winter

It sounds weird, but one of my favorite times of the year, gardening-wise, is January.

That's when I look forward to seeing all the new mailorder gardening catalogs in my mailbox. It's also when I make my "Plants I Want" wish list. And it's also the time when I repot indoor plants and mark the coming year's master calendar with seasonal gardening chores.

I know, it sounds anal. Perhaps I'm overcompensating for my ADD, which has turned me into somewhat of a calendar junkie:  If it's not on the calendar, it just doesn't get done.

Anyway, one of the chores I'm putting on there now is pruning. Without it, my front and side yards quickly become overgrown in summer and crowd out all the light, air and space. I at least need to go and trim all the dangling and dead branches left in the wake of all the winter wind storms we have in our area.

Pruned Flower Carpet roses with tete-a-tete daffodils in early spring

Late winter is a great time to prune deciduous trees and shrubs, although in cold climates like my Zone 6ish garden. Here in western New York, I usually prune on or around St. Patrick's Day. It's an easy way to remember it, anyway.

When you do prune deciduous trees and shrubs, make sure to remove diseased, damaged or close-crossing branches, but take special care not to spoil the plant's natural shape.

For magnolias, forsythias and other spring-flowering woody plants, delay pruning until just after flowering. Summer-blooming shrubs such as hydrangea and hibiscus are best pruned in winter or early spring, just before growth gets going. 

March and April are big months for pruning roses. My Flower Carpet roses are the easiest to prune: I just take a sharp pair of hedge sheers and reduce their volume by about two thirds. A more conservative approach is needed for traditional bush roses: Aim for an open vase shape, making cuts about a half-inch above an outward-facing bud. Old-fashioned roses that flower once in early summer shouldn't be pruned until just after flowering.

For more information on pruning Flower Carpet roses, check out the video "How to take care of Flower Carpet roses in spring" by Dave Epstein of Growing Wisdom.

Whenever you prune, always use clean, sharp pruning tools. Mangled, unclean cuts can lead to disease. And don't put diseased material in the compost bin. If Jack Frost strikes, avoid removing any frost-damaged growth, as this helps protect the plant from further frost damage.

I know it's hard to wait till spring, but try to enjoy some garden dreaming and planning. And don't forget to put pruning on your calendar!

So we were having our annual Cousins Christmas party yesterday - this year at the beautiful Rochester Civic Garden Center here in Rochester, NY. There, taking a break from the Cha-Cha Slide and Holiday Calorie Trough there in Warner Castle, built in 1854 to resemble a Scottish ancestral castle, I found myself wandering around and appreciating all the housplants adorning each room. And then I remembered: even though it's winter, we CAN still garden. Health and quality of life are huge right now — at least according to Trendwatching.

Inspired, I started remembering how much I love houseplants. Maybe it's the cold climate of Rochester, which I just found out is No. 2 in annual snowfall (right behind Syracuse, NY where I went to school!) Remember: houseplants not only purify and filter the air, removing allergens and impurities - they also pump out tons of mood-boosting oxygen!

So if you're not already into houseplants, pick up a few! You'd  be surprised how much a little green goes a long way indoors!

Here are a few from Warner Castle:

From left: beans growing up a trellis, rosemary and croton

A collection of succulents

Polkadot plant in a terrarium

And here are some great houseplants that have survived low-light consitions in my house:

Festival Burgundy cordyline (I just bring it in from the patio at the end of summer)

Bamboo palm

What houseplants are you crazy about? Post a comment, and tell me all about it!

So what if this month’s not the busiest in the garden? There’s still plenty to do around your home and yard.

Take care of indoor plants

Ease up on the watering and fertilization of your houseplants. But, if you stick your finger a half-inch into the soil and if it comes out dry, go get the pitcher. Watering plants is a great way for kids and grandkids to help around the house and build self-confidence – (my 2 ½-year-old daughter, right, is very proud of her role as Houseplant Helper). Move faded or sickly-looking ones in north-facing windows to east- or west-facing ones, and those in east- or west-facing windows to south-facing ones.

Create winter interest - feed the birds

For great reading on this, check out the Feb. 13, 2009 North Coast Gardening blog “The Winter-Interest Secret Most Gardeners Forget: or How to Attract Birds” (at http://www.northcoastgardening.com).

Decorate your home and yard – safely

Celebrate the season with safety in mind, with these tips from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission:

• Only buy artificial trees labeled “fire resistant.”
• If buying a live tree, make sure it’s fresh (needles don’t pull off; branches don’t break) and keep it well-watered and away from heat sources.
• Keep any small or breakable ornaments away from kids.
• Never use holiday lights on a metallic tree or near power or feeder lines from utility poles.
• Turn off all holiday lights before you go to bed or leave the house. Use no more than three standard-size sets of lights per single extension cord, and make sure the cord is rated for the intended use.
• Outdoor electric lights and decorations should be certified for outdoor use, hung only with insulated staples or hooks and should be plugged into circuits protected by ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs).
• Consider replacing candles with LED flameless ones.

Keep an eye on that garden

Since I live in Zone 6a, that means looking out the kitchen window at my snow-covered landscape and thumbing through the garden catalogs.

Those of you in warmer regions, however, can find fantastic regional gardening tips for December in a recent post by About.com gardening blogger Marie Iannotti (at http://gardening.about.com) suggests region-specific tasks that include protecting tender plants with row covers or homemade cloches like milk jugs and soda bottles, feeding winter-flowering shrubs, cutting back ornamental grasses, planting trees and shrubs, starting seeds for cool-season flowers and vegetables, planting bare root roses and adding compost and manure to planting beds to get them ready for spring.