Better yet, most long blooming plants are as undemanding as they are unassuming. They are happy to flower away for months at a time with the minimum of attention. Our garden has very dry sandy soil, and very hot full sun exposure. We don’t irrigate established perennials, so the plants on this list are tough and tolerant of abuse.

Heliopsis

Heliopsis is one of our absolute favorite garden plants. It gives so much for so little. This plant, also called the oxeye daisy, produces copious numbers of cheerful bright yellow daisies. There are several different cultivars available ranging from green leafed varieties to those with dark purple stems, and double flowered varieties.

It is easy to grow and care for and is tolerant of a wide variety of soil types as long as they are well drained. With an occasional trim to remove the spent flowers and to tidy the plant, it will provide you blooms from early summer until frost. If you have several plants, you can stagger trimming them to keep yourself in an abundance of blooms. As an added bonus, Heliopsis is native, and also makes an excellent cut flower.

Nepeta

No list of long blooming perennials would be complete without Nepeta, also known as cat mint. This versatile plant with spikes of almost blue flowers can find a place in almost any garden. It will bloom for a lengthy time on its own, but if you cut it back when the blooms slow, it will send up a new flush of blooms. Walker’s Low is one of our favorites, but there are a variety of cultivars available ranging in size from dwarf to massive. So be sure to choose one suited to your location.

Nepeta is drought tolerant, easy to grow and tolerant of a wide variety of well drained soils. It will grow in partial shade, but full sun will give you the most blooms. Yes, cats like it, but it is not to be confused with catnip which is a related but much less showy plant. Nepeta is in the mint family as are many herbs. As a result it is a pleasantly fragrant plant to brush against, and can be used to make a soothing tea.

Russian Sage

Russian Sage is somewhat similar looking to Nepeta in that it has spikes of purple flowers. It is also in the mint family and it is larger more woody plant with dusty green, fragrant foliage. Russian Sage is a subshrub, so depending on the climate, it may die back to the ground, or may remain alive over the winter.

Russian Sage has excellent heat and drought tolerance once established and requires almost no care aside from trimming to keep it manageable and flowering. It is tolerant of high pH soils. Russian Sage is deer resistant and perfect for difficult places like next to a paved driveway where almost nothing will grow. However, it should be noted that it is very intolerant of poorly drained conditions.

Blanket Flower

Blanket flowers come in both annual and perennial species. Both are amazing in the garden; however we prefer to plant perennial blanket flowers as they will return every year. While annual Blanket flowers are often tall (up to 3’), many cultivars of perennial blanket flowers are very short statured plants making them perfect for the front edges of beds. They have large flowers in shades of red and yellow. They will continue to bloom from spring until frost. Deadheading isn’t required, but you may wish to do so to tidy the appearance of the plant.

Perennial blanket flowers are easy to grow but are often short lived. They burn themselves out flowering. They will typically reseed themselves readily and should be allowed to do so to ensure they remain in your garden long term. It is also essential to have very good drainage, or the will not survive the winter.

Verbenas

Verbenas are another one that comes in a both perennial and annual varieties. They also come in a variety of form. You are likely most familiar with the annual verbenas sold in hanging baskets at garden centers. However, there are also perennial verbenas that bloom just as reliably in your garden. Two of our favorite verbenas are Moss Verbena and Verbena bonariensis.

Moss verbena is similar to the annual verbena you see. It is a short fluffy plant with lacy leaves, and copious quantities of pink, white, or purple flowers. Moss verbena will bloom year-round if the weather does not stop it. It can be a bit tricky to start from seed, but once established in an area, it should readily self-seed. It is great for bed edges or growing between rocks.

The second Verbena we love so much is a tall spiky plant. It produces Verbena type flower clusters on long bare stems. One plant by itself is fairly unimpressive. However, planted en masse it can be stunning. It also adds a fun whimsical texture to a cottage garden when allowed to self-seed around other plants. Just like the other plants on this list, occasionally cutting back your verbena will keep it tidy and blooming. In colder climates both of these Verbena varieties can be treated as an annual.

Hibiscus

The hibiscus we are referring to is the Rose of Sharon shrub. You cannot deny that they flower like crazy with no care for most of the summer. They produce large tropical looking blooms in a range of colors.

We are admittedly unimpressed, or even downright horrified by some of the older Hibiscus varieties out there. Many of the older fertile varieties will self-seed at an alarming rate, and are very weedy, ugly shaped plants. When it comes to purchasing a Hibiscus plant, they are definitely not all created equally. So, beware. Seeking out one of the newer sterile cultivars is essential! If you do they are a wonderful addition to the garden.

Hibiscus are fairly large shrubs and need to be given some space to grow. However, they are very agreeable to pruning. Since they flower on new wood, they should be trimmed back harshly in the winter to keep them blooming at their best.

Hydrangeas

The next plant on our list is very familiar to probably everyone. They are workhorses in the garden though, and can find a suitable location almost anywhere. Hydrangea varieties range from shade loving to full sun plants. They come in a variety of flower colors including the elusive blue. They also come in various flower shapes ranging from the typical mopheads you usually see, to less common lace cap varieties.

Hydrangeas are another plant where there are so many new amazing cultivars that outshine older varieties. Many older varieties were not reblooming, or were massive plants that didn’t fit in today’s smaller gardens. Now they are available in a multitude of dwarf and reblooming varieties for every application. Additionally, hydrangeas hold their blooms past when they have faded making them excellent for dried arrangements or winter interest in the garden.

Ice Plant

Ice plant is a succulent ground cover with thick fleshy leaves. It will bloom steadily all summer long. The flower petals are very fine and almost shimmery. Ice plants come in a multitude of colors ranging from the popular bright purple that we grow, to the orange-yellow-purple flowers of the variety ‘Fire Spinner’.

Ice plant is very drought and heat tolerant once established, and is perfect for planting around stepping stones or tucking into hot corners where you need a pop of color but have very little soil. Unlike some ground covers that run rampant, it is well mannered and happy to stay where you want it. The succulent foliage is evergreen and provides color and interest even when the plants aren’t blooming.

