Garden Notes
As questions come up in the garden, I try to look up the answers in a timely manner. The following are some of the answers I've found in my gardening books.
I rely on Rodale's All New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, the information I printed from my online Organic Horticulture course through Gaia College Online, the notes I took from the course Garden Planning for the Home Gardener through Selkirk College, the Western Garden Book, Reader's Digest Practical Guide to Gardening in Canada, Dorling Kindersley's Canadian Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers (for plant selection/garden planning) and the information available through local nurseries. I also take into consideration my experience and that of my clients.
- wisteria - poor wisteria get pruned a lot and they shouldn't be fertilized. Extra nitrogen will inhibit blooming. Shorten any branches you don't want to become trunks to a handful of buds from the main trunk at any time. These shortened branches will bear flowers next season. Give wisteria lots of sunshine and good drainage.
- raspberries - a good rule of thumb is, in fall or winter, cut out canes that have fruited. Raspberries tolerate some shade, but need regular water. Fertilize when they bloom. If you want, you can leave everbearing canes that fruited at their tips another year, as they'll produce again but on the lower portions of the year old canes.
- roses - you can get as detailed as you want with roses. In general, give roses light, air, regular water (not on the leaves), good drainage and food such as rotted manures, compost, alfalfa pellets, tiny bit of epsom salts, fish fertilizer (spring only), bone meal, or Borden's organic mix. Of course you can use chemical fertilizers if you choose.
Do your drastic prune in the spring - unless the plants might suffer from windrock, in which case you'd cut down the heavy tops in fall. Encourage and maintain an open, strong structure, by cutting just above outward facing buds and removing weak and rubbing stems. Do this drastic pruning through the year after each bloom cycle to keep your plants compact. At the least, deadhead spent blooms to keep them coming but stop sometime in October. Letting the rosehips form and leaving them on signals the plant to harden off for the winter.
- magnolias - deciduous magnolias don't heal their pruned branches very well, so only prune when shape or size becomes an issue, and just after blooming. For evergreen varieties, prune just before spring growth starts. Their roots are shallow, so don't cultivate under them. They like slightly acidic, organic soil that's also well drained with regular water.