Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Learn pruning tips with Farmer Fred podcast

Local rose experts tackle finer points plus advice on planting new roses

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JAN 29, 2021

Want to have display-worthy roses? Plant them right and prune them right. Listen to Farmer Fred

Hoffman's latest podcast for tips from the experts. This is Debbie Arrington's Pink Promise rose, which she tackles in one segment of the podcast. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

How do you tackle a 12-foot rose bush? Cut it down to size first.

What about pruning tree roses? Think of them as an elevated bush.

How do you get a bare-root rose off to a healthy start? Begin with a high-quality, healthy plant with strong canes and roots.

Those are some of the finer points of pruning and rose care that local experts share during the latest “Green Acres Garden Podcast with Farmer Fred.”

“All about Roses” includes interviews with master rosarians Debbie Arrington and Charlotte Owendyk as well as rose experts at Green Acres Nursery & Supply. As a bonus, podcast host Farmer Fred Hoffman adds his own “cutting” remarks about pruning perennials, another current chore.

Debbie (of Sacramento Digs Gardening) also shares information about choosing the right tools, dressing for pruning safety (and success) and what to do if your roses are still blooming when it’s time to prune. (Among her tips: Don’t wear knits while pruning; go for denim instead.)

To illustrate techniques, Debbie prunes a gigantic Pink Promise hybrid tea that had grown as tall as the house and was still full of blooms – and leaves.

For her lesson on tree roses, Charlotte uses her Julia Child floribunda tree roses, which annually produce fountains of flowers at eye level.

The bare-root rose segment is hosted by Green Acres’ Folsom staff and features new varieties now available.

Listen for yourself: https://bit.ly/39A0QyJ

Become a Farmer Fred podcast regular. Farmer Fred now hosts two weekly podcasts: “Garden Basics with Farmer Fred” and “Green Acres Garden Podcast with Farmer Fred.” Links to both are available at www.farmerfred.com .

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

gardening Sacramento pruning roses Farmer Fred Hoffman bare-root plants Green Acres Nursery & Supply January perennials flowers

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Local News

Thanks to our sponsor!

Sites We Like

Garden Checklist for week of April 21

This week there’s plenty to keep gardeners busy. With no rain in the immediate forecast, remember to irrigate any new transplants.

* Weed, weed, weed! Get them before they flower and go to seed.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Feed shrubs and trees with a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.

* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Mid to late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce seedlings. Choose varieties that mature quickly such as loose leaf.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Find our winter recipes here!