DENVER — If your lawn isn’t as green as Ireland right now, then you are doing something terribly wrong. Perhaps those horrible Japanese beetle grubs are eating the roots of your lawn.
You need to be treating your lawns right now with grub killer. And turn off your sprinkler systems, you don’t need to water a lot in May, especially now that we’re getting consistent rain. Encourage the roots of your lawns to delve deeper into the soil. It will make your lawn more resilient to the heat and drought of summer.
It is now time to trim your roses and lavender. Lavender is my favorite companion plant to roses but it’s time to give them a haircut. Don’t toss the fragrant bundle, put them in your closet or lingerie drawer.
Trim your roses as necessary. Miniature roses, climbing roses and shrub roses are all grown on their own root stock, so they rarely die. You just need to cut back the canes to the green part of the stem or green growth. Trimming roses promotes growth so they will take it from here.
In comparison, hybrid tea roses are grown on wild root stock, the top of the plant is grafted on to a different root. Go ahead a trim your hybrid tea roses but if the top has died all the way down to the graft, your tea rose is toast.
As garden centers stock up on more plants go ahead and shop to your heart’s desire…it’s so tempting! I’m most sure Jennifer drives a moving van to the garden center when she goes shopping. But don’t forget to harden-off or acclimate your plants. Expose them gradually to the intense Colorado sun. And bring your tropical plants like geraniums and tomatoes in at night until it stays reliably at 50 degrees at night.
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