Hope everyone has had a great year as we wind down 2015 and welcome in 2016. December is a time to be with family and friends and to reflect on past memories. All of us at Gibbs are so appreciative of the opportunity to work with you and your families and sharing your landscapes with us. We take extreme pride in maintaining the landscape at your homes.
This month the crews will continue to remove leaves and try to get everything clean and ready for pine straw or mulch applications. Please let us know if you have needs or desires to have the mulch or straw in before the holidays. Mulch and straw help protect plant's roots and looks great. It is very important to be installed prior to freezing temperatures. Pansies and Violas are a bit green right now due to the lack of sunshine. We need more days of bright sunshine and we will start seeing blooms of color again. We will be installing tulips and daffodils this month. Daffodils are a great bulb that will re bloom each year and are deer and squirrel resistant. Our fescue turf will receive another round of high nitrogen in January while warm season turf are going dormant. We are finishing up a great pre emergent round on the warm season turf this month. Fescue seed can be added to bare spots in the lawns as we have had a great deal of seed washing due to the heavy rains. Dormant pruning will be underway soon and shrubs will be pruned through the winter months. We will be thinning and making corrective interior cuts and in some cases performing a heavier dormant prune where needed. Heavier pruning will be discussed prior to commencement
A couple of notes on some plant issues that are of growing concern of ours and the entire east coast. Rose Rosette Virus on roses is being found in more and more landscapes. There is no cure or real prevention of the virus. We will alert you if we find Rose Rosette in your landscape and we can make a joint decision on rectification.
Boxwood issues are showing again and have been the last two years due to wet periods. Boxwoods in the winter will show signs of stress if exposed to full sun and windy conditions. This yellowing or orange coloring is the result of sun scald and can lead to damaged tissue which in turn weakens the overall plant. Boxwoods that are protected from the winter winds usually will not take on this effect. The overall wet soil conditions and extended periods of moisture within the Boxwoods interior stems and branches have contributed to two fungal problems. Root rot of fine root hairs and Volutella blight on stems have been prevalent these last two to three years. Well drained soil and filtered sunlight is the best start we can give for our Boxwoods.
All of us at Gibbs Landscape Wish You Happy Holidays and Very Happy New Year!