heeling plants in

I am in Central NY and have several plants yet to get planted. Oh you know, life gets busy and then just seems to get busier. Anyhow, a reputable landscaper told me weeks ago to "heel" them in. What he explained was something like stick them all together (still in the pots) and cover with a bunch of mulch and leaves. Has anyone heard of this, does it work or would it be better to try and plant them in the ground even this late in the year? Our days a mild but the nights have been below freezing a few times but probably not more than 8 or 10.

Suzanne

The more I talk to landscapers in my zone, the more I realize that a lot of them plant into early December. The ground still has a month or more till it freezes here and that is what matters to perennials in fall. As far as heeling in vs planting, if you know where you want to plant & have the time, plant them. If not, heel them in.

Good luck.

I agree with Dave.
I often take them out of the pots and plant them in a trench then fill in around them. There is less chance of them drying out if it's a dry winter. Make sure you remember which is which, though. (Use markers) Then I cover every thing with lots of leaves after the ground freezes.
Whether you 'heel' them in in or out of their pots, be sure to fill in between them. Voids can be a snug home for little critters that may get hungry and chew on the plants.
Sleep tight.....
Andy P

Hi Latebloomer, welcome!

I live only about 20 miles from you. I'm still planting.

If the items are larger, say in gallons, no problem planting now, if you know where you want them to go. If they are smaller than gallons, mulch heavily after planting and they should be fine.

If you want to overwinter them, and plant next year, dig holes in the ground, and put them pots and all into the ground, tight together with one another.

More chancey is leaving them above ground, and putting the pots tight together, and heavily mulching them.

What do you have left, and what size pots are they in?

I agree with everyone who posted. The larger the container it seems the easier the plant will adapt if you plant it now. Be sure to untangle roots and give each plant the best prepared hole possible or else just heel them in as you've been told. Do water them in well.

You can still plant them for a few more days if you have the time. The weather is still holding out in our favor for planting and it looks like that will remain true for at least another 10 days or so.

This message was edited Nov 27, 2006 7:03 PM

This has been the very best November ever for gardeners in the northeast!

Yes Perl, I still have one lonely Columbine to be planted. I know where to put it, I just had so many more pressing things to do. Who would think of planting a perennial in late November.
All the rest of my potted perennials will get heeled in this week.
Andy P

I absolutely agree, Pirl. I still have perennials flowering and left a few annuals in that are still looking nice (petunias, zinnias that are in a protected area in a barrel and some sweet peas). My pansies also look great. I can't remember ever seeing so many flowers this late into November.

This message was edited Nov 27, 2006 7:08 PM

We just threw out the cherry tomato plants - still producing but just a mess by this time. Dusty Miller, alyssum, pelargoniums, geraniums, petunias - all very happy with the weather......and me, too!

Hi pollyk,
Cool a nearby fellow gardening enthusiast! What do you like to plant?

What I still have to go is plenty and varied: some of these numbers are estimates, darn that home depot sale of 33% off- Jasmine (2), Columbine (8) Hostas (20) ferns (8) the painted ones look real nasty and bronze, Burgundy Clover (1) Jacobs Ladder (2) Korean Lilac (1) Hydrangeas (9) Hollys (4) Hot Lips (1) Astillbes (12) Ninebark Diablo (3) Echinacia (4) Probably at least 3 of all of the following: Yarrow /Gaura/Sedum/Russian Sage/Azaleas/Wine and Roses/Campanula/Coral Bells/Foamy Bells/Primroses/ Ajugas -lots- Lamiums/Anemone/Clethra/Snakeroot/Japanese Spurge/ Winterberry (This one is my favorite one of all) English Ivy/ Black Raspberry/ etc etc. a few small trees

Yes that is a lot to do even over the course of a summer hence the original question, heel them in? and hence the stress of the moment. I am so thankful for this good weather.

Thank you to all who have responded to me. I like this forum. The quick responses are terrific.

Some of my plants have rooted through the bottom of the containers and are going into the ground. Yipes!

New question to any and all, so am I supposed to cut down my hydrangeas? What about the buds on the tips?

Suzanne

Definitely cut back the hydrangeas if you don't want blooms! :-) Sorry, but it's a constantly asked question on our radio gardening show. Actually don't cut any part of them off now. In spring cut back the woody two year old canes, not the shiny green ones from this year. Some hydrangeas can bloom on both old and new wood so a lot depends on your variety. Do you have a name for the plant?

I've had a few hosta out of the ground since May and they also rooted into the ground so I just cut off the roots coming through the bottom. That's a good reminder for me to get them planted ASAP.

Plant all you can where you want them permanently. For us the Echinacea resents transplanting the most so get it planted. Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous weather so bribe yourself with something (not a plant) and go to it. I wish you joy in planting and a nice hot bath for relaxing afterward.

Hi Suzanne,

You can heel most of these in and they will do fine. Are you going to dig a trench to heel them in. That would work well, then mulch with a ton of leaves.

