We are only four weeks from the first day of spring! After last weekend’s messy, wintry mix, I am wishing the snow would disappear so I can start some spring garden prep. Cut flowers from Valentine’s Day have helped lighten the mood of this housebound gardener. Now we just have to make them last.
Cut flowers appreciate cool temperatures and indirect light. Keep your bouquets away from windows and late afternoon sun. Refresh the water every couple days (and definitely if cloudy). Once out of the vase, remove any flowers past their prime from the bouquet. Rinse out your vase and add fresh, cool water.
Holding the bouquet in one hand, gather the stems again into a nice arrangement with taller stems in the center. Add stems one or two at a time to evenly distribute color and texture. To make a fresh cut, you can lay your arrangement down on a cutting board and gently trim the bottoms. Trim the stems back at an angle to a firmer part of the stem perhaps a quarter inch or one inch if the stem seems mushy. With practice, you can trim the stems while still holding the bouquet. Once trimmed, put the flower bouquet back into fresh, cool water with one motion. You will avoid bruising and breaking stems by handling them less.
I think I am ready to dedicate part of my yard to a cutting garden. A cutting garden does not need to be a showcase; however, I should plan it like a vegetable garden with a few long-blooming perennials around the edges and specific favorite annuals to provide cut flowers from spring into fall. I will want to improve the soil for the annuals to get the nutrients and water necessary for big beautiful blooms. My best spot for this gets full sun and isn’t in direct sight of any windows. Why out of sight? I don’t want to think about designing this garden for anything other than utility.
Flowering spring bulbs are perfect to start spring bouquets, but what’s next? I will need to review when different flowers bloom through the months and make plans to include them in the garden. I regularly plant cosmos and zinnia, but those blooms don’t appear until late June through October. I know I want snapdragons and pansies for May, sweetpea and marigolds for June. Stock or Matthiola might be a nice addition. I haven’t grown these before, but they have a fragrance and sturdiness that appeals to me for early summer bouquets. This project should take up a few of the worst winter weekends.
That strong scent makes stock a good choice for flower beds around a patio or deck. Flower scents are strongest in the early evening after a hot, calm day—about the time I will have dinner or hors d’oeuvres outside in the summer. Plan to keep those fragrant plants nearby when you will be outside to enjoy them!
I also want more fall perennials, maybe wolfsbane or monkshood (Aconitum) to go with more white False aster (Boltonia) and turtlehead (Chelone). These will add variety to my overabundance of bright yellow black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia fulgida).
Try to find a break in the weather (and your schedule) to do some pruning. February and March are the ideal times to prune young shrubs or small trees because you can see the structure. Limit your cuts to removing a third or less of the plant and you will barely notice any loss of flower this season. Cuts now will spur more healthy growth through the summer. Prune your trees and shrubs when the ground is frozen to reduce soil compaction around the dormant shrubs.
I still have my small peach tree that suffered a serious break last summer. The main trunk snapped. I suppose I am keeping this tree as an experiment. It has leaf and fruit buds along the branches. Last month, I pruned back one lateral branch to the south and that amounted to a third of the branches! Next year, I will prune the lateral branches to the north so that I direct the growing energy into the center-most branch. It might take over the lead eventually.
I have not been pruning my mature Norway spruce trees (Picea abies), but someone has! New growth from the 2024 season has been nipped off and scattered under the tree canopy. The most likely villains are squirrels. They snap off the tips as they eat new, swelling buds. However, the trees look fine. The trimmings will probably encourage fresh growth for them, too!
The daily, mesmerizing snowfall keeps me spring dreamin’. Next week, I could start broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts indoors. If I do, they will be bigger and more pest resistant when I put them in the garden in April. I could also sow these seeds outdoors in April, but they may suffer leaf beetle or cutworm damage. By starting seeds indoors when the weather is cruddy, I promise myself that spring will come.
You will feel spring is just round the corner when you see the buds swelling on trees and shrubs. Check out your other landscape trees and watch for the appearance of early spring leaf or flower buds. My spring witchhazel (Hamamelis x Arnold’s Promise) hasn’t bloomed yet, but it will soon. I also spotted blue birds at the top of my silver maple obviously eating the swelling flower buds!
Here is a tip the squirrels haven’t eaten: When the days are coldest, schedule your lawn mower for a tuneup and blade sharpening (or take on the task yourself). You will beat the rush and be ready to handle that burst of spring growth when it finally happens.
I call myself the Lazy Berkshire Gardener because I don’t want to work too hard in my gardens. I want to enjoy them. I find it easier to observe my landscape and let the compost happen, the water pool up, or daisies to self-sow. I look for ways to do the minimum task for the biggest impact. For example, mulching is better than spraying and much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that thrive in or at least tolerate my garden conditions. Plus, I am willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.
