Fall Seasonal Gardening Tips

Saving Seeds    

• Autumn is an excellent time to collect and save the seeds of your summer blooming perennials and grasses for planting in the spring.  Seed collection should begin once the seeds are ripe but before birds, animals, or wind disperses them. This process may take days or weeks. An easy way to make sure you do not miss this window is to monitor the plants from which you are gathering seeds.  One common method of collection is to simply shake the ripened seeds into a paper bag.  To prepare them for storage remove any excess plant debris and allow the seeds to dry.  This will prevent them from becoming moldy during storage.  Finally, place the seeds in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  Remember to label! (Include plant name, collection location, and the date they were collected).  Refrigeration works great for winter storage.  Keeping seeds at a constant temperature helps maintain their viability, preparing you for a successful sowing in the spring.

  Horticulturist , Wendy Split

Harvesting Herbs

• Congratulations!  The time has finally come to reap the benefits of what you’ve sown.  Harvesting herbs correctly can mean the difference between homemade fresh and zesty pasta sauce and tomato paste out of a can.  Following a few basic harvesting guidelines will ensure a flavorful harvest and an enjoyable time in the garden. A few days before harvest, make sure that your herbs are well watered.  This will prevent wilting at harvest.  Gently clean the plants by spraying them at different angles - pay attention to the bottom side of the leaf.  It is not necessary to wash them again after harvest. Harvest herbs late-morning after the dew has had time to dry.  If picked when wet, herbs have a tendency to mold while drying. Pick small-leafed plants (such as thyme and rosemary) on the stem for drying and later stripping.  With string or rubber band, bundle herbs and hang in a warm, well-ventilated location.  Avoid exposure to direct sunlight.  Make your bundles small enough to allow for good air circulation. Gently rub the leaves from the stems as soon as they become crispy.  For best flavor, leave the leaves whole until just before use. 

Horticulturist, Samara Eisner

Watering Your Evergreens  

• Winter can be very hard on all of our landscape plants, but it is certainly most taxing on our evergreens.  This is because our evergreens hold on to their foliage all winter and therefore can lose moisture through their leaves all winter.  In warmer climates where the ground doesn’t freeze (where most of us wish we could garden) this isn’t that big of a deal.  But in Wisconsin, when the ground freezes, the plants can’t take up any water to replace what is being lost from drying winds and sun.  So, to help your evergreens survive our harsh winters, water them very thoroughly in the fall to get them fully hydrated and mulch their root systems well to keep the ground from freezing for as long as possible. 

  Horticulture Director, Jeff Epping

Getting a Jump on Spring

• If you have plans for new landscape beds in your garden next spring, seriously think about creating and preparing them this fall.  Fall tends to be a dry season (so you’re not working in the muddy soils of spring), and the weather is nice and cool for the hard work involved. Spade or till your new beds as deeply as you can and add a generous helping of organic matter.  Even partially composted material will work as it will continue to break down in the soil until the ground freezes.  Don’t worry about getting your beds tilled up to a fine texture; the freeze/thaw cycles of winter will do a good job of breaking up heavy clods of even clay soils.  When spring comes you can do your fine tilling or grading in preparation for planting. Spring is a busy enough time for gardeners. If you can plan far enough ahead, you can get a jump on spring and get those new beds done now.

Horticulturist, Mark Shimasaki

Creating a Winter Interest

• Many of us dread the word "winter," but here at Olbrich we have come to love the word. To us winter doesn’t mean "cold and bland," it means "cold and exciting." Many people just give in to the fact that it is getting cold, and retreat into their houses for the winter. As gardeners we have a duty to reverse this trend. We have an opportunity to spice up these months with winter-interest trees, shrubs, and grasses, and make people think twice about plopping down when the temperatures plummet. When designing keep in mind that there are many different types of winter-interest characteristics, and everyone will have a totally different idea on what constitutes winter interest or not. Here are some examples of plants that we think of having winter interest here at Olbrich Gardens.

• Trees Winter Interest: Salix alba ‘Britzensis’ Bright red and orange bark; Syringa pekinensis Peeling bark; Acer griseum Peeling bark
  

• Shrubs: Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Beauty’ Orange-yellow stems; Kerria japonica ‘Kin Kan’ Bright green stems
  

• Grasses: Molinia arundinaceae ‘Sky Racer’; Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’ displaying their beautiful plumes; Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln" they also provide sound and movement.

Horticulturist, Whit Connors

Tired of your roses not making it through Wisconsin winters? There are several easy steps that will greatly increase your chances of having roses that last just as long as other woody shrubs. First of all, know what you have. If your roses are shrub roses known to be hardy to this area, such as rugosa roses or modern hybrids such as ‘Knockout’ or ‘Carefree Delight,' you have little to worry about. These roses will survive without any special care or protection. The roses you need to protect are hybrid teas, grandifloras, and floribundas – the types found in the circular beds here at Olbrich’s Rose Garden. Stop fertilizing by mid-August to keep the plants from putting on too much late-season tender growth. But keep all roses, shrub roses too, well watered right up until the ground freezes. Roses will keep growing and blooming well into our first frosts and beyond, but usually will start to peter out in late October. For us, usually around Halloween or the first week of November, we commence putting the roses to bed. We cut back the canes to about 18", strip off all remaining leaves, and snip off all side (lateral) branches. What you have should look pretty similar to a bare-root rose that you would buy in the spring before the leafed-out, potted varieties are available- that is, a bunch of naked upright canes. As long as there isn’t any warm Indian summer in the forecast, you can now mound your roses. I prefer to mound mine before nighttime lows dip below the mid-20s. Cover them with a generous amount of composted manure, a mix of soil/manure, fine wood chips, or ground up leaves. A cylinder of chicken wire can help keep the compost in place. Don’t worry if the canes protrude from your mound. After the ground, and your mounds, freezes solid (usually around Thanksgiving) cover them with a mulch of straw, marsh hay, or pine boughs to keep them frozen. Under this protective blanket, you should get most of your roses through the winter. In late March, remove the mulch first, then in mid-April carefully tease the compost away from the canes. They will probably be black on the tips but hopefully bright green further down where they were protected. Prune back to green, water well, and in a few weeks plump buds should start to appear. Congratulations!!

Horticulturist, Christian Harper