Latest news with #pruning
Times of Oman
4 days ago
- General
- Times of Oman
Environmental initiative to preserve wild trees in Dhofar
Muscat: In the enchanting mountains of the Dhofar Governorate, more than 5,000 wild trees , Arabian Dhofari Buttontree and wild fig trees were pruned during the years 2023 and 2024, as part of a qualitative initiative to protect them and enhance their growth, and The field results showed a significant improvement in tree health and growth. The Environment Authority has introduced a groundbreaking initiative focused on pruning wild trees in the mountains of Dhofar Governorate. This project aims to enhance the health of key native species, including the Arabian Dhofari Buttontree (Anogeissus Dhofaric)and wild fig trees (Ficus Acacia). By protecting these trees from environmental threats and pests, the initiative supports Oman's Vision 2040 for ecological sustainability. Scheduled to take place annually in May and June—just before the autumn season—the program has already demonstrated promising results. Field surveys have observed noticeable growth in new branches and overall improvements in tree health. Pruning statistics indicate steady progress: - 2023: 2,032 trees pruned - 2024: 3,180 trees pruned - 2025: 3,000 trees targeted for pruning The effort spans multiple areas, including Salalah, Taqah, Mirbat, Rakhyut, and Dhalkut. Experts predict that this focused approach will contribute significantly to preserving Dhofar's natural environment and ensuring sustainable practices for future generations.
The Independent
27-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
What is the Chelsea Chop? And how it's vital for your plants' growth
The 'Chelsea Chop', a pruning method named after the Royal Horticultural Society 's Chelsea Flower Show, has gained traction on social media. The technique, which involves cutting back certain perennials in late May or early June, encourages bushier growth and delayed flowering. This results in sturdier plants and a prolonged display of blooms. While the name may be relatively recent, with references dating back to the early 2000s, the practice itself is not new. Gardeners have long employed similar methods to manage plant growth and flowering times. The Chelsea Chop simply provides a catchy name for a well-established technique, making it more accessible and popular among gardeners. What's involved in the Chelsea Chop? The method involves pruning certain perennials — those with clumping roots, like coneflower (Echinacea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), goldenrod (Solidago), sneezeweed (Helenium), Salvia and yarrow (Achillea) -- by cutting each stem back by one-third to one-half its height in spring. Cuts should be made on the diagonal, just above a leaf node. The 'chop' forces plants to produce bushier growth, resulting in sturdier, tighter and fuller plants that aren't as likely to grow leggy, require staking or flop over by the end of the season. It also delays blooming, which can benefit the late-summer garden. You might get creative and prune only alternate stems so that some bloom earlier and others later — or prune only half of your plants — to extend the blooming season. Do not attempt this with one-time bloomers, single-stemmed plants or those with woody stems; the amputations would be homicidal to the current season's flowers. When should you chop? Gardeners should consider their climate and prune when their plants have grown to half their expected seasonal height, whenever that may be. (The Chelsea Chop is done at different times in different places, depending on plant emergence and growth.) A variation for late-summer and fall bloomers To take things a step further, some late-summer and fall bloomers, like Joe Pye weed, chrysanthemum and aster, would benefit from three annual chops. In my zone 7, suburban New York garden, that means cutting them back by one-third each in the beginning of June, middle of June and middle of July. Customise the schedule for your garden by shifting one or two weeks earlier per warmer zone and later per cooler zone, taking the season's growth and size of your plants into account. Make the first cuts when plants reach half their expected size, the second two weeks later and the third about a month after that. I'd like this fall-plant pruning tip to catch on as well as the Chelsea Chop has. Maybe I should call it the Damiano Downsize and see what happens.