Butterfly Bush

Butterfly Bushes are another long blooming shrub that we love to hate. Just like with Rose of Sharon, many of the older Butterfly Bushes are highly undesirable to have in your garden. They self seeded aggressively, and grew into immense un-manageable shrubs. Fortunately, plant breeders have solved those problems. There are now dwarf (and very dwarf), sterile butterfly bushes that are much more well behaved in the garden.

Butterfly bushes are fantastic in the sense that they have gray-green foliage that provides a nice color contrast to the bright green of many plants. They can be evergreen, semi-evergreen, or completely deciduous depending on the climate. While they are actively growing they are constantly producing large panicles of brightly colored flowers. They will continue to produce blooms all summer long without any deadheading, though you may wish to shear the shrub or deadhead for a more tidy appearance.

Dahlia

Dahlias are great because they are low maintenance and come in a dizzying array of flower colors and types. There is literally a dahlia for everyone! They range from huge showy blossoms to small single flowers that are similar to a daisy. Plants can range from dwarf to tall making them able to fit almost anywhere. They will bloom continuously for months at a time without any deadheading or care. Though they may slow up on blooming in the hottest months of the year in warm climates.

Dahlias are tender perennials that can grow quite massive over time. They are often treated as annuals since they are not particularly cold hardy. However, the tubers can easily be dug and replanted in colder climates if you do not wish to purchase new plants yearly.

Manettia

The last plant on our list is a vine and its also fairly uncommon. It is not as drought tolerant as many of the plants on the list, and we do end up watering it occasionally in very dry weather. Nonetheless, its one of our favorites. Manettia is a very small, well behaved vine. The plant in our picture has been here for years and hasn’t outgrown its trellis.

It is a little slow to wake up in the spring, so doesn’t start flowering until more towards mid-summer. When it does start blooming, it doesn’t stop until frost. If you want to attract hummingbirds, this vine is perfect for that purpose. It is covered in a zillion red-orange tubular flowers for months. It is such a well-behaved plant that it requires no deadheading or pruning during the growing season.

There you have it; our cottage garden favorites. You now know our absolute favorite low maintenance, long blooming plants for our gardens. We hope that it provides you with some exciting new plants to add to your garden. In a future article we will discuss some of our favorite reseeding annuals that work well in our perennial gardens. If you don’t want to miss out on that article or other gardening tips, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Our Favorite Long Blooming Plants first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Reason 1: Sun exposure

As a general rule, passion flowers are full sun plants. They’ll grow in partial shade, but they won’t flower. Unfortunately, 6-8 hours of sunlight isn’t enough to make them happy. Their preference is to be in a full dawn to dusk sunny location. Some light/dappled afternoon shade can be desirable for some varieties in very hot locations. However, for the majority of the United States, and the majority of passion flowers, getting them as much sun as possible is ideal.

If your passion flower isn’t flowering and its in a shady or semi-shady location, moving it to a more sunny location is the first thing we recommend trying. In our opinion, this probably tops the list for why passion flowers aren’t flowering. This is particularly true of any of the free flowering hybrids.

The reason we say this is that in the early spring a lot of our plants start actively growing and putting out flower buds. As soon as we put a light shade cloth over the greenhouse to help moderate temperature flowering stops. Even the most free-flowering varieties stop flowering. So try this first!

Reason 2: Daylength

Depending on which variety or species you are growing, this can also be a very valid reason why your passion flower isn’t flowering. Some varieties are photoperiod sensitive and will only bloom when the number of hours of daylight is correct. For example, if a passion flower you are growing is a short day variety like Passiflora ‘Maui’, it will not bloom in the middle of the summer no matter what else you do.

This is more likely to be the case for passion flowers in our Rare Passion Flowers category that are species rather than hybrids. Most, but not all of the named hybrids are easier to get to bloom, and they typically bloom over a longer season. If you have a question about what we find the flowering period for a particular plant to be, you’re welcome to ask.

Reason 3: Age/size

Some passion flowers seem to need to attain a sufficient size or maturity before they start flowering. This is again less common with the named hybrids than many of the species. Sometimes after planting a new plant, they will go into a stage of rapid vegetative growth where the plant is focusing on producing leaves and roots rather than blossoms. Later as the conditions become more favorable it may start flowering.

If you are hoping for a passion flower that will jump straight into flowering for you, many of the varieties in our Easy Care category are very free flowering. Varieties such as P. ‘Fata Confetto’, P. ‘Lady Margaret’ P. ‘Clear Sky’ and P. ‘Blue Velvet’ will set buds on tiny little plants, and we often ship them with buds.

Reason 4: Temperature

Temperature can also be a big problem. Both too hot and too cold can cause issues depending on the variety. Some of the very tropical heat loving varieties want it warm to flower. They won’t bloom in cold temperatures, and may never bloom well or at all in some locations. Conversely, many varieties that don’t like heat may abort buds or stop making buds in hot weather.

We try to list on descriptions if a variety is heat loving, or heat intolerant. Some of the worst offenders for not flowering in the summer due to heat are P. ‘Monika Fischer’, P. ‘Lavender Lady’, and pinks like P. ‘Anastasia’. Often these varieties will not bloom in the summer in the deep south, but may really shine in the spring and fall. However, in many of the cooler parts of the country they will bloom happily all season and out -perform heat loving varieties.

Reason 5: Nitrogen

Lastly, we are including too much nitrogen on our list. We are mainly including it so that we can address the mis-information. This seems to come up as the “most common reason” if you do a Google search, and we find that many times people are afraid to fertilize and care for their passion flowers because they’ve been warned that they “need poor soil or they won’t flower”. As a result we get people sending pictures of plants that are obviously desperately starved of nutrients asking what’s wrong.

So yes, it is absolutely true that too much nitrogen can reduce flowering. However in our experience having that level of nitrogen isn’t very common. It is absolutely not true that passion flowers need poor soil or to be nutrient starved to bloom! So while technically a possible reason, in actual practice it seems pretty unlikely to be the reason as compared to the above 4 reason.

