Fall Plantings
Fall plantings don’t have to be just spring bulbs. In the fall most nurseries and garden centers offer huge savings on perennial plants, trees and shrubs. It’s a great time to get that weeping cherry you felt you couldn’t afford last spring.
October is actually a very good time to plant trees and shrubs here in northern New England. The plants have gone dormant, the soil is still workable, and there’s time for them to establish their roots before the snow flies.
When you purchase your plants, choose good healthy specimens. A few broken twigs are fine, they can be pruned off when you plant, but make sure there are no major scrapes or cuts in the bark or gouges in the trunk. Also pass up any trees or shrubs with breaks in significant large branches.
Trees and shrubs at a nursery as usually either balled in burlap, or container grown. Some rose bushes may be bare-root and packaged in plastic bags. For bare-root plants, remove the packaging as soon as you get home and plunge the roots in a bucket of warm water. Let the plant soak up the water for a couple of hours before you plant.
Container-grown plants often get pot-bound. When purchasing these kinds of plants, tip up the container and look at the bottom. No roots should be growing through the drain holes. Lift the plant out of the container and check that no roots are growing completely around the trunk. This is a process called girdling, and these roots will eventually strangle the plant. It’s okay if the plant is a bit pot-bound, but if there are several large roots wrapped around the rootball, choose another plant.
Usually only trees come balled in burlap, but some large shrubs such as rhododendrons may be sold this way also. The plants have likely been root-pruned so that the root ball is compact. These plants will reestablish themselves quite quickly and do well in a fall planting. Make sure that the ball is firm and hasn’t been broken. Avoid plants with root balls where the soil feels loose.
Try and choose a plant with good proportions and symmetry. Some flaws can be corrected with pruning, but a shrub that’s been crowded at the nursery can grow crooked and no amount of pruning can make it look anything but crooked. There should be a good proportion of roots to top growth in balled in burlap plants.
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