Submitted by Ann Butler, Master Gardener Volunteers President

June is a great time to give vines and ground covers a little extra attention. Proper care now can help these versatile plants thrive through the summer while enhancing the beauty and health of your landscape.

• Planning: Take notes on your vines and ground covers during June and over the next few months and record your observations in a gardening journal. Take notes on bloom times, ornamental features, growth rates, and any pest problems. Use your notes to begin plans to correct any problems or to decide to replace some poorly performing plants.
• Planting: You can still plant some container-grown vines and ground covers from nurseries and garden centers. Get them into the ground as soon as possible so they can get established before summer heat beats down on them.
• Care for Your Plants: Train the new growth of clematis, Confederate jasmine, trumpet honeysuckle and other twining vines to guide them into a trellis. Use soft twine to give new shoots a gentle start. Keep the “feet” of your clematis cool by creating shade with shrubs or by planting a ground cover or perennial that will not be invasive. Some good clematis companions are candytuft, coral-bells, creeping phlox, hardy geraniums, Silver Mound artemisia, and most veronicas.
• Watering: Apply water as needed to keep newly planted vines and ground cover from wilting. Use soaker hoses to water ground covers on slopes which will reduce water runoff and soil erosion. If you have an automated irrigation system, water for short periods rather than all at once, reducing the chance of runoff. Keep vines and ground cover mulched with compost, pine straw, or shredded wood.
• Fertilizing: Follow soil-test results when fertilizing your plants. Supplement mulch with well-rotted horse or cow manure to add nutrients.
• Pruning: Limit your pruning to vines that have already flowered on last year’s growth. Shear off the flower buds of silver-leaved lavender-cotton (Santolina-chamacyparissus). These ground-hugging plants tend to decline after flowering, so diverting the plant’s energy to the leaves will prevent them from deteriorating.
• Pest Control: Insects and mites: Look for the telltale signs of these pests: Japanese beetles skeletonize leaves and feed on flower buds and flowers: aphids occur in clusters near the tips of shoots and their feeding causes leaves to become wrinkled, sticky, and sometimes covered with a black sooty mold; spider mites cause yellow or bronze stippling on the leaf surface; thrips damage flower buds, creating streaks or spots on the open blooms and brown edges on the flower buds that failing to blossom.
• Diseases: Avoid overhead watering and remove spent flowers and dead or dying leaves. Keeping plants clean will reduce the chances of infection. Crown rot is the only serious pest of ajuga or carpet bugleweed (Ajuga reptans). Look for a roughly circular patch of dead or dying plants with blackened leaves. A “cottony” fungus may be visible in damp, shaded areas and can be easily lifted from the ground. Remove dead and dying plants. In the future, provide good, well-drained conditions and avoid excess watering. Infested areas can be treated with a fungicide prior to replanting.
• Weeds: Hand pull or hoe out any weeds to prevent them from stealing water and nutrients from your plants. Suppress their emergence with a layer of mulch and cover any bare ground with mulch.

Until next month, happy gardening!

Content for this article has been extracted from Month-by-Month Gardening in the Carolinas. Authored by Bob Polomski.