Too little fertilizer can actually be equally if not more detrimental to getting your plant to bloom.

Passion flowers only flower on new growth. They set buds in the leaf nodes as they are developing, so if your plant is nutrient starved and not actively growing much, it won’t be setting flower buds.

In our experience passion flowers are heavy feeders. This makes sense since they are growing so rapidly. We recommend treating your passion flower the same as any other flowering plant you are growing. It does need feeding, particularly if you are growing it in a container. We recommend using a fertilizer designed for blooming plants. These fertilizers have lower nitrogen and higher phosphorus and potassium levels.

If you have eliminated all the other reasons on this list and your plant is putting out excessive vegetative growth and not blooming, you can try slowing down the fertilizer. If you haven’t been feeding your plant for fear of it not blooming, try giving it a fertilizer boost. This is particularly important if it looks yellow, the leaves are speckled, or it otherwise looks hungry for nutrients.

Lastly, if you have questions about a specific variety, or have tried everything and still can’t get your plant to bloom, you are welcome to contact us. We can’t guarantee that we will be able to get it flowering for you, but we will do our best to help you troubleshoot the problem.

Next time we are going to be discussing our favorite long blooming perennials. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter so that you don’t miss out!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post My Passion Flower Isn’t Flowering. Why?? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Firstly, you need to define what you want your plant to do for you.

Are you planning to plant it in a pot and overwinter it inside? Do you want it to be cold hardy in the ground? Do you want it to cover a fence? Should it be small and manageable? Are you looking for fruit or would you rather it be sterile? And the list goes on. So what is it you want from your plant?

Once you have considered what you want out of your plant, then you need to consider what you can practically provide for it. What we mean here is what kind of conditions do you have to keep your plant in. We are talking about answers to things like the following questions. Are your summers cool or blazing hot? Can you provide it with full sun? Are you overwintering it as a house plant, or does it need to go dormant so you can store it in a garage? Are you new to growing passion flowers or do you have experience? Can you keep it in a 10 gallon pot or only a 3 gallon one?

Once you are armed with this kind of information we can help you to make an educated guess about what would work best for you. Keep in mind that every location and every grower is different, there are a million different variables and micro climates that can affect your plant’s growth. So, you still might have to do some experimenting to find the absolutely best variety.

Passion flowers are an incredibly diverse number of species from an amazing array of different environments ranging from blazing hot to cool and temperate.

As thus, not all passion flowers perform equally. We have tried to break our varieties down into a few categories to make selection easier. The plants in our Easy Care category are typically going to give you the most bang for your buck in terms of flowering and ease of care. Most hybrids are going to out perform straight species. The named hybrids have been specifically selected for their garden performance.

However, one thing is still a non-negotiable essential for all passion flowers. Passion flowers are full sun plants. Most of them are not going to bloom with 6-8 hours of sun. Unless they need protection from heat, they will perform best with full dawn to dusk sun. 8 hours is an absolute minimum. Though many passion flowers will grow well in the shade, they will not flower.

If you are looking for something unique, you can grab something out of our Rare Varieties category.

Keep in mind thought that these varieties typically are much more fussy to grow and many of them only bloom for a short time. Their blooms can be spectacular though if you can coax them into flowering. P. miersii and P. sidifolia are good examples.

If you are looking for a fruiting variety in much of the country, Passiflora incarnata is unfortunately your only real choice. While there are many varieties that grow fruit they are really only suited for warm places like California or Florida. P. edulis is the most commonly grown variety for fruit. Even container grown P. edulis does not have a long or warm enough season to produce fruit in most places.

If you are on the eastern half of the country, Passiflora incarnata and its hybrids are some of the best choices. This is because Passiflora incarnata is native here. It is well adapted to the growing conditions. In terms of size, vigor, number of flowers, ease of care and overwintering ability they are hard to beat. They shrug off heat and humidity often seen in the summers here. They are pollinator magnets that will bloom steadily all summer long.

If you are in the deep south, you need to look for varieties that love heat.

We have many of them including most of our P. incarnata hybrids and the P. caerulea hybrids, but also less common ones like P. holosericea. Typically, most pinks do not do well in heat and humidity, and with the possible exception of P. Victoria, they should be avoided. They are not a good choice for a hot humid location unless you are prepared to baby a plant and possibly lose it to heat stress.

Many of the less heat tolerant plants will survive but will drop flower buds in high temperatures. This is typically listed in the descriptions. These plants should be avoided unless you are ok with only having flowers in the cooler weather. Examples of plants that will live but drop buds/stop flowering in high heat include P. Monika Fischer and P. Lavender Lady, and P. loefgrenii x caerulea. Though P. Lavender Lady really shines in the fall in hot climates when not much else is in bloom.

If you live in a colder part of the country, it is essential to choose a variety that is both cool weather tolerant and also free flowering.

Many of the less free flowering varieties will not bloom well in the north. This is either due to it not being warm enough, not being warm enough for long enough, or warm enough when the number of hours of daylight is sufficient to trigger blooming. Typically you would want to stick with cold hardy varieties, or anything that mentions that it prefers cool weather. P. Belotii is particularly well suited to growing in cooler climates as it overwinters easily as a house plant. This was our passion flower of choice when living in Vermont. Varieties like P. Fata Confetto and P. Blue Velvet and P. Lady Margaret can also be good choices.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a moderate, frost free environment like California, you can grow almost anything successfully so long as you water them sufficiently. This is also the sort of place where winter blooming reds like P. Maui really shine. Winter blooming plants are a disappointment in most areas.

If you live in the sort of middle part of the country where summers are fairly warm and long, you can grow a wide variety of passion flowers.

Most of the heat intolerant ones will do ok, and it is also warm enough to grow many of the heat loving varieties. You just have to grow many of them as disposable annuals or in containers that you can bring inside to overwinter. Nonetheless, their spectacular blooms can be worth it!

If you are wishing for a passion flower to overwinter outside in much of the United States, your choices are fairly limited. P. incarnata is the most hardy variety we grow, and many of its hybrids come in second. Check out our Cold Hardy category and compare the listed hardiness zone to yours.

