One of the trends in gardening is to do more and more planting in autumn. For many gardeners who habitually bite off more than they can chew in the springtime, fall planting is a lifesaver. The transplanting and dividing you can do, and the new plants you can put in now, will save that much time next spring when everything is happening at once.
The only drawback is the chance that some of the things you plant now may not make it through the winter.
Some general good practices have been learned that, if not guaranteeing survival, at least lengthen the chances. As gardeners soon learn from experience, fall planting possibilities depend greatly on the local climate.
The longer the winter season and the colder the minimum temperatures of a place, the less likely are chances of success with fall planting. Other harsh climate factors also influence the situation but they generally go hand in hand with these.
The good practices mentioned are aimed at shortening the winter somewhat, steadying temperature fluctuations and tempering the depth of the cold, and shielding the plant against all forms of drouth. And also making sure that the plant settles into contact with the soil in its new place with no waste of time.
Timing
1. Do fall planting as early as you can get the plants. This timing applies to bulbs, perennials, trees, and shrubs. Unfortunately, many things such as lilies, roses, and deciduous woody plants, cannot be dug until they are mature or dormant, and this may set a rather late date when you can receive them for planting in your garden.
Transplanting within your garden is another matter. You can do this as soon as time permits. Here are some of the common flower perennials which can be fail transplanted with good chances of success: Shasta daisies, creeping phlox, myosotis, irises, peonies (fall is the best time for them), Oriental poppies (fall is the best time for them), pyrethrum, Stachys Janata, veronicas, delphiniums, daylilies, heucheras, hostas, pachysandra, cerastium, columbines, violas, bleeding hearts (these prefer fall planting), Mertensia (also prefers fall planting), and baptisia.
Some things I would hesitate to transplant in the fall are Japanese anemones, chrysanthemums, gas plants, English lavender, hardy asters, butterfly weed, penstemons, astilbe, and Valeriana (garden heliotrope). Sonic things I have failed after fall planting were ajuga and Alyssum saxatile (although I might have done more to save them).
I would have no fear at all of planting any kind of patted rose or perennial in late fall, and sometimes at this time of year real bargains can be found at local nurseries which are anxious to clear them.
Broadleaves
2. In general, broadleaf evergreens are more safely planted in spring than in fall, but if they are fresh, balled, and burlapped or container-grown specimens, fall is all right.
Another point about mulches (this will raise arguments in some quarters). is that they should be put on AFTER, not before, the winter’s opening hard freezes. Since mulch is a form of insulation, it stands to reason that it keeps the heat in the ground as well as the cold out of it.
Some damage from sudden early freezes might be lessened if the ground under a shrub is open to release heat at that critical time. Perhaps you have seen examples of unmulched shrubs that survived such catastrophes better than mulched ones. I have. When a woody plant has gone dormant, under the sedation of several sharp freezes, it is time to put on the thick mulch.
Watering
3. Anything that has been completely parted from its soil surroundings (bare root roses Or perennials, or lily bulbs) has suffered quite a shock, and has lost most of its roots, probably. Here the only thing to do is to encourage it to send out new roots as quickly as possible, getting established before the soil freezes.
As most gardeners know if they would stop to think about it, the usual way to encourage rooting is by providing moisture and lots of it, and that is one of the secrets of fall planting. Keep your new plants watered.
Never let them want water, or precious time will be wasted. And keep up the watering until frost takes over. Even things that are entirely underground (daffodils, crocuses, lilies) will profit by watering.
Protect From Drying
4. Where living woody stems extend above ground, protect them from drying. There are many ways to do this. With new-planted roses, mound them up, clear to the top of the stems. (You will probably have cut the sterns back to around eight inches above the soil surface.)
With bushy shrubs, use burlap or polyethylene shields to break the sun and wind. With young trees, wrap the trunk and stake them. With broadleaf evergreens, spray with soluble plastic (Wilt-Pruf) and renew the spray a time or two through the winter.
Mulching
5. To keep the underground parts of the plant growing as long into the winter as possible, and to prevent untimely thaws, provide a mulch. Hay, leaves, dead plant tops, and brush, all make acceptable mulch. Use common sense.
Do not use something fine and packable like peat moss on top of perennial plant tops. Rather, for these, use something light and airy like pine branches or hedge trimmings. A plant smothered is just as dead in the spring as one heaved out by frost. Use the peat, instead of over bulb plantings, like lilies.
44659 by Rachel Snyder