It’s time to plant trees and shrubs

Late summer is an excellent time to spruce up your yard by planting trees and shrubs. Especially since you can take advantage of the significant discounts offered in garden centers to reduce their stocks for the winter. This is also the perfect time to transplant your peonies that need a facelift.

Pierre Gingras
special collaboration

A jump in time

Clearance sales are currently on the rise and inventory is high. Good time to take a leap in time by offering a large caliber tree. Remember that it can be planted very late in the season, in fact until the ground begins to freeze deep. While the investment is still in the hundreds of dollars, it is still profitable in many ways. Depending on its age, you will have saved as many years of concern and care, as many years enjoying a mature tree several meters in height. And during all this time that it will have taken to grow, your plant will have been pruned, fertilized, watered and cared for by professionals, services which will obviously be found in your invoice. Here are some tips before you go bargain hunting.

Costs and fees

The price of large-caliber trees is fixed according to the height for conifers and according to the diameter of the trunk for deciduous trees. The score will therefore depend on the length of your jump in time. A columnar maple with a trunk of 100 mm (4 in) can sell for more than $1,000, a blue spruce from Colorado 275 cm (9 ft) around $700. Despite the discounts, you will have to pay transportation and planting costs, if applicable. Your purchase will always come with a warranty, but in some cases it will only apply if the planting was done by the seller.

Planting

Your garden center will advise you on the dimensions of the planting pit if you decide to do the work yourself. Remember, however, that the spiral roots will have to be cut off if your plant has spent its life in a pot. If the mass of roots is surrounded by jute, it is essential to remove as much tissue as possible once in the ground, in addition to removing any rope and wire around the trunk, otherwise the plant will slowly degenerate, often without your knowledge. . Always leave an open space, but covered with mulch of about thirty centimeters around the trunk to avoid injuries attributable to the trimmer or the mower.

Makeover for peonies

Peonies are usually hard-skinned and can live for over 100 years. The problem is that over time, the trees or shrubs next to them end up shading them, in every sense of the word. Result: lack of light, flowering decreases considerably. They may even end up not giving flowers anymore.

Mid-September is the best time of year to divide them and thus give them a makeover, says Serge Fafard, of Jardins Osiris, in Saint-Thomas, near Joliette, a hybridizer who has several creations, including peonies “Osiris Florence K” and “Rosemère”.

All you have to do is dig up the mass of roots, gently pull out the biggest ones and keep those with “eyes”, that is to say the buds that will eventually produce new stems. The chosen roots should be cut to a length of about 15 to 20 cm, precisely to cause better growth. You will then only have to plant them in a more suitable place (six hours of sun per day), about 1 to 1.5 m from each other. Never more than 5 cm of soil above the “eyes”, otherwise flowering may be delayed for a year or two.

Note that the leaves of peonies often turn greyish at this time of the year, the humidity conditions favoring a fungus, powdery mildew. It will not affect the plant. You can even cut all the foliage down to ground level with no problem.