NOVEMBER
November is typically the month of our first frost. The date tends to be earlier in the month in northern counties and later in southern counties.
Pay attention to the weather forecasts, and take precautions as needed.
◼️ Houseplants should be inside now — we have already had some cool nights. Keeping them outside too late results in a major shock once they come inside.
◼️ If you will overwinter tender plants in the crawl space under the house or in your garage, make sure you move those plants before that first frost.
◼️ Plants that are moderately hardy outdoors often overwinter outdoors fine with just a little extra mulch — unless we get weather like we had last winter.
◼️ Allow your plants to go dormant before applying additional protective mulch. Mulch too early, and it can prevent plants from entering dormancy, resulting in a dead plant the following spring. Allow the plant to go dormant after a frost, then cut off the old debris and add the extra mulch.
◼️ Pay attention to the drainage of your soil. Winter soils often retain more moisture because there's less evaporation in the lower temperatures and plants are pulling using water while they are dormant. Many perennials will rot if they have wet feet.
◼️ Fall sanitation is important to the overall success of your garden. Rake up leaves and cut back dead plant tissue. Plant debris that was not diseased can be added to the compost pile, but if it was heavily infested with insects or diseases, get rid of it. Home compost piles often don't get uniformly hot enough to kill out disease spores, so better safe than sorry.
◼️ Mulch as needed. If your plants were attacked by insects or diseases, it can help to remove the old mulch when you pull out the plant debris. Mulch the beds with fresh mulch.
◼️ Do a quick recap of your season to remember what worked and what didn't.
◼️ Fall color is popping all over the state, from maples and gingkoes to burning bush euonymus and Itea. The intensity of fall color will be in proportion to the growing conditions this past season. Best color occurs when we get ample moisture, warm days with cool nights, and a gradual shift in temperatures. Some parts of the state were bone dry, and many plants went into dormancy early to conserve moisture. In spite of all that dry weather, some trees are showing off anyway.
◼️ In addition to fall color, we have some blooms and berries now. Fall-blooming camellias are starting their show, and I am seeing quite a few blooms on loropetalum and Encore azaleas. Beautyberries are showing off, and many holly berries are turning red.
◼️ Fall is a fine time to plant winter-hardy plants. Don't plant moderately hardy shrubs — memories of last year's winter damage are too fresh for a repeat. Wait until spring to plant azaleas, hydrangeas and gardenias.
◼️ Fall needn't be boring in the garden. There is still plenty of time to plant winter annuals, from pansies and violas to flowering kale, cabbage and snapdragons. Fertilize periodically to keep them blooming their best.
◼️ And this is a great time to plant spring-flowering bulbs. If your bulbs have been in the ground for years, don't be alarmed if you see them poking their heads above ground in December. We see this happening more and more each year, but the foliage is very cold hardy. Just be sure you don't cut it off or damage it in any way, since those bulbs only have one set of leaves.
RED MAPLE
Red maples can be some of the prettiest fall-colored trees in our landscapes, but red foliage is not guaranteed.
Common, seedling-grown red maples might grow into trees that turn red in the fall, or yellow or orange, or sometimes just brown. Pigmentation can vary unless you have a vegetatively grown cultivar.
If you are looking for a particular color of fall foliage from a red maple (Acer rubrum), choose your tree in the fall when it is showing its fall color, or buy a named variety like Autumn Glory or Red Sunset. These have been bred for red fall foliage.
Whatever color their fall foliage, red maples will grow to be 40 to 60 feet tall with a slightly narrower growth habit. They do best in full sun, with well-drained soils.
Read Janet Carson's blog at arkansasonline.com/planitjanet