A few timely topics that need to be addressed during the spring

So far this spring has been extremely disjointed.

I sit down to write something (that I think will be…) profound on a new plant or new idea, and all the questions left over from the freeze of more than three months ago pop up like high-speed “Whack-a-Mole.”

In keeping with modern trends in technology, I’m going to offer a compact model of my column this week: more data in less space. We’ll cover more ground and give you more updates. Hang on tight.

• Crape myrtle bark scale. White BB-sized insects that affix themselves to the twigs of crape myrtles, later leading to sticky drippage and black sooty mold fungus. This (right now!) is the time to apply a soil drench of Imidacloprid systemic insecticide around every plant to prevent their survival and population increases. Based on research from Texas A&M, this timely is fairly critical.
• Take all root rot. Fungus that turns blades of St. Augustine and zoysia yellow in large irregular patches of the lawn. Roots are shortened and very dark. Grass pulls loose from the soil very easily. Nitrogen does not cause the grass to green up. Apply fungicide Azoxystrobin. This disease is prevalent only in cool, moist weather.
• Time to fertilize your lawn if you’ve not yet done so. Apply high-nitrogen fertilizer with upwards of half of the N in slow-release form. My personal preference is to avoid weed-and-feed combinations. It’s better to do the two processes separately.
• Mow at recommended height. Many of the lawns I’m seeing, for whatever the reason (likely due to the rain we’ve been having) are being allowed to grow too tall. Deep grass may seem luxuriant, but truth is, it quickly becomes weak and allows weeds to get started.
• Early blight is causing lower leaves of tomatoes to turn yellow in blotches, then it’s moving up their stems. Spray with fungicide labeled for vegetable gardens. Avoid overhead irrigation whenever possible.
• Bagworms are beginning to appear on junipers, arborvitae, cypress and other conifers. At first they will be very small larvae that carry their “bags” around on their backs. They strip the needles rapidly, so apply almost any general-purpose insecticide at first evidence.
• If you’re waiting on frozen shrubs to regrow and fill in their voids, you might want to think twice. Sure, plants like Indian hawthorns and waxleaf ligustrums have limited new growth coming out, but will it survive the onslaught of summer? And how long will it take for it to fill to its prior beauty? You really don’t want to wait.
• On a similar line, beware of the new plants that you’re buying as replacements. Growers suffered doubly in this winter’s cold. They, too, lost plants to the freeze, but more than that, their retail nursery buyers and landscape contractors have scoured their growing grounds to the point that we’re now being offered unusual plants that may or may not be well suited locally.
• Buy from Texas Certified Nursery Professionals, and ask plenty of questions. More than ever, I like the question I’ve always suggested you ask the nursery manager as you check out: “Am I about to make any mistakes with any of the plants you see in my cart?” Let him or her own part of your decision.
• Update on live oaks and Shumard red oaks. Some of these wonderful old favorites have reacted strangely. Probably 90 percent of the trees look as if nothing ever happened. They’re alive and are doing quite well. But among the other 10 percent of the oaks we find plants that have sparse foliage (a few with no leaves at all), and many that have pompoms of new growth at the ends of their limbs. Some have new shoots coming up along their main trunks, while the ends of their branches remain bare.

The Texas A&M Forest Service and certified arborists are suggesting that you do absolutely nothing to oak trees for now. Leave them on their own to see if they don’t improve. Whatever you do, don’t let anybody prune or remove an oak at your place just yet. Don’t let anyone inject anything into them. Just water them and leave them alone.

• By comparison, there are other species of trees that were hurt badly by the cold and that will not be coming back. They may struggle to put out new growth, but that growth will be weak at best, and it’s highly questionable whether it will even survive summer’s high temperatures. Ash trees are on that list, as are subtropical Chinese tallows and loquats. Some vitex and a few varieties of crape myrtles, notably Tuscarora, were hurt badly and will have to be retrained or replaced.

And so it is in late May in what has already been another unusual year here in North Texas. Every day is exciting in the life of a gardener!

You can hear Neil Sperry on KLIF 570AM on Saturday afternoons 1-3 pm and on WBAP 820AM Sunday mornings 8-10 am. Join him at www.neilsperry.com and follow him on Facebook.

This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 5:15 AM.