October 17th, 2006

With the cooling weather scares this last week, the scare is in the air to mulch up perennials and put roses to bed for the winter. These are both great gardening tasks to do in preparation for our winter. Doing so will get you out in the garden and also helps in the success of the plants to winter over.

The ideal time to mulch up your perennials is actually when the ground is frozen. At that point, you mulch up six to ten inches with soil, marsh hay, straw, shredded leaves or peat moss. The additional mulch will help to keep the soil from freezing and thawing, which can be detrimental to perennials. Mulching also helps to prevent plants from heaving up out of the ground. Perennials planted within the season and tender perennials should be mulched, including lavender, shasta daisy, coral bells, banket flower, and some bellflowers. In the spring, the mulch needs to be removed before the plants start actively growing.

Hybrid tea roses can be protected with rose cones, collars, mulching, and burying. After a couple hard freezes and when the ground is nearly frozen, place cone over rose or a collar around and mulch six to eight inches high with soil and than add an additional three to five inches of marsh hay, straw, or shredded leaves. If necessary, the branches can be gathered together and tied with string or garden twine. Prune roses in spring, unless necessary to fit in cones. Burying is another successful method in which you dig a trench on one side of your rose and loosen the roots of the other side, and tilt rose down and bury with one to two feet of soil. These methods will all help tender roses winter over, and after years of gardening you will find out what works best in your garden.

Fall is a great time to divide and transplant perennials. You can also cut back many of your perennials or leave to cut back in the spring. Each gardener has their own preference and one is not necessarily better than the other. As for me, I have just cut back my lilies, iris, coneflowers, and several others. Happy Gardening!


Wendy Jasper
Horticultural Advisor