Dear Neil: My Aloe vera plant is looking reddish-brown. When I use my plant app, Picture This, it says the plant looks healthy. What do you say?

My opinion is that it looks like a healthy aloe that has filled up its pot to overflowing. The reddish coloration is probably due to its being somewhat rootbound and perhaps lacking in nutrients.

I have, over the years, collected several dozen species of aloes, from tiny grass-like types all the way up to tree-like aloes that could grow to 10 or 12 feet tall. And I’ve grown Aloe vera for more than 50 years. This looks like some other species. Aloe vera is stemless. Its leaves form in a rosette that forms a tight clump around the center of the plant. They tend to be light green and less stout than those in your photo. I have had other types that looked more like the one you have, reddish cast included. I’ve pulled a couple of photos to show you.

Dear Neil: How can I kill honeysuckle that has come up in a bunch of my shrubs?

You’ll have to search for where it comes out of the ground and sever the stems. It won’t be as difficult as you might think, and the sooner you can do it the better because it’s about to put on a big flush of new spring growth. Look beneath the shrubs for the wiry stems that have emerged out of the soil. Usually, one stem will support 8 or 10 branches winding their ways through the plants’ canopies. If you cut the stem off at the ground the entire top will die. As the parts dry and become brittle in the next few weeks you’ll be able to reach in and clip them and get them out. There’s no way to pull them out until they do dry, however. They’re slimy and their outer “skins” slide off leaving your hands a gooey mess. The stems will stay right where they were. The final step, then, would be to apply a broadleafed weedkiller spray directly to the new growth that sprouts up. Use a trigger-squeeze sprayer so you can coat just its leaves – don’t soak the soil. Watch, too, for any vines that bloom and set seed. Trim off the fruit before birds have a chance to eat and deposit them right back in the same places.

Dear Neil: Several years ago, a guy who trimmed my trees left stubs several inches long. Since then, I’ve read your notes about how they should have been cut back to the branch collar (almost flush with the trunk). Should I have another person climb to make fresh cuts? They are in two large pecan trees. When should it be done?

If the stubs are more than an inch long, I would have a certified arborist work with your trees. The problem is that trees can’t heal across wounds when the stubs are that far away from the trunk. The stubs decay before the wound heals. That decay travels back into the trunk, and in too many cases the entire tree ends up being lost. By cutting to the branch collar a new layer of bark can form across the wound to seal it off from decay. Your certified arborist will be able to tell if that should be done.

Dear Neil: Are Lombardy poplars any good as replacements for Italian cypresses here in Texas?

No. Their life expectancy will be only 6 or 8 years, and their growth will be erratic at best. Cottonwood borers, cotton root rot, and a host of other problems take them down quickly. Unfortunately, when Seiridium canker started killing Leyland, then Italian cypresses, and when Phomopsis and Kabatina twig blights started doing so much damage to our upright junipers, we were left scrambling to find any upright replacements. The Lombardy poplars are absolutely not the final answer. It won’t grow nearly as tall, but I’d suggest Oakland holly as a much better alternative if you need a narrow screen. There are a couple of narrow yaupon cultivars, but they tend to splay out over time, and they also frequently lack uniformity from one plant to the next in many Texas landscapes.

Dear Neil: We are going to be putting in a new patio. I’d like to transplant the St. Augustine sod that we will be eliminating. When can I do that, and do you have any tips?

Wait until the grass has greened up fully and is growing actively. That’s probably going to be late April into May. I use a square-bladed nursery spade, also called a “tile spade.” It will be short-handled like a sharpshooter, and its blade will be completely flat and square across the bottom, probably 6 or 7 inches across.

Water the area thoroughly. The next day, slide the spade in beneath the grass so that you’ll be taking about 1 inch of soil with the St. Augustine. Carefully lift 18-inch pieces of the sod onto your driveway or walk so that you can cut them the size of the spade head.

Plant the plugs in checkerboard patterns on 16-inch centers. Use your spade head as your template as you cut squares and remove 1 inch of soil in each spot. Lift that soil into a wheelbarrow to put along the edges of the plugs as you replant them. Set them at the same depth as they were growing originally. Water them with a water wand and breaker, then pat them down with your foot. Water them daily for a week and then every couple of days for a couple more weeks. After that, they should do well on your regular lawn watering schedule.

— Have a question you’d like Neil to consider? Mail it to him in care of this newspaper or email him at mailbag@sperrygardens.com. Neil regrets that he cannot reply to questions individually.