December in the Garden

• Purchase Christmas fresh trees, wreaths and trimmings for the home. At North Haven Gardens, we have the most fresh Christmas trees in town. Each tree gets a fresh cut at purchase and is carefully wrapped for the trip home. We even deliver to certain areas.
• Continue to trim perennials back to the ground as they go dormant. Trim tender perennials such as bananas, firebush, Mexican heather, Mexican bush sage and lantanas after the first freeze, then mulch them well to protect from cold.
• Mulch the gardens that you missed last month!
• Garden clean-up! Remove dead materials that could harbor insects or disease.
• Plant tulips, hyacinth and crocus by the end of the month. Continue planting daffodils through mid-January. Over-plant your bulbs with winter color such as viola and pansy. Primula and hardy cyclamen can be planted in protected garden areas or pots. Apply Bone Meal.
• Plant container trees and shrubs. Transplanting is best done when plants are dormant.
• Prune summer-flowering shrubs and vines (such as crape myrtles and althaeas) lightly to prevent rampant growth in the spring. Do not prune spring-flowering shrubs (azaleas or hydrangeas), vines, or climbing roses until after their spring bloom.
• Don’t forget to water trees and shrubs.