I would be concerned about the Gaura and the Azaleas. The Gaura is maginally hardy here, and the Azaleas they carry at Home Depot may or may not be. I would plant them, and mulch well. Also the Jasmine? Normally not hardy here at all. If the Hydrangeas are the paniculata kind they are OK, otherwise get them planted also.

In answer to your question, my favorite to plant is iris of all kinds. I have a ton of mixed beds and borders. How about you, how long have you been gardening?

We also have another person from B'ville, Phylrae. She and I got together and exchanged plants once, what fun.

I'm in B'ville quite often. My daughter is a dentist out in the old PHP building on Willett Pkwy.

Nice to have someone else in the area. Consider subscribing, and you can see all the members in your area. I think a subscription is well worth it. There are many forums you can't see or participate in unless you are a subsciber, such as the one on Hydrangeas, which would answer your questions.

Polly

Polly is 100% right - subscribe and find so much to enjoy and such helpful people.

Pirl, a lot of info and entertainment for a cheap price! Join up folks.

My membership's paid for itself several times over. I third that!

Suzanne,
You might want to rethink planting the English Ivy, there are so many threads on DG, especially on the Invasive Plants site, trying to get rid of it. My neighbor has it under their privet hedge bordering my property, therefore I have it and have to deal with it , pulling it off my fence 3 or 4 times a year. It is not fun going out in the fall and hoping not to disturb a yellow jackets nest, but it grows quickly and can pull down the fence. It has also come up through the asphalt in my driveway. We're talking about one tenacious plant . Never let it get tall enough to fruit or the birds will spread it far and wide. I have tried to work with it in every way I can think of. One year I built topiary structures and had "dancing girls" garland arms linked along the driveway, nice until the winds and snows pulled some down, also not fun righting structures in the middle of winter. I used long vine cuttings to create faux topairy trees and a swagged garland border fence. For the holidays I decorated the arbors with evergreens and ivy. I was willing to work with this plant but it doesn't play fair. As you can tell I spent a lot of time playing with this plant I never wanted when I could have been digging a new garden bed or just sitting in the garden. If you love ivy pot up some of the smaller, not hardy in your area varieties to use as an annual, and even then never let a vine touch the ground.

"......never let a vine touch the ground" is excellent advice! I treat my mint the same way: it's in a pot on a stand and that's where it lives, like it or not.

How true about spending time removing something we didn't even want to start with instead of spending the time the way we'd prefer!

Wow sempervirons, that is sure news to me. I have been trying to grow a patch of this english ivy for like 5 years now, it only just started going up one of the trees and it is very thin. I didn't even know it could get seeds on it. How cool is this site! Well naturally I hear you and appreciate the advice but am proceeding anyway, it's just too late to think of something else to do with it all. I also, like you did wanted to make topiarys as there is little space between the back of the house and the back sidewalk. I thought a nice deer of ivy would be creative and pleasant to look at, also stay green all year. Hmmm. Was your ivy in the sun?

latebloomer - please keep us advised of your progress in planting or heeling in.

Any kind of ivy hardy in our zones should not be grown and is incredibly invasive. Rodents including rats love to nest in it, termites use its firm root system as a base for their nests and even after trenching you can't get rid of it once it's established. I took a few pictures of my back yard which will cost me almost $15K to repair and rebuild to show you what can happen over time if you neglect the ivy even for a month. If you do keep it, keep it in a well contained area in a pot and if you toss it, do so in a garbage bag with the other non-recyclable garbage.

The first picture shows what a fence looks like after removing everything including what I though were all the taproots just a month earlier:

This message was edited Nov 29, 2006 2:52 PM

This is a stockade fence that was pressure treated and put in only five years ago and what happens to one when you try to remove the ivy from the fence:

This is what a fence with ivy trained up it looks like after three years. I have to prune it twice a month to keep it from coming into my lawn and I didn't plant it. It spread under a fence and through an old rose garden. It will cost me $8k to get a new fence (this time plastic) and 2K just to properly eradicate the ivy:

Finally, 80 years ago, this was a beautiful rose garden that someone planted ivy in. It will cost me almost 5K if I want to clean it up and is something I will probably have to do eventually in order to keep the ivy from coming back under the fence. Originally, the ivy was trained up two topiaries that are long gone and had a beautiful water feature in the middle:



This message was edited Nov 29, 2006 2:48 PM

jj - you have my sympathies. It's my winter job to rip out all I can since the spot is in afternoon sunshine so I'll be out there every day but know, in my heart, there will always be pieces left in the ground to grow up my Blue Spruces again. We've wasted days on days ripping out in the past and it looks as though we never even tried to eradicate it.

