Anne Clapp: Any time you cut a section of a leaf off the leaf turns brown and dies. Many times if you don't cut a stem next to an adjoining stem the limb will die as well. Hedgeclippers always leave a brown diseased leaf on boxwoods and hollies when you shear the plants.

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Question: What is attacking our Confederate rose tree? On the back side of the leaf it is solid white. After cutting a few branches, they moved. It looked like a snow flurry. they were so tiny and white, that we could not see beyond that. Any ideas? Today they are landing on all the green plants. It is hard to go to the garden center and ask about little white flurries. Thanks, Phyllis

Anne Clapp: Little white flurries are usually white flies. Most garden centers are very familiar with questions about them. The Bayer insecticide for ornamental plants is getting good reviews for controlling white flies on gardenias; it would probably work well on your Confederate Rose.

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Question: Dear Anne, On April 29 my mother-in-law passed away and I was given a multi colored roses bush. I can't describe how beautiful it was. Creams, pinks, reds, and multi colors of the creams and pinks, creams and reds, even a blue rose.

On May 8, 2005 I transplanted this large Rose Bush from Burke County to Meckenburg County. We wrapped the roots losely with burlap and filled bottom of new hole with potting soil and water.(I left the burlap around the roots). The bush went into immediate shock. My daughter told me I needed to trim removing some of the leaves. I though she said I needed to remove all the leaves. I DID. The bush is naked. Some of the stems have died and I have pruned and sprayed sealer on each cut. I have water most every day. I have fed plant weekly with mild solution of shock fertilizer. The plant is at the corner of our home in full sun. What can I do to grow leaves again? Please help me save this plant. It means everything to my husband and I.

Anne Clapp: Stop the fertilizer! Plants that are in shock do not need it; you don't want them to grow you want them to recover. The plant needs to be planted with its roots in direct contact with the soil in the hole so dig it up, remove the burlap and make sure the soil is amended with lime, composted cow manure, and composted organic material such as pine bark or some of the other products sold as organic soil amendments at the garden centers. Put the plant back in the hole and put the soil around the roots. Water the soil in well. The plant needs to be watered with two gallons of water once a week. More water will actually rot the roots of the plant. You don't remove the leaves from plants that get transplanted – they need the leaves to make food for the roots.

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Question: I am new to the Arkansas area. It was early spring and I was excited about beginning my garden. I purchased an hibiscus and about a week later a frost hit. I was able to save the plant but had to cut the damaged portions away. It has been a while and the plant is growing large and looks healthy but has not bloomed since I had to cut it back. Will my Hibiscus ever bloom again??? - Cindy

Anne Clapp: A tropical hibiscus will bloom when it has full sun, the soil is moist and the owner of the plant has not provided too much nitrogen fertilizer. Fertilizers high in nitrogen promote lush green growth at the expense of bloom. Try a low nitrogen, high phosphorus fertilizer for good results.

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Question: On our Leland cypress, I have noticed some rather large cone shaped cocoons that are strongly attached and hang from the branches. They seem to be killing part of the branches. The cocoon is very tough, and there is an ugly caterpillar thing inside. Any idea what pest this would be? There are quite a few on several trees. Can you help?

Anne Clapp: Welcome to the world of people who have Leyland cypress infected with bagworms. They form the cocoon from the needles of the tree and live inside until they lay eggs for the next generation. When the bags are first formed in the spring (less than a half inch) the infected area may be sprayed with DiPel or some other form of the Bacillus thuringensis (Bt) organic insecticide. Later in the year one of the all purpose insecticides made by Bayer or Orthene will work. They may also be controlled by pulling the bags off the tree.

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Question: Anne, I have a crepe myrtle in my front yard and there are honeybees swarming all around it constantly for the past 3 weeks. Before the bees, we had Japanese beetles eating the leaves. Do you have any recommendations on reducing the honeybees in order to prevent a future sting and to protect my beautiful crepe myrtle? Thanks, Rachel

Anne Clapp: I would never recommend that anyone do something to harm the bee population. They are too valuable as pollinators for seeds and food crops. Japanese Beetles may be controlled by spraying the plant with a liquid Sevin insecticide. You may also reduce the beetle population by applying Milky Spore (organic control for beetle grubs) to your lawn where the beetle larva live in the off season.

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Question: Hello! My Leyland Cypress trees are under attach from BAGWORMS. What is the best way to get rid of these little tree killers? My husband sprayed them with pesticide. We want to know how often we should spray them? And any other tips for their well being. Thank You, Maria from Delaware

Anne Clapp: Follow the directions on the insecticide you chose for a repeat spray schedule. When the bags are less than an inch large the plants can be sprayed with Bacillus thuringensis (Bt) in the early spring. When the bags are larger in the summer one of the chemical sprays gives better control. Many people hand pull the bags and get them off the property before the next set of eggs is laid. Spraying during the late fall with a dormant oil spray will also smother the pests that would overwinter on the trees.

