(Publisher’s note: Part one of this column ran yesterday.)
By Jennifer Fairfield, owner the Garden Mill
Flowers, Trees & Shrubs:
If your container plants are still going strong at the end of the month, move them under a porch or other cover at night if frost is predicted.
If they are starting to fade, pull them out and replace them with fall plants.
I’m having trouble believing that it’s already time for mums, but it really is – well almost. I talked with our local growers, and they are saying that the buds should start to break in the next week. Mums need some cooler temperatures and shorter days to trigger their flowers to bloom.
While the days are definitely getting shorter, the cooler temps have only just begun. I will be heading to the growers sometime next week to start bringing mums in, along with some of the other beautiful plants available for fall color – pansies, asters, and ornamental kale and cabbage – that can be planted in with your mums to add a little more interest to your garden and containers this fall.
If you have tender bulbs, such as dahlias and calla lilies, wait until the foliage is dried up and we have gotten a few frosts to dig them up for winter storage – but don’t wait until the ground is frozen.
Depending on the weather, this task should be done late this month or early next.
Did you spend the early spring admiring the tulips in the planters around Chelsea? If so, and you want to find some of the same beautiful bulbs to plant in your gardens, come see us this fall. We will have all of the ones you saw, and more.
If it’s not cool enough to plant them right away, they can be stored in a cool, dry basement, or even in the refrigerator – in paper bags, away from fruit that can cause them to rot.
Crocus, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips get planted at about the same time that the tender summer bulbs are dug up – after a few frosts, but before the ground is frozen. You want the soil to still be warm enough to encourage root growth, but you don’t want the air to be so warm that it encourages foliage growth. And yes, we’ll have all of them at the store.
September is a good time for dividing and transplanting lots of plants. You can generally tell if it’s time to divide a plant by how it looks.
I have New England asters that have taken over one of my beds, and are crowding out everything else. Plants like my perennial salvia that are producing fewer or smaller than usual flowers are also probably hinting that they need more space.
You can also divide plants that are doing well if you simply want to plant more in other places.
Not sure how to go about dividing? Here’s a great article from Fine Gardening on the subject.
This download from Iowa State University’s Extension gives specific information about when and whether to divide different plants, and if you don’t have any more room for the divisions, give them away to friends and neighbors who are looking for things to plant in their yards.
Or, consider donating them to the Chelsea Area Garden Club for their spring plant sale. They are always happy to have them.
Be sure to clean weeds out of your flower beds before they go to seed so as not to end up with even more weeds next spring.
(Publisher’s note: Part 3 will publish tomorrow.)
