Tips From Our Pros For a Perfect February Landscape

Ficus, California Pepper, Carolina Cherry, and more

Trees are starting the flower out, stone fruit blooms are on full display, the aroma of citrus is starting to fill the air, and our friendly pollinators are all over our landscapes. Yes, the spring season is here! If you have been thinking about planting in your landscape, we cannot say how right now is the absolute best time to plant everything.

Love flowers?

It's crucial that you plant before the hot summer days set in. Do you want shade? Plant it now. Do you want flowers? Plant it now. Don't wait too long or you will have to wait until next year to have that dream landscape. As we do every month, our nursery professionals have listed a few tips and chores for your landscape and they have also listed the top trees and shrubs to plant this month!

• Control Your Weeds: Weeds are young and tender right now and it is a smart idea to remove them before they become established with pre-emergent. No one wants to pull weeds in the summer once it's hot outside. Using pre-emergent now will keep your yard weed free. Moon Valley Nursery stocks all of the things you will need for your weed prevention plan at our locations.
• Fertilizers: Everything in our landscapes is in growing season mode and you can help give them a boost with an all-purpose fertilizer from Moon Valley Nurseries. We're talking palms, shade trees, evergreen trees, flowering trees, and fruit and citrus trees. We have solutions for everything in your landscape, plus fertilizers that promote vigorous growth, plus fertilizers that can help anything on your landscape recover from any winter related stress. We recommend using our custom blended fertilizers for your landscape needs as they are specifically formatted for our soil and weather conditions. These can be purchased at all Moon Valley Nursery locations or online. 
• Watering: With the thermometer starting to side, it is now a good time to adjust your watering schedule. In spring, you will want to slightly increase the frequency of watering. However, make sure you are always deep watering and allowing time for the soil to dry-out between waterings. You can download our to help you get a better idea on how to just take care of your landscape.
• Mulch: The temperature isn't hot now, but it will be and it's always a good idea to prepare your landscape with some mulch. Adding a few inches of mulch can help keep your soil cool during the warmer summer months and warm during the cooler days. 
• Vegetable Gardens: Right now is a great time to plant in the garden. Great options for this time of year include peppers, jalapenos tomatoes, potatoes, artichokes, cilantro, broccoli, and lettuce. 

Below are a few trees our experts recommend planting for this month

Evergreen Ash
The Shamel Ash, also known as the ‘Evergreen Ash’, (Fraxinus Udhei) is a great solution for just about any landscape that needs a large, fast-growing shade tree. The classic, larger-leaved, green foliage is attractive and compliments just about any landscape. Shamel Ash is generally grown in parks, commercial areas, and large landscapes. The Shamel Ash is simple to grow and always results in a perfect, park style shape with minimal pruning and maintenance.

Ficus
Our customers are always looking for two things. Year-round shade and minimal maintenance. Seems like you'd never find this perfect combination, but it exists and it is called the Indian Laurel, also known as the Ficus nitida. Our #1 selling tree can block out the sun or unwanted views in no time. It is a very fast growing tree with a growth pattern is tall and wide, creating a massive umbrella-shaped canopy of shade. They handle the heat very well and can be pruned to any shape. We offer three different variations of Ficus: Single-trunk, multi-trunk, and column. Because these trees are so clean, you can plant them anywhere. Even next to a pool! If you're looking for shade, this is the tree for you.

Brazilian Pepper
Finding a tree that has both year-round shade and color can be tough, but at Moon Valley Nurseries we have the Brazilian Pepper, Schinus terebinthefolius, for those seeking a little something different. Tough with the ability to adapt to many environments, the Brazilian Pepper is an eye-catching evergreen that is known for its thick foliage and shiny red berries. In the spring, it produces showy clusters of white flowers which are followed by small red peppercorns throughout the fall.

California Pepper
The California Pepper is a fantastic accent tree that is a favorite for the massive shade it produces, weeping graceful appearance and exfoliating trunk. The California Pepper is an evergreen with an open spreading canopy that can handle the hot and cold months. One of the best aspects of this tree is that once it becomes established, it has very minimal water requirements. The trunk is gray when the tree is younger but as it gets older the trunk will peel exposing the red-inner wood.

No, this isn't a giant carrot! The name comes from the similar appearance the Carrotwood (Cupaniopsis anacardioides) has to those tasty root vegetables we all love so much! The Carrotwood is a fantastic evergreen that features an attractive looking smooth-like multi-trunk or single-trunk. It is extremely hardy and it provides year-round shade and it tolerates heat, drought, and poor soil. Its growth pattern is upright and formal looking. A fantastic tree for any landscape.

Flowering Pear
If you have been searching for year-round color, we search has finally come to an end. The Flowering pear, Pyrus Calleryana, is a tree for every season, starting in early spring when snow-white blooms cover this entire tree. And when we say cover, we mean it! After the spring bloom, attractive oval shaped leaves provide excellent shade relief in the summer and in the fall, the leaves go from a glossy dark green to a rich, purple/red color in the fall. This tree displays every season and it is a wonderful addition to any landscape. It's a moderate to fast grower and it is easy to take care of.

Carolina Cherry
The Carolina Cherry, prunus caroliniana 'Compacta', we offer at Moon Valley Nurseries is far superior to what you will find at other nurseries. The variety we offer is denser allowing homeowners to plant these for a privacy wall. Our Carolina Cherry's are less woody and they are non-invasive. It loves the heat and as an evergreen, they require minimal maintenance clean up. It is both drought and heat tolerant.

Purple Leaf Plum
This is perhaps the most unique tree of our list and that is due to its purple foliage. Quickly becoming a must-have for many homeowners, the Purple Leaf Plum produces magnificent blooms of puffy pink flowers in the early spring that give way to a deep-purple foliage that lasts for the majority of the year. Many homeowners plant these trees in groups or in accent locations to really make the purple color pop. It's cold and heat tolerant and as an ornamental tree, the Purple Leaf Plum produces no fruit.

Cape Honeysuckle
This drought tolerant flowering shrub blooms abundantly from the fall through the spring and is a great addition to any desert landscape seeking beautiful colors of bright orange trumpet-shaped blooms. The Orange Cape Honeysuckle, Tecoma capensis, can be trimmed as a medium to large bushes or hedges, and are frequently used as vines to cover posts or fences.

Indian Hawthorn
Indian Hawthorn, Raphiolepis indica) are dark green shrubs that produce large clusters of small pink flowers in mid spring. Naturally, a mounding shrub whose width and height are proportionate. They can be trimmed formally or grown naturally. Flowers lead to purple berries in fall and winter. Prune right after blooming to prevent berries.

Rosemary
We offer two varieties of Rosemary at Moon Valley Nurseries. Trailing Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Prostratus') and Upright Rosemary (Rosmarinus officianalus). Both of these are wonderful options for our region and when they bloom in early spring they explode with blooms attracting many of our pollinating friends. As an evergreen, it will keep its foliage all year long and it can handle full sun.

Moon Valley Nurseries is your one stop shop for all your landscape needs. Our experts have decades worth of experience and they will be able to assist you with any and all projects you may have. Click here to map a nursery near you.