June 20th, 2011

This evening I plucked all the dead flowers from the radiant red rhodo......should I have done that? Don't like the look of the withered petals on the bush, but now that they are gone, the poor thing appears somewhat naked. Just as the blooms are at their best...the peak....glorious....the inevitable decline begins. Not even sure how plucking them off will affect next year's growth.
Do you pluck the flowers off your rhodos?

Pruned the small tree at the beginning of the driveway as well. Still not sure what it is nor whether it will remain. Really, a few pathetic white .... can't even call them blooms on the branches...and it is done. Not much to redeem itself. Afraid it may succumb to the lopers this fall. I am imagining a pink dogwood there instead - or a snowball bush. In the neighborhood, numerous snowball bushes have been blooming for weeks.

Perhaps a master gardener or one with more experience than I can tell me what this small tree is? And convince me it should stay?

Garden on!