Winter’s Opportunities Don’t Last Long
Despite January days that seem more like July, leafless trees tell us it’s the dead of winter, when gardens briefly doze. Like a child’s nap, this respite won’t last for long, so if you want to plant roses or deciduous fruit trees (such as apricots, apples and peaches), grapes, berries or even rhubarb, act soon because the dormant, bare-root plants now filling nurseries will soon be leafing out.
Plant as soon as you can, first soaking the naked roots overnight in a tub of water, then planting them in a hole as wide as the reach of the roots. Spread the roots over a little cone of soil mounded up in the bottom. Try to plant them at the same depth as they were in the grower’s field, looking for a change of color on the bark that indicates the old soil line.
It’s a good idea, especially with the weather we’ve been having, to cover most of a rose’s canes with a loose mound made from the sawdust the plant was packed in, plus some commercial soil amendment. This will temporarily protect the canes from the sun and drying winds. When the rose begins to leaf out, simply wash this mound away and it becomes mulch.
It’s also time to prune roses and fruit trees and an opportunity to spray the pruned and leafless plants with a dormant spray. These special sprays are not poisons, but oils that suffocate pests overwintering on the bark of plants. Volck oil spray is one, and Sunspray Ultra-Fine is another, lighter oil that can also be used on citrus and other plants for nonpoisonous pest control.
For a head start on spring and summer diseases, you can use lime sulfur or fixed copper on leafless plants (two products are Dormant Disease Control and Kop-R-Spray). They can be used alone or mixed with oil sprays. They’re especially important on peach trees but some rose experts swear by them.
Perennial Cleanup
While they’re napping, I also cut back and tidy up perennials. Japanese anemones, perennial asters, balloon flowers, gayfeather, Geranium sanguineum, helenium, Mexican evening primrose, physostegia, matiliya poppies, Mexican tarragon, Verbena rigida and V. bonariensis, veronicas and the Zauschnerias or California fuchsias are some of the perennials that get cut completely to the ground, or as close as I can get.
No sense leaving more than an inch or two of stubble on these since they resprout from the roots or the very base of the plant. Some gardeners even do this to the shrubby buddleias to control their size, leaving foot-long stubs.
Other perennials, such as bushy Santa Barbara daisies and lavenders, simply get rounded up with shears into smaller, tidier balls of foliage, which gives them a fresh start on the new year.
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but the perfect shears for cutting back and tidying up perennials is made right here in Southern California by Corona. It’s their Grass Shear 6750 (formerly the No. 5), made for edging the lawn but perfect on perennials. The long blades let you clip handfuls of stems at a time.
A lot of bare dirt, a novel sight in my garden, appears after this winter cleanup, so I use the opportunity to mulch the ground with partially composted leaves and twigs from my pile. It keeps the soil from getting too muddy and adds a little nutrition for springs’ frantic growth. (I also fertilize in February.) It adds a cared-for look to the garden and helps keep the soil cool and moist come summer.
If you don’t have enough of your own compost, look for something called “shredded bark.” (The various Armstrong garden centers have it.) It packs down nicely so the next Santa Ana won’t blow it away (I even use it for paths) and it looks more like natural leaf litter than those nasty chunks of bark. The rather bright color will quickly fade to gray.
Bright Gold in Winter
There is one shrubby perennial that is anything but dozing. Yellow flax (Reinwardtia indicia), native to the low mountains of India, waits until midwinter to bloom, starting at the end of November and lasting into March with one big, golden funnel flower opening after another. It makes a thicket of upright, 2- to 3-foot-tall woody stems on spreading roots and grows in sun or partial shade.
Los Angeles garden designer Christine Rosmini has a clump, growing under an apple tree, that is 20 years old and has spread to about 6 or 8 feet. When stems die back, she cuts them off and usually trims back branches that have flowered; otherwise the plant gets minimal care and is watered along with the rest of the garden.
You might find this sunny plant at nurseries, but one sure source is Hawthorne Nursery, 4519 W. El Segundo Blvd., Hawthorne, (310) 676-8242. It’s worth the drive.