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Question: I just purchased two perennials, I believe they are known as rabbit ears. should they be planted in sun or do they do better in shady areas? also I have some sunflowers growing. One of the stalks has about 14 sunflowers on it. is this unusual? any information appreciated.

Anne Clapp: I know about lamb's ears but not rabbit ears. If they are plants with soft fuzzy grey leaves they will do well in sun. Some sunflowers will have lots of blooms on a stalk – as many as 40- others have only one. It depends on the variety.

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Question: Two years ago when we built our house, the landscapers came in and planted our beautiful landcape. Now two year's later the 6 Daylilies that they have planted have been crowded by other landscape bushes/plants. I would like to transplant one or two of these daylilies at another location. My question is when is the best time to transplant one or two of these daylilies -- fall? Also, how do you go about transplanting these. I am just learning how to garden and need help. Thank you very much for your help. Judy

Anne Clapp: I like to transplant daylilies in late summer (August to Labor Day) although they may be transplanted in early spring just as the foliage begins to emerge. Decide where you want to plant them and prepare the soil by amending it with organic matter such as composted leaves, manure or fine pine bark. Dig the plants being careful to remove a rootball that contains the roots and underground tubers of the plant. You can remove the soil from the roots and leave it in the old space. Replant the daylillies in the new hole at the same depth they were in there last hole. Water the plants well and leave them alone until next spring. If we have a dry fall you may need to water the new transplants on a weekly basis. Next spring when the new growth starts fertilize the plants.

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Question: My landscaper installed a Yoshino Cherry tree. Very soon after, the leaves turned yellow and fell off. We have clay soil and I water regularly. The soil seems moist. The landscaper says that it is shock and the leaves will come back in the spring. He also said that it probably isn't getting enough water. At our request, he replaced it with another Yoshino Cherry. THe same thing is happening. I even watered it with a slow drip "Gator Bag." What can I do to stop this? - Gary

Anne Clapp: Is it possible that your clay soil does not drain well and the amount of water that you are applying is staying in the planting hole and drowning the roots of the plant? Yoshino cherries of any size are hard to transplant without shock. Your landscaper may be correct in thinking the plant will recover and develop a root system over the winter.

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Question: I have started removing all the plants along my sidewalk which has become run away with crab grass, fescue, etc. I will have every thing out, and all plant bulbs salvaged and put into buckets. Being as absolute newby, I would like diections how to isentify bulbs as to what they are and what is needed to preserve these bulbs. Then what do I need to do to prepare the garden bed for replanting and suggestions for possible augmentation of additional bulbs. The best I can determine, the bulbs consist of Iris'and Daffodils!s, jonaquills, tulips. I really will appeciate help in this effort! I don't know when to replant either! Thank You, Frazier from Kansas

Anne Clapp: Daffodils and jonquils are essentially the same bulb – of the narcissus family. The bulbs are usually round and long necked. Tulips produce a dark skinned bulb that is tapered and flat on one side. Iris are not bulbs but rhizomes. The bulbs are usually planted in the fall – and the time depends on your local climate. It is usually just before the first frost.

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Question: Hi Anne, I have two questions, one can you root a crape mytrle from the branch of the tree?, and do the roots of the tree spread wide, or go straight down. The reason I'm asking about the root is that I have a tree near my septic system, and I don't want the roots to wrape around the lines. Thanks, Debra

Anne Clapp: Crape myrtles usually have a fairly shallow root system – but it is a very vigorous root system. The plants are difficult to root for home gardeners unless you use root cuttings.

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Question: Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me rather or not I can root a limb clipping off of a Forest Pansy Redbud. I clipped it a week ago, and it dropped all of its leaves, but new leaves are starting to produce. Very interesting. Does it root if I stick it in the ground or water. Thank you.

Anne Clapp: Forest Pansy redbud is a patented plant. Reproduction of the plant is discouraged by law.

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Question: Dear Anne, My purple plum tree has holes in the leaves on the mid & upper leaves of the tree and the bottom leaves have fallen off. My gardener says it's japanese beatles, but the local nursery gave me some type of treatment to put in the soil--Gardener says it could kill the tree-What do you think?? Thank you.

Anne Clapp: It does sound like you have a Japanese beetle problem. The soil treatment I use to control Japanese beetles is Milky Spore. It is a bacterial culture that infects the beetles and kills them. The soil activity is about 20 years. It works best when applied in grassy areas because that is where most beetle larva develope. The material is not harmful to plants, people, pets or earthworms.

