Question from Heather:

Answer from Pat: Prune lavendar as soon as the main blossom season has finished. Lavendar needs full sun. Otherwise it will grow towards the light and become uneven. Prune it after bloom by shearing the plant all over removing all the blooms and at least an inch or two of foliage. Don’t cut it back into bare wood, however. Only shear away of some of the gray green foliage and all of the blossoms. Some lavenders bloom mostly in spring, others in summer, some year round and others twice a year. The year round one’s are best sheared following spring bloom and again lightly in fall. Strive for a nice smooth rounded shape. By shearing lavender this way after bloom you can keep it more compact and help it to live longer. If growing in very poor soil, fertilize lightly after shearing with a balanced organic fertilizer and follow up with irrigation.

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Answer from Pat:
If you cut your grapefruit tree back very hard, it might take several years for the tree to replace fruiting wood. Additionally you may have stimulated the tree to put all its energy into new growth and none into flowers and fruit. If so it will take a few years for the tree to get into balance again. If you cut back into hard wood your tree may even be subject to die-back. I have seen that happen with old lemon trees when someone has cut them back too far and made the cuts in the middle of branches, leaving stubs so those branches were unable to continue growing. Old wood can’t sprout new growth.

This does not sound as if it is the problem since you say your tree is beautiful and healthy looking. Your tree probably simply over-compensated with new growth.

But even if all this is true, yes I can help you. The best way for you to get your tree bearing again is in several steps:

1. Never spray your tree with pesticides especially Malathion. Malathion kills honeybees. Without bees you will have no fruit. (Blossoms will just fall off.) Sometimes gardeners are using other pesticides that kill bees or they are hiring a pest-control company that is using products that harm bees. Some lawn-care companies and commercial gardeners use lawn fertilizers that contain a grub control called Merit and this chemical kills bees.

2. Make sure there are honey bees in your garden. (If your tree flowers every year but does not have fruit, it could be that honeybees have disappeared and this is the real source of the problem.) Read the entries on Pollination on this blog for ideas how to attract honey bees. You can use ribbons made for that purpose or you can even purchase a pheromone for attracting bees. Create an environment that attracts and is friendly to bees by providing pollen-bearing flowers and a water source for bees such as a bird bath under your tree. If there are no bees but you have flowers on your grapefruit tree, hand pollinate them.

3. Is your tree growing in a lawn? If so, it may be getting the lawn fertilizer and it might be stimulating more growth than flowers and fruit.

4. If not in a lawn, next year fertilize your tree with a balanced organic fertilizer. Spread the fertilizer all over the root zone of the tree beginning two feet from the trunk of the tree and extending two or three feet out from the tips of the branches. (Roots of citrus tend to spread far.) A mature citrus tree can use the equal of one pound of actual nitrogen per year, but yours is a dwarf so take into account its size.

5. The most most important fertilizers to give your tree to get it bearing again are the bloom ingredients. Make sure you kick-start bloom again by including adequate phosphorus and potassium to stimulate bloom. If you are not an organic gardener, purchase a bottle of 0-10-10. Mix according to package directions and soak the root zone with it three times in late January and early February. Zap the tree three times like this with bloom ingredients (phosphorus and potassium) and your tree should resume blooming. There is an organic liquid bloom fertilizer also available at Hydroponic stores and on the Internet. I mentioned more than one product for this purpose in my book on the subjects of epiphyllum cacti and cymbidiums and maybe also cinerarias. I can promise you that if you zap your tree with liquid phosphorus and potassium in late January and early February and if you also have bees you can get it blooming again.

Blossoming of citrus is a February event, so from then on you can fertilize with a normal balanced organic fertilizer for citrus in January. It is fine to fertilize earlier in January with organics than one normally would with synthetic fertilizers because organic fertilizers take longer to work. Anyway, don’t stint on the organics but don’t over-feed either. (Purchase a bagged commercial organic citrus fertilizer and use that if you want or mix your own. See my book for ideas. Read the pages on fertilizing and caring for citrus in the January chapter.)

And from now on remember that in general citrus trees need little pruning. Hard pruning can damage and set back any fruit tree for several years thereafter. Good care, however, can help an over-pruned tree recover.