The Independent
27-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Chelsea Chop is the catchy new name for a classic gardening technique
What's the deal with the Chelsea Chop? Are you gardeners familiar with it? After hearing about it recently, I did a bit of research. The earliest reference I could find dates back to the early 2000s, so it might appear I'm late to the party, but I'm not — and you might not be, either. After all, the pruning method, named for the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show, which is held every May in the U.K., is one I've been practicing and advocating for all along, without the garden show tie-in. But things with catchy names tend to take on a life of their own, as the Chelsea Chop has on social media. And that's a good thing because it popularizes a useful technique. What's involved in the chop The method involves pruning certain perennials — those with clumping roots, like coneflower (Echinacea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), goldenrod (Solidago), sneezeweed (Helenium), Salvia and yarrow (Achillea) -- by cutting each stem back by one-third to one-half its height in spring. Cuts should be made on the diagonal, just above a leaf node. The 'chop' forces plants to produce bushier growth, resulting in sturdier, tighter and fuller plants that aren't as likely to grow leggy, require staking or flop over by the end of the season. It also delays blooming, which can benefit the late-summer garden. You might get creative and prune only alternate stems so that some bloom earlier and others later — or prune only half of your plants — to extend the blooming season. Do not attempt this with one-time bloomers, single-stemmed plants or those with woody stems; the amputations would be homicidal to the current season's flowers. When should you chop? Gardeners should consider their climate and prune when their plants have grown to half their expected seasonal height, whenever that may be. (The Chelsea Chop is done at different times in different places, depending on plant emergence and growth.) A variation for late-summer and fall bloomers To take things a step further, some late-summer and fall bloomers, like Joe Pye weed, chrysanthemum and aster, would benefit from three annual chops. In my zone 7, suburban New York garden, that means cutting them back by one-third each in the beginning of June, middle of June and middle of July. Customize the schedule for your garden by shifting one or two weeks earlier per warmer zone and later per cooler zone, taking the season's growth and size of your plants into account. Make the first cuts when plants reach half their expected size, the second two weeks later and the third about a month after that. I'd like this fall-plant pruning tip to catch on as well as the Chelsea Chop has. Maybe I should call it the Damiano Downsize and see what happens. ___ Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice. ___ For more AP gardening stories, go to
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Beautiful bank holiday blooms and open gardens
It's a bank holiday weekend providing plenty of opportunity for those not going away to get out in the garden. Let's hope the weather is in our favour, as we have a great track record of disappointing weather over bank holidays! I've been busy in the garden trying to ensure it looks its very best for a large group from Winchelsea, visiting on Thursday. The booking was made much earlier in the year, before I knew I was having my knee replacement surgery in April! It is part of a combined visit with another garden in Seaford so I decided to go ahead with the visit. It will be relatively easy, as the group are having tea and cake in the other garden so I just have to let them in and talk about Driftwood. You can see I've tried pruning using a seat to rest my knee in the process. It was quite a successful approach! Garden openings with the National Garden Scheme are beginning to increase in number as we approach June, historically the busiest open garden month of the year! There are 11 different openings to choose from across the county this bank holiday weekend. (Image: Geoff Stonebanks) Here are a couple you might like to visit. Hollymount in Burnt Oak Road, High Hurstwood, near Uckfield, opens tomorrow, Sunday, from midday to 5pm with entry £8. This beautiful, seven-acre garden is centred around water. Streams run down the hill through waterfalls into ponds flanked by luscious planting. A huge variety of plants create interest from May right through until October. Thick jungle borders flank the top garden while the beds further down are full of rhododendrons, acers, irises, day lilies and roses. There are pigs, alpacas, chickens and ducks to see too and the secret garden is a must. 96 Ashford Road in Hastings opens today, Saturday, from 1pm to 4.30pm with entry £4 This is a small (100ft x 52ft) Japanese inspired front and back garden which is full of interesting planting with many acer, azaleas and bamboos. Over 100 different hosta, many miniature ones. Don't miss the attractive Japanese Tea House and courtyard with fish pond along with the new Japanese bridge and pond in the lower garden too. You can find all the details at (Image: Geoff Stonebanks) In a corner of the garden, I have an ornamental angelica which produces large domed umbelliferous flowerheads followed by delicate seed pods. Its ribbed, hollow stems are flushed pink and are traditionally candied for use in baking. As a plant, angelica makes a strong architectural statement, and works at the back of a border or in a wild part of the garden, alongside grasses and flowering perennials. All parts of angelica are highly aromatic and it has traditionally been used for medicinal as well as culinary purposes. It's good for including in wildlife