|
Pre-spring Chores Will Help Ensure Gardening Success
by Carol Nagy Jacklin and Sally Snipes
According to Gertrude Stein, "A rose is a rose is a rose." She must not have been a gardener.
The Chinese started cultivating roses 5,000 years ago, and the process continues worldwide. This month we want to talk about roses, about multiplying your shrubs by taking hardwood cuttings, and about those winter chores you might have put off, as well as one important new one — weeding.
Roses
Smitten with roses, we use them as backbones of the perennial borders. Roses are great cut flowers with wide color range. Some have perfume and some even give structure and color to the winter garden.
Besides the most common shrub form, you can buy standard roses (grafts on a 4- to 5-foot stem), patio roses (grafts on a 2- to 3-foot stem), weeping standards, climbing roses and miniature roses. Such a variety of forms may confuse the new rose fancier. But form is only half the story.
Roses also are grouped by the shape and timing of their flowers. Labels like double or single are self-explanatory. But names like floribunda (blooms for long periods), grandiflora (large flowers) tea (classic rose form), and noisette (small flowers in bouquet-like groups) are less-obvious labels describing flower form and flowering habit.
Rose hips, the seed pods that form at the base of the flowers, are an added bonus of many roses. They are nutritious in teas and jellies. Many also are decorative in the fall and winter garden. Hips’ colors and shapes are almost as diverse as roses themselves. Because they usually remain on the bush much longer than the flower, consider rose hips when you are buying new roses.
There are new hardy roses (carpet roses, for example) and old hardy roses (rugosas) that don’t need much work. But even when roses require work, most of us think they are worth every minute of it. If any or all of these varieties appeal to you, winter is the time to select and plant bare-root roses. Choose a spot where they will receive full-day (or nearly full-day) sun.
Roses don’t like to compete with nearby roots of established shrubs and trees. The soil should drain reasonably well. If it doesn’t, plant your roses in raised beds or pots, even though roses prefer to be planted directly in the soil. Be sure to amend the soil with compost and mulch. Bare-root roses should be soaked in water overnight before you follow the planting directions. Place your roses where deer won’t find them, and plant them in wire baskets to protect against gophers.
Roses might be slow to show growth the first year, but you might be surprised with quite a few flowers. The plants will send deep roots — up to 20 feet — and eventually can be long-lasting, drought-tolerant beauties.
Hardwood cuttings
An inexpensive way to multiply your favorite shrubs (and possibly favorites that belong to gardening friends and neighbors) is to take some hardwood cuttings. Many plants are amenable to this process, and now is the best time to do it, while plants are dormant, before new growth starts.
After cutting a 3- to 4-inch portion of a woody stem, dip the cutting in rooting hormone, plant it in good soil and hope for a new plant. Plants that are easy to multiply in this way include grape, forsythia, willow, wisteria, buddleia, caryopteris and roses.
One caution with roses: Nursery plants usually have been grafted on hardy rootstock. Your cutting-grown roses will have the same rootstock as their top growth. That rootstock might or might not be hardy.
Deciduous shrubs seem to take root more easily, but evergreens work too. Some to try include boxwood, ivy and privet. Although evergreens are a little touchy and will yield fewer new plants, they are still worth the effort.
Other cautions need to be observed: Be sure to make your cut below a leaf bud, and be sure you mark the cutting in some way to remember which end is the root end and which the leaf end. If you put the cutting in the ground upside down, it won’t root. A common practice is to cut the bottom (root) end square and the top end slanted. Then if you need to move the cutting you won’t change its orientation.
It is too early to try softwood (greenwood) cuttings. Wait until May to try those. But one softwood cutting needs advance preparation. To propagate dahlias, either plant new tubers from nurseries or old tubers stored from last year in one-gallon plastic pots. When the new shoots have grown to 5 or 6 inches, make clean cuts, dip the cuts in rooting powder and plant them in rich potting soil. Protect these new cuttings from too much sun and wind and keep them moist but not soggy. In 6 to 8 weeks, plant them in wire baskets or gallon nursery cans, in full sun in the garden. Your late summer and autumn garden will be ablaze with gorgeous dahlias.
Weeding
This is the time to weed your garden. Grasses and other weeds are sprouting everywhere. Pulling them out now before they set seed will reduce your weeding come summer.
The number of seeds on weeds is astounding. Each plant can have hundreds of seeds, while many have thousands. If you use Round Up in your garden, it is most effective when the weeds are small. Be sure to use it on non-windy days and follow the instructions on the container.
Visualize the rose buds forming. Feel the warmth of spring coming.
| 
)
)