When discussing cold hardiness in passion flowers, it is essential to note that your location MUST be dry.

Passion flowers are very susceptible to root rot and wilts particularly in cool temperatures. If your plant is in a location that it sits wet over the winter, it will die regardless of the temperature. Keep in mind that passion flowers can be unreliably hardy, particularly in marginal soil conditions in climates close to their limit. Planting your plant in a warm sheltered microclimate that is very well drained and mulching it thoroughly can help it to survive winters better.

If you are looking for a plant that goes dormant and can be overwintered in a cool location like a garage or basement, P. incarnata’s hybrids, and P. Blue Bouquet or P. Lavender Lady all go dormant and overwinter well. P. caerulea hybrids can also go dormant though we find that they prefer to go semi-dormant and be kept somewhere that they get light.

Lastly, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, P. caerulea types will probably perform better than P. incarnata types. While we do not have personal experience growing passion flowers there, it is our understanding that P. caerulea tolerates the cool damp conditions there better than P. incarnata which is adapted to the heat and humidity of the southeast. It can be different to overwinter in the northwest due to the wet climate.

Hopefully this clarifies some differences between different groups of passion flowers and makes selecting your next plant easier! Next time we are going to discuss reasons why your passion flower isn’t blooming. If you’re interested in reading about that, please sign up for our newsletter to have it delivered to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post What Passion Flower is the Best?? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Before we get started pruning a peach tree, please take a minute to refer back to our apple pruning article if you are unsure how to make a proper pruning cut. Pruning to promote rapid healing of your cuts is extra important for stone fruits. They are highly susceptible to fungal diseases, and open wounds provide easy entrance.

Stone fruits should be pruned in early spring. They are probably about the last thing you should prune in your orchard. Pruning them too early can cause cold damage to the trees. It is better to prune them while they are flowering than it is to do so in January. Plus your pruning cuts heal more rapidly when the tree is actively growing.

Unlike apples which are pruned into a pyramidal shape, most stone fruits are pruned into an open vase shape.

They are trained into a sort of Y shaped tree with several main branches rather than one main shoot. We prune our peach trees and other stone fruits this way because they produce fruit on one year old wood. (Apples produce fruit on old wood.) So rather than cultivating old wood, we are trying to promote new growth. Good light throughout the canopy is also necessary to develop quality fruit. Pruning to an open center tree helps to distribute light evenly and increases the number of flower buds and quality of fruit.

If you are starting by planting a young tree, the first winter you ideally want to select 3 main branches. It can also be done with 2 if your tree doesn’t have 3 good branches. These branches will make the framework of your tree so should be evenly spaced around the trunk. If your tree has more branches, select the best 3 and remove the others.

These branches should have wide crotch angles so that they are strong and capable of supporting the load of fruit without breaking.

You want to remove shoots with poor crotch angles, water sprouts growing straight up, and branches growing towards the ground. You should also remove any suckers and dead or damaged wood, but leave as much of the small side shoots as possible on young trees.

The second winter, you should have a tree with the good scaffold branches selected in year one. If you did not have your 3 main scaffold branches with good crotch angles, select some this winter and remove all the other branches. Your scaffold branches can be trimmed back to 2-3 well placed side shoots if they have grown sufficiently.

Anything growing straight up or towards the ground should be removed. If you have V-crotches develop from same sized branches on your scaffold shoots, one of the 2 should be removed. Lastly, if the tip of your scaffold branches turns sharply upright at the ends, they can be removed to an outward facing bud to encourage horizontal growth. In the future you can remove the tips of upright scaffolds in the summer months.

Once you have created a strong framework for your tree, you will work towards maintaining a spreading, open growth habit in future years.

Start by removing any dead, or damaged wood. You should also look for and remove shoots that have brown rot cankers on them if possible. Completely remove water sprouts that are growing vertically, but retain shoots that grow horizontally.

You want to retain fruiting shoots that are 8-12” long but remove new shoots that are less than 6” long assuming your tree has plenty of new growth. Typically, there is no shortage of new growth or flower buds on young stone fruit trees. These short shoots won’t produce large fruit, so it is best to remove them. If the fruiting shoots on your tree are very dense you can thin out the shoots to only be every 6” or so apart.

Remember, these trees fruit on 1 year old wood, so your goal is to encourage growth of new wood.

As your tree gets older, you can thin shoots and make heading cuts as needed to maintain tree shape and to encourage new growth inside the tree. Heading cuts are cuts made partially down a branch rather than removing the entire thing.

As your trees get older, they will inevitably get woodier and less productive. The fruiting wood will move further and further out the canopy making the trees more prone to breaking. You should only expect a peach tree to be productive for about 15 years. However, if your tree is still healthy, and production is slowing down you can try to prune it harshly. Cut back to side shoots facing good directions in 3 year old wood to encourage new growth. You will reduce your crop the following year, but may increase the longevity and productivity of the tree by doing so.

We hope this helps you keep your stone fruits productive. Because you are pruning for new growth, they are very forgiving and a great place to dip you toes into the orchard pruning water.

If you would like to read more articles like this don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Prune Stone Fruit Trees Like Peaches Or Cherries first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Pruning blueberries is typically done in the winter when the plants are dormant. It is a bit of a balancing act. Prune too much and you get lots of new growth and very large berries but not very many of them. Prune too little and you get dense twiggy bushes with almost no new growth. This twiggy growth is weak, produces small berries, and no new wood for future crops.

Blueberries are ideally pruned every single year.

You want to encourage the plant to produce a moderate amount of new growth every season which will result in consistent future production. Many times, blueberries are pruned infrequently and are pruned hard every few years. This is undesirable.

If you prune your bushes hard, they will produce a lot of new growth which is great, except that all that new growth is the same age and will get old at the same time. The result is that you get very inconsistent production. Pruning in a way that causes the production of tons of new growth creates a temporary fruit slump the following season. Then the canes all come into peak production and get old at the same time. Removing all these canes when they get old and unproductive would result in practically cutting the bush to the ground. Obviously not ideal.

