Category — Horticulture

Melanie Hosch, Horticulturist

The trees exploded into full bloom right after April’s newsletter hit the mailbox. Talk about embarrassing, a few warm dry days caused the soil temperature to jump and BAM. So much for a late spring! I will go out on a limb to say we can still have frost until the middle of May… that’s in the archives.

The seed catalogs caught me this year and I ordered a few annual flowering vine seeds, they will be showcased along the maintenance fence and maybe on hole seventeen’s wall. The hyacinth bean will be a new and improved variety, it will still have lavender flowers but the leaves will be different.  In addition, there will be the Chilean glory flower (Eccremocarpus scaber) and the firecracker vine (Mina lobata); both these plants feature red faded to yellow flowers, it should be fun.

The petunias will be back in front of the club, but not at hole seventeen. We added a crape myrtle to replace the tree between eleven and twelve. Billy has shared some cannas with us so they will be on the course. Cannas can be dwarf to over five feet tall, they have colorful leaves and flowers, multiply rapidly and enjoy wet soils. For years we had some on fourteen but I should have dug them up in fall as the winter took care of them this year. There will be some rework in the bed on the eighteenth tees, the vigorous groundcovers took over and it is just a mess. Also, the removal of the blue Pacific junipers at the fifteenth tee was another remodel job.   Plants have a life span, and well, it was time.

By: Melanie Hosch, Horticulturist

Do April showers bring May flowers? Aren’t the soils wet enough from our very “busy” Winter? Well, it’s interesting; soil moisture content directly affects the temperature of the soil. Oddly enough in most cases, dry soils warm up quicker than wet soils, normally, water retains heat better than air, but surface evaporation has something to do with it, robbing the sun’s energy before it can warm the ground.

We care about soil temperature because it affects the germination of seeds; farmers are very tuned into this, so are turf people. You want ultimate conditions for your “crops”; you want to know the germination temperature for the weeds you might want to treat, like crabgrass. Soil temperature stimulates root growth and nutrient absorption, which feeds new plant growth, so buds pop and perennials return. One of the reasons we wait to plant annual flowers and vegetable seedlings is because they need to “take hold” quickly, warm soils are needed for this. Greenhouse growers often heat the bottoms of their beds, pushing the plants so they can get multiple “crops” of annuals for market. Bottom line, our flowering plants and trees are late this year.

Yellow seems to be the color of Spring, our forsythia and daffodils are putting on a show. I will divide the clumps of mini daffodils around the magnolia in front of the club in July, when the evidence of where the bulbs are is gone. I have learned to mark locations early, tees work well as markers. The magnolia took a beating over the winter and we are shaping it the best we can. I plan to keep the forsythia under control; pruning is done right after it blooms. Sometimes the maintenance crew gets to help with mulching and they do a great job. It is a busy time of year.

Your eyes have not deceived you, after ten years, Dan has put me on a greens mower. It is not as easy as it looks, it is a science. Four different cutting directions keeps the grass uniform, these are charted after each mow. Constantly watching for fluid leaks which would kill the grass, the lower clearance when moving around the course, emptying the buckets often; this mowing is quite involved. I have the greatest respect for the men who have been doing this all these years.

Melanie Hosch, Horticulturist

There should be plenty of moisture in the ground to start out the Spring season. I expected to loose some flowering bulbs to rot, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, they are popping up everywhere. All plants will benefit from a shot of 5-10-10 to replace the leached nutrients. The extended cold did hurt the pansies, and probably those tender perennials that had survived the past mild Winters.

There will be some dieback on deciduous ornamentals. Pest populations should be down, due to the cold and moisture, and that’s always a good thing.

It is time to apply weed pre-emergent herbicide to ground covers like juniper and ivy. I also sprinkle pre-emergent after I clean-up flower beds and mulch around trees.

Speaking of ivy, the deer could not ignore the “green” on seventeen. The wall will again look sparse after this unauthorized “pruning”. Maybe next year, nets? I don’t know they apparently have taken a liking to Texas Pete.

It was a stressful winter for wildlife. The robins arrived back to snow covered grass. Meals were few and far between, so animals were friendlier than normal. How many turkey did you see?

Melanie Hosch, Horticulturist

There is plenty of work to do this Winter on the golf course and at the Towne Center. The red maples, hollies, cherries and winged euonomyous (burning bush), require a dormant oil application to control scale bug. We use the high powered sprayer on a calm day when temperatures are above fourty and the tree limbs are dry.  The Towne Center adds one more variable, early enough in the morning so there are no cars.

The cutting of the ornamental grasses is getting more involved each year, because we keep adding miscanthus grass. The additional “morning light” miscanthus added around the pool fence was from divisions made from that massive clump inside the fence. We reduced the size of the clumps around the tee signs hence giving us additional plants to spread around the course. The hedge trimmer and tarp makes this a quick job, the hauling away takes longer due to the volume.  The effect of these grasses in the landscape makes this annual chore worth while.

The pruning continues on crape myrtle and other deciduous trees. Storms usually leave us many branches to clean up. Ice can destroy evergreen shrubs, supporting branches may not be practical but it is the desired method for handling ice coated limbs. Physical removal of ice can cause  damage, snow on the otherhand is best removed, usually with a broom in an upward sweeping motion.

I am looking foward to bulbs popping on those warm days. I will continue to protect the ivy and pansies from deer. The Winter weeds keep growing, but a pre-emergent herbicide applied when the forsythia blooms should cut down that work. Insulated boots and bibs, hood, gloves, the uniform of cold weather makes this season’s chores …enjoyable.

By: Melanie Hosch, Horticulturist

Late Fall/early Winter is the right time to prune boxwood, juniper, yews, nandina and arborvitae. Decorative cuttings from hollies and pyrcantha can be taken, but heavy pruning of these plants should be left for June after they bloom. Foster hollies like the two on either side of the clubhouse entrance make great screening plants. Fosters accept shaping and recover quickly from injury. The lack of berries on the Fosters at the club is because it is a favorite stopping spot for the Cedar Waxwings. These cardinal shaped, multi-colored birds, chat loudly as they flock in and take advantage of Westlake’s hospitality.

When buying hollies check the trunk for single or multi-stemmed, if your objective is a pyramid, look for a well branched single stem. The species of the holly also determines it’s shape due to growth habits, this is really important, and will reduce the amount of pruning needed. When buying hollies for a hedge row or screening several trunks are more desirable to give you the widest profile.

Poinsettia, Christmas cactus and Kalanchoe are semi-tropicals. Protect these flowering plants when transporting in cold weather.

Buy Poinsettia with their yellow centers closed, these are the actual flowers and are indicators on how long the plant will “bloom”. Speaking of flowers I hope you like the color of the pansies in front of the club, I could not resist the combination.

We live in a beautiful place and I am fortunate to be able to enjoy outside everyday with my work..The course is a great place to escape the stresses we are faced with and remember how lucky we are. May the holiday season bring Peace and health to you and your families.