In Bloom

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Ask Burton: Q: Many leaves are falling off my trees and shrubs! After all of this rain, things should be looking better, right? Why did so many of my plants lose some leaves? Nothing’s dead, but some of my Magnolias have been thinned out, and there’s a litter of leaves around the base of my crape myrtles. What can I do to stop this?

Posted on September, 21

A: Happily, you don’t need to do anything!

Your plants are just removing some of the most damaged leaves after the hot spell, in anticipation of new growth. It’s normal in any year to have a few leaves do exactly what you’re seeing as we go into the fall. You’re just seeing a lot more of it than usual due to the severity of the summer we just went through.

Nothing unusual needs to be done to fix your landscape. Fertilize the beds normally this month and continue watering most established shrub beds anywhere from once to twice a week, depending on the weather.