Your garden looks lovely during the spring, summer, and autumn, but then comes the winter and you start worrying. There is no room for panic as your flowers can survive the winter just fine if you prepare them well. Your flowers, like you, deserve proper preparation for the colder months. There are several steps you should follow in order to protect your garden and help it get back to its previous, colorful, cheerful state by spring.
All the flowers are different and they need you to tend to them differently. Some require more of your attention, some less, and the process of preparation differs from species to species.
Before the winter, you should decrease the amount of fertilizer you put in the soil, but continue to water the plants in order to help them get through the dry winters. Whenever you can, pull some weeds out of the ground. Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean you can forget about them. They will be spreading and if you don’t do this regularly, you’ll be really busy in the spring.
If you have any tender bulbs such as dahlias, make sure to dig them up and store them in a cool, dark place. Also, you can always collect seeds of some of the plants you want to plant next year.
Annuals are plants that grow a flower from a seed in a single season. Then the whole plant dies and you need to remove it. Harvest the seeds and plant them, and dig up any tender bulbs you find. The bulbs can be replanted in the spring, but until then they should be stored properly.
Roses need special attention, and a lot of love, in order to not only survive the winter but bloom beautifully in spring. Once the summer ends, no more pruning and fertilizing.
Change the old mulch for the new one. When the winter days are warm and dry, water your roses and make sure not to overdo it. www.floraqueen.it explains beautifully the significance of red roses in expressing our love, but winter is the time when roses need us to show them as much love as we can.
Perennials are a bit different as you can simply leave the roots and stems during the winter and it will grow again in spring. After the first frost, you should cut the dry stems and diseased foliage. Also, you should prevent the rodents from nesting in the soil which you can do by adding mulch after the ground freezes.
There are also some flowers that will bloom during the winter, so there is no need for your garden to be completely flowerless during winter.
English primroses bloom during the winter and they come in numerous different colors so this flower alone can keep your garden colorful.
Pansy is a type of low-growing plant with flowers that bloom for a really long time. The dark purple color of the flower looks beautiful during winter.
Witch hazel has amazing orange blooms during winter and can be a beautiful addition to a mostly white garden.
Pieris Japonica is another beautiful choice as it has pinkish clusters or urn-shaped flowers and blooms in late fall, but the flowers wait for the winter months to open fully.
