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Pruning and Shrub Shaping

The spring flowering shrubs and Yew shrubs are ready for a trim!  We began shaping and trimming last week and will continue working through all properties until complete….and then we’ll start all over again.  J  For the entire month of July, there is extra time added to all of our regular maintenance visits to accommodate the additional work.

The delayed spring weather, ample amounts of rain and periodic HOT days have caused nature to be slightly off kilter this year.  My general assessment right now is that the normal sequence/progression of spring (forsythia bloom!) and early summer (shrub roses in full bloom!) that spans the time from about April 15-June 1st was shifted and consolidated to May 9-June 20th.  In addition to the natural progression of spring was the great emergence of 2013—first tree leaves fully emerged on May 19th (about 3 weeks later than normal) and just 4 weeks later the shrubs are in need of trimming.  Normally, there is a 6 week or more time frame between first full leaf emergence and trimming/shaping.  Yikes!

Normally, we begin trimming shrubs the first week of June.  By the first week of June most spring flowering shrubs have nearly completed their flowering, not this year though, the delayed spring also delayed flowering on many shrubs.  Unfortunately—at the same time leaf/shoot growth was/is in full swing.  For example, while lilacs...

Welcome, new clients!  And ‘big picture’ questions for everyone—

Whether this is your first season with Beautiful Blooms or your 8th, what is your initial impression this season?  This is important to us because as the cliché goes—this is the impression that will last the longest.

Is this your first experience working with a landscape maintenance contractor?  Are we meeting your expectations?  Have you worked with other contractors in the past—how do we compare?  Is there something that you miss about your past contractor that you wish we did or did better?

Do you appreciate the level of communication that we provide?  Is it too much, do you want more, do you want it to be done differently? 

How else can we serve you?  Do you have any questions or concerns about Beautiful Blooms and the services we are providing to you?

These are hugely important questions for me to ask and get feedback from you on.  Your honest feedback is critical to the future success of our company.  We wish to provide you with services that leave you feeling delighted and if we are not living up to that expectation we certainly want to know about it so we can correct the issue at once. 

Please take a moment and call or e-mail anything that is of concern to you….or anything that we are doing a great job of.  ALL of your responses will be used to improve our company, our entire team...

Annual pricing is listed below.

“There is likely frost until the last full moon in May.”  Hmmmm….that goes hand in hand with the sort of weather we are having because the last (only) full moon in May is May 24, 2013.  Anything less than 50 degrees at night and injury to summer annuals is nearly guaranteed.  Here is more interesting information.  I’m sharing this with you because the earliest we are planning to start annual planting is the week of May 20th—and will likely conclude the week of June 3rd .  All dependent on weather of course.  According to the predicted last frost, these dates may be pushed back a week.

While that is a few weeks away, our planning and ordering has begun.  I invite you to communicate directly with Mary Beth as she is the one making these arrangements.  Her e-mail address is Marybeth@beautifulbloomslandscape.com.  To be sure we are covering all of your container planting needs, please answer the following questions.  If you have anything specific you would like to add, of course please do.  As a quick reference, I’ve included our pricing information for annual/twig color at the end of this e-mail, there are more options/information than what was originally printed on your earlier contract.  If you have any questions or concerns about annual planting, please contact Mary Beth.  Thank you!

**cut and paste these ...

“Dog Vomit Fungus”-Slime Mold

In spring, when you have cleaned the yard of all its winter debris and laid down new hardwood mulch on all of your beds.  Some time has passed and as you walk around enjoying your season-ready yard, you notice something sitting on top of your mulch!  It is not very big, but it is very ugly, and quite frankly, it looks like your dog has puked up something that didn’t quite agree with him.  What you are looking at is called, in gardening circles, Dog Vomit Fungus (slime mold).  No really, that’s what it is called and it is more common that you’d think!  Typically, spring weather conditions are perfect for this nasty looking fungus to appear in your mulched landscape beds.

