December Green Tips
| Purchase your Christmas tree from the Civic Garden Center! |
Landscape
- Wrap the trunks of fruit trees and very young shade trees around Thanksgiving time to protect from sun scald and animal damage.
- Continue watering program on all woody plants, especially newly installed plants, to protect roots from freezing temperatures.
- Erect burlap wind shields to protect tender broadleaf evergreens such as Boxwood, Pieris, Azalea and Rhododendron from drying and winter burn.
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Houseplants
- Examine regularly all houseplants for evidence of white flies, scale or mealy bugs. If discovered, a pply insecticidal soap / alcohol mixture at weekly intervals to control all eggs and future generations of these pests.
- Water plants on as-needed basis rather than on a set schedule. In winter months houseplants need more light and less water.
- Avoid placing Ficus trees near heater ducts or opening doors. The change in temp - eratures will cause them to drop leaves.
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Flowers
- Mound 12 inches of soil, compost or aged sawdust around hybrid tea and grandiflora roses after several hard frosts and they have lost their leaves. Avoid using soil from the rose root zone.
- Prune canes back to 18 inches to facilitate the mounding protection.
- Place a protective covering of straw mulch over fall-planted pansies, dwarf Carnations, Johnny-Jump-Ups, Primrose and sweet William to aid in successful over-wintering.
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