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 Wednesday, August 27
Dig in!
Fall is the perfect time for planting and rearranging
Gardeners, it’s not quite time to put your feet up. Fall is a busy time. There are plants to divide, beds to be redesigned, debris to be swept away, and fall clearance deals to be picked up. You can rest all you want after the first frost. So let’s get busy...
Now that the weather has calmed a bit and plants are past their prime growing and flowering days, we can rearrange our gardens. When my flowers start popping out, I get a diabolical urge to redesign. I am quite possibly the worst offender when it comes to inopportune transplanting. However, this year I have restrained myself. And finally, the time has arrived!
Dig, lift, move, and divide
I meet a lot of people who seem afraid to divide their perennials. Division is not the horticultural equivalent of brain surgery. It is a simple task that anyone with a spade can do. It won’t be pretty — there will be root pieces and little bits of green that you can’t save. That’s okay. Perennials are tough. Just be sure that each chunk of plant material has a sufficient amount of roots. If your plants have grown too big, are developing dead centers, or don’t seem to be blooming like they did in years past, division is necessary. Motivate yourself. Think of how much each divided plant would cost at the nursery! You can bless others with your abundance or fill in empty areas of your own yard.
The division deadline is four weeks prior to the first frost. In Kankakee, that boils down to September 15 or thereabouts. Will there be nice days after the middle of September? Of course. There will be perfectly wonderful gardening days that entice us to divide and plant and redesign. I’ve planted things later (in some cases, much later) and some have survived, but by no means did they thrive. The whole point of the “four weeks prior” is that plants have sufficient mild weather in which to settle in and get their roots going before the freeze halts photosynthesis. For the best results, get all your dividing and moving done by mid-September.
Shop ‘til you drop
Don’t hesitate to go perennial shopping in the fall. As long as they’re in the ground before that mid-September cut-off, they should adapt well. Nurseries are anxious to get extra plant material off their hands before the season is over, and their prices reflect that. One caution to keep in mind: these plants have been picked over all season long — these are the ‘runts of the litter’ — so choose carefully. Plants are usually done flowering by this time and in some cases they are going dormant. Translation: not looking their best. The fall shopper has to know what he or she is looking for. Be educated about what varieties you want and don’t hesitate to ask nursery staff questions.
To clean or not to clean
The last item on every gardener’s ‘to-do list’ is fall clean up. It is an effective preventative against disease and pestilence in the garden. My kids often ask me, “Where do the bugs go in the winter?” This is an appropriate question as we watch the birds fly south and every gardener should know the answer: they overwinter. They hide in bark and soil and leaf litter and they wait. Not only bugs, but diseases as well, cling to those dead leaves, hoping to wake up in a green smorgasbord next spring. If you have any plants that regularly struggle with an invasion of some sort, sanitation is the first step to prevention, and also the most environmentally friendly. Pay special attention to phlox, monarda, peony and iris. These plants must be the creme de la crème in bugland, as they are regularly inflicted with powdery mildew, botrytis and borers. Cut the plants down within a few inches of the ground and destroy the debris. Do not recycle it in your compost pile.
Fall clean up is also an aesthetic boost for the winter garden. While you may not be inclined to cut your hosta or daylily back, watching the leaves melt and rot away all winter long isn’t very inspiring. Cutting back plant material that will be destroyed by frost will also make your spring clean up that much easier.
There are exceptions to every rule, and fall clean up has plenty. Some plants provide interesting winter visuals, such as ornamental grass, coneflower, black-eyed Susan, baptisia, liatris, sedum and Joe pye-weed. By leaving them up, you add another season of interest to their repertoire. Their remains can be cut down in March as easily as October, and winter interest is hard to come by in a perennial garden. Additionally, some perennials may be evergreen — if you’re not sure, see how they hold up to the first month of cold. You may be pleasantly surprised. I’ve seen aquilegia, dianthus, iberis and helleborus all brave the cold well.
Enjoy these last few weeks in your garden. One last burst of effort now will pay big dividends next spring.
How to plant perennials in fall
Prepare the soil
If weeds have cropped up in your bed, remove them and loosen as much of the soil as you can without disturbing the roots of neighboring plants. Dig a hole large enough to accommodate the root system of the new plant and mix about one-third compost into two-thirds backfill. (Be sure to space plants properly. The label will give you specific information about the plant's mature size.)
Unpot and examine the roots
If the roots are pot-bound — closely pressed against the side of the container or growing in circles - break or cut them apart to encourage their growth into the surrounding soil.
Plant at the depth it was growing in the pot
Planting too deep or too shallow stresses the plants and can eventually cause it to die. Once you cover the roots with soil, water the plant in well and tamp down the soil to remove any air pockets. You may also want to cut the foliage back by one third to compensate for any root damage.
Water thoroughly
Don't let the soil dry out for the first week or two while the roots are getting established. Stick your finger down around the plant daily to make sure the soil is moist below the surface.
Mulch
Mulch can help retain moisture in the soil now and also help prevent the plant from heaving during winter's freeze and thaw cycles. While a light layer (1-2 inches) can be applied at planting time, wait until after several killing frosts before adding additional layers. The soil needs to cool off and if you apply winter mulch too early, it will keep the soil warm and some plants might actually break dormancy and start growing again — only to be killed by colder weather. Also, keep mulch off the crowns of plants. It can trap moisture and encourage the crowns to rot. Three to four inches of chopped autumn leaves are a good choice for winter mulch. |
 Mollie Uftring developed a green thumb as a teenager working in the perennial beds at Hornbaker Gardens in Princeton, Illinois. After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in ornamental horticulture, she worked as a landscape designer in Ohio before returning to Illinois.
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