Fall is a great time to plant trees and shrubs including fruit trees and blueberries. It’s also a good time to move existing shrubs or trees to a new location in your yards. They put down good root growth in the cooler weather. Water new plantings throughout the fall and during the dry periods of winter.
Start cleaning up flower beds before winter. Deadhead the blooms and prune or cut back dead foliage. Mulch to a depth of 3” to 4” in your beds and around your shrubs and trees to keep the soil moist. Keep weeding your beds and other landscape areas in order to keep your problems from multiplying. Do not cut back ornamental grasses until later in winter.
You can continue to dig up and divide Caladiums, Dahlias, Tuber Begonias & Gladiolas. Dry & store in peat moss or vermiculite. Plants like hosta, daylilies, phlox and Shasta daisies can be divided and replanted. It’s good to buy your spring flowering bulbs now while there is a good selection, but don’t plant these until the soil temperature drops below 60 degrees. Store the bulbs in your refrigerator or in a cool, dry place until ready to use.
Plant chrysanthemums (mums) this month. Keep chrysanthemums deadheaded to encourage blooms. They make great container plants.
Pansies, Panolas and Violas can be planted from mid September to mid October. They do better in cooler temperatures so if the days are still too warm, wait to plant them. These plants are cold tolerant and their roots will be growing during the warmer days of the winter in order to be ready for a wonderful display in the spring adding beautiful color to your landscaping in the fall, winter and early summer. Be sure to keep them watered well. As mentioned in the September newsletter, pansies planted in with your daffodils and tulips will be beautiful in the spring and they also make great container plants and look wonderful in hanging baskets.
Keep your roses deadheaded and remove diseased vines and leaves. Remove any fallen leaves on the ground at the base of roses. Continue spraying roses for disease control.
Continue preparing to bring your houseplants and tropicals inside before the first frost. Check them for insects and disease, treat them if necessary. Prune or trim any dead or damaged leaves, deadhead the blooms and water thoroughly. Don’t fertilize during the winter months and wait until spring to repot your houseplants.
Fall webworms, armyworms, azalea stem borers, and two-spotted spider mites arrive in the fall. Keep up with your spraying.
Horticultural oil can be used to control scale and mealybugs. A treatment 3-4 times a year on trees and shrubs will help prevent this.
Fire ants begin to forage with the cooler weather. Once they are in this stage you can apply bait around the mound.
You shouldn’t prune your shrubs in October. Wait until after the leaves drop. In early fall, pruning wounds close more slowly and plants are more at risk for fungal diseases than at other times of the year. For most trees, the best time for major pruning is late winter to early spring. Prune only for dead, diseased or damaged wood and minor shaping of the plant in the fall. Stress can cause premature fall color or premature leaf drop. Some stress factors are poor nutrients, lack of water, too much water or injury. Figure out the cause and remedy accordingly.
Keep the lawn watered. Add a winterizing fertilizer in late October or November. A pre-emergent herbicide can be applied on established grass when the temperature drops below 50 degrees. Do not apply herbicides on newly planted grass. Watch out for wild onion and wild garlic and other cool season weeds. Hand pulling the weeds is not as effective as digging them up. Chemical control is another effective method.
Please let us know if we can help you with your lawn or landscaping. We have a wide variety of products to help with your landscaping needs at our nursery and mulch yard. We can also provide you with a pest/fungus/fertilization program. This program can and will help keep your lawn and your shrubs/trees healthy.
Watch out for the little goblins and have a blessed month!