So how do we prune blueberries for optimum consistent production?

Start by removing anything dead, damaged, or that is too low and going to be laying on the ground when carrying fruit. Once you have done that, remove weak spindly growth from the base. These are often shoots that sprouted in late summer. Also remove old, unproductive canes. These are the canes that have little to no new growth on them. They are often very twiggy.

If necessary, thin the canopy to allow airflow and light inside. If your plant tends to overbear fruit resulting in small berries, you can also thin some of the small fruiting branches that are loaded with buds. This will encourage the bush to put more energy into producing larger fruit.

Lastly, if your bush has enough shoots and you prune yearly, remove the 2 oldest, least productive canes. If you strive to have a bush with 8-10 canes and you remove the oldest two every year, you completely rejuvenate your bush every 8-10 years. This helps keep your blueberry bush young and productive.

What if your bush is old and does not have any new growth?

On old, neglected bushes, you should cut about 1/3 of the oldest canes down to the ground. This will encourage the plant to send up new shoots in the spring. Next fall you can remove more of the older canes resulting in a rejuvenated bush in a few years’ time. Simple as that!

Blueberries really are one of the quickest, easiest things to grow and prune on our farm. So if you’re like most people who have never pruned their blueberry bushes, we encourage you to go out and give it a try this winter! You will likely be rewarded with the delicious results for many years to come.

If you’d like to read more pruning tips don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Prune Blueberry Bushes first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Just like with anything else we have pruned, it is important to take a moment to understand where apple trees fruit before we get started. As we have mentioned before, this is the underlying ‘how and when’ to prune guide. Apple trees fruit on old wood. They produce little, short branches called spurs that produce fruit. They are typically pruned during the winter when they are dormant like most deciduous plants.

For maximum production, apple trees are typically trained into a single leader conical shape.

If you want a rounder more ornamental shape, they can be trained that way as well. The same basic pruning principals still apply. When pruning apple trees, you want to try to prune as minimally as possible. The more pruning you do, the more pruning you will have to do in the future.

When you are pruning trees of any kind, you want to remove branches down to the branch collar, but not below it. This is where the tree will heal over the cut from most quickly. If you prune below the branch collar or leave a stub it takes the tree longer to close over the cut making it more likely for rot to set in. This is particularly true if you remove large branches.

Let’s get started!

The first thing you want to do is remove any dead, damaged or diseased wood. Next, remove branches that are crossing over or rubbing on each other, and branches growing downward. Then, thin branches that are growing too close to each other. When thinning branches you want to remove one of the branches all the way down to its base. Ideally when pruning apples you want to remove whole branches instead of making cuts partway up if possible.

Next you want to remove any branches that are bigger than the trunk, this is particularly true of young trees. If you don’t remove these branches they will potentially become the dominant shoot instead of your trunk which can result in a weak, misshapen tree.

You also want to remove all the water sprouts—vigorous vertical branches. Young trees might not have any. Older trees, particularly those with very horizontally oriented branches may have a lot. These shoots are pretty obvious. They grow straight up, and may be 4-6’ long, and all this year’s growth.

If you are pruning an older overgrown tree, or one that has been neglected removing the water sprouts may not be enough. You may need to thin your tree. To do this start by removing small weak shoots followed by those in areas where growth is particularly heavy. Your goal is to promote light and airflow as that is what your fruit needs to ripen properly. Lastly, you want to remove any suckers at the base of the tree.

If you are pruning a young tree to a central leader shape, your goal is to create 1 central shoot with scaffold branches every 12” or so.

As you are training your young tree, choose a leader shoot every year, and 3-5 side branches in a whorl. Remove everything else. To encourage your young tree to produce the desired side shoots you can top your central leader above where you wish to produce a new layer of branches. Cutting off the tip of the shoot will cause nearby buds to sprout. Once they have sprouted you can select a new leader and your side branches.

If you are growing your tree in a central leader style, you want to keep your upper branches shorter than your lower branches so that your tree maintains a pyramidal shape. This is to keep the upper branches from shading out the lower branches.

If your tree’s branches are growing too vertical, you can use spreaders or weights to encourage the tree to produce wide branch angles. An angle of about 60 degree is strongest. More horizontal branches will produce more fruit than vertical growing branches. Some cultivars naturally grow nice wide branches, some need help to attain that shape. If you take the time to train a young tree into an ideal shape, it will be easiest to maintain throughout its life.

We hope this helps you grow pretty and productive apple trees! If you would like to read more articles like this one, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Prune Apple Trees first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Kiwis are a little bit more confusing to prune than some plants. Fortunately, they are vigorous and grow so rapidly, they are very forgiving. If you screw up and prune them wrong, you might get less/no fruit this year, but by next year no one will ever know.

Exactly how you prune your kiwis is going to vary a little bit depending on what kind of trellis you have them growing on, however the same principles apply regardless. Both hardy kiwis and fuzzy kiwis are pruned similarly. They both fruit on the same kind of wood.

As we have mentioned before, knowing what wood your plant fruits or flowers on is critical to both knowing when and how to prune.

A lot of plants fruit on either new wood, or old wood. Not both. New wood is defined as wood that grew this season. Old wood is wood that grew last season or before. Kiwis can’t make things that easy for us. They flower on new wood. But only new wood that is growing off of 1 year old wood. So, shoots that grew last summer are going to produce the shoots that flower the coming spring. Shoots that grew 2 summers ago will not grow fruit on the new wood that sprouts.

Another caveat to pruning kiwis is that you prune male and female kiwis differently. You also prune them at different times of year. Female kiwis are pruned in the winter. Male kiwis are ideally pruned in the spring immediately after flowering. Additionally, you lightly prune both sexes in the opposite seasons.

Note: If you don’t have fruit and don’t know what your kiwi vine genders are, you need to look at the flowers when they are blooming. Males and females have very distinctly different looking blooms and are easy to tell apart. Males have a large cluster of stamens only. Female flowers have a pistil and possibly a few stamens. If you don’t have fruit and don’t know what your kiwi vine genders are, you need to look at the flowers when they are blooming. Males and females have very distinctly different looking blooms. Males have a large cluster of stamens. Female flowers have a pistil and a few stamens surrounding it.

