Erik's Gardening Tips

winter flowering plants

Right now there are several plants in bloom and more just about to bloom despite the cold weather!
Among my favorites are Chimonanthus praecox / Wintersweet. A large shrub with pointed oval leaves during the growing season but right now in full bloom with wonderful scented yellow pendulous cups of blooms. It is an easy to grow large shrub. Think of a lilac bush for mature size..perhaps 8 X 8 ft. Can be pruned to any size / shape smaller. Sund to a good amount of shade. Regular water
Winter blooming honeysuckle bush is another favorite. Small creamy white honeysuckle blooms dot the plant profusely on stiff arching branches. This is also another easy care bush, pehaps to 8 ft tall X 10 ft wide. There are several species. Lonicera fragrantissima, L. standishii are the ones you can find if you look very hard. they bloom from November to April/May depending on the weather. Sun to perhaps 3/4 shade, prune to shape, cut branches for indoor arrangements.
Prunus mume is another favorite. This flowering apricot/plum ally is usually seen as a large bush to small tree but sometimes you can find rare weeping forms and there is also a contorted form. White, pink, reddish flowers in single to double with a clean spicy fragrance, reminiscent of carnations perhaps?
Flowering is profuse if planted in well drained soil in full sun.

cold period dormancy

The current cold spell we are experiencing can be favorable to plants depending on their particular needs.
If the plant needs a dormancy period (such as most deciduous species, fruit trees for example) this cold we are having now is most beneficial to them. These species require a dormant period below 40 degrees to rest the plant. (Some varieties need several hundred hours of below 40 degrees to rest them fully) This promotes better bloom and more vigorous growth in spring. In years when the winter is moderated with warm temperatures, these species do not get enough cold to properly rest them and they have off bloom, much less than what is required and thus less vigorous growth as well.

With tender plants such as citrus, this cold is not to their benefit. They like warm temps., frost free if possible. During this cold time, they can benefit from being well watered, covered with a drape of sorts to help hold heat around the plant during the nights, sprayed with antitranspirants which will give a few more degrees of hardiness, or well mulched to protect tender roots.
If frost burn occurs, do NOT prune it off now. Wait until warmer temps. come in spring and you can see buds, or new growth starting. Then make your corrective pruning cuts.

Now is a good time, however,to dormant prune your plants that need it. Deciduous fruit trees are the most common plants, but roses in the hybrid tea, floribunda, and English sections will benefit by pruning now in their dormancy.
It is a good time to do pruning to clean out dead growth on all plants. You will get rid of insect eggs, and disease spores at this time.
A slight bit of corrective pruning can be done on almost any plant (wait for spring to trim tender species).
If you have broadleafed and needled evergreens, now is a good time to trim and you can use the cut branches for decorations, wreathes, or line material in arrangements.

With Japanese maples, you can selectively prune now to improve the structure or shape into a desired form.

Winter Flowering Plants

The dreary days of winter are brightened with the flowers of some of these favorites. The wintersweet (Chimonanthus fragrans) is a wonderfully fragrant blooming shrub of easy care. It grows to about 6-8 ft tall and wide and can be trimmed to any size smaller. The fragrant yellow flowers make wonderful perfume in the winter season and cut very well so you can enjoy them indoors as well. The shrub is advantageously planted near a much used entry or window so you can enjoy the fragrance as you pass by.
There are several winter flowering honeysuckle bushes. Lonicera fragrantissima, L. standishii, and their hybrid L. pupursii are all wonderfully fragrant and easy to grow. These are shrubs, not vines, and bear honeysuckle like flowers in creamy white all along their arching branches for a very long time, beginning in winter and continuing well into late spring. They also cut very well and will continue blooming in the vase for a long time. Again, they are easy to grow, and can reach up to 8-10 ft in a stiff arching form. Sun to shade and clip to shape.
The flowering quinces are well known, mainly in the standard red form. Other color selections are pinks and white. However, there is much more here in this group of old fashioned tough shrubs. The rare and new hybrids come in a much more interesting array. There are doubles, and contorted stem forms('Contorta' apple blossom pink-white, 'contorta orange' comes in orange, as well as dwarf forms. Then there are color selections such as "Kuro Koji' which is the "black" quince, and "Choju Bai" which is the creamy yellow one. Some of the doubles are 'Oyashima' white, 'Falconet Charlot' salmon pink-rose red/pink, Red Charlot, 'Iwai Nishiki' red, and several pinks. A small flowered single is 'Hime' with very profuse bright red flowers. They remind me of fire crackers exploding all over the branches! These are tough plants of easy care. They can take any amount of pruning or be left to their own devices and make a picturesque branched shrub. Full sun best for flower production.
Edgeworthia papyrifera (Japanese paper bush) is a wonderful rare plant of great charm. Branching in threes, it develops a tiered branching form and the smal tube shaped flowers come in a dense pendulous cluster with the small blooms radiating off a main central disk. They are yellow at their tips/opening, and there are a couple selections which vary in color. The processed branch fibers of this plant make one of the highest quality papers. Many of the 'washi' type papers from Japan are made of this.
Don't prune this one too much, it does not like it and if you need to prune, then cut to a side branch, or to the ground where new suckers appear. Part shade to full sun, more sun, more watering, well drained soil, and regular water needs.

frost protection

With the coming winter cold season, there are some things you can do to protect tender plants. First off is to just cover them when the temperatures dip close to freezing. This can be a simple thing such as a tarp, sheet of plastic or cloth for the night. This will work for smaller plants. For larger plants, you can also spray with an antitranspirant like Cloud nine or Cloud cover. This works well for tender plants like citrus, giving them more tolerance to cold by several degrees.
a mulch can privde greater frost protection to tender roots, bulbs, etc. Make sure it is at least a few inches thick and of a light material such as composted organic matter, leaves, conifer needles, etc.
Try to make sure your plants are well watered. A dry plant is less able to stand severe cold than one which is well hydrated.
*** This is also a good time to check under eaves, etc. to make sure rains have wet the soil/ root area, and water if that soil is dry.
In very cold areas, it is advisable to protect low plants with things such as deep mulch, branches lightly stacked over the root crowns, or even staked burlap to form a wind protection (a tomato cage wrapped in burlap will suffice as well.)
Ease off on any fertilizing. you can clip off any soft tips of shoots to encourage hardening off of mature growth.
For tender perennials such as cannas, some gardeners just let the old foliage stay in place over the tubers/rhizomes for frost protection. This is alright as long as you remove it before new growth commences in spring.
Some prefer to remove it altogether and not leave a hiding place for overwintering bug eggs and possible disease spores.
Gladiolous should have all old foliage removed since there may be insect eggs (thrips, etc.) in old foliage.
A general clean up of the garden is recommended at this time as well.
For the more advanced gardeners, taking cuttings of tender plants is a way to preserve a favorite plant. And you can have more of that plant for next year if you take cuttings and root them over winter.