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Answer from Pat:
I can understand your dismay over seeing an olive tree stripped of eighty percent of its foliage. In most cases no tree should have more than 20% foliage removed at any one time. Nonetheless, in this case of olive trees, they will probably be fine. Olive trees are extremely resilient and they are able to withstand heavy pruning with no damage whatsoever to their health. In fact, these trees are customarily heavily pruned. The reason people prune hard in fall is to take off a lot of fruiting wood so it doesn’t make a mess, especially on pavement. Also a heavily pruned olive will develop a good shape quicker than one that is never pruned.

Olive trees live for hundreds of years in hot, dry climates where farmers sometimes cut off almost all their foliage. It is said that olive trees should be thinned out enough so that a bird should be able to fly right through the foliage and out the other side. This lets light into all parts of the tree. Italian farmers say that sun must fall on each olive every day in order for olives to be any good. Olives are also easier to pick if the foliage is not too thick. I think the trees you are worrying about will be fine and may look better eventually as a result of pruning. You shouldn’t worry too much. Olive trees do best in deep fertile soils but they can live fine in thin alkaline ones too. If you were to give the trees more water or fertilizer than usual this would be likely to harm them more than leaving them alone.

If you want you can (when no one is looking) go give each of the trees a hug and tell each one that you love it. It wouldn’t hurt the trees and it would make you feel good too. (I have hugged a bunch of trees in my life.) Or just go sit nearby and send good thoughts to them. I know this is unscientific, but it does no harm to the environment or anything else.

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Answer from Pat:
Many years ago I purchased a tool called a “long reach Japanese fruit picker” from a well known garden tool company that is now out of business. Today you can purchase several types of this tool and they are now called “Long Reach Pruners.” I suggest you Google “long reach pruner” and choose from the various types that come up. Through the years I have found this tool to be one of the most indispensable of all my garden tools. I use it for pruning climbing roses, for pruning wisteria in summer, or even for reaching into flower beds and deadheading flowers, or picking up dead blossoms as you saw me do in the video. The kind I use has a “grab and hold” feature.

The kind I used on the video is the old type, it’s light weight, and these days unfortunately more difficult to find. Here is a link to a more commonly found type which is a telescoping long-reach pruner. It reaches further, but it is also heavier. I even have one that reaches 12 feet and is very useful for clipping off the twiners from wisteria growing on a tall pergola, but I find it a bit heavy for me to use.

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Answer from Pat:
Yes, I sure do have a suggestion. You need to undertake a program of corrective pruning in winter or very early spring after your tree has dropped its leaves and before new buds open, followed by annual fall pruning to keep the tree growing and bearing. You also need to undertake a regular schedule of cleaning up the tree to remove all mummified fruit, debris, twigs, and dead fallen bark, and thoroughly clean up the ground under the tree in winter, followed by spraying with fungicide more than once in winter to control the pests and diseases that can and will beset neglected peach trees. Also cover the ground with fresh mulch under the tree after spraying and pruning. This will do much to control diseases, and fertilize your trees according the the time and directions provided by your local University Extension. Placing a layer of aged manure under the tree after cleaning the ground in fall, and covering the root zone but not touching the trunk, could do much to aid the health and recovery of your tree and would provide both fertilizer and mulch. (Deciduous fruit trees do not have a heavy requirement for fertilizer but they do need some.)

It sounds to me as if your tree is suffering from a disease such as brown rot, which results in mummified and rotting fruit, or it may have other fungus diseases such as bacterial leaf spot, which can also turn fruit brown and shriveled. Also, your failure to prune is why the tree can no longer bear much fruit. Oozing of sap can be caused by diseases such as gumosis, but also from peach-tree borers and other pests. Unfortunately, neglected peach trees always go into severe decline and seldom if ever come to a good end.

Peach trees need more severe winter pruning than any other deciduous fruit trees because the fruit is only born on one-year old shoots. Dormant spray is done to control pests as well as diseases. If you do not prune and if your tree isn’t bearing or only bearing on the tips, this is because you haven’t pruned it enough to stimulate growth of adequate new wood that will bear the following year.