planting as the flowers are attractive to pollinators and the seeds are eaten by birds. Mine was a gift from a visitor several years ago now. (Image: Geoff Stonebanks) One of my all-time favourite plants in the garden is the fern. They are luxuriant foliage plants that come in diverse forms, leaf shapes and textures. There are evergreen and deciduous types (which lose their leaves in winter), ferns for damp soils or for dry soils such as those found under trees. In fact, there are so many different types that collecting them can become addictive. Many of those in my garden, like those pictured growing in a terracotta trough, came from my garden in North London, over 20 years ago now. They are so dramatic, dying away in the autumn and then producing fabulous new fronds each spring that seem to not to be there one minute and next, sprung up in height. A lovely rose my mother bought me a couple of years ago is the King Charles Coronation rose. It is a truly regal looking bloom to celebrate his Coronation and is a fitting choice to represent King Charles's rise to the British throne. Its pink double blooms with ruffled petals create a beautiful effect and will last all summer long. Better still, it is repeat flowering, vigorous, very easy to grow and low maintenance. As a floribunda rose, it produces wave upon wave of gorgeous clusters of medium-sized, double, baby pink blooms that contrast effortlessly against the bushy dark-green, glossy foliage. Mine is in a large container at the back of the house. (Image: Geoff Stonebanks) In the front porch is a good houseplant, also named one of the most popular of all houseplants. It is the peace lily which has elegant white flower-like spathes that stand on tall stems above the glossy tropical foliage. Easy to grow, serene and calming, they even help to purify the air, so no home should be without one. (Image: Geoff Stonebanks) Read more of Geoff's garden at or book a visit between 16th June and 3rd August by emailing visitdriftwood@
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'Like a hot knife through butter': Fiskars pruning shears are down to $14
If you're a seasoned gardener, you know that having a great set of snippers is non-negotiable. But if you're new to the wonderful world of at-home horticulture, I found a tool that can turn a jungle into a primrose path: the top-selling Fiskars Pruning Shears. Shoppers love them for their ease of use and, of course, sharp blades. Careful! They can slice through almost anything. And speaking of cutting, Amazon just slashed the price of these savvy slicers to $14 (down from $21), so now's the time to pounce. If you have a green thumb, you'll want to add them to your cart ASAP — they're a great upgrade. And if you don't have a green thumb, these shears will help you get one. I lived in a small Manhattan apartment for years, so I didn't have a garden but often displayed flowers from my local market. For years, I tried using regular scissors and I'd get so frustrated because no matter how much force I used, they wouldn't snap flower stems smoothly. After moving to the suburbs and getting a garden of my very own, I thought, "Enough is enough!" and found these fantastic Fiskars shears at Amazon. I've owned them for several years and they work perfectly every single time. They have a soft, nonslip grip and a coating on the blades so they easily glide through even thick stems. They haven't rusted on me, either. Experienced gardeners say they cut like a "hot knife through butter." That makes them easy to handle, even if you can't garden like you used to because of arthritis or decreased grip strength. A self-cleaning groove helps keep the blade from sticking to sap or debris — a big selling point for experienced gardeners. I especially love the easy-lock notch that keeps them closed when I'm not using them. With 38,000-plus five-star ratings, you know you've stumbled on something special. More than 60,000 shears have been bought in the last month alone! "Arthritis has no more power over me," shared a satisfied snipper. "I was unable to use the larger cutting tools because I have nasty arthritis, but with the Fiskars, it's snip and snip and snip, most times for larger diameter plants too. I am ordering another one today. Yes, it's that good." "Excellent pruning shears," added an experienced gardener. "Easy to handle and cuts very well. Works on small and medium branches of numerous plants. Pruning ferns, hosta and arborvitaes. Fiskars products are well-made. In my opinion, the product should be in any gardener's toolbox." "I was looking for a nicer pair of shears after my old ones broke," wrote a five-star fan. "OMG! What an upgrade. These shears are effortless to use. Makes my pruning chores so much easier on my hands. Makes it more enjoyable with less hand fatigue. They are also well built and I expect them to last a very, very long time." "Very sharp, provides an easy, clean cut," said a rave reviewer. "Being able to quickly lock the pruners and slip them into a pocket was very convenient." This peeved planter gave the pair five stars but had one gripe: "The only thing I wish is that they had bright-colored grips because I lay them down in the yard frequently and lose them temporarily." Another agreed: "I keep losing my clippers in the high flora of my native plants [and] find them years later. I now tie yellow danger tape around the handles in hopes of not losing them. Anyway, these are great and not too expensive. I bought two pairs for the reason already stated." If you have Amazon Prime, you'll get free shipping, of course. Not yet a member? No problem. You can sign up for your free 30-day trial here. (And by the way, those without Prime still get free shipping on orders of $35 or more.) The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication.
