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The Nursery LedgerA guide to specialty plant nurseries and mail order growing

Parterre 04 · Seasonal Planting

Plant on the season the soil allows

Fall planting for trees and shrubs, spring soil temperatures instead of calendar dates, and the summer care that makes container perennials take.

Gloved hands firming soil around a newly planted bare root sapling on a cool autumn morning with fallen leaves nearby

The planting calendar that matters is not printed; it is measured. Roots grow whenever the soil is cool and moist, which is why fall beats spring for most trees and shrubs. Seeds and tender perennials wait for soil warmth, not for a date on a packet. And summer planting works fine for container-grown perennials provided someone owns a hose and uses it.

These guides walk the three planting windows in turn: what fall planting buys you and when it starts where you garden; how to read a soil thermometer instead of a calendar; and how to set out container perennials in the heat without losing the season. The zone-by-zone calendar in the growing guides parterre ties them together.

In this parterre

  1. Freshly planted young maple with a mulch ring and watering basin on a crisp autumn afternoon with amber leaves scattered on the lawn

    Fall planting for trees and shrubs

    Spring gets the crowds, but autumn gets the roots. Soil stays warm long after air turns cool, and a tree or shrub planted in that window spends the winter building the root system its first summer will demand.

  2. Stainless steel soil thermometer pushed into dark garden bed soil beside a planting diary and a wooden seed box on a spring morning

    Plant by soil temperature, not the calendar

    Two gardens in the same town can be two weeks apart in spring readiness. The thermometer that matters is a soil thermometer, and it costs less than the seed it saves.

  3. Watering can soaking a freshly planted container perennial at dusk in a summer border with the soil still dark from watering

    Summer planting: container perennials take

    The old rule says plant perennials in spring and fall. Container grown stock breaks the rule, provided you buy plants that were not cooked on the sales bench and water like you mean it.

Every guide in this parterre reads against the planting calendar by USDA zone, and two neighbouring parterres extend it: Find a Nursery and Plant Specialties.