Flower Garden in November
We can look at November as the end of the flower garden year or as the time to prepare for next year’s flower garden. The latter is the optimists view but it is not yet quite the time to forget the wonders of the current year. Rose G. Kingsley in The Autumn Garden sums it up with:
"In the garden Autumn is indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November."
Dahlias
If your dahlias have not been hit by the first frost in late October then there is every chance that they will be in November.
Living in a mild area you may be able to leave your dahlia tubers in the ground but covered with a mulch to act as a blanket. With me they survive using this method and most situations in the garden they flower when expected but in one small are they flower late.
If in doubt lift and turn upside down on a rack to drain and dry. Store in a frost free place safe from hungry mice.
Begonias and Cannas
Lift begonias and cannas and store in a frost free place ready for bedding out next spring.
Penstemons
Leave Penstemons in place and do not cut back until spring when they can be tidied up. You may be lucky and be rewarded with a late show of flowers.
Winter Bedding Plants
You can still plant out winter bedding plants but do not plant if the soil is too wet and cold, your plants will receive a shock from which they may not recover.
Winter Pansies have become a favourite of many but the old favourites Wallflowers, Forget-me-nots, Bellis and Primula are still excellent choices.
Many winter bedding, often in reality early spring plants, do well in pots and containers where they are lifted up from the frost floor. Of course you have to be careful that the containers do not freeze but horticultural fleece thrown over usually suffices to see them through.
Perennial Plants
Plant new herbaceous perennials, as long as the ground is not too wet and cold, which will give them time to establish before putting on a display next summer.
Lift and divide clumps of overgrown and crowded perennial plants. Division will increase your stock and revitalise the parent plant.
Spread an autumn mulch to protect plants such as Agapanthus, Kniphofia and Phygelius.
Remove stakes of plants starting to die back perhaps leaving a short cane or pea stick as a reminder to stake early next year.
You can cut back and tidy up faded perennials or leave them to provide food and shelter for your wildlife friends over winter.
Now is a good time to take root cuttings, choose species that have good plump roots such as perennial poppies.
Half Hardy Perennials
We bed out half hardy perennials and summer flowering bulbs in spring and they put on a great show all summer, so good sometimes that we take them for granted and forget that we need to lift them and give protection during the colder months. Have you planted out Pelargoniums, Scented Leaved Geraniums or Fuchsias for example? Spare a thought for them and tuck them up warm ready for starting and / or planting out next spring.
Grasses and Bamboos
You can tidy up ornamental grasses and bamboos this time of the year but I like to leave them as they look really attractive when covered with frost. When not frozen it is worth taking a close look inside the heart of the grasses as slugs and snails seem to find them a nice warm snug refuge from the cold.
Border Maintenance
As perennials die back or summer bedding is cleared, you will be surprised how many perennial weeds has sneaked in and established, especially tap rooted varieties such as dandelion. Now is the time to get the garden fork in there making sure that you remove every bit of that root.
Forking the soil also exposes overwintering pests, eggs and larvae to our hungry garden bird friends.
Tulips
It is recommended that Tulips be treated as a bedding plant, planted this time of the year for spring flowering and then lifted once the foliage has died down ready for a repeat of the process.
Chrysanthemum
White rust can be a problem on Chrysanthemums, check regularly and treat accordingly.
Alpine Plants
Woolly or silvery leaved alpines are the ones that suffer in the cold and wet months. Provide shelter from the rain but not at the expense of ventilation.
Feed compost into bare centre patches of alpine plants to encourage re-growth in those areas.
Pot Protection
Get a good frost when there is moisture in your pots and there is a good chance they will crack or crumble, as I know from bitter experience. It is best to insulate pots that are sold as only frost tolerant with bubble wrap, hessian or fleece. If plants have been left in to overwinter ensure there is air flow over the surface of the compost otherwise when you remove the insulation next spring you may find a mouldy mess.
Also raise patio containers onto feet or bricks to avoid them sitting in the wet.
| Not found what you are looking for? | 
Custom Search
|