Since male kiwis are a little bit more straightforward to prune, let’s start with them.

Later, we can apply the same principals to pruning our female kiwis. Typically, kiwis are trained to some kind of horizontal cordon similar to grapes. There is one main shoot going up to the top of the trellis, or in our case pergola, and a couple branches that are your permanent structure. We aren’t going to go over how to train this structure here, but if you are unfamiliar with how to do so, please refer to the years 1 and 2 sections of our grape pruning article.

Male kiwis are mainly pruned in the spring/early summer. After the male has finish blooming, we want to remove all of the wood that flowered back to our main cordons. Leave stubs so that there are buds to sprout new growth from. Over the summer your male kiwi will produce tons of new growth from these buds. Yes, it might seem scary to remove essentially all growth from your plant, but kiwi vines are very vigorous and it will grow back with a vengeance.

Over the winter just lightly prune your male to remove very twisted or wild shoots. In the winter you want to leave as much growth as possible to maximize your pollination potential. Pruning your male kiwi this way and at this time will maximize the number of flowers and minimize the weight and space the male takes up.

Your female kiwis are mainly pruned during the winter after the fruit has been harvested.

Start by removing anything that is twisted around itself or other vines. Then you want to thin out your vines. The goal is to remove old wood, but you need to leave enough 1 year old wood to get fruit. Ideally you will have new shoots growing off the main cordons or near the main cordons. If that is the case, leave that shoot and remove the wood past it. If you do not have enough shoots like that, thin your shoots that fruited this year and leave them. Plan to thin/remove them the following year.

After your kiwi has flowered and set fruits, you can trim the fruiting shoots a few buds past the fruit. This will encourage your shoots to send out side shoots rather than continuing to grow the fruiting shoot. This is what you want as those side shoots are the ones you want to retain for next year. Taking a few minutes to do this at the same time you prune your male kiwi should make your winter pruning easier.

When pruning kiwis you will be removing the majority of the wood.

It may seem like a lot, but that is what you want to do. If you leave tons of excess shoots your vine will put more effort into growing leaves and shoots and less effort into producing flowers and fruit. There is no sense in keeping old wood that will never fruit again. Removing it will allow you to maximize the amount of fruiting wood present.

Hopefully this helps to take some of the mystery out of pruning your kiwis. Don’t worry if you don’t get it exactly right the first time. Vines are extremely forgiving. Observe the results of your pruning, learn and modify as needed next season.

If you would like to read more how to articles on pruning, please sign up for our newsletter so that you don’t’ miss out.

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Prune Kiwi Vines first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Let’s start with a familiar analogy. If you have been involved in the gardening community for any length of time, you have likely heard the mantra thriller, filler, spiller as being the secret recipe for planting containers that look amazing. Without all 3 of these elements, containers often look like they are lacking. The same is true of your garden beds. There are certain elements you need to have present to really make your landscape pop.

It doesn’t matter whether you are looking for formal or cottage garden. The same basics apply, and the same elements need to be present. The sky is the limit when it comes to execution and your creativity in applying these principals.

So, what are these elements?

Similar to the recipe for containers, you want to have focal plants and filler plants. It’s important to have plants of different shapes, textures, colors, and sizes. Too many focal plants and not enough filler and your garden fails to be cohesive, and might feel cluttered. Too few and it becomes boring. Many times the same plants may fill different roles in different gardens, so you really have to think about what your goals are, and how much space you have to work with.

For example, in a very formal garden, your focal plants might be topiaries. In a cottage garden, they might be larger flowering shrubs. In a small yard without space for large shrubs, really flashy, large flowered perennials might be your focal plants. It might be a vine trailing up a fancy trellis. Choose things that add height and interest. Plants that will draw your eye. Then start designing with your focal plants first. Place them in strategic locations.

Next you want to fill in around the focal plants with your ‘fillers and spillers’.

Often these workhorses get overlooked and get little to no credit for being what makes a landscape look like a million dollars. They are also the most likely element to be missing. These are the plants that in and of their own right aren’t really that exciting or interesting. However, they bring the color and texture a garden needs to look complete. These plants can be shrubs, perennials, or groundcovers. Annuals, particularly reseeding ones, can even have an essential place. Don’t skimp on your fillers!

The goal with these plants is to fill in around your focal plants with different heights, textures, and colors to bring interest to your garden throughout the season.

For example, Nepeta is one of our favorite landscape plants. It produces a fine, mounded texture, and provides months of bright blueish-purple blooms. Verbena bonariensis provides a very spiky upright texture. Russian sage provides an airy upright texture with the added bonus of dusty gray-green colored foliage. Annuals like California poppies can provide an explosion of color in early spring filling in around slow to sprout perennials, then fading away as the perennials take their place.

Asters can provide a fluffy mound and color in the fall when most plants are no longer blooming. Cheddar pinks can provide a swath of color in the spring, and an unassuming carpet of green later in the season. Planted en masse Gaillardia can provide a blanked of coarse textured color for much of the season. Iris can provide spiky upright texture. You probably get the idea. Look at plants as a whole rather than just for their flowers, and ask what the entire plant can or can’t add to your garden.

It is important also to not overlook plants grown mainly for their foliage.

They have an equally important place in your garden. These plants can provide interest and texture that are different than what flowering plants add. Sage provides coarse textured dusty green foliage. Black leaved Physocarpus varieties, and variegated plants like red twig dogwoods add a depth of color all season long.

And while we are discussing plants grown for their foliage, we should mention that ideally you want a mixture of deciduous plants and evergreens, just like you want a mixture of perennials and shrubs. Your shrubs and evergreens help to provide interest in the winter months, particularly if you pick deciduous plants with winter interest features. The perennials and deciduous plants help to provide color and interest in the summer months. A landscape of all evergreen plants is terribly boring in July just like a landscape of all perennials is in December.

