Azaleas are easy to love. Their amazing flowers put on an incredible display of color every spring like clockwork, helping to herald the coming growing season. Whether in a formal or a woodland garden setting, azaleas make a great addition to any garden. When these plants are in full bloom, it's almost impossible to see the foliage underneath.

For centuries, azaleas were grown only in Japanese gardens. But then native species were discovered in North America and eventually types from both countries found their way to Europe. Deciduous species (Exbury hybrids) are primarily from North America, while evergreen species (Belgian, Southern Indica, as well as Girard and Satsuki hybrids) are from Japan and Europe.

Azaleas are versatile and can be used in almost any spot in the garden provided they have good drainage. While Belgian, Girard and Kurume hybrids prefer partial shade in the afternoon, Exbury hybrids, Southern Indicas and Satsuki hybrids can be grown in full sun in all but the hottest areas. Azalea flowers come in almost every color shade imaginable, and the bushes range from dwarf shade varieties of 2-3', to the sun lovers that can grow from 4-8' high and wide.

Homeowners in mild climates can select almost any species of azalea for their garden. But in colder areas, Exbury hybrids and some of the newer winter-hardy hybrids should be used. They also reward gardeners with good fall colors in shades of orange and red. Many have sweetly-scented blooms. If you are short on space in your landscape, consider planting azaleas in containers to add another dimension to your garden.

Azaleas grow well in evenly moist and slightly acidic soil. They perform best when the soil is amended with peat moss or an acid planting mix like Whitney Farms Azalea & Camellia Planting Mix before planting. They also like to be fed every few months with cottonseed meal or an acid plant food such as Whitney Farms Azalea & Camellia Fertilizer. We recommend feeding from the end of the blooming season through early fall.

Azaleas don't require much pruning if the proper varieties are selected for the desired mature size. If occasional pruning is needed to control size or wayward branches, prune from one month after the blooming season has ended through August. Pruning any later can remove the new blooms that are starting to set for the following spring--these can start as early as September.

Whether pruned formally into shapes or left natural to blend in with the local surroundings, azaleas make a wonderful addition to any garden, with their extraordinary offering of beautiful spring flowers.

Spring is just around the corner--or so we hope. We all look forward to spring and all the freshness, the new tender foliage, and the beautiful flowers. Even just thinking of that first bloom from the rose bushes in the garden brings happiness to our hearts and smiles to our faces. But spring brings something else to our gardens that winter has minimized. Insects.

Beginning this year, we would like you to consider a new approach to your gardens and all the living creatures that dwell there. That approach is tolerance and integrated pest management. Agriculture uses the term "agricultural entomology," which applies an economic threshold--the point when it becomes more economically necessary to save a crop than to do nothing. That point is reached only when, without action, the entire crop could not be saved. But we're talking about our gardens, where the issue is actually more aesthetic than economic.

Our gardens are living ecosystems. You are probably unaware of much of that ecosystem , but it is integral and important, nonetheless. Use of pesticides is an escalation to the maximum sentence for an insect that is considered a pest. That pesticide may kill your pest, but it will also kill beneficial insects indiscriminately. And some of those beneficial insects are actually predators for the very pest you are targeting. Unfortunately, pesticides kill them all. So find out who your garden friends are, discover what they like to live on, breed on and feed upon. Add those plants to your garden, offering a welcome mat to the beneficial insects--and observe the decrease in the pest population, right before your eyes. There are many beneficial insects in your gardens. Ladybugs and their larvae are common, and so are the green lacewing larvae. Today, learn a new approach to the rose slug. He'll be in our gardens before we know it, if he isn't already.

The rose slug is a sawfly larva (note - that means that its presence will be a temporary one). In your garden, this variety of sawfly, actually a tiny wasp, is one of your garden friends. Once it becomes an adult it likes to feed on other soft-bodied insects and, like the bee, acts as a pollinator. So as an adult, this insect is a beneficial one for humans. Here's the rub--its larva, the rose slug, is seemingly the rose lover's worst enemy! Or is it the rose leaf lover's worst enemy?

