Fall Planting

Just for the record, here’s my schedule of fall planting with comments. Understand this is for a USDA zone 4 – Canadian Zone 5-ish and your timing may vary and your experience may as well. This is a rule of thumb worked out in the nursery to increase survival rates over many years and way too many plants.

Perennials. I like to get all the perennial work done by the end of September. This gives the plants lots of time to set in good anchor roots so frost heave in the spring won’t be an issue. It’s not necessarily the cold that gets perennials but being tossed about in the soil the following spring surely sets them back. Perennials planted after this do not grow as well for me and death rates increase dramatically (nursery trials and tests over 25 years in the nursery) for later plantings.

Evergreens and Broadleaf Evergreens. I like to have these set in and done by the end of October. There’s a bit more leeway here but again, survival rates tend to go down with later plantings. If your plant is guaranteed over the winter by the nursery and they insist it will be fine – then go for it but if you’re taking the hit with winter loss, your time is up according to my planting calendar.

Deciduous Woody Plants. These hardy souls go in right up until freezeup with little fuss or muss. Bareroot them all after the leaves fall off (plant is fully dormant) and set them into unmodified soil. Backfill and flood with water. Keep flooding regularly for the first week or two then ignore.

Bulbs. I plant mine in mid to late-October because an earlier planting will tend to pop into a fall growth cycle. Again, these can be planted right up to freezeup (better to plant than to leave in cupboard all winter) and if you plant into frozen ground, simply water like crazy to soften up the soil and try to “muddify” them in. They should be fine.

Those are my rules of thumb for fall planting. If you’re keeping track, this means that with the possible exception of woody plants, I’m done planting for this year and because I’m not putting in or moving any shrubs this fall, I’m done planting for this year.

To answer the question that often is asked, “Can I still plant X?” The answer is sure you can plant it. Your survival rate may not be as good – or bad – as mine but if you get a good deal, then it’s almost always worth the risk.