Many of my clients ask me when to cut plants back and when to fertilize and WHAT to fertilize with. I supervise the maintenance of a number of my clients’ yards. I have found that with the planting of correct plants in the correct spots in the yard, maintenance needs only to be done 3 times a year. I usually do this in October, February and late May. Part of the reason I do it in May and October is that we have a ban on fertilizer from June 1- Sept 30th in Pinellas County. I like to get fertilizer on the plants before the end of May and as soon as the ban comes off in early October.
From my experience, this schedule works really well for the plants AND for people since you can mostly ignore your plants during the very hot summer months.
So here are some basics on what to do for maintenance:
1.Pruning- Get yourself some nice pruning shears and keep them dry and sharpened. Don’t cut wire or roots or other inorganic things. Keep one pair just for pruning your shrubs. Go out and look at the shrubs in your yard. You will want to prune off branches that stick out from the others. For whatever reason, some branches grow faster than others. Make the cut just above a leave intersection. On plants like Schefflera arboricola, you will usually see a branch that just sticks up or sideways and cut that branch back to maintain the shape of the plant. Do not use electric shears- these ruin plants by shredding the leaves and stems resulting in brown leaves and diseased stems.
At this time, look at your shrubs for any dead growth. This can be caused by breakage or shading or just be typical of that type of plant.
Once you have pruned any branches obviously sticking out from the plant, then just prune off some of the tips to keep the plant more compact. CAUTION: If you have plants that bloom in the winter such as Azaleas, Camellias and Brunfelsia, do not prune at this time because you will be removing buds getting ready to open up. With these plants, wait until after their bloom time.
2. Replace soil or mulch- After a summer of torrential rains and heat, you may find that your beds may have some wash-out. This is a good time to replace soil and/or mulch to the beds. Because we always have the potential to get freezing weather in the winter months, it is good to have some protective cover over your roots, especially tropical plants.
3. Fertilizing- This is a great time to fertilize your plants with an organic granular fertilizer and minerals. They have been without any food all summer so now is the time. Please throw away your Miracle-gro and liquid plant foods- they push plants into shooting up fast growth and often times you get bugs to enjoy this unnatural growth burst. Using organics will give you a more regulated natural growth that will not require you to prune more and use pesticides. My recommendations for a general fertilizer are Azomite and Espoma Plant-tone. These two products will be good for about 90% of your plants. You may need some other specialized fertilizers on your Palms, Gardenias, etc. but these will be great for the majority. I have a link for these fertilizers on my website:
https://www.victoriasbloomers.com/products
I usually mix the plant tone and minerals half and half and put a small handful around each plant working it into the soil if possible. I also water in the plants well after fertilizing in case I get any fertilizer on the foliage. This also gives the fertilizer a chance to work into the soil.
Azomite Mineral Blend
Plant-tone Organic Fertilizer
These are the general rules for maintenance. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Vicki@victoriasbloomers.com
