Yesterday and actually most of last week offered great weather here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I was out in our display gardens yesterday vacuuming leaves out of planting beds and pruning some plants not taken care of last fall.

This is the time of year I like to cut back our Trumpet Vine and Clematis. We have a couple of gorgeous large Trumpet Vines whose main trunks are in the 1-2" dia. size. I usually cut them back to these main trunks and remove the vines from the bricks of our house. In one year these established vines will form buds along the stems and grow 15-20' in height in one year and offer us bright orange blooms on the house and sometimes up on our roof.

I also cut back all of our Clematis to a height of about 15" Some of our Clematis are supported on large wrought iron obelisks and some climb their way up 6' wide black vinyl clad chain link fencing. We will apply a slow release Osomocote fertilizer to all of the plants in our display gardens.

I also cleaned up the bottom of a massive Climbing Hydrangea that covers a section of fencing about 12' in width and 6' tall. I pruned away lower branches that had become rooted in the soil and raised the branches so the lowest branch was about 8" off of of the ground. This enhances the overall appearance of the plant and will help increase air movement in that vine as well as that section of the garden.

With the light rain falling today, I know spring is truly upon us.....I guess that means we will be out kayaking on Sunday afternoons shortly.

Next weekend in the garden we will prune the few remaining plants and adjust any garden lighting that may have settled in the spring soil thaw.