Ask Burton

Ask Burton

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Ask Burton: Q: I had a nice bed of roses until they were visited by rose rosette this year. I want plant recommendations that will bloom as long as my roses did, grow in similar sizes, and won’t catch that disease.

August, 01

A: Fortunately, that last is simple. Only roses can catch rose rosette virus. Literally any other type of plant will do that for you. The other requests are harder.

Ask Burton: Q: One of my mature Bradford pear trees is suddenly turning yellow, orange, and brown, while the rest of my yard looks fine. What could be causing this, and how can I help the tree recover?

July, 26

A: Sadly, this sounds like your ornamental pear is falling prey to cotton root rot, a fungal disease common in high-pH, clay soils… so, basically, the soil that…

Ask Burton: This week it’s all about the behavior of plants that are suitable to plant in our area… when the types of plants chosen do not play well together. So many landscape problems can be headed off with proper, prior planning. This article could well be titled… Plants that do NOT go together… at least, not like that!

July, 19

For demonstration, a few of the plant questions we fielded just this past Monday morning.

Why is my newly planted Japanese maple burned and my corkscrew juncus grass doing poorly?…

Ask Burton: The month of July certainly brings the heat, and it’s a challenge for newly planted shrubs, trees, and container plantings. So, this week, a simple heads up on watering – how to, how often, and simple things you can do to reduce the need for excessive watering.

July, 12

New plantings need hose watering. The sprinklers will rarely be enough. Irrigation systems will wet the top two to three inches of our local clay soil at best, unless they…

ASK BURTON: Q: We planted this Japanese maple in the spring. It just recently began looking distressed with some brown leaves. The tree is getting full morning sun but nothing past noon. Is there anything I can do to help it?

July, 05

 A: Your plant is showing some heat stress getting established this first summer, but you haven’t done anything wrong in its maintenance. Japanese maples are one of our most prized…

Ask Burton: Q: Do I need mulch? How much mulch do I need? How many bags do I need to buy?

June, 24

A: Mulching your flowerbeds is the single kindest thing you can do to help your plants thrive throughout the summer! A good, 2-3″ inch layer of mulch will help your…

Ask Burton: Q: I have a weird mold growing out of the mulch in my flower bed – it popped up overnight! Also, there’s some sort of odd mushroom growing near where I had a tree removed after the 2021 freeze. What do I need to do?

June, 20

A: Happily, nothing – unless you’re prone to allergies. Even then, not much. They’re not hurting the plants in your landscape.

There are several slime molds that pop up in…

Ask Burton: Q: I have a weed – looks like a grass, but when I clean out my bed, it’s always back within the next ten days and it’s always worse than when I first started pulling. What is this, and how do I get rid of it?

June, 13

A: This sounds like nutsedge, and it’s a persistent weed in the flowerbeds and lawn. Pulling it does tend to make it worse! Nutsedge has a thin root system connecting…

Ask Burton: This week, a reminder about bagworms! An ounce of prevention, a pound of cure.

June, 07

 

Bagworms hatch out and begin feeding every May. Check your junipers (including Italian cypress), bald cypresses, roses, Japanese maples and Indian hawthorns for chewed and missing foliage. We’re already…

Ask Burton: This week, we’d like to answer several unrelated questions about one of our favorite summer color shrubs – the Crapemyrtle! In no particular order, here we go.

May, 30

My newly installed crapemyrtle looks droopy – I’m running my sprinkler three times a week and watering with a hose at least once a week but it’s still tired-looking and…