Why is it showing up in JULY?  Lately, the weather has been very similar to our spring time conditions, cool and damp.

We have been getting calls reporting a strange slimy mess in landscape beds- almost like someone threw up in their gardens!!!  It is a type of mushroom?  Is it going to harm my shrubs or other landscape plant material?

Let me ease your concerns…

This isn’t a mushroom at all. It is a mold- a slime mold! It is actually more closely related to a single-celled organism.  Slime mold has 2 life stages; First, “plasmodium” stage- it is just like a huge amoeba that creeps and moves like a blob over dead wood (including mulch) and other materials, engulfing,...

I can’t tell you how many times we are asked to apply mulch in a season and with that often comes the request for “Chocolate”, “Red”, “Gold”, “Orange”…thankfully, no one has requested “Purple”, or “Blue”…although, they do exist!  

About a year ago, I took a stand and said–NO MORE.  We will not voluntarily offer painted mulches.  Why…because.  Not all mulch is created equal and if you are willing to spend extra money (above the cost of a standard natural wood mulch)for something that is inferior, then quite frankly–I have a mountain in New Orleans that I would like to sell to you.   Through many conversations with clients I have been able to educate them to the purpose of putting down mulch and why colored mulches may not be in their best interest.  My crusade is paying off, we currently only have 3 clients who have not willingly switched to either Hemlock, Shredded Oak, or a Mixed Hardwood Mulch.  In 2013 we will have zero, as we simply will not provide colored mulches at all.

I was about to write a carefully crafted blog about “WHY” we do not feel colored mulches are appropriate when I stumbled upon this fine article.  Not a fan of rebuilding the wheel….here it is in it’s entirety…I could not agree more or have written it better myself!

Taken from Nature’s Way website, an...

Yes, we have all gotten some much needed rain over the past 10 days or so…but it is not enough, not even close.  And again the hot temperatures in the 90’s continue.  This newsletter is a follow up to the initial “Severe Drought” article I wrote a couple of weeks ago.  You can find that article posted on our website.

 I will do my best to answer many questions that I Have fielded recently and provide you with information as to what you can expect to see going forward.

 5 common questions and observations concerning the drought:

1.       Q: I have a sprinkler system, isn’t that enough?  A:  NO.  First, there is likely a water ban/restriction in your area so the use of a sprinkler system may not even be allowed.  Additionally, a sprinkler system is only applying a small amount of water to a large area…in some instances this includes pavement or unplanted bed space.  Further—a sprinkler is wetting leafy materials where the water either will evaporate readily and/or cause disease issues.  Sprinkler watering is particularly wasteful during a time such as this.  Manually water—use a hose.  Not necessary to actually hold the hose and spend countless hours applying water, but rather remove any hose end attachment and turn the water to a slow-medium rate and set the hose near the base of the plants needing water and...

This morning the headlines in the morning news were that the drought in SE Wisconsin has been upgraded to “severe”.  What this means is that crop damage has occurred or is highly likely, there may be water shortages, and water restrictions are in place in many communities.  Well, the farm fields are not the only thing affected…as we well know, the lush green of spring in our individual landscapes has long since passed.  Coupled with no rain are the effects of sweltering high temperatures.  What to do….and what not to do….

I keep dancing, praying, and hoping for rain!  The cooler temperatures this week are a blessing, unfortunately the severe heat of the last two weeks has caused some damage to many landscape plants.  The damage that I have seen is mostly a ‘sun burn’ of top leaves on shrubs and trees, and where there has been no watering I am seeing shrubs now turn ‘crispy’.  Are they dead?  I’m not sure yet.  Stressed for sure…and time will tell if they can or will rebound.

Sincerely, I hope that we do not see widespread loss of ornamental plantings.  And I am generally not an alarmist…but the last time I recall a drought like this was in 1988 and the last brutal heat I recall like this was in 1995….never do I remember the heat and drought happening together.  I have driven and observed landscapes from Delafield to Whitefish...