BY LYN DES MARAIS
BRANDON — As I age, I see the wisdom of planting flowering trees, shrubs, and annuals (for color), but every autumn—ever the optimist—I move and transplant copious amounts of perennials in the hopes that perhaps, next year, I’ll attain that perfect perennial garden in my head. I should heed Abby Adam’s advice from The Gardener’s Gripe Book:
“Perennials are trouble. Expensive to buy and difficult to maintain, they need constant weeding, deadheading, and trimming to look their best. Actually, they only look their best for that brief moment when they are in flower, and then they go back to looking their worst. Many perennials, I concluded, prefer to live in England.”
The problem is I don’t care. I love to work, I love to be outdoors, and I love to grow plants. So, it is with great enthusiasm that I say (and imagine me doing the Snoopy dance of sheer joy):
A BUTTERFLY AT play amongst the lilacs.
It’s planting time!
If the garden catalogs and online images of the perfect border garden seduce you, too, break out your tools and start digging. Late September and all of October is the perfect time for moving and planting perennials, bulbs, and shrubs.
It’s cool out. Every nursery and hardware store has mums and bulbs galore—sales abound. What’s a gardener to do? How can one possibly resist? I say Don’t.
Bulbs, perennials, and shrubs, oh my!
Tulips
If you love tulips, remember, so do deer. Plant accordingly. Because of hybridization, almost all tulips really only look fabulous in their first year and, therefore, should be treated as annuals.
Please write in if you have found a variety that comes up reliably after one year, and let me know how many years it’s come back.
A few companies tout perennial tulip varieties, but I haven’t had time to try them. I encourage gardeners to carve out a spot or a container or two for tulips in their garden and plant them.
Enjoy the range of colors and experiment. Menton (pink) and Queen of the Night (deep purple) are particularly beautiful and create a dramatic display.
CROCUS IS AN excellent springtime bloom that can be planted in the fall.
Daffodils
Daffodils are wonderful early perennials. Deer don’t tend to eat them. They are reliable bloomers, and they spread. They make a glorious show at a meadow planted by Miller Hill Farm along Route 73. Check which are early middle and late spring bloomers and plant in masses.
Of course, the best value per bulb is to buy in bulk. Grab a family member or friend, and the planting goes quickly. Daffodils can be planted on your lawns, as borders along your property, or live in raised beds or pots. They thrive in the full early spring sun, so they can be planted under deciduous trees.
Other wonderful bulbs
There are other wonderful bulbs to plant. Allium (ornamental garlic), mainly tall, comes in wonderful flower sizes in purple and white. Crocus are small but pack a lot of color. Snowdrops, English Bluebells, anemones (windflowers or pasqueflowers), iris, and hyacinths all come from bulbs and should be planted now for early spring color.
Rules of planting bulbs
The general wisdom for planting bulbs is as follows: Plant two-to-three times as deep as the bulb is tall; plant them four-to-six inches apart and plant with the bulb tips facing up. You don’t need fancy equipment to plant them. You don’t need fancy bulb food. You can dig them in individually or dig a trench.
Make sure the best soil is where the roots are. When you fill back in around the bulb, make sure there are no air pockets. Bulbs can handle most soils but don’t love our Rutland and Addison county clay. So, mix a small amount of clay with topsoil and compost and put that below and around the roots, or add small stones for drainage to the topsoil and compost mix. I plant bulbs right up until the ground freezes.
FALL PLANTERS CAN get it on by planting Berry White Hydrangea.
Perennials and shrubs
This is the perfect time to plant perennials and shrubs. Perennials can all go in the ground now happily. They are headed into winter, and most are or will be dormant soon. They will root this autumn, and then, in the spring, probably earlier than we realize, they awaken and start to grow.
Do water them thoroughly after planting and once a week until a heavy frost. Because shrubs are harder to move once established, read their description card carefully, and look them up to see how fast they grow, how large they grow, and their sun needs before you plant them.
Plant them according to their variety and type, and water them thoroughly. Spirea, boxwood, juniper, blueberries, mock orange, weigela, and lilacs are great shrubs for the full sun. Shade and partial shade are great for growing viburnum, hydrangea, azaleas, and rhododendrons. Mulch all shrubs and water them once a week until a killing frost.
As always, have fun.
Warren Kimble reminds everyone to “have fun.” This is especially relevant in a garden. Gardening should be fun because it will absorb your free time. So, have fun.