There is no right or wrong percentage for each of these types of plants in your garden. It depends on the effect you are going for. A more formal garden will have more evergreens, a cottage garden would lean more heavily on deciduous and flowering plants.

Lastly, we want to note that many times the depth and interest of varying plant heights is lacking.

A lot of times people either plant all shrubs that are all the same height or stair step their gardens. Tall plants in back, medium plants, then short plants in front. While, yes, it would be pretty silly to plant the tall plants in the front, if you follow it to the letter and your whole entire garden follows this format, it’s boring.

In either scenario mentioned above, your garden will lack depth and interest and mystery. Instead follow this principal loosely. Create random islands and peninsulas of taller plants that reach out towards the front of your beds. Or toss in something a triangular trellis with a vine on it in a random place. Doing this provides a lot of visual interest that strictly tiered (or not tiered at all) beds provide.

We hope this gives you some ideas to help make your garden the envy of the neighborhood!

If you are interested in reading more articles like this, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter to have them delivered directly to your inbox.

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Designing A Garden Like A Professional first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

We find that evaluating what did and didn’t work last year and dreaming about next year’s garden is the perfect way to pass time during the cold dreary winter months. Winter is a less busy time. Plus, by making plans now we can be sure that we will have everything we need in time. We also won’t miss any critical planting dates if we take the time to notate them ahead of time.

How much planning is required depends on many factors. Factors such as what kind of garden you will be growing, and what you plan to grow yourself vs. what you buy. If you have perennial crops or just annual ones, etc. In addition to planning our season out ahead of time, we find that taking notes throughout the gardening season is very helpful.

Notes can help you to remember what did and didn’t work. Or when you planted or harvested things or when you sprayed pesticides or fungicides. Were there ideas that you wanted to try? When you sit down in January to plan, it can be really hard to remember exactly what happened last July. Keeping good records can revolutionize your gardening experience.

The first thing you need to do is evaluate what your goals are.

Do you want to have cut flowers all summer? Do you want to improve on something that didn’t work out last year? Or maybe you want to grow vegetables? Minimize the number of plantings you have to do? Succeed at growing broccoli without it being eaten by worms? Do you want to have a particular vegetable all season? Do you want a summer garden? One that will continue to provide you with vegetables into the winter? Do you want to minimize the amount of time you spend gardening this year because it’s a busy summer?

You probably get the idea. There is no right or wrong answer. However, taking the time to think about what you want ahead of time allows you to do research or re-evaluate if some of your goals are in opposition to each other. Taking the time to research a new crop you want to try, or a pest problem you’re having ahead of time can sometimes make a huge difference to your success.

Once you’ve figured out the goal, you need to evaluate what you have and what you need to buy. You might need seeds and plants. Or you might need to purchase supplies like row covers stakes or potting mix. Purchasing these sorts of things early gives you access to the best selection. Plus, you will be sure to have everything you need before things get busy in the spring. This is important. Some things are very timing critical, and if you miss your window of opportunity that’s it for the year.

Once you have determined what you need, you need to plan your schedule.

We like to do this on our calendar app so that it will remind us of planting dates. To determine your planting schedule you need to know a few things. You need to know your first and last frost dates, days to maturity for your crops, and how cold tolerant they are.

You can find your average first and last frost dates by doing an internet search for it with your zip code. First and last frost dates are important because they dictate how long your growing season is. They dictate when it’s safe to plant things in the spring. They also tell you when it’s too late to plant to have your crop mature before frost in the fall.

The second thing you need is days to maturity for your plants. This is typically listed on your seed packet somewhere. It may be listed as days to harvest or similar wording. If your seed packet does not tell you, the information should be available online.

Most seed packets will also provide information on direct sowing vs. transplanting, and how soon the plants can be safely planted outside. This is all important to know. If you are unfamiliar with the term, days to maturity, it means how long it takes the seed to go from planting to flowering (for flowers) or harvest (for vegetables). Keep in mind this number is an estimate. Things will grow more slowly in cool weather.

Armed with this information we can start to plan our planting schedule.

For the sake of illustration, we are going to use our zone 8 climate. Our average first and last frost dates are November 5^th and April 6^th. This means that April 6^th is the absolute earliest we can plant out anything frost tender (and that probably waiting a couple weeks longer is best). We also must plant everything early enough to ensure that it is mature or harvested prior to November 5^th.

Next, we can divide our seeds into a few different groups. We have the cold crops, warm season crops, and those that we transplant. Transplants can also be broken down into cold vs. warm season crops. This goes for both flower and vegetable seeds. If you are unsure what category a particular plant falls into, go ahead and look it up.

Cold season plants can be planted early in the season, often weeks prior to the last frost date.

The cold season seed packets might say things like ‘plant as soon as the soil can be worked’. They are cold and usually frost tolerant. Warm season plants are tender plants like cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers that need warm temperatures and long days to live. Transplants are things that are started inside, usually 4-6 weeks before your last frost date. This allows them to get a head start which can be particularly important in cooler climates. Transplants come with some advantages. The biggest of which is probably that you get to pick flowers or harvest vegetables sooner.

Many things can be both direct seeded and transplanted.

However, when you are considering whether to transplant or direct seed something you need to pay attention to comparing your days to maturity to growing season length. Many commonly transplanted things have high days to maturity, and the number of days required may exceed the length of your growing season when direct seeded.

To know how late in the season a particular seed can be planted or plant can be transplanted, you need to count back from your first frost date, and make sure that the days to maturity is less. So for example, the end of June is the latest we can plant winter squash (with 100 days to maturity) here and expect a harvest. If we planted it in August, it would not have time to ripen fruit before the plant got frosted.

We also need to decide if a particular plant is something that is planted once a year or succession planted.

Succession planting is planting the same crop repeatedly every few weeks or months. It is typically done with crops that mature rapidly and have short harvest windows. You have to decide if you want to put in the effort to repeatedly plant and remove a crop or whether you are satisfied with one planting. Some examples of things that are commonly succession planted include lettuce, radishes, and sunflowers. Things like peppers and tomatoes are not succession planted. They take a long time to mature and they will continue to produce a harvest as long as they are alive.

