Paradise Landscape and Hardscape is an expert landscaping company in Annapolis, Maryland that provides professional services to help customers maintain a beautiful, healthy trees, shrubs and plants. Our Team looks for insects, disease and problem areas to create a unique landscaping plan for your yard. We provide tree planting, tree removal, shrub pruning, tree transplanting, and plant installation and trimming services to ensure the growth and long-term healthy of your landscape. Call us today at (443) 458-5588 for a free estimate!

Benefits of Pruning

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Pruning is a vital landscaping practice that helps maintain the health and appearance of plants. Pruning can also help control plants’ growth, making them easier to manage. There are many benefits of pruning your shrubs and trees in Annapolis, including the following:

  • Pruning can help to improve the overall health of shrubs and plants
  • Trimming and pruning is an excellent preventative maintenance method for young and established plants
  • Regular pruning protects your plants, family, and property from injury, pests, and damage.
  • It’s an essential part of a long-term maintenance strategy.

Why You Should Trim and Prune Your Plants 

Promote plant health

Trimming off dead and dying branches allows new growth while preventing property damage or injury to passersby. Additionally, pruning deters pests and animals from infesting the plant while promoting its natural shape and healthy growth.

Maintain Landscapes, Flower Beds, and Plants

Maintenance maintains your property’s planned layout and appearance by regulating plant size and form. Pruning trees and shrubs help to promote fruit and flower development. Trimming on a regular schedule contributes to the aesthetics of hedges while maintaining evergreen sizes and densities.

Keep Your Family and Property Safe!

Pruning your trees consistently helps protect your loved ones from falling branches and reduces the risk of storm damage to your home. This practice also makes it harder for pests, vermin, and snakes to find a place to hide.

Various Methods of Pruning

Trimming, topping, raising, and lowering are all types of pruning. Each type of pruning utilizes different conditions. 

Thinning

This type of pruning reduces the weight on branches, lets in more light, and improves airflow. Many homeowners believe that topping a tree will make it grow fuller. The exact opposite is true. A branch is removed from its point of origin using this technique. Thinning can increase light penetration and control development by restricting the amount of foliage produced.

Topping

This process involves removing most of the branches down to the trunk. Topping is typically done when training young trees to grow in specific directions.

Raising

Trimming low-hanging branches to provide passage for pedestrians, parked cars, or doorways is known as overhanging.

Reduction

Reduction is reducing a tree’s volume, usually for safety reasons, such as making room for power lines.

Dangers of DIY Pruning

Some people try to do their tree pruning, but this can be dangerous. Because climbing to great heights and cutting down limbs can harm people or property, and improper pruning can damage the tree, you need professional help. DIY pruning requires you to climb to tall heights and cut down limbs, which can injure people or property. For these reasons, you should seek professional pruning assistance at Paradise Landscape and Hardscapes. We can assist with pruning trees, shrubs, and other plants.

The Benefits of Pruning in Annapolis

We have been pruning Annapolis homes and businesses for decades. We are highly versed in storm cleanups and know how to tackle property problems safely and healthily. Call us today or fill out our short form for a FREE estimate. We look forward to working with you!

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Outdoor Plants for Winter Landscaping

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It is often a tough task to keep your greenery going during these cold winter months. Thankfully there are a number of plants and trees that can be kept from the snow, ice and barren ground.

Perfect Outdoor Plants for Winter Landscaping in Annapolis

For gardeners, yard enthusiasts and homeowners in the Annapolis, Maryland area, winter doesn’t have to mean sterile white, dead gardens. There are many plants you can add to your winter landscape that bloom in winter – even in our area!

Now is a wonderful time to go through your garden and consider ways to add color and texture to your winter landscape. Here are some perfect outdoor plants for winter landscaping in the Annapolis, Maryland area. Contact us for a free estimate for all of your landscaping needs!

Outdoor Plants for Winter Landscape Color

Don’t despair! In the winter, you don’t have to give up the lovely hues in your garden or backyard. For starters, here’s a list of plants from HGTV for your winter landscape and gardens that also are rated for the Annapolis, Maryland hardiness zones:

Mahonia: Leatherleaf mahonia (Mahonia bealei) and selected cultivars of M. x mediaprovide a yellow bloom and berries that birds enjoy in winter. Mahonia, sometimes known as Beale’s barberry, is a bristly shrub that has become more invasive in warmer environments. The shrubs grow to 8-12 feet but can easily be maintained at a 6-foot height.

