Category Archives: Articles

Articles

Don’t Trim Your Azaleas…Yet

Articles, Newsletters

In our area it’s pretty normal to start cleaning up your flower beds in February or March. While there is nothing wrong with getting a head start there are a few important things to remember before you start trimming. Typically speaking in our area Azaleas don’t bloom until April and into May. If you were to trim your azaleas to early in February or March you would actually be removing a lot of the bloom buds that are going produce the flowers. Since the blooms are the main reason planting the azaleas it’s a loose loose! The proper time to trim these shrubs in immediately after they drop all of their flowers. Usually May or June. This is also a great time to feed them with a nice slow release granular fertilizer. Also don’t forget to regularly inspect your azaleas for bugs or other pest. Typically it’s to late and the damage is done before most people realize there is even an issue! Hope this helps!

 

Japanese Magnolia

Articles, Newsletters

Japanese Magnolias are an amazing plant to get anyone ready for Spring. This tree is in the magnolia family but differs for a few reasons. One it that it looses all of it’s leaves during the winter time unlike your more traditional magnolia trees. You may think of this as a negative until later winter or early spring when the tree starts to bloom! They produce the most beautiful pinkish, purple and white flowers and they usually cover the entire tree! Some people call the tree a Tulip tree or a Tulip Magnolia because the blooms look a lot like tulip flowers. Regardless of what you refer to them as, they are one of the most traditional, truly southern plats. And because of the timing of their bloom cycle right before spring they are the perfect kick start to the new year!

 

Aphids on Azaleas

Articles, Newsletters

Sometimes confused as scale, aphids are a bug that can create a unsightly mess in your Azaleas. They are a bug that feed on the sap of the plant by sticking a needle like beak into the plant. As they feed they drop their waste on the plant that’s called Honeydew. This is a clear sticky substance. After a short period of time a black mold grows on the honeydew. It’s this black mold that usually first alerts people to a issue. While it’s not deadly at first, it can over time be bad for the plant therefore it needs to be addressed ASAP. The entire plant should be sprayed with an insecticide to kill the beds and then treated routinely as a preventive measure. Hope this helps!

 

Pre Emergents

90% Sign Up To Late

Articles, Newsletters

Like clockwork every year 90% of our new clients sign up in April & May.  Why?  Because it is warm and the weeds are growing like crazy!  If you have any interest in using a lawn treatment program then now is the time to get started.  When the average ground temperatures start getting to 55 and higher you WILL have issues.  That is unless you applied a pre emergent.  Pre emergents act like a blanket covering the entire lawn.  This blanket prevents the weeds from being able to germinate and start to grow.  Once the germination process starts you can not stop them from growing.  Instead you will have to use herbicides all year to kill the weeds.  It’s really easy to prevent this from being the case.  Most lawns only cost $45-$65 to treat.  At least give it a try!

mulch, matthews landscape

1000’s of weed seeds

Articles, Newsletters

The reason Pre Emergents are so important right now is that your lawn is in a race.  Not against time but against the ground temperatures.  There is not a specific time that the summer weeds will start growing.  Instead the germination and growing process is based off the weather and more importantly the ground temperatures.  Once the soil reaches an average of 55 degrees the seeds will start their life cycle.  If you get your pre emergents applied before this happens you will stop this process and prevent the weeds from growing this summer.