April gardening with perennials

Spring is finally here, and so it's time to think about perennials, which I always say are a gardener's best friend - and now it shows, because they're starting to show up throughout the garden.

Some perennials are beginning to bloom, others are just popping up, and still others can be divided and transplanted or started from seed. You can also transplant nursery stock or root stock now. Check the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map for detailed planting information about your area.

So, in April you can do a lot or a little, but always garden smart, not hard! Planning, focus on the things that matter to you and doing them at the right time are the way.

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Look for these perennials to start blooming this month:

Here are April tips for perennials

• Apply an acidifying fertilizer (Mir-Acid) to azaleas and rhododendrons. These perennials need this added soil amendment to bloom and grow.

• Remove winter protections, such as mounds of soil, compost or leaves from rose bushes and from around the base of the plants. Inspect plants and remove dead ones. Replace with new, healthy ones.

• Plant new roses in April, if your region is in the proper growing season. See USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Make sure new roses will get at least six hours of sun each day. Plant them at two feet apart and at least three feet from any structure, so they get proper air circulation. After planting, give them rose food, a systemic insecticide and apply a fungicide.

• On established roses, prune old, damaged or diseased canes from mid-April until early May. Heavier pruning produces better specimen flowers, but fewer of them. Fertilize with rose food and water it in, even if there's been a recent rain. Keep any eye out for insect pests and disease. Apply a systemic insecticide—which will deter biting and sucking insects—along with a fungicide. Ask experts at your garden center.
  
  
• Feed peonies and inspect for signs of disease, including blight. If you didn’t remove the old peony tops last fall, do it now. Cut them off below the soil and discard, but be careful not to disturb the growing crowns, which are putting up shoots now.

  Note: Ants crawling on peonies don't bother the plants. They're drawn by peony buds, but do them no harm. But, if they bother you, ask at a garden center for a spray or dust to repel them. Be careful not to harm the peonies!

• Peonies are best transplanted in the fall, but root stock that comes by mail or from a nursery can be planted in April or May, as well, without damage to the plant. Remember to plant peony roots shallowly. The “eyes,” or buds visible on the root stock must be near the soil surface.

• Feed clematis now. Water deeply and frequently. Make sure the roots will remain cool in hot weather. Cover the soil around the base of the plant with deep mulch.

• Feed delphinium. Watch for leaf spot, root rot and crown rot diseases. Treat as needed.

Dividing, transplanting and seeding

• Divide clumps of hostas (plantain lily, funkia) in April, before the shoots are more than three inches tall. New potted hostas can also be transplanted now.

• Divide daylily now, or transplant rootstock.

• Divide and transplant clumps of hardy aster. Also plant rootstock, if you got it from a nursery or by mail order. Thick hardy asters should be divided every two years or so.

• For fast-growing varieties of hardy (perennial) chrysanthemums, this is the time to dig up and divide large plants. Separate the roots into smaller pieces with one to three shoots. Replant these separately. For slow-growing varieties, leave plants undisturbed for two or three years.

• Remove the suckers from perennial chrysanthemums. Those are the small new plants that grow from the main roots at the base of the plant. Transplant them in seed-starting medium indoors or outdoors in a protected area. By the middle of May, they should be ready for the garden.

Here are some other perennials and biennials (plants that produce foliage the first year, blooms and seeds the second year) that can be seeded, divided or transplanted in April. (Check the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map for your region to be sure you are not too early for these.)