Planting trees in the fall offers many advantages over planting trees in the spring. To name a few: “Transpiration is low and root generation potential is high. The temperatures are typically moderate to cool, and are easier on the plants so there is less chance for the trees to be stressed by extreme heat. The […]
Is your plum tree not producing fruit? Or are you wondering why there are no plums on your tree? You can usually tell if your plum tree will yield ripened plums by examining the flowers immediately after the petals fall off. The ovary (which will become the fruit) is located at the base where the […]
Have you ever experienced noise pollution? Whether you live close to a street or are in a closely-built neighborhood, you may have some unwelcome noise that you’d like to remedy. Below is a list of the best trees to block sound and an explanation on how trees reduce noise pollution. Plants are the perfect antidote […]
So, your pecan trees are coming along nicely, but now you notice these little blister-like bumps on many of the leaves. What’s up with that? The bumps on pecan tree leaves are actually galls caused by the leaf’s response to small insects called pecan phylloxeras (Fill-OX-er-ahs). These are true bugs (order Hemiptera), an aphid like […]
Pollarding is a type of over-pruning that entails lopping off the branches of a tree back to the primary “scaffold” branches, leaving just short stumps. The stumps then re-sprout, each with many thin vigorous shoots, producing an upright clump that forms a dense ball of foliage and flowers atop the trunk. A pollarded tree can […]
Sometimes prevailing winds can be more than just a nuisance. We all know strong winds, dust, and blowing sand can be damaging to structures and equipment, but constant winds, even of moderate intensity, can hurt ornamental plants, too. This is where windbreak trees come in to play. This is because plants lose more water through […]
If you garden near the seacoast, your plants are probably exposed to salt spray in the air and salt accumulation in the soil. Most plants require only trace amounts of salt (sodium chloride, aka NaCl), and when concentrations are too high it can be toxic to them. What does too much salt do to plants? […]
If you have big oaks or tall pine trees in your landscape, you can still have smaller trees with pretty flowers and showy foliage underneath. In nature, the tall canopy trees may rule the forest, but the sub-canopy trees create the mood. Perfect Plants offers several kinds of partial shade tolerant trees for the home […]
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male part of a flower (the stamen) to the female part of a flower (the pistil). Fertilization then occurs in the ovary when a sperm cell from a pollen grain unites with an egg to produce an embryo. This then develops into a seed. After fertilization, the […]
A viable pecan seed (the nut) is the product of cross pollination (sexual reproduction) between two pecan trees. It has a genetic makeup that is different from either parent, and the potential to grow into a pecan tree that differs in unpredictable ways from either parent. If you want to grow a pecan tree with […]
Thuja ‘Green Giant’ is one of our most popular trees for hedges, privacy screens and windbreaks. It is a fast growing evergreen, adaptable to a wide range of soil conditions, and grows fast. It can grow up to 20-40 feet tall at maturity and has an extremely fast growth rate of 3-5 feet per year […]
Limelight hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’) usually stays around six to eight feet tall, but it can put on two to three feet of growth per season and get as tall as fourteen feet. Left on their own, hydrangeas tend to grow as rangy, unkempt, multi-stemmed shrubs. But we can do better. We have pruning shears! […]