Preparing for winter…

If you have been following the blog for some time, it’s no surprise that autumn is my favourite season… especially after the heat and drought of recent summers. These conditions have fueled forest fires and soon after the winds blew in smoke that lasted for days.  And allergy season is coming to an end…what a relief to breathe in the cool, crisp air of fall!

Although the growing season is waning, there’s still a lot of prep work to get the garden ready to hibernate through winter.  Getting the timing just right is tricky…you don’t want to cut the perennials back too early yet the temperatures are dropping every day and who wants to be freezing their fingers to the bone?

I started cleaning out my containers a few weeks ago.  As I was pulling out the geraniums, my mom’s voice popped into my head… “Why don’t you save them for next year”?  (She had a greenhouse and kept her geraniums year after year.)   I don’t have room to keep the mature plants but I’ve decided to take cuttings off the mother plants. I made a sharp cut off the stems, above a leaf node (leaving a couple of leaves on the ends) and popped them into a small pot with potting soil.  Some experts suggest dipping the cutting in a rooting hormone before inserting it into the soil, while others say that’s not necessary.  I didn’t use a rooting hormone and so far so good.  A gentle tug on the cuttings suggests that roots are already forming.

Lemon Cypress is not hardy in my growing zone, 4B, but was a beautiful centrepiece in the urns I had at the back door.  I’ve repotted them and brought them into the house for the winter.  Although they aren’t hard to keep indoors, they can be unforgiving if allowed to dry out.  Also, they require 5-6 hours of sunlight daily.

Many people don’t cut back hydrangea flower heads in the fall preferring to enjoy the interest they provide in a winter landscape.  I, too, love that look but I’ve been cutting my hydrangeas back in recent years to eliminate some work in spring.

It’s a shame though to put these beauties in the compost bin.  This year I’ve tried a different method to preserve hydrangea flowers indoors. I’ve put the stems in a 2-part water to 1-part glycerine solution.  As the stems soak up this formula they eventually turn “brown…ish”   but the flowers don’t get as brittle as if they were sprayed with hair spray or if cut without putting in water.

My roses looked amazing in June and July but petered out in August.  I’m guessing they don’t like blistering heat either!  By the end of September, they had outperformed the rest of the season making it difficult to cut them back for winter.

Experienced rose gardeners suggest that most of us are prepping our roses too soon.  Their advice is to stop cutting spent blooms as the season winds down and to wait until several hard frosts before cutting back.

I put rose collars around my roses to help protect them from the wind but mostly to provide a form to hold compost.  It’s recommended to tuck in a foot of mulch above the rose base.  This will protect the bud union.  The foliage above that will die back but if all goes well, the stems below will be green and healthy when you remove the mulch in the spring.  I agree.  That has been my experience over the last two years.

Sadly it’s time to close “Le Bar Glasserie” for another season.

I’m sure many of you are busy in your gardens this week.  Hopefully, we all get the work done on time.  xox Judy❤️