Why plant in Fall?

Question from Bonnie:

I always thought you should plant in Spring so the plant has time to grow before summer temperatures rise. Just so I can understand can you please give me a short explanation of why you would plant in Fall.

Is Fall just for San Diego natives or for all plants?

Thanks for your time and expertise. All of us newbies very much appreciate you and your website.

Answer from Pat:

The best time for planting almost any woody permanent landscape plant, such as trees, shrubs, vines, ad well as many perennials and spring-flowering bulbs is fall. (Fall planting of permanent woody landscape plants, like trees and hedges, is actually traditional nationwide even in cold-winter climates.) Plants don’t actually grow during cool winter temperatures but their roots get established in the ground while they also benefit from winter rains. These fall-planted items then take off much faster when the weather warms up in spring than they would if they were planted in spring. November is the best month for planting California natives because it”s the start of the rainy season and it’s when natives come out of summer dormancy and begin growing again.

All that said, it is fine to plant things like bottle brush and the other plants you named now since March is the second-best planting month of the year—The best planting month for most things is October— but March is fine too since it’s still cool and the rainy season continues through April. Everything you named except Ceanothus ‘Yankee Point’ can be planted in March, because Ceanothus is a California native, and thus will grow better and more safely if planted in fall, preferably November. If you decide to plant plumbago ‘Imperial Blue’ or just the common type, I would wait until May or June because it’s tropical. Plant it up high since it’s invasive. Euryops is best planted in September, since that’s the time the fresh plants arrive in the nursery. If you get it now it will be root-bound. (Always loosen up the roots of plants when you plant them, except for natives. They have delicate roots and so do bougainvilleas.

Here in California we grow a wide range of plants from many parts of the world so there are a great many exceptions to the rule of fall planting. Here are a few that come to mind and the reasons for their timing: November is the traditional month for planting groundcovers, since that’s the start of the rainy season and temperatures are cool so roots won’t dry out. January is the time for planting bare-root plants such as roses, fruit trees, deciduous vines such as wisteria and other plants that are sold bare root, including Granex globe onions and strawberries. This is because their roots are dormant then. Winter or spring, while the plants are flowering, is the time for planting camellias and azaleas since while camellias and azaleas are blooming their roots are dormant, which is a safer time to disturb their roots. Early summer is the time for planting tropicals such as bougainvilllea, citrus, palms, Chinese hibiscus, star jasmine, and trumpet vines, since tropicals grow year-round so they need to get growing fast in summer and get established in time so that later they can slow down when the weather gets cooler in fall and have time to harden off before winter. Winter vegetables (cool-season crops) , winter-and spring-flowering annuals and biennials (such as foxgloves) are planted beginning on September 1. Summer vegetables (warm-season crops) and summer annual flowers are planted beginning March 1. If you plant seeds of winter-blooming sweet peas between Sept. 1 and 15 and you can have armloads of sweet peas for Christmas. There are many other specialized times for doing garden tasks in Southern California.

All that I have told you here and much, much more is included in my book, “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening, Month-by-Month”, published by Chronicle Books, and accompanied by step-by-step how-to’s for each important task. And there are checklists of jobs for that month at the end of each chapter. I suggest you get hold of a copy and read it chapter by chapter throughout one year. By the end of your first year you will know an awful lot about gardening here. Members of the public continually come up to me and ask “Are you Pat Welsh?” and when I say yes they tell me how much they love my book and how much it has helped them. It even happened once again today.