Re: pruning hibs

Jim, I just unsubscribed from the list but not before I got your message. I've heard that about cloned aniimals and find it particularly fascinating.
If you cut back a hib to the ground here in early spring you won't see a thing until october due to our very cool evenings. We just don't get the growth rate that you folks who have high evening temps get. A case in point besides hibs are my Alpinias. The die to the ground every year and then come back in spring but they are virtually the same size as they were when I bought them four years ago. As I've mentioned before our average lows are never higher than the high 40's even in July. I think that really slows them down.

Ok, well I've never voluntarily unsubscribed from the list before so this is kind of traumatic for me. I cut the cord! See you in a week.

DF

Island Jim wrote:

my experience is they lose leaves all year, more in cool to cold months, less in warm to hot months. but all year none the less. my answer to the pruning question for non-grafted varieties, incidentally, is to cut them nearly to the ground in late-winter or early-spring. they bloom on new wood, so you want as much new wood as possible when the weather warms.

if i had 20-year-old plants that i had a sentimental attachment to, however, i'd be trying to root cuttings like mad. all living things have a finite life span, some long like the redwoods and some short like marigolds. with citrus trees, i think it's 30 to 40 years, and i think my big old grapefruit tree has hit the wall. this is particularly stressful to me because i have spent a lot of time encouraging orchids to grown on its craggy limbs.

at the same time there is an interesting anomaly between plant clones [rooted cuttings] and animal clones [such as dolly]. plant clones always seem to begin at year one; animal clones [if i understand the research correctly] seem to begin at the age of the clone's parent even though it goes through a series of developmental steps.

i hope someone has paid more attention to this than i have.




At 07:49 AM 5/23/03 -0500, you wrote:

Re>
>>  If you don't have mites or other pests and your
leaves just turn yellow and drop then I attribute it to the change. <<

Memory lapses can also be attributed to this.

Kitty

-------Original Message-------
From: David Franzman <dfranzma@pacbell.net>
Sent: 05/23/03 12:00 AM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT]pruning hibs was: What is this strange item?

>
> Marge, a certain amount of exfoliation seems to be the norm when our
seasons change from winter to spring.  I don't know the scientific
reason behind it but I've observed this from my own plants as well as
many other folks.  If you don't have mites or other pests and your
leaves just turn yellow and drop then I attribute it to the change.
 Must have something to do with being in a northern climate because
folks in the south who have them in the ground don't suffer from this.
 Being that they are evergreen that is the only way they can sluff off
leaves and grow new ones.  I suppose in the tropics they just lose some
all the time.  Jim or Sally or Noreen is that what you've observed?

DF


If you have weeds, you don't have enough plants.

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