Now is the time to prune deciduous trees -- fruit as well as shade trees -- desert trees, roses, vines, and many dormant desert shrubs. Check a good book for help on this or your local extension service (Maricopa County Cooperative Extension Service in the Phoenix area) or local garden clubs. You can also prune citrus now to get rid of dead wood and to scale down size of plant, if necessary. Prune shrub roses for shape only and to remove crossing or dead branches. Cut back hybrid tea roses by about a third, leaving the strongest three to five canes to produce this year's flowers.
Soon the nurseries will be full of great new plants. Now is the time to plant bare root roses, they are much cheaper that the potted ones will be later on and in the cool weather they get a great start. Buy only grade #1 roses and before planting, soak in a bucket of water with 1tbsp. of vinegar per gallon of water to help reduce alkalinity. This can be used for houseplants as well. When planting the roses, the graft should be one to two inches above the soil, to which you have added phosphorous. Water well after planting, keeping the roses damp but not soggy and prune each cane to about half its original length. The frequent addition of three banana peels or 3 tbs. of Epsom salts per plant for phosphorous will encourage healthy growth.
Deciduous trees may also be planted this month for a good start before spring. Consider planting some kind of tree for fall color such as Modesto ash, cottonwood, crape myrtle, honey locust, poplar, pomegranate, and persimmon for yellow, gold, or orange-gold fall color. For burgundy or red colors try purple-leaf plum and for a brilliant red-orange, try Chinese pistache. Before planting trees, though, always consider the mature shape, size and overall appearance of the tree for suitability in your landscape. For more info see October's article on Gardening in The Low Desert.
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