Tip #1 from Pat Sabosik

May is lilac time. It’s also time to prune back or shape your lilacs. The window for pruning is one to two weeks after the lilac blooms fade and before they set new buds.

Pruning after flowering shrubs blooms fade is the same principle for Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and others.

Don’t forget to feed your flowering shrubs during bloom time and after to help them set buds for next season.

PLANT FOOD PREFERRED: Epsoma’s Plant tone Neptune’s Harvest seaweed solution

Tip#2 from Trish Helm

It’s time to fertilize your rose bushes: May, June and July. Use a low nitrogen fertilizer (remember: N P K on fertilizer bag, you want the first number lowest). I like Pro gro.Sprinkle 1 cup around the base of the plant without touching the crown of the plant and scratch it in. Ideally do this the day before it rains (we should be so lucky) or water it in.

Hopefully you pruned your roses last month. Probably still ok: prune out any dead, crossing or inward growing branches. You want the center of your rose bush open for good circulation so take out the inward growing ones. Cut at an angle just above an outward-facing bud.