Cloudy Days Are Best
One of my best gardening tips is to plant on a cloudy day (and if the forecast calls for rain later or the following day, all the better!). This also goes for trimming shrubs.
As plantings really start to take off and the season progresses, Murph will be out there buzzing away with his hedge cutter. We learned our lesson years ago when we were so happy to be catching up on our trimming on the most beautiful sunny day. A few days after that day of great accomplishment, we noticed that the tops of all our boxwood was burnt! Yikes!
We learned our lesson the hard way. In the garden, it’s all about doing and learning.
Happy gardening!
Love, Nora
Explain the brown in the boxwood, please. I like boxwoods, one of my favorites. Don’t have nay big enough to trim yet.
Thank you!
Please explain WHY the brown when trimmed on a sunny day?
Thank you.
Hi Nan! As newly trimmed foliage, they’re sensiticve to the hot sun. So the sun burned the very top surface where they were cut. I hope this helps. Love, Nora
I laughed at my self yesterday when I read your post to think “sunburn” but I guess it was correct!
Thanks for your reply.
Now for some good news – I found some tiny dwarf boxwoods to plant in my husbands OLD tool box. I had admired your Winter boxwood display in your past post,, wrote you for details. NOW I CAN ENJOY my window display!
Thank you for always sharing and motivating me.
I have many large Boxwoods and never made the connection to their browning after trimming on sunny days. They love Cottonseed Meal around the drip line and keeps them safely fertilized. Never miss reading your site. Transplant from the Berkshires to Atlanta at an early age.