Go to your local book store or look online and purchase a good book on pruning deciduous fruit trees. Make sure it contains diagrams. You will also need to know when to prune in your area. Here in California where I live we have a mild-winter climate so we prune our deciduous fruit trees in January. In summer the only pruning we do is to remove suckers arising from branches or from the ground. In Ohio the right time of year to prune a young peach tree is March. But your tree is a mature tree, and timing for that might be different, so refer to the University Extension In your area and phone the Master Gardeners for advice. I would expect March to be the time to prune, but I am not sure about the correct time to prune in Illinois, so ask the experts at your University of Illinois University Extension. Also send for a copy of Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 528. “Training and Pruning Fruit Trees.” (Mentioned below.) You can also find out if there is a similar publication in Illinois.

For your own safety I recommend you purchase a sturdy three-legged ladder. A three-legged orchard ladder is one of the best purchases a gardener can ever make. I have owned one of these for many years. With good care it can last a lifetime.

Brown rot is a fungus disease that attacks fruits and twigs of stone fruits. Peach leaf curl attacks the leaves of peach trees twisting them out of shape and can kill trees. Another disease is bacterial leaf spot which causes black or brown spots on green leaves and brown sunken areas on fruit. In order to prevent these diseases from ruining your harvest and killing your tree, in addition to pruning you will need to undertake undertake a regular program of annual dormant spray in late fall and winter, which you will need to repeat more than once. (Ask your University Extension when spraying should be done and wear protective clothing.) Spray with a product such as dormant disease lime sulfur spray mixed with horticultural oil against pests. Some organic gardeners claim that beneficial fungi control all negative fungi in their gardens, but obviously this is not the case in your garden. Thus you need to spray with dormant spray. If you are an organic gardener, choose an organic product, such as Bonide Organic Lime Sulfur Spray. Even organic gardeners need to use dormant spray on roses or if they intend to have any luck growing deciduous fruit trees, especially peaches that are more subject to disease problems than any other fruit tree.

For more information: Please refer to the information on peach leaf curl on pages 59 and 62 of my organic book and see the information on pruning of peaches and other deciduous fruit trees discussed on page 51. Page 382 once again covers the subject of peach leaf curl at the right time of year when we need to control it here. This timing of course will not be right for you, but will help others reading this blog.

For how to correct your tree’s shape and size, see UC University Extension Publication 8058: Pruning Overgrown Deciduous Fruit Trees. (This pamphlet is on the internet and includes excellent instructions for correcting an overgrown deciduous fruit tree.) Also see: Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 528. “Training and Pruning Fruit Trees.”
Ohio University Extension Fact Sheet 4321-1086 will also give you much information on growing peaches and nectarines in the home landscape.
University of Illinois Extension has some helpful information also: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/fruit/tree.cfm?section=tree
Also see this valuable information from the University of Illinois (Your state!) http://urbanext.illinois.edu/fruit/peaches.cfm?section=tree

It is not too late to save your peach trees but I hope you realize now you can’t simply plant them and forget them.

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Question from Csaba:

Answer from Pat:
Many years ago I realized that many people suffer from your problem, which usually comes from growing up in a cold-winter climate and then moving here. Thus 25 years ago I wrote a book called “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening, A Month-by-Month Guide.” I have revised it several times and now with over 100,000 copies in print this much-beloved book is called, “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening, Month by Month.” Please get a copy since it will totally cure your problem and give you much pleasure besides.

If you will purchase a copy or go to your library once a month and simply read it chapter by chapter including the checklists at the end of each chapter throughout the year, you will know exactly what to grow and where to plant it, in sun or shade and when to prune, fertilize, water, mulch, manage pests and disease problems and all other garden tasks for all the plants we grow here including roses, geraniums, ornamental grasses, fruit trees (deciduous, mediterranean, tropical and semi-tropical), vegetables, gardenia, camellia, azalea, fuchsia, tropical vines, succulents and cacti, sub-tropical flowering trees, lawns, ground covers, native plants, herbs, pond plants, and much much more.

Snail vine (Vigna caracalla) is not specifically covered but you can prune it any time during or after the growing season to keep it in bounds. Otherwise it may scramble over other plants. It needs sun, not shade!

Many years ago your garden club used to have me as a speaker every year. Now they have forgotten me, and I only give talks for one month in spring and one in fall. (Currently March and September) But I am still out there giving those talks and enthusing gardeners on many plant topics including pruning.

