Bob Morris is a horticulture expert and professor emeritus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Visit his blog at xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com.
Q: I have two paloverde trees in front of my house. One seems to be fine while the other has struggled for four years. I am told the tree is healthy, but every summer it leaks white, sticky foam from the trunk. This foam attracts bees and beetles. The tree has received professional borer treatments twice a year, but it’s still bad.
This is the time of year when borer damage in trees and shrubs is most obvious. Limbs are dying. Their damage can be seen from a distance now, but they’ve been working hard feeding on the inside of trees and shrubs for months.
Q: In my morning walk around the garden, I found an unusual pattern on the leaves of my Arabian jasmine. Do you have any thoughts on what might have caused this?
Q: The leaves on my fig tree appear burned after this rain. I foliar sprayed it with neem oil and soap and fish protein isolate. These trees were planted last fall and mulched with 1 foot of woodchips and looked amazing until now. They are watered three times each week in the summer.
Q: We’ve noticed leaf damage this year on our rose bushes and apple and pear trees. More than previous years. But, peach, apricot and pomegranate seem unaffected. Some of our roses were decimated. Any idea what pest causes this and how to control it?
Early Saturday morning, I spotted two green beetles on a young apple tree. These are close relatives of what we called in the Midwest “June beetles.”
Q: I have some large dead areas in my lawn. I don’t think it’s an insect problem. Watering is at 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. This was my first lawn problem in 16 years.
Q: We installed a lawn 18 months ago, but it has a difficult time during summer months. I aerate it and fertilize it, and I know the drainage is good because the landscaper installed the system to our HOA requirements. I water twice daily, six days a week around 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. There is a decent amount of shade, and the yard faces south. Even the heavily shaded areas have problems. What can I do differently?
Q: My Mexican bird of paradise grows well but it looks too thin. Or is that its natural way? I would like it to fill in and be healthy looking.
For those of you following my desert landscape design class, I have scheduled a second eight-week, class beginning Saturday, July 7, in the afternoons. There are only a few seats remaining before it will be full. The next landscaping design class will be offered in late October.
Thank you for your support of my landscape design class beginning in July. The class size is limited, and the eight-week class I offered filled quickly.
Q: I want to do something with my yard. I am sick of it being so ugly, but I’m not sure where to start. I had some landscapers who quoted me some prices for doing everything, but they are very expensive. How do I get started?
Q: Wondering if you have any recommendations for varieties of pineapple guava that will fruit in the Las Vegas Valley. Thanks for putting that list of fruit trees that grow well in the Las Vegas area.
Q: Is Ironite safe to use in a vegetable garden? I have read somewhere that it’s not, but the label says you can use it.
Q: Are eggshells good for your garden and should they be added to your compost? Conventional garden wisdom says yes, but I believe that we have too much calcium already in the soils here in Southern Nevada, so adding eggshells is not a good idea. What do you think?
