Winter Is Coming...Get Ready!

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You've put a lot of love into your garden this year! Here are four easy tips to protect it from common winter heartaches, plus one common fall task that you can skip this season!

1. Protecting Evergreens from Winter Burn

If you have boxwood, evergreen holly, rhododendron, arborvitae, or other evergreens* that are subject to winter burn in exposed locations, protect them with Wilt Pruf, an anti-transpirant that protects the leaves from drying out during winter by coating them with a natural pine needle oil emulsion.

Wilt Pruf should be applied on a day when the temperature is above freezing and the leaves are dry. Late October through November is the ideal window, so pick yours up today!

Pro tip: Wilt Pruf also works to keep freshly carved Jack-o-Lanterns looking good longer, and Christmas trees, wreaths and garlands in prime condition. We treat all of our fresh Christmas roping and wreaths as soon as they arrive, so that you can enjoy them as long as possible.

*Wilt-Pruf and other anti-transpirants should not be used with waxy blue-needled evergreens, as it can interfere with their existing protective layer.

2. Preventing Tree Bark Damage

The thin bark of deciduous trees such as crabapple, dogwood trees, fruit trees, honeylocust, Japanese Snow Bell, maple, ornamental cherry, tulip tree and willow can be damaged winter sun warms their bare trunks, causing sap to flow inside.

As temperatures drop again the sap freezes and the bark splits, injuring the tree. This type of damage is called "sunscald."

The cracks often remain invisible until late spring or summer. Aside from damaging the tree directly, they allow diseases and pests easy access to the inside of the trunk.

Young trees are most vulnerable to sunscald damage. Any tree that's at risk should be protected from Thanksgiving to Easter with a winter tree wrap. Just be sure to remove it again once temperatures get above freezing!

Another cold season danger to trees is deer rubbing, rabbit damage and rodent gnawing. You can prevent these by surrounding your tree trunk with a plastic tree guard. It takes seconds to apply, and as with sunscald damage, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

3. Houseplant Hitchhikers

If you bring your houseplants outside during warm weather, you may have picked up pests that you'd rather not have in your house. Common culprits include aphids, mealybugs, scale insects and spider mites. Check over your plants carefully when you bring them inside. If you spot an infestation, keep it from spreading by treating your plants with insecticidal soap. Lightly spray all over the affected plant, making sure to get the undersides of the leaves, the stems, and any nooks and crannies where insects may be hiding. The plant should be thoroughly misted, but not dripping wet. Repeat as necessary until you no longer see signs of infestation.

4. Bigleaf Hydrangea Care

Bigleaf (a.k.a. mophead) hydrangeas such as the infamous 'Endless Summer' are often cold hardy in our climate zone, but not necessarily bud hardy. Because the rebloomers flower first on old wood, the developing flower buds have to make it through the winter before they can form the summer mopheads that we so look forward to. If you have a bigleaf hydrangea that frustrates you every year with its failure to bloom, chances are that the old wood buds have been damaged.

Here's what you can do to help your hydrangea bloom:

1. Don't prune it! (See the next section.) Except for cutting out any dead branches, the bigleaf hydrangeas never need pruning. It's easy to accidentally cut off the old wood buds, so they're best left alone.
2. After the leaves fall off, protect the stems. Bind them up with something soft that won't chafe against the wood, like a bungee cord. Stake a cylinder of chicken wire around the plant, and then stuff as many leaves in around it as you can. Alternatively, wrap it up with several layers of burlap.
3. Leave the plant like this until just after the last frost in spring. This is usually right around Easter time.

This should do the trick for recalcitrant mopheads. If you still don't see blooms next summer, call us, email us, or message us on Facebook or Instagram, and we'll help you diagnose the problem.

5. Put Down the Pruners!

Even though it's tempting to want to tidy up, autumn is NOT the time to prune your plants. Pretty much every plant in your garden will fare better over winter if you leave it untouched until early spring. Even plants that come back from the roots every year gain a measure of winter protection when last year's dead wood remains in place. Plus, certain plants provide valuable forage and winter shelter for birds and native pollinators.

When it comes to fall pruning, you can cross that task off your list before you even get started!

Extra Credit

Get your garden ready to shine in spring by planting bulbs! With wet weather softening the ground, now is the perfect time, and it couldn't be easier. Just plant them in the ground pointy end up, cover them up, and you're done! Most bulbs will come back year after year, and many will multiply over time.

You can plant bulbs all the way up until the ground freezes. In fact, tulips prefer being planted in the cooler soil of November.

Tips:

- It's especially easy to get bulbs in the ground without disturbing nearby plants using a bulb auger or a crowbar. To use a crowbar, stick the straighter end down into the soil and wiggle it back and forth to make a narrow hole. If the ground is heavy clay, you can turn the blade the other direction to make an x shape, and have some topsoil handy to cover the bulbs up with after you plant.

- To give your bulbs an extra healthy start, put a sprinkle of bonemeal in the bottom of each hole before you plant the bulb.

- If you plant bulbs in bare ground where inquisitive squirrels or chipmunks might dig them up, lay chicken wire over the top of the bed and stake it down until they lose interest.

- If deer are a problem in your area, be aware that they like to munch on tulips. Spraying with deer repellent as the leaves emerge and reapplying after rain or snow will deter them for the season. Most other bulbs are deer resistant. You can ask a horticulturist for recommendations.

For more bulb tips, check out this article.

Got questions about putting your garden to bed for the winter? Drop in and ask a horticulturist, or reply to this email!

Make the holiday season bright with workshops at Hoerr Nursery! We'll show you how to decorate your own Christmas wreath or porch pot, with all materials provided. Workshops will be held in the garden house. Face masks are required. We'll be spacing parties farther apart this year, so availability is limited. Sign up to save your spot!