contact us

newsletter

Call for a FREE consultation: (541) 301-5374

Now that the days are staying lighter and the outdoor temperatures are milder, we find ourselves itching to get out in our gardens and play. The nurseries are still pretty bare, but there is still plenty to do in the garden to make your landscape more habitat friendly and get those butterfly plants ready for the growing season.
Most of the plants we recommend for butterfly and habitat gardens are perennial and most benefit birds and insects by being left up for the winter. But, by now some of them have started to grow back and it's time to get rid of the dead stems and leaves. Here are some easy tips to help make your garden more pollinator friendly.

Perennials: Herbacious or deciduous perennials have dead, above ground stems. In general, it will be clear where and how much to cut back. Remove all the old, dead growth. Look for new foliage at the base of the plant.

Evergreen perennials: Don't cut evergreen perennials to the ground like the herbacious plants. These are plants like lavender, rosemary and penstemon. They only need to have the winter damaged stems, tips and leaves removed to prepare them for spring growth. (See my blog on cutting back lavender in Fall). These plants like to be sheared back to remove dead branches just above where new growth is emerging. For penstemon, cut back the lanky and winter-damaged stems and make a nice, rounded mound of remaining evergreen leaves and stems. This will make the plant more bushy and help it to flower evenly.

Other evergreen perennials: Simply get rid of winter-killed stem tips and foliage and clean it into a nice shape.

Deciduous Shrubs and Trees: As a general rule, prune before the leaf and flower buds begin to swell. Spring seems to be the right time to start pruning things like caryopteris and philadelphus lewisii (Lewis's mock orange). Remove crossed branches and small to medium twigs growing on the inside of the main bush. This helps give the shrub some breathing room come summer. Caryopteris and Buddleia (Butterfly bush) should be cut back by 1/3 to 1/2 of their height every third year to encourage blooming.

Ornamental Grasses: Leaving your ornamental grasses up allows for winter interest and provides habitat for small critters during cold spells. When they are looking past their winter prime, it's time to cut them back. Some older clumps will benefit from division.


Cool Season Grasses: like Blue Fescue and Calimagrostis Karl Forester have some evergreen foliage that should not be cut to the ground. Vigorously "comb out" the dead leaves with gloved hands - (sometimes a real wide comb works!) and clip back dead tips. I like to use an electric grass clipper to make nice little rounded mounds.