Mid to Late January

• Prune roses, fruit trees, berries, shade trees and grapes. Do not prune spring flowering shrubs or trees, fuchsias or other frost tender plants.
• Make your second application of dormant spray on the roses, and deciduous fruit trees.
• Mulch helps keep soil temperature even and suppresses weed growth, so apply 1-2 inches evenly around shrubs and trees and in your perennial borders.
• Don’t forget, even if plants aren’t actively growing, plants still need to be watered if there’s been no rain.
• Apply Iron to azaleas, citrus and gardenias to help keep them green this spring.
• Summer-blooming bulbs have arrived in our Garden Shop. It's the perfect time to pick out the best varieties of gladiolus, dahlias, Asiatic lilies, canna lilies, tuberous begonias and many more.

Mid-February

• Watch for “pink bud” stage on peach and nectarines, apply the last dormant spray for best control of Peach-leaf Curl.
• Get the jump on Spring Bugs - Spring brings showers, flowers and bugs. The best way to handle all this early insect activity is to nip it in the bud, so to speak. The early bud not only catches the worm, but also the moth, aphid and caterpillar before much damage is done. Aphids love the soft tip growth just appearing on plums and roses, etc., causing distorted leaves as they open up.
• Apples, pears and crab apples should be sprayed with Spinosad when the blooms begin to show color to control Codling Moth (aka: wormy apples -YUK!) and repeat the application in 5-7 days. Spinosad also controls worms (caterpillars), thrips and katydids, borers on peaches, grapes, citrus, and many other edibles. Spinosad is ORMRI (Organic Materials Research Institute) listed and is very earth friendly.
• Wasps and Ants
  Wasp traps set out in early spring can catch the queens before they even establish nests. Ant stakes or baits protect the back yard picnics and keep ants from spreading the aphids around your yard. A shot of Bacillus thuringensis (Safer CATERPILLAR KILLER) will get rid of the caterpillars while protecting the honeybees.