Best of Horticultural Tips for June
 
Gardens
  1. Cut spent iris bloom stalks off at the base.  This is especially important for re-bloomers.
  2. With all the early rain, this is bound to be a bad year for ticks.  Ticks are not insects, but arachnids, the same classification as spiders.  These pests do not jump or fly.  When they are ready to feed, they camp out on a blade of grass, and wait for humans or animals to come by. This strategy is called “questing.”  By using their third and fourth pairs of legs for stability, they stretch out their first set of legs and latch onto the host.  Avoid potential problems by wearing a hat and spraying exposed skin and your clothes with a product containing DEET. 
  3. When buying plants, remember that although a plant in full bloom looks good now, the one in bud will perform better once planted.
  4. What shade gardens lack in brightness, they can make up for in texture, which explains the popularity of hostas and ferns.  Plants with pops of color to try in shade include columbine, hellebores, toad lilies, epimediums, turtle head, monkshood, astilbe, shooting stars, Japanese anemones, brunnera, Japanese painted ferns, actaea pachypoda, daylilies (partial shade), variegated Solomon’s seal, bergenia, lungwort, lady’s mantle, and lamium. Glory of the snow and scilla siberica are spring bulbs that naturalize nicely in shaded areas.  Annuals that pack a punch include caladiums , rex begonias, and coleus. Try something new this year!
  5. The time for spraying horticultural oil for insect control is in early spring before bud break.
  6. Cut mums and asters down to 6 inches in June before July 1.  If you do it after July 1, the plants may not bloom as fully.
  7. Toad Stools may appear in the grass; no control, just knock them off.
  8. Peonies turning yellow could be a nutritional problem or disease.  Take a sample in to the Extension office.  Also, make sure the peonies are in full sun.
  9. Hail damaged plants—provide good growing conditions, cut damage off.  They will recover.
  10. Hostas—crown root rot—dig and throw away.
  11. The “rose slug” is a sawfly larva, not a caterpillar.  This pest removes the upper leaf surface making the leaf look almost white.  Check rose leaves in early summer by looking at the upper and lower leaf surfaces.  For light infestations, remove the leaves (with the larva) and discard.  Blasting the larva with water from a hose will knock them off.  For a heavy infestation, use Neem Oil or insecticidal soap.
  12. Ladybugs can have as many as 16 spots or none at all.
  13. Perennial plants need to finish their summer growth cycle on their own.  Do not encourage late season growth with heavy fertilizer applications or excessive pruning near the end of the summer growing season.
  14. Early morning is the best time to harvest peas since pods are at their crispest then.  They will also keep longer.
  1. Iris like full sun, dry weather; divide and move in July. Thin iris after blooming and divide (about every third year).
  2. Plants can survive if under water for 48 hours, but not 72 hours.
  3. Round holes in rose = leaf cutter bees.
  4. Pinch back leggy perennials or just deadhead.
  5. DO NOT USE Japanese beetle traps.  They will lure more beetles to your yard.
  6. Try a penstemon.  Lots of new varieties, easy to grow in sun, great leaf color.
  7. Give rhubarb a rest in mid-June.

 
Lawns
  1. Wild violets (a larval food source for Fritillary butterflies ) are fine in shade gardens.  But once they migrate to the lawn, most people move to eradicate them.  Apply a postemergence broadleaf herbicide as soon as the violet reaches the two-leaf stage of growth.  Use a product called triclopyr or find it in a product with a 2 or 3 way combination.  If this is a serious problem and crabgrass is not, plan on putting the first application of preemergence down around mid-March, which is earlier than it should be put down for crabgrass.
  2. Yellow nutsedge is a real problem that can spiral out of control.  It has yellow-green wide leaves with straight edges that abruptly come to a point.  It has a triangular stem with a shiny or glossy leaf surface.  Its fibrous root system produces tubers that can survive years in the soil.  Apply a post-emergent herbicide before the sedges sprout tubers, normally June 15.
  3. Do not pull yellow nut sedge after June 21!  Nutlet will stay in soil and grow again. or even worse—disperse.  Use Sedgehammer
    Buffalo grass:
                --a nice low maintenance alternative to blue grass lawns in a sunny area
                --not suited to sandy soil
                --deep soak once a month from July to September
                --avoid short mowing and over fertilization to prevent weeds. 
    The reason this is a good alternative is that you don’t have to mow as often—only once a month or once a season-- and fertilizer is rarely needed after it is established.
  4. Mesotrione (Tenacity) can be used on cool seasoned grass and buffalo grass lawns to control both broadleaf and grassy weeds.  It is available to the homeowner in a granular form as Scotts Turf Builder Starter Food for New Grass.  Be sure and read label as it is a new product.
  5. Check for sod webworm.
    Anthracnose disease could be a problem this spring because of cool wet weather.  Control is not recommended.
  6. The number one most common turfgrass weed:
         --follows Forsythia
         --it needs a shove
         --it preys on the weak
         --it is prolific
​       What is it?  CRABGRASS!



Trees & Shrubs
  1. If you would like to shape a spring blooming shrub, trim it right after it finishes blooming.  Trimming later than that may reduce the blooms next spring.
  2. Bagworms hatch in late May, early June.  They are very small and can move with the wind.  Spray bagworm crawlers with bifenthrin.
  3. Remove tree stakes that have been in place more than one season.
  4. Bronze birch borer may be active soon—only 3/8” long.  Look for exit holes. Damage starts in the tops of the trees.
  5. A yard without shade can be 20 degrees hotter than one with a lot of shade.  Plant a tree for the future. 
  6. Change/sharpen your mower blade each month!  A dull mower blade shreds the tops of grass blades allowing disease to enter and making the tips turn brown.
  7. Service berries will begin to ripen.
  8. Time to thin apples: 1 fruit per 6” of branch.