Hi everybody, this is Noelle from Petitti Garden Centers and we're here at Oakwood Village.
It is late fall and we have had a ton of questions on social media, writing in to us about fall
care in the garden.
Putting the garden to bed.
What do I do, what don't I do.
So, I wanted to cover some of those topics with you and just go over all these questions
with you.
It's not a lot, but there are three things that we're gonna cover today.
It's, what to prune and what not to prune.
Do we plant or don't we plant and then also do we apply winter protection or do we not
need to do that.
So, we're gonna talk about that today.
The first one is, what to prune and what not to prune.
Ok, I'm gonna tell you right now, whenever a tree or shrub or a perennial, annual, whenever
they are diseased or damaged or there's something broken or there's weak limbs or crossing branches,
you can prune that whenever you want to.
You want to remove that growth if you will, that damaged growth on that plant, remove
that, any time of the year.
So if you see that now, as the leaves are falling and the plants don't look great, go
ahead and remove it.
However, if we're talking about pruning trees and shrubs right now, we always suggest you
wait until they go dormant.
So, dormancy happens when the soil freezes, it gets very cold out there, really, very
close to winter, end of fall, beginning of wintertime.
Lots of times we won't even recommend doing it until late winter, early spring because
the plants will give you natural indicators of where to prune to.
Ok, so do be aware of that.
Some things that you don't have to prune right now, Ornamental Grasses.
That's a no-brainer.
They're out there in our gardens to extend our growing season.
So, we love ornamental grasses for that effect If they're floppy if they're breaking apart
if that type of thing is happening, then yes, go ahead and prune them down as low as you
can go right now.
But otherwise, if they look beautiful and are staying upright, enjoy them out in the
garden all winter and then you can cut them back late winter, early spring.
Angelo usually talks about March when we're doing that, okay.
Perennials, there are some perennials you can leave up, too that look beautiful!
Coneflower, they provide a natural seed bank for the songbirds, okay.
Leave up the stonecrop sedum, they're a tall sedum.
Their flower heads stay up all winter.
Clematis, your clematis vines can be very very pretty and provide cover for the birds
as well.
So, there are quite a few perennial plants, if you want to leave them up you certainly
can.
If you want to cut them down, that is your option as well and cutting perennial plants
back now in the fall actually will help reduce your spring cleanup out in the garden.
So, if you want to do that, totally fine.
Deadheading, if you want to deadhead, let's say your hydrangeas because you want to dry
and keep the flowers for indoor arrangements, that's fine.
Deadheading is just removing the flower and then a short little stem underneath.
The next topic, plant or not to plant.
Believe it or not, fall is one of the best times to plant trees and shrubs.
The soil is warm, the air temperature is cool, those plants are able to root themselves really
quickly and able to rest and recover very quickly.
So, if you can plant trees and shrubs at this time of year, go for it.
Put some amendments in your soil, organic matter, whatever you have on hand.
Compost, manure, composted leaves, we're going to be out there raking.
So, all of those things will help break up your soil, make it better draining, more nutritious
soil for the plant material.
Put in your bio-tone to really get those roots started and then your plants are going to
be really really happy.
The other plant you want to plant right now, bulbs!
So, if you're looking for spring color, plant your spring bulbs now!
And you can do that until again, the soil freezes.
So, we've got some time here, even in November!
Everything is great!
Even in December, we still haven't had a good hard freeze, you can still plant bulbs.
Here's the thing.
Bulbs, when you're planting them later in the fall season, you can take advantage of
sales, you can also take advantage of the fact that the won't pop up and start growing.
Sometimes they do that during a warm fall if we plant too soon, so at this time of year
it really works out very very well.
Don't forget to put your bulb-tone or your bonemeal in that whole when you're planting
so that nutrition is available for those plants when they do start growing up in the spring.
Okay, good.
Let's see.
Winter protection or not.
This is a little bit of a tough one, but I want to tell you that a lot of gardeners make
the mistake of putting winter protective materials out on their plants too early.
What you're looking for is you're really looking for that time where all of the leaves have
fallen, it is very, very cold outside, then you can go and use, let's say, six inches
of mulch around those newly planted plants.
Some of the Perennials that might be shallow-rooted that kind of pop up and down during the winter
months, those are really good plants to protect with mulch.
SO, do watch out for that.
Oh, and of course., Mophead Hydrangeas.
So, when their leaves fall off, go ahead and give them a good spray of Wilt Stop which
is an anti-desiccant.
Okay, and then we recommend taking some burlap and wrapping the burlap around the stems.
That will help the buds that are already on those stems stay protected over the winter
so when they bloom next summer they're gonna look awesome cause you're gonna have the second-year
wood blooms plus first-year wood blooms coming underneath.
We're gonna talk about rose protection, too and actually, we're gonna shoot a video here,
next couple of days, so we can get out there and show you what that protection for the
Mophead Hydrangeas and the roses is like.
If you need to protect a plant material outside and the least you're gonna do is get out there
and spray Wilt Stop, it's a great thing to do.
So, Wilt Stop works very, very nicely as far as keeping the moisture in to the plant leaves
and the plant stems.
So those broadleaf evergreens outside like your rhododendrons, Pieris Japonicas, hollies,
sometimes they curl over the winter because they're trying to keep the moisture in their
leaves.
You can go out there and you can spray them on a mild day, okay.
So again, later in November, this is when we want you to start doing those protective
tasks, but it's really a good idea to start thinking about it now and you'll be ready
to go, okay.
So, what to prune and not to prune, plant or not to plant and winter protection or not.
If you have more questions, we're always available.
Facebook, social media, whatever you like to do.
Enjoy!