The American Rose Society website informs us: "Rose slugs are the immature stages of primitive wasps called sawflies. Rose slugs look more like caterpillars than slugs. They are not slimy and do not have rasping mouthparts like true slugs. The young larva begins feeding as a skeletonizer on the underside of the leaves and as it matures, it chews large holes on the leaves."

Recommended control: rose slugs look like caterpillars but they are not; consequently insecticides for caterpillars, such as Bacillus thuringiensis, will not kill them. If there are only a few rose bushes infested with the rose slugs, pull the leaves off and kill any larvae found on the upper or lower surfaces of the leaves.

Just about any contact insecticide labeled for use on roses will kill the rose slugs. Try to use the least toxic one possible, because you don't want to kill beneficial insects in your garden. Spray oil products such as Green Light Rose Defense are the least toxic, but still effective when sprayed directly onto the rose slug. You should also spray the soil under the rose bushes, as the larvae pupate in the soil prior to overwintering. If the damage is very widespread, chemical control may be indicated. We recommend Bayer Shrub & Tree Full Year Insect Protection.

Every year, we all face a "crop" of rose slugs in our rose gardens. Spring will soon be upon us, and only time will tell what this year brings us. Many of us are huge rose lovers and have many shrubs and climbers in our gardens. But one comment we would like to make to those of you who are "zero tolerant" of the little guy chewing at your rose leaves...most of us aren't growing the rose for its leaf. We don't cut the rose from the bush, throw out the rose and rose buds, and put the leafy cane into a vase. Your rose shrub will be able to continue to photosynthesize with fewer leaves, or leaves with holes. Keep this in mind when you are making a decision about the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) level of rose slug control in your gardens. Remember that the adult sawfly is a beneficial insect.

Are you considering a new landscape for next year? If you're tired of your old garden look or have a brand new yard that needs landscaping, consider our team for all of your design and installation needs.

Green Arrow Nursery Consultants are experts in landscape design. We know which plants grow well in our area, and our design team is knowledgeable in all of the latest plant introductions and landscape techniques.

We work with you to design and create a look that is unique for you and truly reflects your needs and desires. But many people make the mistake of contacting us in spring when we are already booked up for most of the year. It takes time to design a landscape plan for your home, and we invite you to plan ahead and let us design your landscape plan now so we can add you to our work schedule when the weather warms in spring.

Give us a call today at (818)894-8306. We're here to make sure all of your garden dreams come true!

Perhaps one of the most versatile plants available for home gardens is the fragrant rosemary. A plant that dates back to ancient Roman times, rosemary remains as popular as ever due to its intensely fragrant foliage and bright, vivid blue flowers.

The foliage can add flavor and spice to cooking as well as aroma to potpourri and beauty to flower arrangements.

Rosemary plants are evergreen, and are not only attractive to look at but also easy to grow. They tolerate poor soil conditions, are very drought and heat tolerant once established and require only occasional feeding to keep them happy. They prefer full sun but will tolerate partial shade locations as well.

Rosemary are generally divided into two different plant types--upright and trailing.

Upright varieties have rigid upright branches with aromatic needle-like leaves. Most upright varieties can grow up to 4-6 feet high and half as wide. They can be placed as individual specimens or used to create beautiful low to medium-sized hedges.

Trailing varieties create a beautiful flow of fragrant foliage that forms an attractive carpet that can cascade from a container or rock wall. Trailing varieties also look great in rock gardens. These ground cover types generally grow 1-2 feet tall and can spread as much as 6-8 feet wide, if left untrimmed.

Rosemary plants are also are excellent for slopes and useful in erosion control.

Consider adding some rosemary plants to your garden. You'll love the fragrant foliage, as well as the butterflies and hummingbirds the beautiful blue flowers attract.

How often should I feed my lawn?

Answer:
We recommend feeding lawns every two months during the growing season. You can start off by applying a lawn food in late winter to early spring that contains a pre-emergent herbicide to help prevent crabgrass and other weeds from germinating.

After that, switch to a complete lawn food like Scott's Lawn Pro.

If summer weeds become a problem, apply a weed and feed fertilizer like Scott's Turf Builder 2.

Make sure to give your lawn a final feeding in fall, before it goes dormant, to keep it green through winter. If a lawn goes into the winter looking yellow, you won't be able to green it up until temperatures warm up again.

Click to print this article.