To determine whether you can succession plant, and how many successions you can do requires you to look back at your first and last frost dates.

Compare that to the days to maturity. Depending on where you are located, you may need to consider how hot your summers will get. Many cool season crops are not tolerant of the long, hot summer days. They cannot successfully be grown mid-summer, so you also need to take this into consideration.

Lettuce is probably one of the most commonly succession planted crops so let’s use that as an example. It is cold hardy and will germinate in cold soil, but is not heat tolerant. In our climate, we can start planting lettuce about a month before our last frost date–at the beginning of March. We can continue to plant it until about June 1^stat which point it will be too hot to continue.

Lettuce reaches maturity in 50 days or less for baby leaves, and it gets bitter quickly as it ages. Thus, if we want a steady supply of lettuce, we need to plant it every 2-4 weeks between March and June. If we wanted fall lettuce, we would count back 50 days from our first frost date of November 5^th. We can plant fall lettuce any time up to the end of September, and it will have time to mature before frost.

You shouldn’t have to start from scratch to figure this out for everything if you don’t want to.

There is a good chance that a local university extension will have a published approximate planting dates for your area that can make a good starting point for your planning. Nonetheless, understanding how those recommended dates are determined is important so that you can determine planting dates for things they may have omitted from their publication. Keeping meticulous records year to year will help you to tweak the dates to be ideal for your micro-climate.

So far, we’ve been mainly talking about annual crops, and in many ways perennial crops are a lot easier to plan for. Nonetheless, planning and record keeping is equally as important for perennial crops. If you have fruit trees, timing your pesticide and fungicide application right can make the difference between getting a bumper crop and harvesting nothing. So you should also notate on your calendar things like spray dates and when to start scouting for pests, and also when the pests appeared to help you in future years. Over time you can create a personalized schedule that works best for you.

We hope that this inspires you to spend some of these dreary winter days preparing to make next year’s garden better than ever!

If you would like more gardening tips, please sign up for our newsletter to have our future articles delivered directly to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Winter Is The Perfect Time To Do Garden Planning first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

The first thing that is important to know is that brambles, which are perennials, produce biennial canes. This means their above ground portion lives for only 2 years. Most brambles produce canes one year, set fruit on those canes the following year, and then they die. So we need to keep this in mind as we are pruning. One year old canes are called primocanes, two year old canes are called floricanes.

Brambles do best in beds where their outward spread can be contained by mowing or edging. Additionally, most do best with a trellis to help support them. This is particularly true of black berries and black raspberries. If you do not contain them, they will quickly create a briar patch that is difficult or impossible to prune and pick.

Let’s start with red raspberries.

Red raspberries are very straightforward to prune once you know what kind you have. Red raspberries are split into what are called primocane and floricane varieties. Primocane varieties produce a large fall crop on the current season’s growth. They will produce a smaller floricane crop on the 2^nd year canes if allowed to. Floricane varieties only produce fruit on the second year canes.

If you do not know what type of raspberries you have, there are a couple ways you can make this determination. Firstly, your primocane varieties are mostly the fall raspberries; whereas floricane varieties are the summer varieties. You can also observe your plants this season to see whether this year’s canes set fruit or not. If you are still in doubt you can cut your plants to the ground and see if they produce fruit the following season. If they do they are a primocane variety.

Because primocane varieties produce their large crop on 1 year wood, they are easiest managed by simply mowing them to the ground during the winter. If you wish to harvest a floricane crop from them you will need to manage them like floricane varieties. Most people don’t bother though. Floricane varieties will produce a better summer crop.

Floricane varieties are the summer bearing raspberry varieties.

These plants do not produce fruit until the cane’s second season. Thus, you cannot mow them down in the fall. To prune these berries you must go through and remove all the dead canes by hand. In the winter use pruners to selectively trim the canes that have previously fruited down to the ground. Once you have done that you can thin out any damaged, spindly or overly densely spaced canes.

When you are done pruning, you should have good spacing between your remaining canes. This will allow airflow, provide space for the new canes to grow up, and make it possible for you to find the fruit to pick. If you have a very dense overgrown raspberry patch that hasn’t been cared for in many years, you are probably best off to mow the patch to the ground. Then start pruning them yearly when they regrow.

Blackberries and black raspberries are a bit more difficult to prune.

Unlike red raspberries, black berries and black raspberries grow very tall, long, floppy canes that tip root. Therefore, trellising is particularly important for these varieties. You can see an example of an easy, inexpensive trellis in the photo below. It is simply T-posts on the corners with several strands of flexible wire strung between them to hold the vines upright.

Blackberries and black raspberries are more clump forming in growth habit than red raspberries and benefit from some summer pruning. There are very few primocane varieties, so you will almost always have to manage them as floricanes.

The principle of pruning these varieties is the same as floricane red raspberries. In the winter you want to go through and trim out all the old dead wood that has fruited. And again you want to thin out any weak or damaged, or overly dense growth. You only want to leave canes that are going to produce quality fruit. Get rid of any that won’t, and make way for the new canes to grow.

Where pruning blackberries deviates from red raspberries is that their canes also need top pruning.

Ideally, you start this process in the summer. Otherwise you will have a giant mess of new tip rooted plants all over your yard. During the summer months top your new blackberry canes at a reasonable height. We usually try to do so at about 4’ high. Ideal height for you will depend on your trellis. The topped canes will produce side shoots. You can top these side shoots also if needed to keep them from drooping down and touching the ground. Doing this will help keep the plants more manageable and will help maximize your fruit production.

In the winter while you are pruning you want to do the same thing. Tip back all the side shoots to about 6-8” from the main stem. These side shoots are where the fruiting shoots will sprout. You want to leave several buds to grow fruiting shoots, but not so many that they are weak and likely to break.

Following these guidelines you should be able to keep your brambles manageable, productive and easy to pick.

If you would like to read more gardening how to’s like this, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Prune Brambles–Your Blackberries and Raspberries first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.