Part IV - Living Walls - Borders & Hedges: Yews and Hemlocks: Re: Hemlock in these times?

» Marge_Talt - Re: Hemlock in these times?

Hi anewleaf, Welcome to Gardening in Shade!

The hemlock wooley adelgid is an issue, no question about it. I have found, however, that timely applications of horticultural oil work just fine. It would be impossible to spray a fully grown, unpruned specimen without special gear and probably access to a cherry picker, but I can deal with my hedge and weeping specimen easily.

You do have to keep a sharp eye on your plants and deal with the pest when you see signs of it.

You are correct about recommending hemlocks because of this, but with this caveat, and the willingness to monitor the plants, they still are sometimes the best solution for a particular situation.

It is such a pity about the wild stands because there is really nothing that foresters can do about it - there are just too many huge trees. I don't know if work is being done on bio controls, but I sure hope so...but bio control programs are a long, long time in the testing before they can be implemented and it may be too late for our native trees:-(

-- posted by Marge_Talt