Plants in Flower

Trumpet Creeper, Phlox, Butterfly Weed, Daylily, Red Hot Poker, Rose-of-Sharon, Sourwood, Crape myrtle, Stewartia, St. John’s Wort, Abelia, Peegee Hydrangea, Chaste-Tree, Canna, Dahlia, Shasta Daisy, and summer annuals.

• Continue side dressing your garden vegetables.
• July is the month we recommend giving landscape plants a second (last) feeding of fertilizer.
• Take soil samples from your lawn areas for testing. Soil boxes are available at the N.C. Cooperative Extension, Henderson County Center.

• Plants of Brussel sprouts and collards can be set out in mid-July.
• You can begin your fall vegetable garden this month.
• Plant beans, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and tomatoes in July.
• Start broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower plants in peat pots to transplant into the vegetable garden in mid-August.
• Begin repotting overgrown houseplants.

• Prune “bleeder” trees like maple, dogwood, birch, and elm this month.
• Prune the fruiting canes of raspberry and blackberry plants after harvest is over. Cut canes at ground level.
• Prune off dieback limbs on hybrid rhododendron, azalea, mountain laurel, and blueberry. Trim hedges as needed.
• Continue pruning white pines and narrowleaf evergreens like juniper early in the month.
• Remove faded flowers on flowering perennials to encourage a second flowering.
• Complete pruning of spring-flowering shrubs by July 10.

• Scout the following landscape shrubs for the following insect pests: arborvitae (bagworms), azalea, and pyracantha (lace bug).
• Use Neem Oil for Japanese beetles as needed.
• Spray your tree fruits and bunch grapes on a regular basis.
• Scout the following vegetables for insects: cucumber (cucumber beetle), squash (aphids), tomato, and eggplant (flea beetle).
• Woody weeds like poison ivy, honeysuckle, and kudzu can be controlled with a recommended herbicide.

• Remember to change direction when mowing your lawn. Travel north to south on one mowing and east to west on the next cutting.
• Continue feeding your zoysia lawn with fertilizer.
• Do NOT give tall fescue or bluegrass lawns any fertilizer this month. Maintain 3″ mowing height on tall fescue and bluegrass lawns.

• This month is still a great time to take semi-hardwood cuttings of azaleas, holly, rhododendron, and many other shrubs.
• July is an ideal time to divide and transplant your iris and daylilies.

• July is a good month to see if and where your home can use some additional shade trees.
• Blossom-end rot may be seen on tomatoes this month. Two factors – too little water and too little lime in the soil – may be the reason.
• In dry weather, both your vegetable garden and landscape plants will benefit from a good soaking watering. Slow watering will penetrate the root zone better. Apply 1″ of water early in the day.
• Purchase locally grown blueberries and blackberries.