The Perennial Buzz by Shelley Pederson

Shelley Pederson is a perennially busy master gardener, lover of nature and student of life.

“I’m a gardener and I’m OK

I sleep all night and I plant all day!

I dress in grubby clothing and hang around with slugs.

Oh, I’m happy in the garden

With dirt and plants and bugs.”

— Author unknown

Fall is cleanup time, and while cleaning my basement I came across a PowerPoint from 2011 titled “Putting Your Garden to Bed.” I thought I’d share some fall cleanup tips.

Peonies do well to have the dried foliage cut cleanly to the crown. It is always a good idea to keep your pruners and garden scissors wiped down with a little alcohol to keep from spreading disease. Fall is a great time to side dress your peonies with worm castings, a slow release organic fertilizer, bone meal or bulb food. I like to keep the crowns free from debris and mulch.

If mulch can accumulate over the crown, eventually the crown will be too deep to bloom. If your peony needs dividing, fall or early spring works well. Be sure to fertilize and water in the new plantings. Peonies are very winter hardy, and I like the single bloom varieties that stand up better to the spring rains and wind. If your peony has stopped blooming, it may be time to lift, divide and/or fertilize. The crown should be visible above the mulch.

Clematis can be trickier. If you want exact recommendations for pruning clematis, I’d go to donahuesclematis.com, they are the area experts. I have been successful leaving my clematis alone in the fall. Pruning can cause a plant to come out of dormancy. Sometimes we get a December or January warmup, and if the plants were pruned in the fall, they break dormancy and then freeze out when the temps drop. Do mulch your clematis roots. In the spring I cut back the old vine to the third or fourth growing node. Fall is a great time to side dress fertilizer.

Another favorite in my garden are my iris. On a side note, Schreiner’s Iris had a fall sale. I have no idea where I’m going to put them! Some people collect cats — I collect plants. Remove any damaged, browning or spotted leaves. Check the rhizomes for damaged, mushy or boring wormholes. Remove them and do not compost diseased leaves or rhizomes. If your iris clump is compacted, it may be time to lift and divide. I also cut my leaves back to about three inches.

The leaves need to stay on the plant in the summer to help feed the crown. Keep mulch pulled away from the crown and side dress with fertilizer. Like peonies, iris can last generations in your garden. Newly planted iris should be fertilized, watered in and lightly covered with mulch until spring. Pull the mulch away during warmups to keep the crown dry.

Mums: Persnickety buggers. First, be sure to buy only Minnesota hardy mums. When you plant them, pinch of the blooms off to force deep root growth. Water and fertilize them in well. Here is the tricky part: Mums loathe being wet in the spring. If you lightly mulch new plantings, be sure to pull back the mulch when we get a solid spring warm up. They will tolerate later frosts, but, not a hard re-freeze. During a late hard freeze, rake a light layer of mulch back over them and pull it off during the warmups. Once established, I leave mine. I mulch up to the crown and leave it alone. Although my ole gals have been knocked back a couple times, they keep on coming.

Just like my basement, there are more fall chores in the garden. Stay posted. In the meantime, grab your gloves, some fertilizer and a crunchy good apple for energy.