Horticulture Tips from Wareham Garden Club

PRUNING RHODYS AND FORSYTHIA

This is perfect timing for pruning those early flowering azaleas, rhododendrons and forsythia.   Water your shrubs before pruning to relieve stress.  Spend time looking at your shrub.  All shrubs should have damaged or diseased wood or rubbing, crossing branches removed.

Azaleas differ from rhododendrons in being generally smaller and having one blossom per stem rather than blossom clusters.  Azaleas can bud out all along the stem.  Early flowering varieties form next year’s buds over 8-10 weeks once the temperature is over 65 degrees, so now is a great time to prune.   First, remove damaged wood and branches that rub against another branch.  Next remove a few old branches every year to rejuvenate the shrub.  Choose branches that, when removed, will let in more light or bring your shrub to a better height.

Newly-created Horticultural Society brings experienced and novice gardeners together Green thumbs unite

BARBARA DEAN-SIMMONS

The Packet


In a land where the sea ice hugs the shore until late June, on a day when summer seems as unlikely as spotting elephants on the Trans Canada Highway, it's hard to imagine that anything grows well here.John Norman can tell you different.


He's busy around the grounds of his parents' Bonavista home, plucking out the first of this season's stubborn weeks, and admiring the shrubs that are already adding a dazzle of colour to his garden.A quick tour around the property and Norman's passion for botany is evident.


He has a natural-born gardening talent."Before Kindergarten I started memorizing the Latin terms for plants," he smiles. By the time he was seven he was digging holes and planting on his parent's property.


At last count he had about 40 varieties of Hostas - one of his favourite plants - as well as over 20 varieties of lilies and more than 100 trees and shrubs of all namesakes.


"I also collect a lot of apothecary plants," he says, plants that have deathly medicinal properties. "I have monkshood, leopard's bane, foxglove (digitalis) and deadly nightshade.


"He has several rhododendrons growing at the rear of the property, along a back fence, with tall trees behind to shelter from wind.They range in colour from pink to blood red to magenta and banana yellow.

The yellow one is a Hong Kong rhododendron, better suited to a Zone 7 growing area. Bonavista falls in Zone 3.

"I'm very surprised that one (Hong Kong rhodendron) survived," he points out.His garden also contains plants that have been doing well in Bonavista for decades.

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