NEIL SPERRY
Dear Neil: We have star jasmine, coral honeysuckle and Peggy Martin rose plants in our landscape. All have bloomed beautifully through this season, but now the plants are turning yellow. I fear that I might be losing them. I don't recall that they have done this in past years. Can I do something to help them?
A: Since the three plants are not related, the chance of an insect or disease being common to all three is almost zero. It almost has to be something cultural or environmental, and my first guess would be that they are all struggling with the recent very warm weather in tandem with drought that has been happening across Texas for the past several weeks. Roses and coral honeysuckles typically do lose a good many of their leaves in late fall and winter, but not so much the jasmine. I'd suggest soaking them deeply and making sure they don't dry out over the winter. They'll probably be fine come spring.
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Dear Neil: I'm an avid backyard birder. Two years ago, I put a large patch of suet on the trunk of my live oak tree. The owner of the store said the black color would go away after I stopped doing that, but it is still black. My other tree, a pecan, had the same treatment of suet and its natural bark has reappeared. Do you have any suggestions on how I can remove the black circle on the live oak's trunk?
A: The reason you have the natural look on the pecan is that it has shed its old bark and replaced it with new bark. Trees do that all the time as their trunks thicken, pecans perhaps more freely than others. Your live oak will do the same thing if you're patient. If you don't want to wait that long you might try scrubbing it with a bucket of warm, soapy water and a scrub brush (medium bristles). Don't rub so hard that you damage the bark, however. Bark serves a critical purpose, and you don't want to damage it, or insects will have an easy entry point into the trunk.
Dear Neil: My Knock Out roses look awful. I've been told there is a disease that will kill them, and that it will stay in the soil -- that new Knock Outs can never be planted there again. Please tell me more about this disease. How does it spread? Can it be stopped? What is the treatment? Can these roses be saved?
A: These roses are poster examples of Rose Rosette Virus (RRV), a fatal disease that has become epidemic across Texas and much of the nation, even the world. It is spread through the wind by microscopic mites. Sadly, there is no prevention and there is no cure. Once you see the telltale symptoms on any type of roses (all are susceptible), the plant must be dug and destroyed, roots and all. The easiest way is to dig each plant, put them into large trash bags, and send them to the local landfill. Do not try to prune damaged branches out. If one part of the plant is infected, the entire plant is as well. Symptoms include stunted growth; buds that fail to open properly and that turn brown around the edges of the petals; some canes that have vastly more thorns than normal; and some canes that are several times larger and more vigorous than normal. By the second spring the infected plants typically will have abundant dead stubble and very few flowers, and by the end of the second fall they usually are completely dead.
As for replanting, pathologists and veteran rosarians tell us that it's usually safe to try a couple of new plants after a year or two. But you can expect them to have short life expectancies since the mites and the disease are obviously in your neighborhood. Rose Rosette Virus is not a new disease. It's been around for many decades, but it's only recently (past 20 years) reached these levels across Texas. Millions of dollars of research so far have come up without a good solution. Viruses in plants, as in humans, are notoriously hard to deal with.
Dear Neil: We planted a live oak in 1974. Our tree has done very well, but we set it out too close to our house and to the driveway. An arborist put root barriers near the house to keep roots from damaging the foundation, but this year the roots have torn up half of the drive on the other side. Can you advise us on the roots that have lifted and broken the drive and how we might solve them?
A: Live oak roots can be massive, and they can be strong, as you have discovered. I would suggest you hire a certified arborist (perhaps the same person as before) and meet with them at the same time that you have a landscape contractor who specializes in paving surfaces meet you on site. Consider the option of cutting out a several-foot-wide band of concrete and installing concrete pavers to replace it. That would allow the arborist access to the roots either to remove the offending one or to determine if a thinner paver could be used over it. It could look very attractive. I'm dreaming this up without seeing the setting, but I've seen it done very creatively. That's where the landscape contractor's expertise would enter the picture.
Have a question you'd like Neil to consider? E-mail him at [email protected]. Neil regrets that he cannot reply to questions individually.
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