Ciscoe’s Tips of the Week: Pruning Camellias
Apr 11, 2013, 4:44 PM | Updated: Apr 12, 2013, 5:20 pm
This week garden expert Ciscoe Morris offers tips on how to prune Camellias. (AP Photo/file)
(AP Photo/file)
Ciscoe’s Tips of the Week:
– Prune Camellia as soon as they finish blooming by thinning and lowering them. Feed with an organic Rhododendron fertilizer.
Ciscoe says you can cut them right down to the ground and they come right back.
“You’re supposed to prune them so a bird can fly through them.”
He also says there’s a way to make them pretty as their blooming season ends.
“Sometimes I go out there with a rake and beat the tweedle out of them to get all those brown blooms off,” says Ciscoe.
– Feed garlic with a high nitrogen fertilizer every two weeks to promote rapid growth and a big bulb. Stop fertilizing and cut back on watering on the summer Solstice.
– Prune Forsythia by removing 1/3 of the old canes soon after they stop blooming.
Ciscoe’s Tips of the Month for April
– Rent an aeration machine to pull plugs from the lawn. Leave plugs and allow to break down naturally.
– Top dress with a layer of organic compost, making sure not to cover more than 1/3 of the grass blades.
– Divide summer and fall blooming perennials and replant with natural fertilizer.
Click here for Ciscoe’s Plant of the Week!
Gardening with Ciscoe can be heard on KIRO Radio on Saturdays at 10 a.m. Available anytime ON DEMAND at KIRORadio.com.
