It is early Spring... well, it is almost the middle of April and here in Ontario, there is still snow on some of my flower beds. I am not too pleased about that... but we just finished holding our local Garden Show; an incredible amount of work that kept me from thinking about my gardens, still buried.
Today it is warm and the snow is reluctantly giving up.
I took a tour around my gardens - finally could walk near them ... just a note of caution, DO NOT walk on the soil in your beds. The frost is not completely out, and the top is moist and gushy. When you walk on that, you compact the soil and those tiny wee roots that will be pushing out soon, are like hairs. They cannot push through the soil if you tramp it down. Sure, I know you are anxious, as am I, to get in there and clean up.... wait for a dryer day, or use a long-handled rake and BE GENTLE...
My roses are greening from the ground up... and I want to get out there and start pruning off the dead wood. But.... my neighbour's Forsythia is not in bloom. What is the difference? Well, as warm as today is, tonight, "they" are calling for temperatures dropping to below 0C. If I start to prune today, those tender green stems could freeze. If I wait and we have more freezing temperatures, the frost will hit those deadened ends and the green parts will still be okay.
My secateurs (really, my pruners, clippers or whatever I choose to call them on any given day) are sharp. By the way. Make sure yours are sharp enough to slice a piece of paper easily and use those
BY-PASS pruners... NOT anvil pruners. Anvil pruners are better for dead wood as they can crush the stems.
There are some who say that if anvil pruners are sharp enough they will not crush the stems. But if you are like me, and get busy over the season and forget to sharpen them often, you will have jagged ends and not clean cuts like by-pass pruners give.
Jagged cuts are an open invitation to disease and we surely do not want that.
So, wait till you see the Forsythia bloom, then prune your roses.
Here is a site that shows you how.
www.lush-gardens.com
