December Garden chores

The November hard freeze meant the end of flowers in 2018 from plants in the ground. We can still plant bulbs for flowers next spring and drizzly late fall days are good for seeding wildflowers. Fall is also the favored month for planting perennial shrubs and trees.

The main chore in the garden now is cutting back the perennials. However, not all perennials should be pruned because doing so will cut the flower buds that would have developed next spring. Among the perennials that are safe to trim back (3 to 6 inches from the ground) after a hard freeze are Gregg’s Mistflower, Lantana, Turk’s Cap, Mexican Sage, Yellow Bells, Mealy Blue Sage, Mexican Firebush, and Confederate Rose. These plants will send up new shoots from the base of the plant in 2019 and the blooms will be on the ends of the shoots. Roses should not be trimmed until February as trimming will stimulate growth and if a hard frost occurs after trimming the rose plant will suffer and may even die.

One of the first native plants to flower in the winter are Windflowers (Anemone berlandieri). Their flowers may be white, blue, or violet and the “petals” of the flower are actually the sepals. In Louisiana I enjoyed the commercial anemones in the winter garden that had bright red and blue flowers. I decided to try the tubers in Wimberley. I planted some tubers in pots and put them in my garage window. I also put some tubers directly into the ground in a partly sunny spot where the deer cannot reach them. The ones in the pot are already sending up leaves. I will keep you posted on their success.

Written by Jackie Mattice, Hays County Master Naturalist