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With leaves becoming more colorful and cooler weather approaching, gardeners begin cleaning debris from our gardens, but what is the best practice to prepare our perennial plants for the winter months?
Eliminating some perennials is essential, especially if disease or unwanted insect infestation has occurred. Remove foliage affected by cutting it back to the ground, leaving the low basal leaves for emergence in the spring. The same method should be used if powdery mildew or any other infestation has occurred. Uncut Hosta leaves can protect unwanted slug eggs, so after the first frost, leaves should be cut back to ensure healthy leaf growth in spring. Infected leaves and stems should be destroyed and never placed in your compost bin or buried in the garden soil to prevent a reemergence of infestation next year.
After a frost, healthy perennials can be trimmed to 6 to 12 inches, leaving the dried, hollow flower stalks intact over winter. During our cold months, stem-nesting bees hibernate, emerging in the spring. These hollow stems will eventually decompose and will be hidden behind the new spring growth that emerges.
Keeping the complete plant intact can add visual interest to your snowy landscape. Tall grasses, Joe-Pye Weed, Cone flowers, Black-Eyed Susan and Asters are some perennials that can provide protected areas for wildlife. The seeds provide additional food for finches and other small birds that land and balance on spent flowers, plucking the seed heads. Allowing a few perennials to remain uncut in the garden helps wildlife through our coldest months.
Beneficial insects not only spend winter in stems, but hide near and under these plants as eggs or caterpillars. According to Penn State, the Viceroy butterfly rolls itself in a leaf and drops to the ground where it stays until it emerges in the spring. This is one excellent reason to leave plant debris around your perennials.
'Leave the Leaves' has significant meaning when preparing our winter gardens. In addition to insects spending these months as eggs and caterpillars, covering plants with leaves provides protection for plant roots. According to Iowa State University, frost heaving can happen when the freeze/thaw cycle shifts the upper layer of soil, lifting the crown and root system of a plant out of the ground. Leaves and mulch protecting the plant can prevent this plant loss.
Cages around plants can add further protection and keep the mulch in place and leaves from blowing.
Journaling provides forgotten information from previous years, preventing a repeat of mistakes or reminding ourselves of our successes, along with new ideas to try.
Discarding diseased plants and keeping healthy ones will provide food and protection for our native pollinators, wildlife and beneficial insects throughout our coldest winter months. Rest and enjoy our snowy days and plan next year's garden, knowing you have provided a safe habitat for our wildlife!