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January Gardening Tips

Plant

Plant bare root roses, trees and vines. Julia Child, Rainbow Sorbet, Carefree Spirit, Pink Promise and Cinco de Mayo are the 2009 All-American Rose Selections.
Carefree Spirit has a mounding habit and produces deep red flowers with white accents. It was hybridized by Jacques Mouchotte and introduced by Conard-Pyle Co.
Pink Promise is a hybrid tea with large pink flowers and dark green foliage. A percentage of sales from this rose will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Pink Promise was hybridized by Jim Coiner and introduced by Coiner Nursery.
Cinco de Mayo is a floribunda with lavender flowers and a hint of rusty red-orange. It was hybridized by Tom Carruth and introduced by Weeks Roses.
Now through March look for bare-root fruit trees. For the best varieties in your area check out www.davewilson.com/ For hardy fruit that will grow anywhere in the state, try one of the new paw paws or jujubes.
Plant vegetables like artichokes, asparagus, horseradish and rhubarb.
Plant berries: raspberry, boysenberry, youngberry and loganberry. Try the new variety of southern highbush blueberries which will grow anywhere in the state. "Sharpblue" is the leading and most adaptable variety in low chill areas throughout the world. It will bloom and fruit almost year-round and the bush will be nearly evergreen. The berries are dark blue, about the size of a dime, with excellent flavor and texture.

Feed & Fertilize

Feed cool season grasses like Marathon, bluegrass and ryegrass. Use Marathon All-Season fertilizer for quick greening.
Toward the end of the month, look at applying organic fertilizers to all plants and top dress with worm castings. The nutrients will be available to plants when they need them as temperatures warm up.

Prune/Trim/Clean

Deadhead faded flowers on poppies, primrose and stocks to keep them blooming.
Prune rose bushes. Remember some climbers and many old garden roses bloom on year-old wood and should not be pruned until after blooming.
Fuchsia plants should be cut back now and then pinched back several times as new growth begins.

Miscellaneous

Now is a good time sharpen mower blades and repair garden tools and other equipment.