November Horticulture Hints

November usually brings pleasant weather. Sometimes a cold snap comes along, but most days are pleasant. Tasks wait to be completed as gardeners scurry around like squirrels preparing for winter. There’s much to be done.

What to Plant

Continue to plant winter herbs and vegetables. Even a few tender leaves of various lettuces, mesclun mix, green onions, sorrel, chives, dill, parsley, and other seasonal greens added to iceberg lettuce make a dramatic difference. If you do not have a vegetable garden, many of these are pretty enough for the flowerbed or to grow in a container. Plant a few herbs to enjoy during the winter. Try cilantro, fennel, rosemary, and thyme.

Other crops to plant for winter include broccoli, cauliflower, collards, turnips, beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, endive, escarole, kale, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, mustard, parsley, and radish. Gardeners who want fresh onions and strawberries next spring should set them out this month. Consult the Extension office for the best varieties for our area.

Tuck more winter-blooming annuals into the landscape. Count on pansy, viola, sweet alyssum, dianthus, nemesia, ornamental cabbage and kale, snapdragons, and calendula for color in beds. Plant seeds of stock, nigella, bachelor’s button, larkspur, candytuft, and other hardy annuals for welcome color in early spring.

Other kinds of plants benefit from planting at this time of year. Add a few dependable bulbs that will last for years. Some to try are Alstroemeria, amaryllis, iris (Dutch and native), Leucojum, Easter lily, Narcissus, and tiger lily. Hardy trees and shrubs planted in fall and winter have time to become established before next summer.

To Prune or Not to Prune?

Looking around the garden, many of us notice that some of our plants are little more than dead stalks. Some of the stalks such as sunflowers, salvias, and purple coneflowers have seed heads. Other plants will be killed by the first frost. Many gardeners are unsure whether or not to remove all of the dead plants. Should we, or shouldn’t we? Actually, there is no succinct answer. It all depends.

The standard answer in favor of removing spent stalks is that by removing them, any remaining energy is returned to the plant for root formation instead of being spent on forming seeds. Also, neat freak gardeners have trouble tolerating the dead stalks in their gardens.

There are also arguments in favor of leaving stalks in place. Certain seed heads add interest to the winter garden. Seeds that are left on sunflower stalks, grasses, and some perennials and annuals provide winter cover and food for wildlife. If we cut them down, we deny birds and other wildlife a tasty meal. Also, many butterflies overwinter in plant material that is left in the garden. The dead plant material might also serve as a blanket over the crown and roots of plants and offer some protection from freezing weather.

Removal of some plants needs no justification. Plants that show obvious signs of disease or insect infestation should be removed and destroyed. Damaged branches of trees and shrubs should be removed. Of course, weeds should be pulled before they set seed in order to avoid an infestation next year.

Plant a Tree

If you are just starting your landscape, you may be confused about where to start. Why not start with the backbone—the most important part of the garden. The backbone of the garden, like our backbone, supports everything else and gives it structure. Permanent trees and shrubs provide many other benefits to a garden; they provide shade and wildlife habitat in addition to reducing stormwater runoff.

Did you ever wonder what your trees are worth? Think about it this way. A well-placed tree can save you hundreds of dollars in air-conditioning costs over a period of years. It can prevent erosion and reduce the air pollution in your immediate living space. Add in the value of the wildlife that it supports and the immeasurable beauty that it adds to your property, and you begin to get the picture.

On the other hand, an incorrectly chosen or poorly placed tree can cause you grief and thousands of dollars in removal fees and property damage. Select carefully from among some of our strong-wooded trees, and place them an appropriate distance away from the house.

Some excellent tree choices for our area are live oak, sand live oak, Southern magnolia, bald cypress, crape myrtle, black gum, sweet bay, dogwood, and American holly. All are strong enough to withstand high winds and the rigors of our climate.

Gardening Tasks

Continue to add fallen leaves and pine needles to mulch around shrubs, trees, and tender plants. Do not use more than two or three inches, however, and never make a mulch “volcano” around plants. Clear mulch a few inches away from the stems of plants. If you have too many leaves, consider starting a compost bin or pile. Rotted leaves make an excellent soil amendment.

It’s time to trick the tulips into thinking they spent winter up North. Purchase bulbs now and store them in the refrigerator for at least six weeks before planting out. They will bloom in early spring before the weather turns hot. After bloom, throw them in the compost bin. Tulips are annuals in the South.

Much confusion exists about what to fertilize in the fall. Do not, under any circumstances, even think about winterizing your lawn—or any dormant plants, especially with fertilizers that contain nitrogen. Doing so at this time of year could do more harm than good by forcing new growth that will be damaged by the season’s first freeze. On the other hand, plants that grow in winter, such as winter bedding plants, lycoris and other bulbs which grow in winter, and seasonal vegetables need fertilizer to keep them growing vigorously.

Before frost visits the garden, take cuttings of favorite begonias, allamanda, angel’s trumpets, coleuses, cupheas, firebush, firespike, glory bowers, impatiens, mandevilla, pentas, Philippine violet, salvias of all kinds, shrimp plant, tibouchina, Turk’s cap,—and as I think about it, almost any perennial or tender shrub that gets killed by frost can be propagated at this time if cuttings are taken before the frost damages them. Most will root if stuck in damp potting soil and kept in a greenhouse or other protected place.

Plants to Color the Winter Landscape

Camellias will be hitting their stride as winter progresses. Both Camellia japonica and C. sasanqua are long-lived, dependable shrubs for our gardens. Both can be depended on to bloom and add color at a time when little color is seen. Choose camellias for the landscape while they are in bloom. Visit parks, garden centers, and other places to learn which cultivars you like best.

Ornamental grasses strut their stuff during the fall. Seedheads have ripened and add their colors and motion to the landscape. Look for native grasses as muhly grass, love grass, and broom sedge, or various fountain grasses, sedges, and Japanese silver grasses.

Don’t overlook hollies and berrying plants such as our native beautyberry for spots of color in the landscape. Some native trees such as red maple, sassafras, various oaks, hickories, ginkgo, sourwood, blackgum, cypress, and others dress up for the fall season only to loose their beautiful attire to winter’s chill..

Many flowers will last throughout the winter if they can be kept from freezing. Petunias, for instance, love the cool weather but cannot withstand freezing temperatures. Consider planting them in a container that can be moved to a protected place during extremely cold weather. Lobelia, diascia, and nemesia can be grown similarly.