Why I Oughta...

Well, well, well:  here we are (this post is going up in mid-June, but these photos are from the end-of-May) at the end of May and we're getting Disneyland Roses.  In Bloom.   In the end of the month of May.    I have Five Disneyland Roses - with two replacement ones/larger ones planted in April of 2025 .   Below are a couple of bloom on one of the plants: Last year, I saw some blooms in early June last year, so these are a few weeks ahead of previous growing seasons.   I fed them right at the beginning of May and then again right around June 1st.   One of the things that I've struggled with on my Disneyland Roses are the short stems.  This year, I'm going to trial cutting deeper in order to see if that produces longer stems later in the season.  

What a difference two weeks make.  Earlier this month, I posted about our Disneyland Roses and described them as 'struggling '.  This is the second year where they 'struggled' - including an infestation of Sawfly Larvae.  The three bareroot ones didn't come back this season and I suspect it was the result of the pests.  As I've done in previous years, I've begun to feed the three remaining Floribunda roses with a combo fert + systemic insecticide on the first of the month (May, June).   But, that wasn't enough.  The leaves of the roses were lace-like and the plant seemed to be in decline. That's when I took drastic measures and first sprayed Neem Oil on them every few days follwing by  bombing all three of them with Eight insecticide dust .  The remaining foliage had a ghost-like quality with the white dust clinging to the leaves and stems.  For days and (now) weeks.     These Disneyland roses grow in 'flushes'.  At ...

I've documented a flush of growth on our Dawn Redwood tree over the year that typically occurs a little later in Summer - August (usually) - where the tips of the tree see some new, light-green (and tender) needles that appear.   This year, that flush (or...perhaps a different flush) came in early July.  Below is a photo showing one of the limbs of the tree that is showing some new growth.  A few things to note:  this entire tip is seasonal new growth.  It isn't woody (yet) - and is still green - so that means it arrived this growing season.  Second....the new growth I'm talking about...is at the very tips.  You can see that lighter green set of needles in a few spots. This Dawn Redwood is a tree that I have NOT touched one bit - in terms of pruning.  Not an inch of limb has been removed.  Why?  Because, I really learned quite a bit with my FIRST Dawn Redwood.  I don't know where I picked up the idea that limbing up young tree...