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March 20, 2020

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The New Zealand flax is a great evergreen shrub that can add a lot of shape and decoration to your garden. It’s a lovely plant that gives you architectural shape and colour all year round. It does get quite large and this is why regular pruning is important to maintain its shape and remove spent flowers and damaged foliage. However, if you let it get too big for the space provided it will start to…

The Phormium mealybug is a pest that originates from New Zealand and is able to thrive in the UK outside, even in the winter, which is unusual because all other types of mealybugs you will usually find in greenhouses because they need a warm temperature, but not the Phormium mealybug. Most mealybugs are a problem because they remove the sap from your plant, this can affect their growth rate and then they excrete excess sugar…

If you have a Cornus, commonly known as Dogwood, and it’s growing successfully and you now want to plant more of them in your garden, you can always propagate them by taking hardwood cuttings. Hardwood cuttings get their name because they are taken from the hard wood of the plant later in the season. When should you take Cornus cuttings? Hardwood cuttings are taken later in the season, usually in autumn but you can take…

Dogwood is a very popular ornamental tree that is known for its elegant foliage and bright red fruit. You also get the Cornus varieties such as Cornus alba and Cornus sanguinea that are grown for their brightly coloured winter stems and need to be pruned back hard in spring. Cornus is very strong but one downside to this shrub is the host of diseases that can infest a Dogwood tree and cause some serious problems,…

Dogwoods are known for having colourful stems all winter long and they require very little maintenance. If you want to enjoy vibrant colours throughout the winter you need to make sure you prune your tree properly, which means giving them a hard prune at the right time of year. When should you prune them? First off, you need to make sure you prune them at the right time of the year. This is either at…