Year in and Year Out
It gets harder every year to predict the winter. Recent years have seen the coldest weather in November – this year may be no different. The combination of cool nights and bright days produces fantastic autumn colours – absence of stormy days and heavy rain has meant that that e tress retain their leaves longer than usual. Great – I love the Autumn – a truly splendid time of year, especially on days when its so good to be outside getting things done. There is a lot of preparation still to be done for the winter, clearing out, protecting, securing and tidying up, not to mention planning and planting for next year.

You can probably blame garden centres and nurseries for landing you with a few extra problems these days. It’s true that we do offer gardeners an ever increasing list of exotic plants to grow and it may not be absolutely clear which ones need special treatment over winter and which do not. You can be fairly sure that if you bought it in the spring to give summer colour then it is only intended as a summer plant. If it flowered profusely then it is probably now exhausted and is unlikely to do much next year unless it is regenerated – do this you need to cut it back, force some new growth, take cuttings and grow them on protected from the frost to give a brand new plant next year. Re-potting an old plant next spring will rarely give the same fantastically vigorous plant you had this year. So it just may be easier to get a new one next year and keep the space you have available for over-wintering plants, keep that for the things you really treasure.

Not everything you grow will need to come indoors. Most hardy plants in pots will be fine with a few precautions. Pots raised off the ground on flat stones or pot feet, will drain more easily and be less prone to damage from water logging. Evergreens in pots can be at risk of damage if they are exposed to cold N and NE winds as the cold drying winds on plants in frozen pots mean the leaves will be losing moisture and have no hope of drawing replacement water from the roots. The result is the leaves shut down and die. Typically, bay trees and camellias are most at risk and may need your help. The easiest thing is to move them into a sheltered spot. If they are too big or too heavy to move then consider wrapping the pot up with a layer of bubble wrap held in place by a length of hessian or shade netting and putting a fleece jacket around the head of the plant. There are several good products available which can make for comfortable over wintering. Horticultural fleece is a wonderfully useful product. It’s light but strong and can be wrapped around a plant tied up with string – it protects the plant from wind burn but doesn’t weigh it down and cause damage. . Have some on hand as it’s very useful for protecting plants in pots, in the greenhouse, or in the ground. Exotic palms and tree ferns might need their crowns protected. Some windbreak netting tied round and a bit of straw stuffed inside would give adequate insulation until unwrapped next April.

Plant of the Month
Out in the garden, hellebores are something to look forward to at this time of year. Hellebores niger is The Christmas Rose and was probably introduced to this country by the Romans which would make it one of our oldest cultivated plants. Its gentle nodding white flowers often open around Christmas time and carry on until slate spring. Not hard to grow but likes a bit of shade and a soil with lots of organic matter added. Then there are the Helleborus hybrids. These are numerous, partly because Hellebores hybridize easily; you’ll find a wealth of coloured and patterned flowers. Winter and early spring flowers lack the gaudy glare of summer blooms when everything is trying to outdo its neighbour, this makes the winter and spring garden a real treasure. Everyone can appreciate the delicate nature of the Hellebores.
Indoors there are the absolute favourites for Christmas, Cyclamen and Azaleas and of course the Poinsettia. The first two will generally do better in light but cool conditions to keep them flowering as long as possible. Poinsettias prefer a cozy draft free spot but not on top of the radiator! Ideal temperatures for poinsettias are between 15 and 18oC, avoid over-watering but they really don’t like to dry out. Azaleas and cyclamen are best watered from below – just let them sit in a bowl of water [room temperature] for an hour when they need water. What’s the best way to check if a plant needs water? Put your finger into the compost, or lift the plant to see how light it is. Feeding is easy with the little drip feeders which are specially designed to keep the right level of nutrition for flowering plants.

Jobs for the Month
If the weather softens a little then there is plenty to do in the garden. Vegetable gardens should be tidied up and roughly dug for the winter - the frost is so good at breaking down the local clay soils. A good layer of manure on the rhubarb now will pay dividends in the spring – I am actually thinking of lifting my rhubarb and splitting it [no ribald remarks please!] to give it a bit of a boost. It has been good over the years but moles and other things have loosened the roots and it looked on the tired side this year. Same with the strawberry patch but this will need digging over, treating with Armillatox to get rid of any possible harmful soil fungi, replanting with fresh plants. On top of this I shall add mycorrhizal fungi in the form of a really good product called Rootgrow. These help plant roots develop quickly and work with the roots to make them effective.

If you are contemplating planting or replanting fruit plants and trees, then you should be able to choose from a good selection of varieties. Most stock is virus tested these days which is important. Strawberry runners or raspberry canes taken from old plants will carry an amount of virus which results in lower yields and a gradual decline. Hedges, trees, deciduous shrubs, and hardy perennials planted now, get used to their soil and position and consequently do much better in their first year. Their roots establish in the warm moist soil – couldn’t be better it really couldn’t. As I have said before, the only times that you cannot plant are when the soil is frozen or waterlogged.

Organic gardens will especially benefit from good application of well-rotted manure. This can be hard to find and it may be worthwhile, if you have the space, finding a load of half decent stuff, tipping it in a heap and allowing it to rot further for a few months before using it.

Check trees ties that may have loosened or snapped, and stakes dislodged. Winter winds will rock loose trees causing root damage and subsequent root rot. This will certainly stop the tree growing as well as it should, if not kill it altogether.