually at varying heights. Then in late spring, early summer, prune again, if necessary. You also can prune tips during the growing season to encourage bushy growth.