The Flower Bin Lawn Care program 2019

In order for your lawn to look its best spring, summer and fall, it needs nutrients. The Flower Bin Lawn Care program is built on the idea that regular fertilization, along with aeration and good mowing and watering practices, is key to maintaining a strong, healthy lawn. A healthy lawn is more likely to have fewer weed and disease problems. The Fertilome® brand of lawn and garden products is the mainstay of our program and includes four steps designed to keep your lawn healthy throughout the growing season. 

When you purchase all four bags of The Flower Bin Lawn Care program at once, you will save 20% of the cost of the program and you will continue to save 20% on every Fertilome® product you purchase throughout the year, including a wide selection of garden fertilizers, plant starters and weed controls. 

Additional benefits of the program include the satisfaction of knowing you are applying the right product for your lawn at the right time of the season, when it will benefit your lawn the most. 

The program begins with Step 1, Fertilome’s® For All Seasons II fertilizer and weed preventer. One of the most effective ways to control weeds in your lawn is to prevent them from showing up in the first place and this product works to keep weed seed from germinating. This includes crabgrass. Step 1 is applied between mid-March and mid-April. 

Weed-Out Plus Lawn Fertilizer is step 2. This product works to control weeds you can see. It’s called a post-emergent. This is the product to apply for dandelions, mallow and other weeds you can see in your lawn. Weed-Out Plus also feeds your lawn and is applied around the first of June.  

Step 3 is Lawn Food Plus Iron and this is applied in early August, right when your lawn needs nitrogen and iron. 

Step 4 is Winterizer and is applied around Halloween, when your grass is storing up energy for the winter weather ahead.  Your lawn will green up faster, the following spring.  Stop by and learn how The Flower Bin Lawn Care program will help your lawn become thicker, healthier and more weed and disease resistant.   

Pruning Flowering Shrubs

Pruning the flowering shrubs in your landscape isn’t difficult if you understand these practical rules. Practical rule number one: prune spring flowering shrubs after they bloom and before they set seed. 

Spring blooming shrubs such as forsythia, lilac, ninebark and weigela already have this spring's flower buds in place. They're said to bloom on old wood because soon after flowering last season, they began to set the buds for this season's blooms. If you prune these shrubs now, you'll remove most of the flower buds. The time to prune ornamental shrubs that flower in spring and early summer, is within a month after they stop blooming. 

Practical rule number two: prune summer flowering shrubs such as butterfly bush, blue-mist spirea  and hardy hibiscus in late winter or early spring, because they bloom on this year’s growth or “new wood”. Practical rule number three: don’t prune. If you’re uncertain about the blooming habits of the shrubs in your landscape, don’t prune until you’ve had time to observe each plant’s growth and bloom cycle. Then you can employ practical rule one or practical rule two, whichever is applicable. Practical rule number four: prune anytime there is a need to remove dead, damaged or diseased branches. It’s always the right time to remove any branches that pose a hazard. The shrub will recover over time. 

Summer flowering hardy hibiscus and butterfly bushes do best if you cut them hard to the ground now. You can use a lopper to cut the larger canes.  

Prune Caryopteris back to about six inches, if you want to maintain the same height each year.

 If you want your Blue Mist spirea to increase in size each season, prune it back by one third now.  After you're done pruning, give your ornamental shrubs a good drink. Wait another month to feed your shrubs. When you do, select a fertilizer with a higher Phosphate formula, such as 11-15-11. If you have questions about pruning in general or how to prune a particular shrub, stop by our Diagnostic Center. We'll help you figure out what to do to keep your shrubs healthy and blooming for many seasons.