Question: My house is about twenty years old and the original owners had a careful and beautiful landscape plan that is terribly outgrown. I have spent the last two years ripping out overgrown junipers, and trying to salvage a hedge of lilac by finding one third of its oldest wood and cutting to the ground, and trimming the tops lightly to shape. It's a tough decision when they are this overgrown! It seems like it will be years before the plants look balanced again. There are several climbing roses too near the entry for the litter they produce; they are in front of windows: I hack them with a guide book in hand. I feed them an Ortho systemic fertilizer/insecticide in early spring, but black spot appears the same time as baby praying mantises and tree frogs, and I can't bear to spray! I'd like to tear out these old unreliables and replace them with Pink Knockouts, but am afraid the soil where my roses are growing is so contaminated with diseases, that even the sturdy Knockouts won't have a good start in life in my garden. What do you suggest? Please also give me words of advice to temper my enthusiasm for your recommendations: I want everything! But I need a plan! Thank you for your advice.

Answer: Black spot is a fungus so of course the Ortho insecticide does nothing to prevent or treat the black spot. If you remove the old rose bushes, add compost to the soil, clean up any old rose leaves and twigs that may be around and remulch with two inches of shredded hardwood mulch after the Knockouts are planted—if you do all four of the above, the Knockouts will do fine. They are genetically resistant to black spot and mildew.

Incidentally, your lilacs should look much better in two years—especially if you fertilize with Bulb-Tone, (Yes, Bulb-Tone for lilacs) and Kelp Meal every year in early spring and late fall.

Question: Is there any reason why I shouldn't cut off the flower spire of a 'Color Guard' Yucca after it drops its blooms?

Answer: You can cut the stem off after blooming. Whether or not you do so, any 'Color Guard' Yucca plant that has flowered will slowly die over the next year or two and several new plants will emerge from below ground around the old plant. These young plants will require several years to achieve flowering size.

Question: I just cut down a lot of trees in my yard, but I didn’t remove the stumps. Last year the trees I removed were in the lawn and you told me I could kill the suckers by spraying them a couple of times with lawn weed killer. It worked beautifully. It took a whole year, but I don’t see anymore suckers. This year the trees I removed are in my shrub and flower beds. How do I control the suckers there?

Answer: You could wait for the suckers to emerge and when they do, treat them with glyphosate (Round-Up) applied carefully with a paint brush.

A second method which works well on most varieties of trees is to kill the stump. To do this, cut off the stump flush with the soil level. Either notch in a deep “X” with the tip of the chain saw blade or drill several deep holes. Carefully fill the notches or the holes with glyphosate concentrate letting it soak into the stump. If rain threatens before the glyphosate has been absorbed, be sure to cover the stump.

Question: The cicadas just about ruined my trees and now the Japanese beetles are trying to finish the job. We have never had so many beetles and I am really worried about my trees. Will my trees recover? What should I do about all of these beetles?

Answer: Small, newly transplanted trees that have been reduced to leafless stems are at risk. I suspect almost all of your trees will recover, although it is going to take a year or two. The beetles aren’t actually destroying existing twigs like the cicadas did. They are hampering the recovery by destroying the old leaves and the new shoots. And there is only so many new shoots a tree can attempt before it dies.

You do need to treat the beetles. I suggest you spray your trees in the evening with Sevin and if your yard is large, set up Japanese beetle traps as far away from the trees as possible. You should treat the lawn now either organically with Milky Spore (which takes a couple of years to become fully effective), Mach II or Merit to kill the beetle grubs that will be eating your lawn roots this fall and next spring before next years crop of beetles emerge.