Best location is in a security perimeter or at least away from sidewalks and walking paths. A close relative, Oregon grape holly, flowers in early spring and more hardy to USDA (4)5.

Daphne Bholua: The most common variety of this species introduced to the West from Nepal is ‘Jacqueline Postill.’ It has fragrant, white blooms that appear in the middle of winter. It is also evergreen and covered with beautiful thin, wavy, deep green leaves.

Lily-of-the-Valley Bush: Pieris japonica is also a type of evergreen shrub that prefers moist, well-drained, acid, organic soil. They have been around since at least 1000 B.C., and are one of the most fragrant blooming plants. The stems are covered with tiny, drooping bell-shaped flower clusters of delicate white blossoms that burst from pink buds in winter and spring. Their leaves are medium-bright green and lance shaped.

Plant this one in the late fall so the cool winter temperatures allow a proper dormancy period.

Christmas Rose: Helleborus niger is one of the easier garden plants to grow. They are considered the aristocrats of the winter and early spring garden. Beautiful nodding saucer-shape flowers grace the stems when few plants brave the cold winter elements. The flowers consist of 5 showy petallike sepals surrounded by leafy bracts. These tough plants thrive in shade or dappled sunshine and moist, organic soil; there are hundreds of cultivars available in a variety of hues, including white and cream to pink, rose, burgundy, and light green.

Hellebore require a good, deep, well-drained soil with plenty of humus and partial shade. When temperatures fall below 15 degrees Fahrenheit, blooming is usually put off until the weather warms. At low temperatures, some protection is needed.

Plant these under under deciduous trees as they enjoy the summer shade and winter sun.

Winter Jasmine: Jasminium nudiflorum is a beautiful vining shrub that can be trained up a trellis or wall. However, it is more appealing as mass as ground cover for slopes, banks and terraces. It’s easy to trail stems over a stone wall or terrace. As mentioned above, it can easily be trained as a vine on a support structure. In fact, as a vine, it is quite effective when framed close up in front of a wall.

In the winter, the beauty has hundreds of bright yellow flowers that open along the stems in the dead of our coldest months.

This one will have you watching out for Japanese beetles.

Witch Hazel: The American witch hazel tree is named this because they were used as dowsing rods by early colonists in the New World who could not obtain English hazel wood for that purpose. All species contain high tannin content and have been a part of the cosmetic industry as an old fashioned astringent known as witch hazel.

Rich coppery-orange flowers on this unusual shrub add blazing color to the winter landscape. Flowers with wavy, strap-like petals appear on the bare branches. Plant near entries and patios. The ‘Jelena’ variety blooms in a coppery orange shade as early as January, and it has a crimson-orange fall foliage.

The ‘Jelena’ like full sun and regular weekly watering.

Red River Lily: Also known as Kaffir lily, is native to South Africa and normally blooms beautiful bright red blooms in the summer. But since it wasn’t able to shift the blooming pattern to fit our climate, it blooms here in the very late, in fall or even later if the weather isn’t too cold in winter.

Ideal to decorate around bodies of water in your garden, it is also perfectly suited to ordinary soil, provided that it is often watered in summer.

The Kaffir lily’s name comes from the fact that this beautiful bloom grows freely in Southern Africa’s formerly known as Kaffraria, the land of the Kaffirs. The autumn landscape is brightened with these gladiolus-like flowers. They bloom on stalks adorned with basic cup to star shaped blooms.

These grow to a height of 16 to 24 inches, like full sun and pretty moist soil. Once properly settled in, schizostylis is a plant that has little need for care. Cut flowers as they wilt to spur appearance of new buds. Thick mulch on the ground helps keep the soil cool and moist which helps avoid many watering sessions.

Other Winter Landscape Suggestions

Of course, flowers aren’t the only plants that can jazz up your winter landscape and garden. Interested in a few more winter landscape ideas? Check these out. They complement the gray days of winter in your garden:

Bark: While your deciduous trees will shed their leaves in the winter, the underlying bark and branches may catch the eye. The dark, reddish-brown bark of flowering dogwood trees has square-shaped plates that provide texture. Birch trees’ pale color contrasts well with the peeling texture.

