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Early bulbs should start popping up soon

Some things to look for in your garden and lawn this spring:

During unseasonably warm periods, early bulbs might sprout prematurely, especially those planted with a southern exposure near a house or garage. The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe has occasionally had snowdrops in flower in late February, although this year has been colder and plants are running later.

The first growth to appear is foliage; flower buds do not appear until much later. Cold weather might damage the edges of the leaves, but it will not affect the future flowering or health of the bulb unless the flower bud has appeared. A few of the small early bulbs, such as winter aconite, snowdrops and glory-of-the-snow, can tolerate a bit of frost.

As the weather warms, check garden beds to be sure plants have not heaved out of the ground due to freeze-thaw-freeze cycles. Gently press the crowns of perennials back into the ground. Do not stomp heavily around the plants, which can compact the soil.

If you see white fuzzy webbing on your lawn after the snow has melted, it is likely snow mold. The damage is primarily to the leaf blades of the grass and once lawns start to green up in the spring, the damage ceases.

This problem usually does not occur frequently enough or severely enough in home lawns to warrant applying a preventive fungicide application in the fall.

Most home lawns will survive, but you can help by raking the matted grass to allow air and sun to reach the growing plants. Then lightly fertilize the lawn and reseed as needed.

Some cultural control options include proper mowing until the turf enters dormancy in late fall, removing excessive accumulations of leaves on the grass, avoiding excessive nitrogen applications in late fall and removing excessive thatch.

The best defense against snow mold is good maintenance program, keeping the lawn is properly mowed, fertilized and watered so it has deep roots in good soil.

Many evergreens will not respond well to being pruned very aggressively. A good rule of thumb is to avoid cutting beyond the part of the branches that has green foliage.

Yews are an exception. They will send out new growth after a more drastic cut that goes back into the bare old wood. However, the plant may take two to three years to completely fill back in. Before severely pruning a yew, you should consider how long you are willing to wait for the shrub to look good again. An alternative is to gradually reduce the plant's size over a few years until you reach your goal size and shape.

Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.

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