Hi Pirl, Hi all
I think tomorrow is thee very last day for planting around here. I have to go out all day on Friday. What I do have ready at this point is a nice big bed of half mulch and half dirt to heel in more than likely 50% of what I have. Someone was over 2 days ago and said I had 100 plants. I can't count them because I will become stuptipfied and be unable to get anything done from that point onward -yes ignorance is bliss. DH says he will help me tomorrow, whew well it's about time. The main problem is I want the beds all nice and raised and the dirt just keeps on settling. Most of my beds are newly done this year and I am just so hesitant to put the plants in for fear it will all just level to the ground and it will be dull and boring. Now I am basically planting blind because nothing is up anymore, all the fun seems to be gone out of it. I guess I could just fool myself into thinking oh what lovely surprises are in store for the spring, ay? Hey I see there are pictures on this site. Do you have to be a member to post pictures? I could post some pics of my enormous planting area. I need all the encouragement I can get.

My favorite plant is wintergreen. Is this super invasive?

Check with neighbors or a local garden club to see if your town offers free mulch from the landfill/"dump" and get much more than you think you need. It's inexpensive and will help conserve moisture and help raise the height on the beds.

The Invasive Forum would be your best bet to find out about wintergreen.

Do you mean Gaultheria procumbens when you ask about wintergreen? That is a lovely native evergreen ground cover with white flowers and edible fruits, not invasive at all. I'd love to grow it but it just struggles along for me. Patridgeberry, Mitchella repens is another native evergreen groundcover, only 1-2inches tall, also with small white flowers and tiny red berries, that is easy for me to grow.

latebloomer - I tried to grow wintergreen under a spruce at my old house and it was anything but invasive! I barely got it going after two years. The new owner cut down the spruce (it was sick) and has replaced all my plantings with lawn. So - I think that wintergreen is not invasive.

jjpm,
That is one nasty ivy problem.
pirl,
Doesn't seem fair does it, to always clean up others messes. But I suppose its all for a good cause, just wish both my neighbors weren't so careless. At least they let me clean it up.

Suzanne,

Well, how did you do? I understand what you are saying about the fun being out of it. It is really hard to get excited about planting leafless sticks.

But it will be a lot of great plants for your beds next year.

I would love to see pictures of your planting area, if you can get them in.

Polly

Pollyk,
I feel like a nurse! I was outside all day long heeling and heeling and heeling them in.What a big job done. I did plant some things but maybe only 5%. I have 2 holding areas and they are mulched & leafed (?- it is so late my brain went to sleep a few hours ago) very well. One of my hydrangeas I did not cut back. I need to look that one up. The weather is turning as I type but as far as getting everything taken care of I do think I did, yea.

As for that Ivy, I ripped out what I could and brought the unplanteds in the house. Those were some pretty scary photos so I guess I am backing off from the ivy bed.

I will try to get some photos on here but I am not too handy with that sort of thing so it may be a while.

I just fell in love with the jasmine which I found at Wal Mart. I think the frost damaged them some. I brought those in the house as well. Also some herbs that were ot yet planted.

Suzanne, like you I took advantage of the good weather yesterday and either heeled in or planted all my 'left overs'. A few Butterfly bushes had so many roots coming through the holes in the bottom of the pots that I had to break the pots. They went into a trench and will get re-potted in early Spring.
Except for the mulching, I'm done.
Andy P

Yeah Suzanne, good job! You will be happy in the spring. Now sit back and relax this cold weekend with a hot cup of something, and order some catalogues to look at.

What could be nicer than looking at the photos on the DG Photo Contest for a rainy day in the Northeast: pure heaven.

We're still not done outside - DH was out picking up bagged leaves from neighbors very early today, to add to the compost piles. I've broken up two ancient oak barrels that had been home to cherry tomatoes, spread the soil elsewhere, cleaned up the areas around each one and have one left to do. DH has built new tomato boxes, downstairs, and they'll be out for next spring.

There are still two more plots of daffodils I could dig but after the 52 pound clump I'm not sure I can face it this year.

Glad to hear your plants are all heeled in or planted! Isn't it a great relief?

Pirl, a 52 pound clump of daffs! How many did you divide it into? Mine do multiply, but that is some clump!

I sent off 7 dozen, gave a friend 7 dozen, planted plots of 29/29/35 and maybe another plot of 37 - my brain is getting too foggy to think clearly anymore. I have it all in photos for my own records. It was night time by the time I could get it out of the ground - that's why it's not a great photo.

Good grief! What have you been feeding those guys? You soil looks quite heavy, is it clayish? I have very sandy soil, and you would think things would multiply quicker than they sometimes do. Whatever you're doing, you're doing it right.

The soil is actually great. We added more than 30 tons of compost from the dump while our compost bins were being erected and then had to have added another zillion pounds, year by year. These were left in place for 13 or 14 years and had never been divided. I don't think I can face the two remaining clumps this year!

Wow, pirl. That's an amazing clump of daffs. To think I was dreading the prospect of still having 60 tulip bulbs to plant, two new window boxes to build, 4 delicate shrubs to burlap, 2 plants to cut down, winterizer to spread over the lawn and two bales of hay to spread this weekend.