Gardening Q&A with Richard Nunnally

Q:I have a large area of English ivy that I have treated with varying success with two herbicides. The waxy coating on ivy leaves seems to reduce the effectiveness of the spraying. Can you suggest a product that will eradicate this plant?

Answer: The only success I've had is to cut it all off at the ground and when it starts to grow back, spray it with glyphosate. As you discovered, the mature leaves are not receptive to any herbicide. However, the new young leaves will absorb it and send it to the roots.

Since it's already starting to go dormant for the winter, you have the next several months to remove it. Be ready to treat the new growth that will return in early spring. Some will still come back in summer because of its deep root system. If it does, retreat the new growth when the leaves are about the size of a nickel.

Q:My husband and I are in our 70s. We know the best time to prune a crape myrtle is in February. But for various reasons, we have not pruned ours in the past four years. Could we prune the tree this fall without damaging it?

Answer: You can prune your crape myrtles this fall. My suggestion would be to wait until they start to drop their leaves and be careful not to prune them too severely. Crape myrtles need only to have any suckers removed and the canopy thinned every few years. Since their blooms next year will be produced on new growth, the trimming you do this fall will not impact your blooms next summer.

Q:We like to create a jungle of greenery and flowers on our deck for the summer, but I don't have the room to bring everything into the house. What can I do to increase the survival rate for my large potted banana trees and my potted hibiscus plants? Several years ago, I put them in the garage with a heater and grow lights, but the electric bill became too expensive.

Answer: You might try wrapping them in a blanket and leaving them in the garage. I have a friend who wraps his banana trees and puts them under his house, on their sides. He has done this for a number of years with good success. Of course, each year they get larger making it harder to get them through the crawl-space door.

Q:We have a hillside of junipers that we mulch every year. This summer, however, we have weeds and grass throughout them. We think the last application of mulch may have contained grass seed or weeds. It's too large an area to hand pull, so what herbicide would be safe for the junipers?

Answer: If you have a lot of crabgrass in those junipers, you can apply a pre-emergent in March to kill the seeds before they sprout. Most good garden centers will have one or more pre-emergents that are registered for use in ornamental beds.

If you have a lot of wiregrass or other perennial grasses invading the junipers, there is an excellent product called Ornamec that is designed to be used over the top of junipers to kill weedy grasses. Unfortunately, I don't know of anything that can be used that way to kill broadleaf weeds. It's too late to treat most of the grassy weeds now, but when they return next season, treat them in late July or early August.

Q:I have been cutting the lawn at the highest setting on the mower. Should I keep cutting it this tall or can I lower the mower now?

Answer: Now that it's almost November, we shouldn't have to mow the grass much longer. In late fall, I drop my mower down to about 2 inches. I keep it that height in the spring until we get into the warm days of April. That's when I raise it to the highest setting on my mower, about 3 inches.

Richard Nunnally is a freelance writer and host of WCVE's monthly gardening show, "Virginia Home Grown." He can be contacted at .