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How much effective garden work can be done in December depends upon where you live. East of the Cascades in Washington, for example, the best thing to do is to curl up alongside the fireplace and confine garden activities to planning on paper. Down in the sun-kissed Mojave Desert, in such favorable growing spots as the 6,000-acre community of Apple Valley, however, gardening marches ahead all year long.

It never fails. Neither wind, rain nor frosty weather prevent the Christmas rose from blooming on schedule at holiday time each year. According to legend, this attractive perennial (not a rose at all) received its name because it first bloomed at the hour of the Christ Child’s birth.

Since Christmas roses are hardy in the West they do not need sheltered sites. Give lots of space because the clumps eventually spread to 2 or 3 feet or more. They resent disturbance and should be planted where they are to grow for a number of years. The plants are dormant in summer and push out their tough, leathery leaves in early fall. Plant any time from September 1 to April 1. Select a well-drained location in neither full sun nor dense shade and spade it 12 to 24 inches deep.

Planting reminders. Hardy annuals for broadcasting are acroclinium, sweet alyssum, snapdragons, calendulas, candytuft, calliopsis, clarkia, annual chrysanthemums, French marigolds, California Poppies, Iceland Poppies, pinks, larkspur, lupines, nigellas, stocks and late sweet peas. California wild flower mixtures may be scattered over vacant lots with very little soil preparation to reward you with gay spring color.

Plants to set out in gardens along the coast where the winter is mild, include carnations, Canterbury bells, columbine, foxglove, pansies, penstemon, snapdragons, stocks, Shasta Daisies, verbenas, violets, dianthus and cinerarias.

Bulbs – Amaryllis, callas (white, yellow and pink), hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, ranunculus and anemones can all be planted in December but hurry with the tulips, daffodils and hyacinths. From Santa Barbara south it is different. Delay planting the “big three” until the ground has cooled off in late December or early January.

Vegetables – Plant radishes, turnips, carrots, beets, spinach, onion sets, lettuce, mustard greens and peas.

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The tender hibiscus are fast becoming the most popular flowering shrubs of Florida and the Lower South. In North Florida and the Upper Gulf Coast give some winter protection. Either hill soil up around the base of the plant or surround with chicken wire and fill in with leaves or peatmoss. Plants in containers should be brought indoors into a cool room where they can be kept dormant until early spring.

Roses. This is an ideal time for planting in all sections of the South. Consult your experiment station or local dealer for varieties recommended for your section. Do not make your final pruning until later, in February or early March, but cut back some of the long stems now to prevent wind and ice damage.

Strawberries, Oriental Iris, Lily-of-the-valley can still be set out. Pansy plants, too, can be set out for winter bloom. Oriental Iris like wettish land, so use in your low areas where water is inclined to collect. They can even be grown in boggy places.

Bulbs for planting in December include regale, auratum, speciosum rubrum, centifolium and many other lilies that are kept in cold storage. Try climbing lilies (gloriosa) for something really different. They are usually hardy in the Lower and Middle South, as far north as Birmingham, Atlanta, Greenville and Charlotte. Plant the tubers horizontally 5 inches deep, where the tops can cling to a trellis or fence.

This is the best month to plant “treated” or refrigerated tulips along the Gulf Coast and North Florida. These are generally treated as annuals, for the bulbs seldom flower a second time. Plant immediately or store in your refrigerator until ready.

Don’t waste anymore time in something else and do your part now in order to keep your plants safe.

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Our biggest single problem is all but ignored completely – early fall and late summer drought. Moisture isn’t a problem as a rule up to mid-July because the soil keeps giving off moisture. Mid-summer, when we run into really dry weather that hurts, is when winter killing really begins.

Here it is necessary to know how a woody plant grows. Up to about mid-July branches are elongating. About that time they stop growing at the tips. About August 1, they begin to swell in diameter. This increase in diameter is due to absorption of food and water the plant will utilize the following spring for normal growth. Dry weather dessicates the food-carrying layer just under the bark. It can’t function and as a result, the plants lack the elements needed both for cold resistance and growth.

Too, drought checks the growth of mycorrhizae so these don’t manufacture food to pass on to the plant. Actually, summer drought causes the plant to die the following winter from starvation. For this reason, mist nozzles to supply moisture whenever rain does not fall are essential to good growth in the Midwest.

Protecting Over Winter

Winter protection is vital in our area. Prairie winds are extremely dry and can wipe the moisture out of leaves. For this reason, I like to plant on the north side of a wall or building. The roots should just be in full sun at the edge of the building shadow on June 21. As the sun sinks to the south towards fall, more and more shade falls on it, protecting it from the drying sun in midwinter. Since most of our drying winds come from the south and southwest, a north side location gives the plant additional protection.

To keep flower buds alive, however, further protection is needed. Once plants have begun to form these, a cage of chicken wire, six inches larger all around than the plant should be placed over it soon after the first killing frost. Fill this with dry oak leaves, evergreen boughs, excelsior or other dry, fluffy material. Remove this when spring rains begin.

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Window boxes can become a definite part of a foundation planting as can soil wells or raised beds (also called “planters”) that some architects include in their building designs.

It is wise to avoid soil wells if possible; they usually require artificial watering. The drainage problem in some instances may also become serious. In regions where the winters get quite cold, the plants growing in soil wells are likely to freeze and will have to be replaced each spring.

If you do use flowers or plants in window boxes or soil wells, try to limit them to a few very soft-colored flowers, and mainly to foliage plants such as English Ivy, the trailing Asparagus Fern, etc.

Winter Care of Window Boxes

Each fall you should remove plants and soil from window boxes for several reasons. One is that this will avoid having the box break away at the joints due to frozen earth expanding. Also by doing this you can change the soil in the box. Growing flowers in a box robs the soil of its natural nutrients and new soil should be added or the old should be wholly replaced. Still another reason is that emptying the box gives you an opportunity to make necessary repairs on the box. Most boxes would last much longer if given a little repair and a new coat of paint each winter.

Grass in Foundation Planting

The question of where to have grass around the foundation planting has not been given much consideration in America. Picture a walk running parallel to the house between the driveway and the front door, and 6 feet away from the house as already suggested. Now visualize a foundation planting requiring 5 feet of this space; that leaves a 1-foot strip for grass between the foundation planting and the walk. It is hopeless to try to maintain such a narrow strip as decent turf. Lawn mowers are simply not made for it; the blades grind into the soil and make raw, bare spots. This dulls your lawnmower blades while it sharpens your temper.

The usual alternative is to get down on your hands and knees with a pair of grass clippers and spend valuable minutes and hours trimming the strip by hand. Now think how simple it would be to continue the ground cover all the way out to the walk and eliminate the grass strip altogether, thereby saving much laborious cutting and trimming. This is another instance where you can exercise judgment in making your own landscape plans.

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