Your shrubs will benefit if you take the time to prune them. Pruning should focus on enhancing the shape of the shrubs as well as removing any dead branches. You should be careful not to prune early spring blooming shrubs like Forsythia as pruning them too early might reduce the amount of blooms you see in the spring. When you come by the store pickup our Practical Pruning brochure and ask one of our staff about what you should be pruning now.

You can also spray your deciduous shrubs, like your roses, with the Lime Sulphur and Dormant Oil combination spray. This spray will help to reduce the fungal and insect infections that you may get during the season.

Fall is when trees show their best colours!

Most of the time we take the trees in our garden for granted. We enjoy the shade and the privacy they provide. Fall is when many of those trees show their best colours. The range of red and orange colours seems limitless. If you are looking around your yard and wondering where you can add a bit of colour look up and see if you have space for one of these trees.

Some of the best trees for fall colour include the Maples, both Japanese and European types. Even the green leaf varieties turn to beautiful yellow, orange and red tones. Other great choices include the Katsura Tree (Cercidiphyllum japonica), Sourwood (Oxydendron), and the Forest Pansy (Cercis).

The Flowering Cherries are Blooming!

There is no surer sign of spring than when the flowering cherry trees begin to bloom. There will be thousands of trees in bloom over the next month. The first to bloom are usually the Flowering Plums including ‘Pissardi Nigra’ and ‘Bliriana’. The rest will bloom over 6 to 8 weeks.

To celebrate the flowering cherries as they come into bloom The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival runs from March 26th to April 22nd. For more information about the varieties you might find in bloom throughout greater Vancouver visit the Cherry Blossom Festival website here. At David Hunters we have many of these varieties trees to choose from including:

• Flowering Plum ‘Pissardi Nigra’- pink flowers
• Flowering Plum ‘Blireriana’ – pink flowers
• Flowering Cherry ‘Kiku Shidare’ – double pink
• Flowering Cherry ‘Kanzan’ (aka Kwanzan)- double pink
• Flowering Cherry ‘Shirofugen’ – white
• Flowering Cherry subhirtella ‘Pendula’ – weeping form, pink flowers
• Flowering Cherry ‘Whitcombi’ – single pink

It’s Time to Feed the Birds!

The long cold winter months are hard on our feathered friends. You can help by putting out some Suet or Bird Seed for them to feed on when there is a limited supply of food available to them. You can choose from many types of suet including:

• Berry Treat Suet – rendered beef suet with millet, artificial flavour, oats, and corn
• High Energy Suet – rendered beef suet with sunflowers seeds, millet, and cracked corn
• Peanut Delight Suet – rendered beef suet with roaasted peanuts, corn and oats
• Peanut Treat Suet – rendered beef suet with roasted peanuts, peanut flavouring, corn, and oats
• Sunflower Treat Suet – rendered beef suet with sunflower hearts, millet and corn

For more information about these suets click here.

You can also choose from a selection of Bird Seed including:

• Backyard Best Blend – attracts cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, sparrows, titmice and woodpeckers
• Finch Feast – attract all types of Finches including gold finches, purple finches, pine siskins and redpolls
• Waste Free Gourmet Blend – 100% pure bird food, no hulls from seeds. This product attracts a wide variety of colorful songbirds such as cardinals, chickadees, doves, jays, juncos, nuthatches, titmice and woodpeckers

For more information about these and other bird seeds click here.

Pruning can be done at this time of year to thin out trees or shrubs that have become too dense or simply to cut back those that have grown too big. Be careful not to prune any trees or shrubs that bloom in the early spring, such as Forsythia and Magnolias, as you may accidentally prune the flower buds.

Early spring flowering shrubs should be pruned after they have finished blooming. Come in today to pick up our free pamphlet on “Practical Pruning” to learn what should be pruned when.