Five steps for healthier perennials

  • By Kyle Valentini
  • August 6, 2012
  • 345
                        
Summary: Fall garden chores can include preparing the perennials for winter and planting spring bulbs. Perennials make sense in beds and borders. Easy to care for and economical with only a one-time investment, perennials come back year after year to reward us with their beautiful colors and scents. Making sure perennials are at their peak of health is easy when you take a these five simple steps to prepare them for the cold of winter now before it sneaks up on us. 1. Some perennials come in the form of bulbs and rhizomes like gladiola and dahlia and will not survive the frigid temperatures of winter. To insure their survival simply dig them up. Store them in a cooler or box filled with crumpled up newspaper or vermiculite in a cool place like a basement or heated garage. Come spring you put them back in the ground where they will flourish. 2. Once a hard frost has occurred most perennials will have become dormant. It is in this stage it is best to cut them back to promote bushier growth in the spring. Some plants will need an additional pinching in late spring like mums, for instance. Healthy cuttings can go straight to the compost pile. If you cut any diseased or damaged branches it is best to throw them in the trash to eliminate the possibility of further issues. Not all perennials need to be cut back and in some cases it is best to wait until spring to do so. Ornamental grasses left full will provide visual interest and much-needed shelter for birds and insects. Some perennial flowers left uncut like black-eyes Susan and coneflower will provide food for birds. 3. Look around your beds and borders and do some cleaning-up. Debris like leaves and sticks should be cleaned up. A layer of leaves that becomes too thick can promote root rot if left unchecked. Compost the leaves or place them in an appropriate place for municipal pick-up. Never put leaves in plastic bags. There are free-standing paper bags marketed specifically for leaves and yard waste and will allow the contents to decompose even if they end up in a landfill. 4. Water perennials. Even though they are dormant plants should not begin their winter rest without enough water. Cease a regular watering schedule once a hard freeze has occurred. Newly planted or recently divided plants are especially in need of the proper moisture while they become established in their new location. 5. Whether to mulch or not to mulch; that is indeed a question asked quite often. Mulch can reduce the freeze-thaw cycle that occurs in our Ohio winters. Choosing the right mulch to protect roots is the key to success. Lightweight mulches in the form of straw or shredded leaves can be beneficial. Once the perennials have been tended to there are still some fall gardening chores that will reward you in the spring. Planting bulbs like crocus, daffodil, tulip and giant alliums will be the first colors of spring, with some arriving while there is still a little snow on the ground. Learning when particular bulbs will flower will give you color in your beds and borders until the perennials start to grow. Spring bulbs can be planted anytime before the ground freezes and do best when they are in the ground before the end of October to mid-November. Most spring bulbs like a sunny location with well-drained soil. Proper drainage is important so the bulbs do not rot in cooler weather. Most spring bulbs should be planted at a depth that is about three times their diameter with the pointed end up. A little bone meal in the planting hole will stimulate good root development. Spring bulbs look best planted in large groupings of one color. Be sure to mark your plantings so you don’t disturb them when you start to work the soil in spring.


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