Evergreens: As the name implies they’re lush, and they certainly live up to it. These conifers and shrubs provide a constant gorgeous green hue to your garden throughout the winter. Their branches also look absolutely gorgeous when draped in snow. There are a ton of varieties to meet your landscape needs.

Ornamental Bay Grasses: Another awesome option is to leave your ornamental grasses in place during the winter. When covered in snow, the greens, tans and oranges provide a lot of neutral color and beauty. They also sound amazing with the whipping winter winds.

Let’s Talk Hardscapes

Consider what you will lose by the winter… parts of your yard will be barren. Are there parts of your yard that won’t be suitable for any of the winter plants you’ve considered? This might be an excellent time to consider something more permanent, such as an arbor, a bench, a trellis, or even a new pavers patio or pavers pool deck.

If you’re planning to build a project in the summer, you’ll be ready to start work in the fall and have the item completed by winter. You won’t want to just throw down some new furniture. In addition to thinking about how you’ll decorate around it, consider how you’ll make paths accessible, what kinds of new plants will fit your new outdoor living space!

This is also a good time to consider upkeep on structures in your garden. In fact, there is no reason why you can’t do this! Maybe your patio furniture is currently teal, and you don’t want it to be so blue in the winter. You could clean or refinish old wooden railings for a more sophisticated appearance. To make an item stand out in the winter gray and white, give it some color.

Light Up Your Garden & Walkways

During the dark evenings of winter, all you need is a few simple ideas to brighten up your home. Solar lighting eliminates the hassle of connecting wires across your yard, so it’s much more environmentally friendly than traditional Christmas decorations. Lighting that penetrates the darkness is another way to liven up your property in late winter.

Get An Expert’s Opinion

If you live in the Annapolis, Maryland area, please contact us to start making plans now to transform a potentially dreary landscape into a magical, winter wonderland. Now is a wonderful time to go through your garden and consider ways to add color and texture to your winter landscape.

We can help you pick out the perfect outdoor plants for winter landscaping in the Annapolis, Maryland area. Whether you’re creating a new gazebo, starting a planting campaign, or simply fine-tuning your already lavish garden, our designers will help you come up with the best option for your house.

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Tree Care In the Winter

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As we roll into the fall, we start to ponder tree care in the winter. During the winter, it’s critical to pay attention to your trees and shrubs in Maryland, especially if you live in a rural area. With most woody plants dormant during this time of year, pruning back dying or intrusive branches is more viable. Pruning trees is crucial since well-pruned plants produce greater fruit and flowers. It also helps your plants defend against pesky insects and diseases. Team Paradise is here with helpful advice on why, where, and when you should start pruning your trees.

The tree is a symbol of life – it’s green, full of leaves and provides shade. When winter comes around, the tree sheds its foliage to protect itself from the cold. This makes tree care in the winter different than tree care at other times of year. Let’s discuss these factors in detail so you know if now is a good time to plant a tree in your yard.

Decide On Tree Type – Evergreen or Deciduous

Consider the kind of tree you want to plant before deciding whether to undertake it in the winter. Spruce and pine trees, for example, never shed their needles. Evergreens have a smaller planting window than deciduous trees. This is because they need the nutrients they can absorb before the ground freezes. The key is to plant evergreens when the soil is no lower than 60 degrees.
 
Deciduous trees, which go dormant in the winter and shed their leaves, need less energy to grow in the winter months. This implies that when you seed them, the temperature may be cooler. Plant deciduous trees in the fall or early spring before they begin to bud, when the soil is 50 degrees or higher.

Climate Zone

The climate has a big influence on when you may plant a tree in your yard. Throughout Annapolis and most of northern United States, fall is the best time to plant trees. The heat of summer has passed, but the searing frosts of winter have yet to appear.
 
But, in more southern regions, you have more time to plant trees. These states tend to include In Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Upcoming Weather Forecast

Seasonal and short-term weather can all have an impact on your ability to plant a tree, as well as your climate. Even if you live in a northern location, a particularly harsh winter may be ideal for planting trees. Yet, owing to an early September snowstorm, you must wait until later to plant new trees.

Early, Mid, or Late Winter

The winter season is three phases. The early part of the winter season is like fall. This makes it ideal for tree relocation. When the ground freezes or snow falls, though, it’s best to wait until late winter or early spring. New saplings are more vulnerable to frost damage. Their roots can also dry out if planted midwinter.