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Question: Dear Anne, I have a gardenia plant that was full of buds (which later bloomed) when I bought it. The plant has grown with a lot of new leaves but it doesn't have any new buds. What do I need to do to make it bloom again? I water it from the bottom and very little sun on my covered deck. I want to carry it inside this winter and place it in the front window that gets a lot of morning sun. Please write me back.

Anne Clapp: Gardenias usually bloom once a year although some will bloom over a longer period if they have enough sun. After the plant blooms the new growth forms. That growth contains the buds for next year's flowers. The plant is a full sun plant and blooms much better in that location.

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Question: Hi. I live in Indiana. I purchased a pink flowing dogwood tree and its only about 4 ft tall. I planted it a month ago and I have hard clay soil. So we dug a large hole to make sure it had better soil to get started in. The leaves have been wilted and spotted ever since. Some days it looks like its getting better and other days not so well. Luckily, none of the leaves have fallen off. I took a leaf to the closest nursery and they said it was poor drainage. Tthe hole is 3x larger than the tree. I added peat and potting soil and I am watering it once or twice a week. It gets dry. Do you have any ideas? Would love to keep my tree.

Anne Clapp: A drainage problem sounds like the likely solution. The large hole is the right idea but before you put the soil amendments and the plant in place you need to check the drainage in the hole. If the water does not drain out quickly you have to create some drain system that lets the water flow out of the hole. With the peat moss and potting soil in a hole that does not drain you probably have too much water collecting around the root ball. When I plant a dogwood I dig a wide, shallow hole that is no deeper than the pot the dogwood came in. I amend the soil that came out of the hole with fine rotted pine bark or composted leaf mulch – about one-third amending material and 2/3 native soil. The dogwood is then planted in the hole so that the top of the plant rootball and the soil around the plant is higher that the adjoining ground. I water the plant in well and cover the planting area with a layer of about 2 inches of hardwood mulch.

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Question: Dear Anne, I live in central Georgia and purchased a home this past March. I recently started seeing clumps of bahaia grass mixed in with my centipede grass. I would like to take care of this fast growing weed before it gets out of control. What is the best way to get rid of this unwanted guest? Thank you, Geary W.

Anne Clapp: I do not know of a herbicide that can be used to kill bahaia grass in a centipede lawn without killing the centipede. Handpulling or painting Round-up on the clumps of bahaia are the treatments that know of that have been marginally successful. Check with your local Georgia cooperative extension office to see if they have a recommendation.

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Question: The leaves of my Stella d'Ora daylillies are turning yellow. They get full sun and I water them everyday. I planted them just this past spring. Can you help? Thanks.

Anne Clapp: The leaves of daylilies do turn brown in the summer. After the first flush of bloom pull off the dead blooms stalks and pull off the leaves as they turn brown. Water and fertilize the plants so they will produce new foliage and bloom again this year. You should not have to water a day lily that frequently. They are heat and drought tolerant.

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Question: I live in northern Arkansas. I have a Miss Kim Lilac (just planted this year by a landscaper). The leaves are turning black and drying up. Is there a spray I can use to stop this? Thank you.

Anne Clapp: I'd check with the landscaper that planted your Miss Kim. It could be a problem with sooty mold which was caused by aphid insects that got on the plant earlier in the year and left a black secretion on the leaves. It could also be a problem with dry soil.

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Question: Dear Anne, Emergency...9-1-1!!! I am an extremely novice gardener! We have just built a new home; therefore, the landscaping is as well new. I have tried to achieve a "low maintenence", but beautiful landscaping. I have always been impressed with the beauty of oleander, but my oleander shrubs have not bloomed very well this summer. I have noticed what I think might be scale on the leaves of the shrubs. Can you recommend the best "on the market" pesticide for removing the scale? Learning Lots in Louisiana, Kelly A.

Anne Clapp: My method of dealing with scale is to spray the plants with a light weight horticultural oil spray. Sunspray oil is one trade name. The new multipurpose insecticide from Bayer also seems to be useful in treating scale insects.

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Question: I had four Leyland Cypress planted in Nov. They are 9ft. tall. The front one is brown and dead. The other 3 are turning rust, not brown. Explain what the cause is for the colors. Can I revive them? It seems it's just luck I guess, to keep them looking healthy. Give me your winning recipe, the simplest explanation. Thank you.

Anne Clapp: The brown dead one is probably lack of even watering on such a large tree – and the others may have a similar problem. There is also a passalora needle blight that causes the plant to develop rusty needles and eventually kill the tree. I would check with the source from whom you bought the trees and the person that planted them to see if they might know the cause of the problem. Those were fairly large plants so they should have been watered frequently over the winter.

