Brian Minter: Get your garden ready for winter with a few favourites

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It’s been a great summer for patio enjoyment, but as the cooler temperatures set in, it’s time to make some changes to our outdoor living decor.

All our tropical outdoor colour should now be inside and in the process of adapting to the less-than-ideal fall and winter conditions indoors. Mandevillas, hibiscus and other flowering houseplants set outside for summer need to be checked for insects and diseases, cleaned up and lightly pruned back to give them a chance to regrow in a more difficult environment. Green tropical plants, like Boston ferns, need to be thoroughly checked for unwanted passengers, too.

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If you wish to save some of your hardy annuals, like fuchsias, geraniums and lantanas, they need to be stripped of all their leaves and placed in a cool location to allow them to rest for the next six months.

The challenge for most of us is finding just the right location in our homes and apartments to accommodate the overwintering needs of our plants. As we lose our light quality, due to the shorter hours of daylight and cloudier weather, we need to provide our plants with both window access and an artificial light source. Grow lights, both traditional ones and LED options, can help immensely, and they are readily available. Getting at least eight to 12 hours of light each day is a critical part of keeping your plants healthy.

Humidity is another key element for creating a better growing environment indoors. When our heat sources begin to warm up our homes, the humidity drops and our plants struggle. Running inside temperatures a little cooler will help, but simply keeping plants away from heat vents and fireplaces is also important. Misting their foliage with warm water helps too, and it also aids in controlling spider mites.

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When it comes to pest control, preventive measures can keep virtually all insects in check. Organic solutions, like horticultural oil, Safer’s Soap and products like Trounce, used on a regular basis every two weeks, will help manage aphids, spider mites and those pesky mealybugs.

Many tropical plants will have grown significantly over the summer, and the logical thought process is to repot them into a larger container. Don’t. All plants need to be rootbound over the winter months to ensure that their root systems dry out fairly quickly after watering. Plants need to be just slightly moist over the winter months. By repotting now there will be a lot more soil around the roots and that soil can stay too wet, too long, without the root system absorbing the extra moisture. This excess moisture can begin to rot the existing roots causing the plant to go backwards. Repotting should be done in mid to late April when the plant is actively growing again.

While under winter conditions in our homes, plants will not actually be growing very much and therefore need less feeding. If they truly look in need of a pick-me-up, you can feed with 20-20-20 fertilizer, but be sure to water first before feeding.

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Succulents and cacti, too, require some extra care at this time of the year. All of them need as much light as you can provide and a south or west-facing window would be one of their favourite spots. Keep them just moist, and it’s OK to pinch back or prune long, leggy plants to get them looking fuller and bushier. Of all the succulents, it’s mainly the haworthia varieties that can tolerate less light and more difficult winter growing conditions.

If you’ve decided to keep your hardy annuals, group them all together in one of the cooler areas of your home or in a heated garage (they will not tolerate frost). They need to be kept cool and quite dry, and eventually all those bare stems you’ve taken the leaves off of will begin to sprout, which is a good sign.

Once your patio is cleaned up for fall and winter, it would be nice to add a few winter planters that feature conifers, attractive broad leaf evergreens, some berry plants, like deciduous holly, or some deciduous trees with cool-looking winter stems.

Winter shrubs on your patio will create a beautiful seasonal touch. Conifers, like the compact Alberta spruce, the Blue Nest spruce and Picea Montrose Charm or North Pole look particularly attractive lit up during dark winter nights. Broad leaf evergreens, such as the vibrant Emerald ‘n’ Gold euonymus, Pieris japonica with its late winter flowers, and Spring Bouquet viburnum showing off its dark purple buds, which open in late winter, offer great interest. Heavenly bamboo (nandina), particularly Gulf Stream, which turns bright red in winter, adds richness to any tree collection.

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Compact Japanese maples, like Acer shishigashira Lion’s Mane or the colourful coral bark of A. Sango-Kaku and the yellow stems of Acer p. Bihou, provide great colour and fabulous lighting possibilities. The beautiful red berries of deciduous holly provide not only spectacular winter colour but also food for birds

Depending on your location, usually a west or south-facing patio is best for potted winter containers. If you live in an area rated zone 7 or higher, all of these shrubs would be fine. If we get an unusually deep cold spell, a simple wrapping with N-Sulate cloth should protect them during the coldest times.

My favourite fall containers are the ones that transition through the seasons beautifully. Summer patio planters that turn into beautiful winter displays featuring evergreen grasses, perennials and broadleaves that have colourful foliage are stunning. They can look so spectacular, especially when accented with colourful winter stems of shrub dogwoods, contorted willows and deciduous holly berries (which the birds appreciate too).

It’s time for a winter patio makeover, so let this past summer’s tropicals enrich your indoor living spaces, and let winter interest plants warm up your patio for the next six months

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