By Ron Dieter, Sunnyfield Greenhouse & Gardens

October 21, 1998

Now that the frost is on the pumpkin, there are a few chores to be done in the garden to get things ready for winter. Some of the projects are fun and others are more penance than pleasure. Regardless, you’ll feel better when the list is completed and the tools are put away.

Have some pleasure first. Now is a good time to visit display gardens at nurseries and public gardens to see the ornamental grasses in full glory. Many grasses take two or more years to develop fully. Seeing mature grasses displayed in garden settings will help you visualize them in your own garden. Although I don’t recommend planting grasses at this late date, you can make note of the varieties you want to add to your borders next spring.

Fall is far enough along now that dragging out the blankets to protect summer annuals and tomato plants every night won’t be worth the effort. It’s better to harvest any tomatoes left on the vine and store them in a cool place to ripen. Some will rot before they turn red but that’s part of the game. Some gardeners wrap green tomatoes in newspaper while they ripen, but I don’t think it helps much.

This time of year the idea of overwintering Pelargonium (annual geraniums) is intriguing to some gardeners. I’ve heard of several different formulas for saving geraniums. They can be pulled from the ground or pots and hung by the roots in a cool basement. They can be cut back and treated like houseplants until next spring. Some folks store the whole bare-root plant in a paper bag. Others take cuttings and grow them on through the winter. Each technique has its loyal fans and its share of detractors, too. If overwintering geraniums is your thing and one of these methods has worked well for you, don’t change your ways. It’s best not to fix what isn’t broken. Be sure to consider, however, how much time and effort you want to invest overwintering a 2-4 dollar plant. The overwintered plants I’ve seen don’t look like much the following spring and need to be cut way back to encourage better looking new growth. It makes more sense to me to throw out the geranium and overwinter the spike and vinca vine planted with it. The spike will be huge next year and the vinca vine can be propagated quickly from cuttings next spring.

As the frost kills the top growth of perennials in the border, you can begin to clean off the garden. In order to survive the winter, some perennials and tender shrubs should NOT be cut back in the fall. Caryopteris (bluebeard) and Buddleia (butterfly bush), both tender shrubs for our zone, must not be cut back until next spring. Most ornamental grasses also have a better chance of living through the winter if left intact or pruned back only slightly. Garden mums, Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’, Kniphofia (red-hot poker), and ferns should not feel the pruners till early spring. Likewise, Heuchera (coral bells), Perovskia (Russian sage), and evergreen perennials, such as Dianthus, Lavendula, and Bergenia, should be left intact.

Old man winter takes his toll on garden plants in several ways. Freezing and thawing, desiccation, and sunscald are some of the causes of winter demise. Cybergardeners can learn more about winter’s effects on the ornamental landscape by checking out the Timely Topics section of www.sunnyfield.com.