Q&A – Ask Neil: March 6, 2025
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QUESTION 1
HOW CAN WE TRAIN OUR 5 LIGUSTRUMS SO THEY’LL LOOK LIKE THE ONES ON PAGE 99 OF YOUR BOOK?
Question: How can we train these 5 waxleaf ligustrums so they’ll look like the ones on page 99 of your Lone Star Gardening book? Al D., Garland.
Answer: I’ve included the photo you’re referencing so others can see it. For the record, that was taken one block off Preston in Highland Park.
You will need to let them grow unpruned for a couple of years. Plants’ trunks thicken faster when they have a full complement of leaves to nourish the top growth. Then you start at the bottom and remove one branch at a time. Step back and see if you want to take another branch off. (You can always remove another one a month later. It doesn’t have to be done at the same time.)
Move to the next plant and do the same thing. And the third, fourth, and fifth plants. Intentionally don’t prune as high as you think you eventually will so that you can bring them all along simultaneously.
One warning: waxleaf ligustrums in the DFW area are at their northern limits. I’ve mentioned before here that my family has lived in the Metroplex since 1970. I have seen 3 or 4 winters where they were killed out by cold spells. February 2021 was the most recent. You will definitely want to have frost cloths on hand to cover and protect them anytime temperatures are likely to drop into the low 20s or colder just to be safe.
QUESTION 2
STREET AND WALK REPAVING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. SHOULD I ASK MY CITY TO HELP ME WITH THIS TREE?
Question: Street repaving in 2007 reconfigured our parkway where our Chinese pistachio was planted in 1990 making the sidewalk much closer to the trunk. New road and sidewalk paving is happening again. Our 5-year-old son helped me plant this tree, so it has special meaning to both of us. Should I ask the city to help me by curving the pavement around it? How should I approach that? Martha H., The Colony.
Answer: Your “town” has really grown up, hasn’t it! One of the students I taught in high school in Shelby, Ohio, ended up working in the Dallas area. He and his wife bought house number 24 in The Colony!
Yes! I would definitely ask for help from your city street department by working through your council member and the mayor’s office. You have a very compelling story to tell, and you are obviously doing this to make your neighborhood better. Offer to pick up any extraordinary costs so that no one can complain. It might also help if you involved an ISA Certified Arborist to give details of how best this could be done. It would be a fairly easy paper for them to write up. I would suggest that the curve be long and gentle, not just a tight circle around the trunk. Think about a youngster coming along with a bike or skateboard and what they would need for clearance and safety. If you need a reference for finding a Certified Arborist, you need look no farther than our advertiser here, Arborilogical Services. They have several, and they are used to doing exactly this kind of work. Good luck with it!
Now that I have also cropped your photos to fit, I have two things you really need to know.
There is a clump of mistletoe getting a start in your tree. You need to use a long-handled pole pruned to clip it out as soon as possible. It is a parasite and it will quickly spread to other branches via its seeds.
Also, the really disturbing news: as I cropped the full landscape view of the tree I noticed that you do not have a Chinese pistachio. You have a western soapberry, Sapindus drummondii. You can easily identify it by its plate-forming bark and also by the very identifiable fruit. The problem is that the species is being devastated by a pest from Mexico, the soapberry borer, first observed near Austin in 2003. I lost 8 or 10 in my woods several years ago but seedlings have come back since then. I just spent 20 minutes looking for any new information online. I don’t see much in the past 6 or 8 years, but perhaps these two links which were good at the time will help get you started. I really would encourage you to engage the folks at Arborilogical Services. If anyone can help you, they can.
From the USDA Forest Service:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsbdev2_040921.pdf
From the Texas A&M Forest Service:
https://fpmc.tamu.edu/coop/Soapberry_borerBillings%2012.pdf
QUESTION 3
WILL PRE-EMERGENT WEEDKILLERS AND WEED-AND-FEED PRODUCTS HARM TREES’ ROOTS?
Question: We have numerous large trees on our property. I have heard that pre-emergent and weed-and-feed products should never be used on lawns because both harm tree roots. Is this true? Carole M., Plano.
Answer: The statement is not totally true. Pre-emergent products will not do damage to trees and shrubs. They only impact seeds as they try to germinate.
I am not an advocate for weed-and-feed products, however. That’s partly because we rarely need to apply weedkillers across an entire lawn. Spot-treating is usually adequate. Also, pre-emergent products should be applied now to our lawns, but it’s too early for feeding our turfgrasses. The soil is still too cold. Some of the weed-and-feed products even post disclaimers that they should never be used beneath large shade trees.
QUESTION 4
CAN I COMBINE A PRE-EMERGENT FOR WARM-SEASON WEEDS AND NEW BERMUDAGRASS SEED?
Question: Can I combine pre-emergent for warm-season weeds and new bermudagrass seeds that I want to use to patch bare areas? Orlova G-O, Collin County.
Answer: No, for two critical reasons. We use pre-emergent products to prevent germination of grasses. That would wipe out the bermudagrass seed. Plus, bermudagrass seed is as fine as dust. It would instantly filter right to the bottom of the seed hopper.
If you’re going to use a pre-emergent, you’re going to have to wait until next year to plant it. You’ll probably be better off bypassing the pre-emergent and planting sod sometime in May.
QUESTION 5
WHAT IS THIS IN MY BERMUDA LAWN?
Question: What is this stuff growing in my bermudagrass lawn? It grows in clumps, has fairly narrow blades, stays green all winter, and spreads rapidly in warm weather. Spot killing has been moderately successful. How can I get rid of it? Bob W., Potter County.
Answer: Without seedheads it’s a bit hard to be sure, but I believe you have clumps of perennial ryegrass. If you were very, very careful, as totally dormant as your bermudagrass still is (if this photo is current), you could spot treat with a glyphosate-only weedkiller in a trigger squeeze bottle. You could easily make a baffle out of a large piece of the cardboard that would set in place over the weed and allow you to mask off the bermuda just in case. Do that right away, however, before the bermuda starts to grow.
To all my readers elsewhere in Texas: that advice is only given to Bob because he is in or near Amarillo where spring arrives very late.