June’s warm temperatures bring new new growth and an abundance of flowers. Vines are growing and need training to stay neatly trellised, while pines can need candle pruning to keep them from overgrowing their space. Regrettably, pests and fungus also delight in the Northwest’s combination of sunlight and moisture, therefore it’s important to prevent pests now by taking a few straightforward actions. Last, we seem inexorably drawn to the plant nursery at that time of year, so it’s a great time to evaluate which regions of the garden may benefit from several June-blooming plants, such as some Northwest natives.

Leslie Ebert

Avoid blossom-end rot on tomato plants. From the rainy Pacific Northwest, blossom-end rot is a frequent issue which causes partly grown tomatoes to come up with a dark brown spot on the bottom of the fruit. The spot enlarges and causes the entire tomato to rot and develop a leathery skin.

The problem is brought on by calcium deficiency. It’s most common in regions where the growing season starts out wet and then dries out over the summer.

Avoid this dilemma by watering deeply on a regular schedule. Soaker hoses are greatest because sprinklers that water tomato foliage can cause another disease, known as late blight.

You might also care for the plants with calcium to prevent or handle blossom-end rot. Eggshells and bone meal are organic sources which may be integrated into the ground around each tomato plant. Additionally, there are commercially available sprays which contain calcium, calcium or calcium carbonate to solve this issue. The plant can soak up the nutritional supplement through its foliage to get an instant boost.

Aitken and Associates

Keep wisteria and other vines in check. Spring’s warm temperatures and moist soil can mean verdant, almost rampant increase in the garden. Vines escape control fast in June, so it’s important to test them every two months and train or connect any fresh shoots into your trellis or arrangement.

Of course, if fresh shoots are growing in the wrong direction and can’t be tied in gracefully, feel free to snip them off at the stem where they start. Vines are able to look crazy if not carefully tended.

Related: Spring Planting: Wonderful Wisteria

Margie Grace – Grace Design Associates

Feed roses for a long season of bloom. While roses are a staple of the classical garden, many rose varieties, particularly hybrid teas, need regular services to perform well.

June is the time to add bone meal and alfalfa to roses. Bone meal offers calcium, which assists roses develop strong cell walls to shield emerging growth from aphids and other insects. Alfalfa is a natural source of growth hormones, which stimulates healthy new canes to grow.

See more about gardening with roses

Zeterre Landscape Architecture

Stay on top of increased pests and disease. If you become aware of a black spot, select off affected leaves immediately so it will not spread. Aphids can be managed in their early phases with organic insecticidal soap or a fast blast of water, even whereas caterpillars, if noticed quickly, may be picked off and relocated into a crazy area of the garden. Remember, caterpillars are becoming moths and butterflies, which are valuable pollinators for our vegetable gardens.

If you would like to avoid any pest issues yet still enjoy roses from your garden, contemporary landscape roses (as seen above) like Knockout, Drift, Oso Easy and Flower Carpet roses create a long-lasting blossom display in the garden, yet need little care and fussing to perform well. They’re even ideal for some completely no-spray garden.

Kikuchi + Kankel Design Group

Candle prune pines to keep them right-sized for the garden. Pines can be challenging to keep small from the garden, since they do not respond well to regenerative pruning to bare timber, as many other species do. So once a pine has grown enough to fill in a place, gardeners use a technique known as candle pruning to keep pines petite and neatly shaped.

The new shoots on pines are known as candles since they emerge in a glowing white package on the end of each tuft of foliage. The packages, which look like small white candles, open up in time to show the green pine needles we are used to viewing.

Till they unfurl, however, there’s a monthlong window of time once the candles can be cut in half or even removed to reduce or remove the plant’s growth for the year.

Simply use your pruners to cut each emerging candle by one-third, one-half or off, depending on whether you’d like it to grow a bit more slowly, a lot more slowly, or not rise at all this year. You may also plan the future form of your pines by eliminating some candles, cutting on others by half an hour and leaving some to grow. This technique allows you to pick which branches get taller and then stay the same size.

Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC

Purchase June-blooming plants now, so you can select the precise colors and varieties you would like. Visiting plants at the nursery is among the simplest means of viewing the subtle differences between each plant. That is why it’s a good idea to buy plants at the nursery each month, so you can evaluate which areas of your garden need more interest in each season and organize the perfect show.

Recently in blossom are lilac (Syringa), ninebark (Physocarpus), Japanese snowbell (Styrax), heaths and heathers like Erica and Daboecia, Hebe, and a huge variety of perennial flowers.

This is also an perfect time to test out several Northwest natives which are newly in blossom, such as salal (Gaultheria shallon), ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor), native spirea (Spirea douglasii) and many others.

June’s sunshine makes such a wonderful change from the usual Northwest rain this is an perfect time to enjoy the garden — whether working inside or simply relaxing.

Check more out for your Pacific Northwest Garden

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