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Question: Hey. I have a white dogwood that is starting to get yellowish brown leaves and some are falling off. I am guessing it is because of the dry weather so plan on watering it more, but do you think it is dieing? I planted it 3 years ago on my sons birthday so will be sad to lose it. Thanks for the time! Michelle

Anne Clapp: Two things could have happened to the dogwood – dry, hot weather or a case of powdery mildew during a cool spring. I would keep the tree watered and make sure it has a layer of 2 to 3 inches of mulch over the root zone to keep the soil coller and more moist.

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Question: Hello Anne Clapp: I have a minature Banana Tree and it has two shoot or two little tree coming off the main root sytem. I have taken one off before and it died. So how can i take these two off with out killing them or the big tree? I would like to put them in other pottes. Thank You, Debbie N.

Anne Clapp: The large banana tree usually dies back after it produces a crop of bananas. The offshoots can be removed from the mother tree only after they have developed a separate root system.

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Question: I have a very large rubber tree in my house. It was doing just fine, now some of the leaves are turning yellow and falling off. I have two plant lights that I turn on at night. Could this be the problem?

Anne Clapp: A rubber tree needs at least 8 hours of good light but it does want to go to sleep at night. It does not like drafts from heating and air conditioning systems in the house. The plant will drop old leaves and you can plan on it to have about one third of the old leaves turn yellow and drop off during a year.

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Question: Hi Anne, I just found 2 huge caterpillars on my 'Sarah Bernhardt' Peony plant. I had found and disposed of one 2 weeks ago but it was smaller, not fully grown. Little did I know there would be more and how big they would get (about 5")
It is a light green colour with 2 rows of blue on its sides and 2 rows of yellow on its back with 4 red 'eyes' on top of its head. It has bumps and yellow spikes. Not only are there large poops everywhere but they have destroyed my expensive plant. I am in Ontario Canada and would like to be rid of them before they rid me of my plants. Any ideas? Thanks so much, Nina

Anne Clapp: Dusting plants with Sevin dust or using a liquid Sevin spray should take care of the caterpillar problem. Bacilus thuringensis or Bt (Dipel is a trade name) is an organic control. I think you are describing a hornworm.

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Question: Do you know how to tell If a holly bush is male or female? We just bought three holly bushes and don't know if they are male or female. Hope you can help, Fred

Anne Clapp: You can tell by the flowers when the plants are flowering in the spring. The male flowers have a stamen that produces the pollen grains. It is like a filament with a yellow pollen sac. The female flower has a slender stem with a small top and a larger ovary at the base that produces the berry.

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Question: In the spring my pear tree appeared to be OK but now the leaves are turning black and falling off, 90% of the tree leaves are turning black. Gail

Anne Clapp: I think you probably have a case of a virus called Fire Blight. The end of the stem curls slightly and the leaves turn black. The treatment is to cut off the infected limbs about 10 inches below the lowest black leaf. Clean the pruners between each cut on the tree to keep from spreading the disease. Destroy the infected stems. Tress can be sprayed with a streptomycin product but that does get expensive.

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Question: Please help me. I have patty pan squash and all the female buds turn yellow and have brown spots on and fall off. So I have no squash to eat. What's causing the problem? I'm soooo sad!

Plant was given and his are growing good. I had so many male ones but all the female ones won't even open the flowers. Bushes looks healthy, though. What can I do? Thank you!! From: Miho in Virginia.

Anne Clapp: It sounds like the insects are not pollinating the plants. That often happens in hot weather or when insecticides are being sprayed by you or your neighbors. There is no cure for the hot weather problem but you could put some pots of flowers that attract insects in the area.

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Question: Dear Anne, I just found this site-how wonderful!

I have three miniature holly bushes growing in front of my house. The kind that doesn't grow berries. They are all in a row. I had them planted there 3 years ago and they have been healthy all that time. However, it seems that almost overnight the holly bush in the middle has turned completely brown!! It definitely looks dead and I can't figure out how that happened. The ones on the side of it are absolutely fine! Can you help? - Jessica

Anne Clapp: Such sudden death is usually caused by changes in the soil moisture around the plant or by attack to the base of the plant by the voles. Check the drainage around the plants to see if there is an area where the soil dries out too quickly or where water might be standing around the roots of one plant and not the others. In some cases one plant is put in the ground without having the native soil in good contact with the roots of the plant. It will take a few years for the plant to show signs of stress. Sometimes digging up the dead plant will help you solve the problem.

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Question: How do I prune loropetalum ruby? We don't know how to shape these plants. Any guidence? Thank you.

Anne Clapp: Loropetalum is a large shrub or small tree. You trim individual branches to an adjoining limb or branch. You cut off side limbs that grow beneath the main limb and limbs that in towards the trunk of the plant.