Winter is the Time to Plant

Ashe magnolia

2 Native azaleas

2 Native flame azaleas

As a transplant from Wisconsin (albeit 35 years ago), I came to Florida with the notion that new plantings were made in the spring.  After all, "April showers bring May flowers" - I learned that as a child and it was deeply ingrained in my gardening psyche.  It works in the Upper Midwest where I spent all of my early life, but it doesn't work here in Florida. As a gardener, one must learn and adapt to where one lives.

Spring is actually the very worst time to plant here. There really are no "April showers"; none in May either.  These are often the two driest months of the year. It is not uncommon to see no appreciable rainfall over this two-month period and to make it worse, it often has temperatures near 90° F.  What is spring in Wisconsin is the most brutal time to plant here in Florida.  The soils are dry, the temperatures are hot and what little moisture exists in the soil is rapidly lost each day by evaporation.  Planting at this time here means having to water daily and deeply in order to get plants established.

I prefer to plant in the winter and I recently planted a number of woody species that I had been keeping in pots - waiting for this time of year.  For one, these are deciduous plants. Their lack of foliage means that they will not lose any appreciable water by transpiration. All of the water absorbed by the roots can be used for each plant's daily metabolic needs.  As these are native species, they will not be affected by any unusual cold temperatures. In fact, a frost or near freeze might actually benefit them as they prepare for spring. 

Winter weather is perfect for planting. Soils do not dry out as quickly as they do in the summer. As I dug holes to install each of these plants, I found that the soil in each was still moist within 6 inches of the surface. Soil moisture is enhanced by the fact that it normally rains weekly during the winter months. So far, this has been a rather dry winter, but with each front that moves in from the west, rain comes and replenishes the soil moisture. As I add new plants, they are going into moist soil with moderate temperatures, and they can acclimate easily under these conditions. When the relative brutality of spring arrives, they have had time to become established.

Of course, I also hope for the spring flowers promised by these new additions. As deciduous understory species, I had to find locations in my landscape where they would receive ample sunlight in the winter and early spring and a bit of protection from full sunlight in the summer. As my landscape develops here, it is becoming harder and harder to find new unoccupied locations that fit these requirements. Time only will tell if I have selected correctly. The Ashe magnolia (Magnolia asheii) now sits just east of my rapidly growing flatwoods plum (Prunus umbellata). To plant it here, I had to do some selective pruning to the plum to open things up a bit. The plum no longer needed these lower limbs and they are branches almost never used by the songbirds that routinely perch in it.  The soil here is relatively rich from the decomposition of the leaf litter I added 3 years ago, but this location might still not get enough sunlight to allow this plant to thrive. 

I've put two new Florida flame azaleas (Rhododendron austrinum) at the outer edge of my created wetland and in the region where I already have most of my other native azaleas. They will get a lot of sunlight here, but will get it for a relatively short burst after the sun climbs over the line of trees to my east and before the area lies in shadow from the roofline. This general area has worked quite well so far for my other native azaleas and I expect it to work well for these. I put the other 2 native azaleas (a pink azalea, R. canescens; and a near-native plum leaf azalea (R. prunifolium)) along the south fenceline adjacent to several native trees that I planted more than 3 years ago. Now that these have attained some height, this area in no longer in full sun. If I planted correctly, the color from these new plants will augment what I have previously planted in this area of the yard.  The latter species is an experiment that I just couldn't pass up.  If it doesn't work out, it was worth the money I invested in the plant. 

Plant in the winter - seeds and potted plants; dormant of actively growing. Get new plantings in the ground now and make sure that you water them in. Water them regularly also even if they are dormant. Just don't wait for spring. That would be wrong.