Special Considerations

Here are some pointers to help your sapling survive the winter. This is good information for any type of tree you want to grow:
 
  • Keep watering: Every few days, water the earth surrounding the young tree until it is frozen. Give it a bigger watering than usual before a major freeze.
  • Mulch: Roots in particular are harmed by the freeze-thaw cycle. Mulch might insulate the surface and maintain a more constant temperature. It also inhibits evaporation, allowing the roots to receive water a little easier.
  • Stake the tree: Windy conditions during the early spring might impede a sapling’s growth. To assist the tree grow straight and true, bind it to three or four supports.
  • Consider applying anti-desiccant: Evergreens that include broadleaf are protected from desiccation (drying out) during the winter with anti-desiccants, which give a waxy covering.

A Few More Tips for Tree Care in The Winter

  • Don’t fertilize: You don’t want a sapling to sprout new limbs right after being planted. Compost and bone meal are both acceptable, but wait until the soil is fertilized in the spring.
  • Don’t prune: Transplanting is tough enough for a sapling without you taking any of its branches away. This occurs if a limb is damaged while being carried and must be cut off.
  • Protect from deer: Deer repellents are one of the most efficient deer deterrents available. To keep your young tree protected from deer browsing, apply a deer repellent to it. Install a protective tube over the trunk to prevent deer rubbing their antlers on it to avoid damage.
Trees and shrubs are susceptible to harsh winters. Cold weather can desiccate leaves, bark, and branches, as well as flower buds and roots.Humans and animals contribute to winter tree maintenance issues in their own way; salt on the road and sidewalk destroyed soil health, and animals generally eat tree bark and twigs as a result of winter food shortages. These threats, especially when combined, can damage your trees and plants if you aren’t prepared!
Thanks to this guide, you should now know whether you can plant a tree this time of year. Feel free to contact our amazing team at Paradise Landscape and Hardscape! We are happy to answer any questions you might have. Spring will be here before you know it, so it’s wise to start planning. Contact us by clicking the button below to request a FREE JOB ESTIMATE today!
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The Best Low Maintenance Plants

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Is your green thumb not so green? Are you looking for the best the best low maintenance plants to plant in your yard? This is a great way to add both interest, appeal, and functional use to your garden. If you have plants that need a lot of attention, this can become a hassle. Most likely you are busy and don’t have time to be trimming, fertilizing, pruning or cutting the grass. We can help you with your landscape gardening efforts in Annapolis. We can also help guide you on purchasing the best low maintenance plants for your yard.
 
So we decided to put together a list of the best low maintenance plants in Annapolis. If you want to dive right in, these plants and shrubs make great choices for your landscape.
 
It’s important to keep in mind that the proper installation of these plants is key. Some plants are shade lovers while other like hanging out in the sun. We have decades of experience and knowledge with plants and gardens in Annapolis. If you need a hand, fill out our quick estimate form by clicking the button at the end of this post.
 

12 of the Best of Low Maintenance Plants in Annapolis

 

Low Maintenance Trees

 
Low maintenance trees to be relatively disease and pest-resistant. They also don’t need lots of care, such as regular pruning, to fall under the category of low maintenance trees. While there is no such thing as a tree that needs zero care, these 4 won’t give you lots of extra work:
 

Japanese Maple Trees in Annapolis

 
Japanese Maple trees are famous for their bright fall foliage. They come in many varieties. Some of which are airy and upright and others that are compact and domed. On the whole, most all Japanese Maple make low maintenance trees for your yard.
 

Serviceberry Trees in Annapolis

 
Serviceberry trees are deciduous members of the Rosaceae family. The bloom in all four seasons. Spring produces beautiful blooms. Winter produces fruit. In the fall they have gorgeous fall color foliage. Growing and caring for a Serviceberry tree does not take a lot of work. It is a very cold-hardy tree. It handles the winter well and brings an interesting unique design to your landscape.
 

Crape Myrtle Trees in Annapolis

 
The Crape Myrtle is one of the best known low maintenance trees in Annapolis. Natives Annapolitans know the Crape Myrtle as the “lilac of the South.” It’s flowers are striking and creates a stunning addition to a landscape. It is also low maintenance as far as flowering trees go. It only needs approximately 30 to 60 minutes of pruning each year and it will look and perform well for you. Crape Myrtles come in a variety of colors and will grow to vary in size when they mature.
 

