The flowering ornamental trees are often the prima donnas of spring and many are in their prime at the moment.
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Prunus species, including both fruiting and ornamental plums, cherries, almonds, apricots, peaches and nectarines are well in flower now with some just about finished.
Forsythias, Viburnums and Spiraea (May bush) are also looking great.
These trees and shrubs are best pruned as soon as they finish flowering.
Remove any dead wood, suckers and, on shrubs, remove old canes from the base. Also trim any crossing branches and weak, overcrowded stems.
Temperatures have reached the twenties in the past few weeks. While it might seem unlikely, it is possible that we will still get a few more frosts.
Gardeners use sheets, blankets, plastic, frost fleece, cardboard boxes, large round garbage cans and anything else that they can get their hands on to protect plants on a cold night!
Keep an eye on weather forecasts and when a frost is forecast, protect any new plants that have begun to sprout new shoots which may be injured by frost.
Covering plants is the simplest, most practical way to do this.
Gardeners use sheets, blankets, plastic, frost fleece, cardboard boxes, large round garbage cans and anything else that they can get their hands on to protect plants on a cold night!
Don't forget, however, that a blanket doesn't keep a plant warm to any degree. Blankets keep us warm because our bodies produce heat that the blanket holds in.
If you wrap up the branches of a small tree or shrub with a blanket, you may, in fact keep some of the heat rising up from the soil, away from the plant.
To protect plants effectively, put the cover over the plant and let it drape down to the soil on all sides. Secure it with boards, rocks or soil to hold in the air, which will trap the heat from the soil within the plant's canopy.
Even cold soil is actually warmer than freezing and thus a source of "heat" on a cold night. Keeping the temperature around plants from dropping below freezing will help protect them.
The next day, remove the covers to allow the sun to warm the soil surface a little and replace the covers as the sun goes down.
The next meeting of the Armidale Garden Club is on Thursday 24 September, at 7:00 pm in the Uniting Church Youth Club Hall. Everyone is welcome and all COVID requirements adhered to.
