It is Canada Day and what else would you possibly want to do with your time but to prune your prune tree (otherwise known as an Italian plum) or flowering cherry? The flowering cherry (a Shubert, just for the record) has been suffering with ‘black knot’ for about five years and this year it will have to come down. The black knot has won. This is an odd condition: the result of very small insects that irritate the underside of the bark (the cambium layer). The black nodules are produced by the tree in response to the irritation. There is no effective long term solution but you can apply dormant spray in mid-April to slow the growth of it down.
The long term answer is to remove the tree and not to replace it with any member of the ‘prunus’ family. Look at the first word in the botanical name of a tree to know, prunus cistena (purple leafed plum) for instance. And be sure not to replace your infested tree with any member of the prunus family. Consider a lilac (like a Japanese Tree Lilac, Ivory Silk) or a flowering shrub.
Speaking of pruning this is the perfect time of year to prune cedars hedges, all evergreens including large trees like spruce and pine and any SPRING flowering shrub (see last weeks’ blog for details).
Enjoy your Canada Day weekend -- yea to freedom!!
For more information go to www.markcullen.com