Magnolia Trees in Annapolis

 
Hello sweet Magnolia. How do we love you? Magnolia trees can be evergreen or deciduous. Both types of these trees have large and striking blossoms. These trees are hardy and adaptable. Though they prefer slightly acidic soil, they will adapt to your natural soil, even if it’s sandy or heavy in clay. These trees often serve as small ornamental accent plants. But they have varieties that will grow into medium-sized trees.
 

Low Maintenance Shrubs

 
When looking at low maintenance shrubs, we’re looking at varieties that don’t need a lot of tending to. These are some of the best low maintenance plants and shrubs for the Annapolis region. They are drought-tolerant and generally resistant to problems with disease or pests. Here are 4 that are adaptable to most landscapes:
 

The Burning Bush

 
This shrub is a bright crimson color in the fall. Native to Asia, this large bush will adapt well to almost any site or soil condition. It also requires minimal care. While it’s almost wholly hands-off, occasional pruning will help keep its size down if you have a tight space. This medium to large-sized shrub has many uses. As a result, it can even create excellent privacy screens during spring through fall.
 

The Nandina

 
This hardy is nicknamed “heavenly bamboo” for its ability to thrive almost anywhere. It also resembles bamboo. Nandina has evergreen tendencies. It also has a unique color combination and leaves that change from green to reddish purple. Different cultivars will grow as small or medium-sized shrubs.
 

The Azalea

 
The Azalea is a member of the Rhododendron family. Azaleas produce showy and fragrant blooms in the spring. Additionally, they have many different color blooms such as white, lavender, orange, gold, red, and purple. They are easy to care for and need very little attention. Plant them in the right area of your yard! They need moist, but well-drained soil. Azaleas are slow growers so these are ideal choices for tighter spots. With regular pruning, it’s easy to keep them confined within most spaces.
 

The Hydrangea

 
Generally speaking, hydrangeas are versatile and easy to grow. There are many varieties of this flowering shrub. Oakleaf is one of the easiest to care for and can tolerate cold weather. They can also tolerate the sun and withstand drought. But all varieties of hydrangea are low maintenance and produce stunning blooms. These shrubs vary in size from 3-8 ft.
 

Low Maintenance Flowers

 
Choosing low-maintenance perennials will help color to your landscape. They will also provide a little curb appeal without adding a bunch of extra work. Perennials will re-grow each season. Annual flowers last one growing season and need to be replanted.
Here are 4 that you might want to consider if you’re looking for low-maintenance flowers:
 

Daylilies in Annapolis

 
Daylilies bloom quickly and are easy to grow. They are incredibly drought-tolerant and need minimal (if any) watering. Color variations include yellow, gold, orange, red, and purple.
 

Salvia flowers in Annapolis

 
Salvia is of the largest genus in the Mint family. It is also one of the best low maintenance plants in Annapolis. Perennial Salvias are easy to grow and perform well in our local climate. We love the Russian Sage. It’s a low maintenance perennial that produces tall spires of bluish flowers.

 

Lavender plants for your Garden in Annapolis

 
Lavender is an attractive flower and smells so good. It has a muted purple color. It also has a distinct scent, which used as a calming essential oil! Lavender is not fussy to grow. It’s a tough woody perennial that requires very little care. Lavender only needs well-drained soil and some room to grow and it will thrive.
 

Coreopsis flowers in Annapolis

 
Known as “Tickseed,” Coreopsis is a bright and showy flower. It can surive in almost any soil. There are more than 100 species. Most all are low maintenance and drought-tolerant.
 
Knowing which plants to incorporate is one important piece of the puzzle—but it’s not everything. It’s also a matter of incorporating them in a way that makes sense.
 
We hope this article has shed some light on the best low maintenance plants in the Annapolis, MD region. It’s important to understand that while these plants low maintenance, they might not thrive on your property.
 
There are tons of other options to consider! A beautiful, low maintenance landscape can add tremendous value to your home.
 
If you need a hand, we’d love to help. Fill out our quick estimate form by clicking the button below to get started! You can also view our YouTube channel for updates!

 

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