GARDENING
Late January to mid June are the months that we work the longest and hardest in our gardens to keep them looking good year round. By the hot summer "dog days" of July,
August and September, we want to have them groomed so that hot weather can be confined to chores such as watering and cutting the lawn and pulling weeds, etc.
We love to grow plants, but each year get more and more, and now find ourselves with over 50 roses, 50 camellias, and many azaleas, daylillies, impatients, ferns, and seasonal plants. This results in a pretty yard, but more work each year.
While most of the spring chores should be behind you, there is still time to do some important ones before the hot, hot weather. If you want to move an ornamental plant, it should be done as soon as possible. The week before you plan to move your plant, take a shovel and root prune a foot or two out from the plant, all around the plant. When moving your plant, get it back into the ground quickly, and water it thoroughly then, and daily the first two weeks. After that, twice a week should be sufficient. Delay fertilizing or heavy pruning until the plant has become established in its new location. We moved several azaleas and camellias in the past two weeks, and they are thriving in their new locations.
Having the right sun environment is important for your plants. We frequently move our plants around for several reasons-we no longer like the location, the plant has grown too large, or we found through trial and error that the plant needed either more or less sun than it was getting. Several of our crape myrtles were not doing well until we transplanted them into more sunny locations, and the same thing occurred with some of the daylillies. Roses need at least 6 hours of sun a day. On the other hand, a few of our camellias were getting too much sun, and have thrived since being relocated to the filtered shade of oak trees.
Azaleas should be pruned back soon after they bloom, or at least by June to avoid cutting back the flower buds. All of your plants are putting out a lot of growth right now, so do some light pruning as soon as possible if you are dissatisfied with their shape.
It's not too late to put out plants in containers, as long as you are very careful to follow a thorough watering plan the first few weeks. Work hard the next few weeks, and then put off the heavy transplanting until fall and cooler weather. HAPPY GARDENING!!