This month the fragrance of tea olives, the Christmas rose of China and the lovely small tree Chimonanthus praecox (Meratia praecox), fills the air with delightful aromas. Camellias, with their fine forms and colors, lighten up the borders, dotted with the berries of nandina and hawthorn.
How the birds love to feast on the berried trees. These feathered visitors bring such bright spots of color and life to the winter garden! Feeding them is well repaid by the pleasure of watching them enjoy the birdbaths and bright fruit.
The New Year brings the most trying season of the calendar, for one never knows what weather to expect from week to week and there is so much to do.
Clean-up comes first. Dead leaves under trees and shrubs and in the borders are likely to be filled with the eggs of insects which may later destroy plants. Rake the leaves out as carefully as possible and burn them, or have them hauled off to the dump.
Mulching
Muclching is necessary for many shrubs such as azaleas. A layer of oak leaves 3” inches deep can be piled on azalea beds and around newly planted shrubs and trees. To keep the wind from blowing them away, use a top layer of pine branches to cover them and hold them down.
Spraying
Spraying is the next task. Use a solution of liquid lime sulphur (for fungus control) at the rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon on all ornamentals and flowering trees and a stronger solution for pecans and larger trees which are fruiting.
Do not spray if the temperature is below 50° degrees Fahrenheit. Choose a bright sunny day when the wind is not blowing. Go over the garden carefully, being sure to spray the undersides of the leaves. No further spraying will be needed until the warm weather brings out the pests.
Freezing
If freezing weather is predicted, cover tender young perennials and perhaps pansies and violas with a light covering of pine needles. Remove them when the weather becomes milder. Annuals planted in the fall will need no covering – California and Shirley poppies, Phlox drummondi, gypsophila, baby blue-eyes, Nemophila menziesi, the Virginian stock, Malcomia maritima, and “baby snapdragons,” Linaria maroccana.
But the Chinese forget-me-nots, Cynoglossum amabile and Firmament, petunias and seedlings of dianthus and calendula are tender and must be protected.
When the cold spell is over, give these small plants a feeding of fertilizer to bring the growth up to par. Pansies are heavy feeders and will repay you well for all the fertilizer you give them. Be moderate, however, in applying fertilizer in general.
Lawns
Lawns should be kept closely cut even during the winter. The rye used to cover the summer grasses will grow so heavy that it will tend to kill the Bermuda and centipede grasses used for summer lawns. If the undesirable carpet grass is present, cutting will save your time and the garden’s beauty.
Roses
Roses for February planting must be ordered at once. Many of the new patented roses have proved their worth, strength and beauty in all sections of this territory. Be sure you order from a reliable nursery; cheap roses are a waste of money and time. Use the fertilizer and sprays recommended by the nursery from which you order, and your roses will be supreme delights.
Tea roses are worth-while anywhere. They are long-lasting, fragrant, and lovely in season and out. Include some of these in your order and use them in your shrubbery borders. Do not prune them back as you do the hybrid teas. These, by the way, are often cut back much too heavily.
Trees
Trees for flowers, fruit, and shade are far up on the garden planting lists. In borders, along a background of heavy evergreens, use fruiting pear and cherry trees as accents. For shade, nothing excels pecan trees. Only grafted trees are used, which quickly come into bearing. After a few years you will have nuts in profusion.
Street trees should be set out now. Desirable oaks are the white oak, Quercus alba; the red oak, Q. rubra; the willow oak, Q. phellos; and the chestnut oak, Q. prinus, all of which are better than the commonly used water oak. Q. nigra, which is easily broken. The pin oak, Q. palustris, holds its leaves during the winter.
Tile maidenhair fern tree, Ginkgo biloba, from China, is a fine slow-growing tree that is better planted in gardens than along the street. Elms, sycamores and poplars of all kinds send spreading roots underground and fill sewer pipes with a tangled mass of roots.
The red-leaved maples, Acer palmatum atropurpureum, grow into distinctive small trees in a few years. While the leaves are not deep red all summer in the South, they are beautiful through many months of spring and fall and give a radiance to the garden.