Summer Nursery Updates, Watering & Trimming

Now this time of year a lot of nurseries, a lot of people that sell plant material, their inventory starts to dwindle, things slow down, things aren’t looking good from either heat or bugs or fungus or one of the other things that can happen. We are addressing all of those issues and also bringing in fresh stock weekly. I think there’s almost a thousand new pieces coming in today.

So if you’re looking for fresh material, landscape ideas, help with landscaping, we can do all of that. And because it’s a little bit slower and quieter at the nursery, we have a little bit more time to spend with you. And you can find some good deals too. We have some good discount sections going on.

A lot of times people ask, is it okay to plant this time of year? And as long as you’re watering in this heat and checking it, it’s a perfect time.

The plants will always do better in the ground than above ground in the pot. When they’re above ground in that pot, the root system is going to be 90 degrees this week. Well, in the ground, it’s only 50 degrees. The plant actually stresses less when it’s planted than when it’s above ground. If you do have potted plants though at the house, that’s going to be something you’re going to have to be doing daily watering on next week for sure.

Once they’re planted, you’re not going to have that maintenance like shrubs and trees and perennials that go into the ground. They’re not going to need daily watering. If you water them thoroughly and deeply, generally once to twice a week, they’re good, but we’re checking them in the heat.

The one hanging basket that I have, begonias. I have it on a shepherd’s hook and it’s weighing down the shepherd’s hook because of the water. But at the same time, when I’m watering it, it’s still pouring out through the bottom. And that heat too, you’re probably going to have to be watering them twice. The ones in the sun, especially. So you’re not going to overwater it.

My magnolia tree, because remember I trimmed it early on. It’s flushing like crazy. It is beautiful. It’s doing great. And I did have to, I did have to trim it last week because it grows around the lamppost near the driveway. So I just had to trim that so it wasn’t covered.

Light trimming like that can be done this time of year. My magnolia at home is on the corner of my house and, and it’s done its thing and it’s stretched out and I will probably go in there and thin it out a little bit. But again, I’m never going to do more than a 5 or 10% trim off that plant this time of year, because we know it’s coming into the summertime. It’s going to be stressful. It’s going to be hot. Hard trimming, like where you’re taking 10 to 20% of the plant off, that’s always going to be done before the foliage comes out early, early spring.

There were a lot of dead branches up there that I had to get out and that was, it needed to fill in the middle and that’s what it’s done. As soon as you get that dead material out of there or any crossing branches, light gets back down in there. And as soon as light’s there, the tree or shrub will flush foliage to where that light is because it can make food for itself.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).