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Question from Charlie:

Answer from Pat:
Lavatera maritima can grow for a good eight or ten years if not overwatered where drainage is poor. It needs good drainage, fertile soil, and cutting back hard to keep it in bounds and encourage branching. When it is not adequately pruned, parts my become woody and then die back. By pruning often you keep it putting out fresh growth which then will bloom. Follow up with balanced fertilizer and water.

Lavatera maritima is not a permanent plant, however. I have seen many lovely specimens only after a few years to miss seeing them. Lavatera’s are mallows (Malvacceae). They are related to hollyhocks and no members of this family live long. It sounds to me as if your plant has reached the end of its life and if it lived ten or twelve years that’s amazing. If it dies, dig up the roots, amend and fertilize the soil, and plant a new one. It might be good to find another spot close to your pond but perhaps would be okay to plant the new one in the same place. They grow fast, so don’t cry over the old one, just get another. People often fail to do that because when their lavatera shrub dies they think they did something wrong and this discourages them from planting another. Not so. And in your case, you did amazingly. 10 or 12 years is a long life for this plant.

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Question from Cheryl:

Answer from Pat:
Pigeon berry or sky flower (Duranta repens) is one of the most attractive and colorful quick-growing shrubs we have in our Southern California plant palette. It grows rapidly in the shape of an upright wall and is useful as a screening plant. There is a 30 foot tall hedge of it in front of a house in Point Loma. Most people would rather not let it grow that tall since one must hire help to prune it. Instead, pinch it back with clippers and trim it often to keep it in bounds. Otherwise it sends out long shoots. Cut these shoots back by two-thirds of their length when they are growing in an ungainly manner. I have occasionally seen it grown as a tree on a single trunk and then it can be trained into a small to medium size weeping tree and even kept to about ten feet in height with frequent pruning. I know one that is grown this way in front of a wall next to an entry way gate. Another duranta I am familiar with is used as a sort of thick espalier against a south-facing garage wall. The gardener who planted it prunes it whenever it begins to shoot out of bounds. Duranta needs regular water and full sun. The berries are poisonous but very pretty. Both flowers and berries can be on the plant at the same time. In my opinion it’s one of our better plants and largely trouble free.

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Question from Randy:

Answer from Pat:
Grow ground morning glory (Convolvulus sabatius) in full sun and provide good drainage or a slope. Water ground morning glory deeply and more often the first year to encourage deep roots and fertilize occasionally, but lightly to keep it going. After first year water less often. Prefers well drained sandy loam but will survive in clay if not overwatered. Don’t cut this back after bloom in fall. This might make it die in winter. Wait until late winter, mid-February, or early February if the weather’s warm. Then cut back to prevent it growing too tall and woody. Follow up with with fertilizer and water. It should bounce right back and start to bloom. Some people cut back lightly throughout the year but once a year in late winter is fine.

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Question from Judy:

Answer from Pat:
Your buddleja probably needs some harsh pruning now in late summer after bloom to renew the plant. Cut down some of the old stems so it can send up new ones. Fertilize after pruning so it can regrow with fresh stems to bloom next year. It sounds starved for fertilizer or maybe drainage is not good. Yellow leaves can mean lack of nitrogen, but they could also mean poor drainage. See below for a run-down on total care.

Butterfly bush (Buddleja) is reputed to be drought-resistant but in sandy soil this plant needs a lot of water and in any soil it needs regular irrigation in my opinion. It needs good drainage, but hates bone-dry soil. Additionally, Buddleja’s need a balanced fertilizer for growth and bloom. Fertilize at intervals throughout the growing season and make sure there’s plenty of phosphorus and potassium in the product you use. Deadhead faded flowers or they will stop blooming. After bloom cut the stems that have bloomed back by two or three feet. Otherwise the plant will get very leggy. Each year, in fall remove some of the oldest stems all the way to the ground to renew the plant and get it to send up fresh new growth. These plants really need a fertile soil and if fed and watered will please you with a good display of blossoms. In too much shade, however, you will not get many flowers and 3 or 4 hours on the east side of your home might be a bit sparse. Instinctively, I think the other factors are causing your problem, not the lack of sun. When stems are old and crowded flowers will get smaller and smaller on these worn out stems. You need to get the plant to put out new growth but don’t cut it all down at once. Try removing 1/3 now, 1/3 in early spring, and 1/3 next fall.

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