Tips for Healthy Trees

Let this month’s glorious autumn color be a reminder that fall is an important time to check the health of your trees, both young and old. Even though many will soon be going dormant, actions you take now will help them get through winter and grow vigorously next spring.

First, make sure your trees are well-watered. Even dormant trees can be subject to desiccation if the soil is dry.

To get a head start on next spring’s early insect pests, such as aphids and leafminers, and to provide continued protection throughout the growing season, apply Bayer Advanced™ Tree & Shrub Insect Control Concentrate now. Roots continue to take up moisture even when the upper portion looks dormant, so a fall application allows the ingredients to become evenly and well distributed throughout the tree in the spring. No spraying is necessary. Just mix with water according to the label instructions and pour at the base of the tree. One application lasts up to 12 months. Bayer Advanced Tree & Shrub Insect Control controls adelgids, aphids, black vine weevil larvae, roundheaded borers (including Eucalyptus longhorned borers), emerald ash borers, flathead borers (including bronze, birch and alder borers), Japanese beetles (adult), lacebugs, leaf beetles (including elm leaf beetles and viburnum leaf beetles), leafhoppers, leafminers (including birch leafminers), mealybugs, pine tip moth larvae, psylids, royal palm bugs, sawfly larvae, scale (including armored scale (suppression) and soft scale), thrips and whiteflies.

If a tree grew poorly last summer, had yellowing foliage, or if you just want to get newly planted trees off to a strong start, use Bayer Advanced 12 Month Protect & Feed. Just sprinkle granules around base of tree and water in for a full year of protection against devastating pests.

If young trees tree are staked, make sure they are not tied too tightly. A loosely tied tree will develop a stronger trunk and won’t become girdled. If the tree can stand securely on its own, remove the stakes all together. If you live in a mild winter climate, make sure grass and weeds are not growing near the trunk. There should be a mulched, weed-free area around the base of the tree.

Favorite Rose of Renown Rose Hybridizers

Bareroot rose season is just around the corner. If you are trying to decide which varieties to plant, you might want to take the advice of experts who probably look at more roses than anyone else — rose hybridizers. In California alone, there may be upwards of 1 million new rose hybrids evaluated each year. Only a small fraction (.001 percent) of those actually make it to market, but these guys look at a lot of roses. This is the first of a four-part series in which Bayer Advanced garden experts interviewed some of the country’s premier rose hybridizers. This month, we talk with Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses in Upland, Calif. Tom is lead hybridizer for Weeks Roses (wholesale only) and is responsible for creating nine All America Rose Selections.

“Amongst my hybrids,” says Carruth, “I’m probably most proud of the climbing rose, ‘Fourth of July.’ It’s red with white-striped flowers that are so novel and eye-catching. In 1989, when the very first flower came on the young seedling that was to become the Fourth, I stuck an extra-large marker on the spot and grabbed my technicians to come take a look. The greatest pleasure as a breeder is to see one of your ‘babies’ in someone’s garden. Fortunately, I see a lot of gardens with ‘Fourth of July,’ growing madly and giving lots of color.

“Not many of the kinds are so dramatic on the first flower,” adds Carruth. “ ‘Hot Cocoa’ didn’t really show off until it moved from the greenhouse to outside. That’s when the unusual smoky-orange color showed up best. And it’s such a great plant with very shiny, clean foliage.

“When we walk through a field of individual seedlings, there are literally thousands of different plants to wade through. We were in the ‘swim’ of it in spring of 1998 when a rounded, butter-gold Floribunda suddenly stood out like a beacon. That eventually became ‘Julia Child.’ There was never a doubt that this floribunda would rise to the surface. I think as people come to know it more, it will easily become a much-appreciated landscape rose.”

“ ‘Moonstone’ has held on to first-place exhibition hybrid tea for several years now. But the white hybrid with just a light edge of pink is not just for the show table. The plant looks bushy and full in the garden with monstrous leaves. With a little inland heat, the flower really becomes refined.

“Last on the list of five would be the shrub ‘Home Run.’ In 2000, when ‘Knock Out’ took the AARS award, the whole industry saw a big shift to landscape shrub roses. As good as ‘Knock Out’ is, it didn’t catch on quite as well on the West Coast. So we began breeding to get a derivative with equal or better disease resistance for coast-to-coast acceptance. ‘Home Run’ is a big step in that direction. It’s got the great cleanliness of its Dad plus absolute powdery mildew resistance. The flowers are a bright true red and the plant is a slightly smaller scale, suitable for our smaller gardens. What I particularly like is that hardly a day goes by without a fresh flower opening on the bushy plant.”

Plant your new bare-root roses in full sun and well-drained soil. Fertilize and protect from insects and disease with Bayer Advanced All-in-One Rose & Flower Care. For more information, visit Bayeradvanced.com.