A time to plant – and transplant

By Sally Snipes and Carol Nagy Jacklin

Have you always wanted a rose garden? How about some apple or plum trees? Does the south side of your home get too warm in the summer and need a shade tree? Do you have some plants in the wrong places? Are your New England asters crowding out other perennials?

Timing is everything. As soon as the first heavy rain soaks your yard, get out your shovels. If you want to move a miniature rose or plant a whole new orchard, now is the time to plant, divide and transplant.

Preparing the soil

The first step in any planting project is to work on your soil. Expert opinion on how a site should be prepared has changed over the years. What you do with your soil depends on whether you are planting native plants or “exotic” plants, plants that did not evolve in our oak, pine and chaparral.

If you are planting natives, the new wisdom is not to amend your soil at all. Loosen your soil, but don’t add nutrients. This sounds wrong to those of us who were taught to “make a $20 hole for a $5 plant” and add amendments. But new research and logic indicate that many plants will stay in an amended area of soil instead of spreading their roots into the general soil of your yard if there is a big difference between the amended soil and the other soil. A plant’s clever small feeder roots sense this difference and grow around and around in an amended hole even after the nutrients there are all used up. The results are stunted plants. So if you are adding native plants to your existing garden, loosen the soil but don’t add any amendments.

For planting nonnative plants, the plot gets thicker. If you have a large area and heavy-duty tools, everyone would still agree that you should work in compost and aged (weed-free) manure throughout the whole plot. But if you are planting one rose bush or other exotic plant, the idea is to add some nutrients to your soil, making the mix leaner and leaner as you go out from the center of the hole until finally you are offering loosened soil that is not amended. This, in effect, coaxes the feeder roots out into the soil of your yard so that the root system will become strong and healthy in its new home.

Digging square holes instead of round ones for trees and shrubs is part of the new gardening wisdom. It has been found that round holes encourage root-bound plants, while square holes discourage those little feeder roots from circling back on themselves. Plant nurseries are beginning to grow plants in square containers, but besides the big boxes for trees, we are only beginning to see them in garden centers and retail nurseries.

Planting

Many good plant choices are available at this time of year. You can choose shrubs, vines and trees in soil in containers, or you can choose bare-root plants. Bare-root plants will save you money and the heavy work of planting large root balls, but you also will have to wait one to two years for the root system of your shrub or tree to develop and take off in your garden. If you are planting several fruit trees, or a whole rose garden, we suggest using a combination of both types.

Bare-root plants shouldn’t really be bare. A good nursery will save or hold their bare rootstock in moist shavings. You, the buyer, need to scrutinize the root system. Is it balanced and extensive? Does it look like it will be able to feed the tree it is attached to? Look for trees with a good taper of the trunk; the trunk should get thicker as it transitions into the root system. Choose a balanced branch structure, not one-sided. Without breaking the tips of branches, check them for suppleness, or the ability to bend. This will tell you if the tree is still full of life. The color of the bark also is an indicator of life: greenish, red and purple are good; gray and dull is bad. Brittle is dead.

When you have chosen some bare-root plants and prepared your site, soak the plant’s roots in a bucket of water for several hours or overnight, but not longer. Settle your trees and shrubs so that they meet the soil about an inch above ground level. Your goal is to have them exactly at ground level. But the ground will settle slightly since you have loosened the soil in order to give your plants their best chance.

When you are finished planting, whatever the plant, be sure to water in. Even in the winter, you should water the plant to help the small feeder roots point in the right direction and to eliminate any air bubbles in the soil. Air bubbles can be deadly to the root system of a plant.

Dividing

This is the perfect time to divide perennials and some shrubs. Asters, daylilies, coreopsis, Shasta daisies, coral bells and any other clumping perennial should be divided when the plants get crowded (typically every three to four years in good soil). You will rejuvenate the perennials and get many extra plants to give away or plant in different areas of your garden. Bearded iris also can be divided, but you’ll get another chance in July and August when they become dormant again.

Clumping shrubs and vines also can be divided now. If you are digging up lilac clumps, honeysuckle vines or berry plants, you might find that they easily pull apart into several plants. If their roots don’t divide easily, use an axe or sharp shovel. If you take two or three canes per plant, you can even have a lilac hedge from one old plant.

Transplanting

Look around your garden. This time of year we are less dazzled by flowers and can better evaluate the structure of our garden. Are there shrubs or vines that are too crowded for their place? Are there shrubs that have stopped blooming? Now is the best time to do something about these problems.

Plants sometimes outgrow their original spaces; sometimes the place they were planted is no longer appropriate to their needs. A rock rose might have been planted in the full sun it needs to bloom, but 10 years later, neighboring trees might have grown to shade it. Now is the time to move it.

Whether you are planting that new rose garden, new orchard, moving an out-of-place shrub or dividing some vines and perennials, timing is everything. A dry day after a soaking rain in January is the perfect time.

We wish you much happiness in and out of your garden in this New Year.