April Gardening Tips for the Mountain West and High Plains
Remove spent flowers on spring-blooming bulbs, like daffodils and hyacinth. Don't clip leaves; let them age naturally before removing. Leaves generate food reserves to fuel next year's flower show.
Allow species tulips to set seed. This encourages clumps to spread.
Finish pruning trees and shrubs -- except for spring bloomers. Prune these immediately after flowering. Prune evergreens from now until late summer.
Bare-root trees, shrubs, and roses can still go in the ground this month. You can also tuck container-grown trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and perennial herbs and flowers into beds as long as you're no more than a month away from your last average frost date.
Fill pots with bloomers that thrive in early spring's cool nights. Choices include pansy, viola, flowering stock, sweet alyssum, snapdragon, and calendula.
Test Garden Tip: As soon as soil is workable in spring, you can dig in. Not sure if soil is ready? Grab a handful and squeeze. If it stays clumped together, it's too wet for digging. If it crumbles apart like a piece of moist cake, grab your trowel and shovel.
Continued on page 4: Roses Need Spring TLC
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