Dear Anne,

"We had a fabulous crop of raspberries this year, and new canes have now appeared. They are over six feet tall, and are still growing. Should I cut them back?

"New canes are appearing under a sidewalk and in another garden bed.

Stella Stanger, Vancouver

It's always best to shorten the new canes to a height that makes them easier to pick - usually a bit more than one and a half metres (four feet).

Pruning is best done in fall or winter, when you can see exactly what you're doing. Next year's raspberries will be borne on side-stems of the shortened canes.

Any weak, spindly canes can be pruned right out. They produce berries, usually smaller ones, but they also create extra cover and shade which can cause mildew problems if you're forced to postpone picking for a day or so, due to rain.

Raspberries will turn into a thicket all over any garden, if they're not stopped. People with large lots sometimes deliberately surround their raspberry bed with lawn, so suckers get mowed down. Otherwise, keeping them under control takes a lot of digging.

Dear Anne,

"My apple tree gets apples, but every year they get black marks on them, they don't grow very big, and some of them split. Even the leaves end up with black marks and dry up and die. What can I do for next year's crop?"

Deb Losier, via email

Your apple tree has scab, a fungal disease that is more widespread after wet springs. It tends to be less severe if you spray in late winter with lime sulphur and dormant oil.

However, the spray does kill some beneficial insects.

Be sure to pick up all the leaves every fall, and dispose of them in the garbage or municipal compost - not your own compost. Municipal compost reaches very high temperatures which kill pathogens.

Then mulch under the tree, so that fungal spores can't splash up into the tree during rains.

It would also help if you fertilized the tree every spring with compost or balanced organic fertilizer spread around the drip line (edge) of the tree.

Apples increase in size if, in dry spells, you can water in around the drip line when fruit is forming.

Some trees are very susceptible to scab - especially those varieties that do well in the Okanagan but find our climate too wet.

Most garden centres sell scab-resistant apple trees, and many of them have delicious apples.

'Liberty' is one of the best.

Others include 'Freedom,' 'Jonafree,' 'Prima,' and Goldrush.

Dear Anne,

"When is the right time to remove lavender flowers for maximum aroma? How is it done?"

Helen Hunt, via email

For full fragrance, the flowers should be cut mid-morning, when they've been open several days and the fragrant oil has developed, but the flowers haven't started dropping.

For flower arrangements, the flower stems should be cut earlier - before they open. They should be gathered in small bunches, and tied and hung in a dry, airy place.

If you leave the bunches for a while, you need to know that spiders love to spin webs among lavender and any other herbs hanging up to dry.

For potpourri, spread the stems on trays somewhere dry, and when the flowers are very dry, strip them from the stems.

Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions. Send them to her via amarrison@shaw.ca