Do not prune these plants now, gardeners fall tips
It’s a delicate balance between cleaning your yard in the fall and leaving it alone for wildlife to enjoy during the winter. The simple answer is to leave things like seed heads and mulch alone for the wildlife. And, leave pruning till mid-winter deep dormancy.
PRUNING
The universal answer to pruning is to leave it till mid-winter, or better yet till early spring. This is when the plant is in deep dormancy. “The rules of fall pruning are simple: Prune nothing in the fall! That’s nada! Bupkiss! Zilch! Zero!” pleads gardening expert Mike McGrath, author of Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost and radio host of the radio show “You Bet Your Garden.”
Evergreens stay green during the winter, and it’s tempting to think you could prune them year round. But they should be pruned no later than July 4 to allow for the hardening off of new foliage, before fall. Fall-pruned evergreens are more susceptible to winter injury.
PRUNING FLOWERING BUSHES
“As I try to stress every year at this time, pruning them now stimulates new growth just when the plants are trying to go dormant, and this severely weakens the plants,” says McGrath. “Plus, if you prune on a warm day, sap rises up into the plant. Then, it drops below freezing that night, and boom — not a pretty sight.”
What about those spring blooming plants, like lilacs? These should have been pruned after the flowers died. Cut off the seed heads, as this also encourages more flowering branches the next year.
The Grumpy Gardener adds: “The best time to prune a flowering tree, shrub, or vine is after it finishes blooming. Prune summer-flowering woody plants in late fall or winter. Ignore this rule, and your plant probably won’t bloom the next year.” Remember, flower buds form on new growth next season, not last year’s old growth.
MULCHING
The next step in safekeeping your plants and shrubs over winter months is to do adequate mulching. Apply approximately a 2 to 3 inch thick layer of shredded bark mulch to the entire root zone of the plant. While it is a good idea to do this in the spring, in anticipation of the hot summer months, you may find that much of it has settled or been blown away by the fall. Do not dig it out in the fall! This is where our pollinators drop to survive the winter.
As for the trees and plants in winter, it offers insulating properties. It keeps the plant roots from the life-threatening freezing and thawing and freezing effect. And, yes, it conserves moisture even in hard, frozen soil.
Bark mulch is recommended because it can be incorporated into the soil as an amendment when it gets old and loses its decorative appeal. Boulder County and Estes Park often have piles of shredded (chipped) branches that the public can take home for free.
PERENNIALS
Many Perennials have disease issues. This list includes bearded iris, which are very popular in the Lyons area. This mainly refers to those with a powdery mildew problem, like peony, bee balm and garden phlox. Not only does it look nasty, but it can be deadly to the plants. HGTV experts say to cut stems back to 2 to 4 inches and destroy (don’t compost) the pruning.
For bulb plants, like iris, tulips, and such, leave the green parts as long as you can, so the plants absorb the last nutrients of the year. Then, when they turn brown/light-yellow, you can cut them back to the ground, or just pull out the leaves when the ground has harden, and put in the garbage.
In addition to not cutting back spring-blooming plants, Better Homes & Gardens lists some summer plants: Coneflower. Globe Thistle. Russian Sage. Black-eyed Susan. and some Hydrangeas.
WATERING
Over the winter months, many people think plants are dormmate and don’t need any watering. This results in a lot of dead plants come spring. Watch the weather report. If you do not get any snow (or rain) for a month, you do need to go out and water the perennials. For an average size house, in general, you can use a watering can, rather than reconnect your hose. Be patient as the water is absorbed into the ground.
This list does include trees, shrubs, lawns, and perennials during a prolonged dry fall and winter. Especially if you have just planted them in the fall. The lack of water will cause root damage that affects the health of the entire plant.
POLLINATORS & MORE
See our previous articles which explains why it is important to leave some ground cover during the winter months to help next year’s pollinators (and food for birds). ARTICLE Earth Day: Larvae= caterpillars= butterflies =birds =plants – save our pollinators
These very helpful tips are great!
Some of this advice about pruning goes against other advice I have read – now I’m confused. Also watering in the winter really depends on where you live. I’m in Minnesota. It gets way too cold here in the dead of winter to water anything! Most plants, shrubs and trees that grow in our zone go dormant so no need to water. They also get water from the snow.
This was written in a Colorado newspaper. The state is considered semi-arid, and the ground/soil is different than other states. Also, because of the difference in altitude found in the state there is a large range of temperatures. And the Rocky Mountains result in a sort of rocky soil in many places. The state’s most prominent soil is clay. No, we do not regularly water our yards in the winter time — they do go dormant — but, my neighbors and I can state for a fact that our perennials will die if we don’t keep an eye on the moisture levels over winter; as well as warnings from “weather people” on TV when we have long periods without snowfall. // As far as pruning, you can look up the authors/naturalists that I listed and check their books. // thanks for the comments.