Adding new, pruning existing

Care for your garden

As we have mentioned before, the fall quarter is the preferred time for bringing new plants to your garden. Now is a good time to install plants and give them time to develop their roots and prepare to burst into new growth in the spring.

The spring quarter inspires many gardeners to raid local garden centers, so plant nurseries are busily preparing for the rush of buyers looking for young plants. Some mail- order nurseries are only taking orders now, for delivery in the spring.

If you prefer to pay nurseries to nurture your future plants during the winter months, it’s your choice, but if you are willing to do that light work yourself, better prices for smaller plants are available now.

I’ve been acquiring and installing small plants from Annie’s Annuals & Perennials, Mountain Crest Gardens, and Eden Brothers. I was particularly attracted to Annie’s “Rarities” because I enjoy the bragging rights that come with uncommon plants.

I also couldn’t resist adding a couple larger plants from the San Lorenzo Garden Center in Santa Cruz.

Another activity for this time of the year involves pruning perennial plants. A little time with the clippers makes certain plants look better and readies them for spring growth. My current pruning targets include the spent flower stalks of Ginger Lily (Hedychium gardnerianum), ‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum (S. spectabile), Rock Purslane (Calendrina spectabilis), and Lambs’ Ears (Stachys byzantine).

It’s also not too early to begin cutting back rose garden shrubs. A friend with a great many roses starts his pruning on Pearl Harbor Day (12/7); I usually trim my rose collection during the quiet days between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Several perennials are best pruned in the late winter or early spring, when they begin showing new basal growth. That’s when I need help to mow down my garden’s numerous salvias. This year, we will use a new battery-powered trimmer for efficient and eco-friendly work.

Timely pruning of the perennial plants and trees in your garden can add greatly to the health, vigor and appearance of your garden. Pruning is not difficult work, but it can seem stressful when lacking confidence about how and when to prune.

To this point, the American Horticultural Society’s “A—Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants” describes twelve pruning groups and lists cultural information on each of 15,000+ plants, including the pruning group for each plant. If you are caring for many different plants, a reference book like this (there are others) can be very helpful and worth the investment.

Another approach involves identifying the botanical name of each of the plants in your garden and searching the internet for information the cultivation of each of those plants.

In the garden—and everywhere else— knowledge is power.

Advance your gardening knowledge

Webinar hosts sometimes announce their events with minimal lead time, and we can list them here with only very short notice. In fairness, arranging webinars can involve last-minute commitments, and newspaper deadlines are inflexible, so we apologize for reporting two worth-watching webinars for tomorrow morning, and at the same hour.

The Cactus & Succulent Society of America will present, “The History of the Huntington Desert Garden and its Place in Cactus & Succulent History.” This event will be at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Huntington’s 10-acre Desert Garden, in San Marino, CA is one of the world’s largest outdoor collections of cacti and succulents, with 5,000+ species in sixty landscaped beds.

This webinar will address the history and significance of the Desert Garden, recent renovations of the Garden, and sneak peeks at future possibilities in the Garden.

The presenters include Jim Folsom, Director of the Huntington Botanical Gardens; John Trager, Curator of the Desert Garden; and Seth Baker, Garden Principal Designer.

Trager spoke effectively not long ago to the Monterey Bay Cactus & Succulent Society and impressed the group with the depth of his knowledge. The other presenters undoubtedly will add much to this program.

Any gardener interested in cacti and succulent plants should seek an opportunity to visit the stunning Desert Garden and should enjoy this presentation.

The Ruth Bancroft Garden will present the following two fee-based webinars, as we reported previously in this column. To register for these events, visit www.ruthbancroftgarden.org.

“Going Gondwanan— Aussie and South African Plants in Your Garden,” at 10-11 a.m. Saturday. Presenter Troy McGregor, owner of Gondwana Flora, has been growing and selling plants since 2006. This session will discover some of the most unusual and garden-worthy plants from these two biodiversity hot spots.

“An Engineer’s Approach to Houseplant Care,” at 10-11 a.m. Dec. 19. The presenter will be Darryl Cheng. His passion for plants and an engineering approach to plant care has made him a trusted houseplant adviser. This workshop will help viewers understand how plants work.

Fine Gardening Magazine will present a webinar, “Truly Tough Shade Plants,” at 7 p.m. Dec. 17, as we reported previously. The presenters will be Danielle Sherry and Steve Aiken, both editors at Fine Gardening. In this webinar, they will present

“an in-depth look at some amazing, tough plants for shade,” and offer tips on care and placement, and design ideas. To register for this free event, visit https:// tinyurl.com/y2nnttjr.

The Garden Conservancy will present “Chasing Eden: Design Inspiration from the Gardens at Hortulus Farm,” at 11 a.m., Dec. 17. Hortulus Farm is a 100-acre 18th century farmstead and nursery in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The presenter is the author of a book of the same name and one of the creators of the garden s at Hortulus Farm. To register, visit https://www.gardenconservancy.org/.

Enrich your gardening days

In this column, we recommended viewing a recent web talk by Daniel Hinkley, sponsored by the Garden Conservancy. His talk was intended to draw attention to his latest book, “Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens,” which is about the 20-year development of his current garden, which is on the edge of Washington State’s Puget Sound.

Hinkley is a productive plant hunter and the current era’s member of a long history of horticulturalists who have discovered garden-worthy plants in exotic lands and introduced them to gardeners in Europe and—in this century—the United States.

Hinkley is also a prolific sharer of his knowledge of gardening through several books, magazine articles, and public speaking. (He spoke at the UCSC Arboretum a couple years ago.) He continues this sharing through his website, danieljhinkley.com/journal/, where he has posted a series of video garden tours with informal narration.

I will review his book, “Windcliff…” in a future column, but meanwhile visit his website to enjoy the perspectives of a deeply engaged lover of plants.

Keep your emotions positive and your viruses negative and enjoy your garden.

Tom Karwin is past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, and Monterey Bay Iris Society, and a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 19992009). He is now a board member and garden coach for the Santa Cruz Hostel Society. To view daily photos from his garden, https://www.facebook.com/