Coastal Region – Glen Payne
- Fall temperatures appear to be right around the corner in the coastal region, as nighttime temperatures begin to dip into the fifties. Drier weather has helped pepper production continue into late October producing a third crop this year in the Beaufort County Extension Demonstration Garden.
- Pomegranate, fig, & persimmon trees appear to have had the optimum amount of rain over the summer and are offering up lots of ripe fruit to be picked and eaten as Halloween tricks & treats. Beware the mouth puckering orange persimmon still hanging on the tree. Wait until the fruit falls off coming to rest on the ground before eating.
Zinnias are continuing to produce bright blooms with lots of nectar for butterflies as sunny day light hours begin to shorten. Goldenrod, Swamp Sunflower, & Coral Vine continue to reach for the sky and add lots of color to roadsides and ditches. - Turf in the Lowcountry is just beginning to show signs of dormancy. There is still time to apply the final fall potassium fertilizer for root growth and get the pre-emergent down before rain sets in and starts pushing winter weed growth.
- House plants should be scouted for pests as they head indoors with cooler nighttime temperatures. Consider repotting, dividing, & taking cuttings for indoor plant propagation. Adding a moisture controlled potting soil as we begin to heat our homes will help maintain plant humidity.
Diamond-lead Persimmon (Diospyros rhombifolia).
Glen Payne Jr., ©2024 Clemson Extension
Swamp Sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius ‘Matanzas Creek’
Glen Payne Jr., ©2024 Clemson Extension
Dwarf Pomegranate (Punica granatum var. nana).
Glen Payne Jr., ©2024 Clemson Extension
Jalapeno Pepper,
Glen Payne Jr., ©2024 Clemson Extension
Midlands Region – Jennifer Weaver
Landscaping Using Natives
Fall is a great time for planting. When you are planning for your new landscape additions, include natives.
- Why choose natives?
- When using natives that are well suited to your region, they require fewer soil amendments or fertilizers and can thrive without additional water once established. So, requiring less input, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation, can save time and maintenance costs.
- Help avoid spreading invasive non-natives – natives can be aggressive, but that does not make them invasive.
- Support songbirds by providing seed, berries, and habitat. Natives also support a robust native insect population, which in turn provides food that many songbirds need to raise their young.
- Support pollinators and other beneficials. Who are they? Birds, bats, wasps, moths, flies, butterflies, small mammals, and most importantly bees. Bees are among the native wildlife essential to our survival. Beneficial insects work to control pest insects in two ways – by feeding on the pest or laying eggs within the pest, which kills the pest when they hatch.
- Planning a landscape with native plants
- Reduce the area of lawn you manage by adding a bed filled with native plants.
- Naturalize a large area by using plants that will establish quickly and colonize available ground if given the opportunity, such as black-eyed Susan or sunflowers.
- Integrate natives into perennial beds or use them to replace non-natives in your landscape.
- Design a rain garden and fill it with native plants that can tolerate fluctuating water levels. Examples: little bluestem, butterfly milkweed, or scarlet hibiscus, to name a few. Extra bonus: these plants have deep root systems that control erosion by stabilizing soil and increasing infiltration.
- Fall in the pollinator garden
- The goal of a pollinator garden is to provide food and nectar through a long season of bloom using diverse species, but pollinators need more than food to survive.
- We need to develop good pollinator habitats that provide suitable shelter and overwintering sites.
- Wait to clean up the garden. Wildlife will benefit if you retain plant stems, leaf litter, brush piles, dead wood and bare ground. Leaving these will create vital habitats for pollinators.
- As the leaves decompose, they will increase organic matter, which will provide nutrients back to plants, reduce erosion and improve soil moisture retention.
- Retain spent flowers that have gone to seed as they provide food source for birds and wildlife.
Pollinator plants – Spotlight on fall blooming natives
- Swamp sunflower
- Native perennial in the aster family and is a great favorite of pollinators and songbirds.
- Use in the back of the border. Can grow up to 8’ tall! Prune back in June to encourage branching and you will have a much fuller plant.
- Old-fashioned garden mums, native to America, are beautiful in a mass planting and are long-lived perennials.
- White heath aster is an all-star wildlife plant since many pollinators, such as moths and butterflies, visit the flowers, and birds and mammals enjoy eating the seeds.
- Mexican bush sage has rose-purple flowers atop pubescent gray-green leaves. These fine, short hairs provide a tiny bit of shade to reduce the temperature of leaves and protect the leaves from losing too much water from transpiration.
- Late figwort
- Small, unusual, tiny, round flowers of red and green and have attractive seed pods in fall.
- Has hollow, square stems that make excellent nesting cavities for overwintering insects.
- High nectar content makes it attractive to hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, wasps, syrphid flies and more from late summer to November.
- Excellent deer resistance.
- Interesting fact – Tolerates sun or shade, moist or medium-dry areas, and it will still attract pollinators in light shade which often can be challenging.
One non-native worth mentioning is Japanese fatsia, which is showy in the fall, blooming when almost nothing else does from late October into December. Happy Fall!
Swamp sunflower.
Jennifer Weaver, ©2024, Clemson Extension
Old-fashioned garden mums.
Jennifer Weaver, ©2022, Clemson Extension
Given late figwort’s reputation for being such a prolific nectar producer, it’s fitting that its bloom is shaped like a honey pot! You can see the nectar glistening in this honey pot bloom.
Photo by Debbie Roos. NC State Extension. August 2, 2023.
The blooms of late figwort are so tiny compared to the large, serrated leaves.
Photo by Debbie Roos. NC State Extension. August 2, 2023
Japanese fatsia.
Jennifer Weaver, ©2019, Clemson Extension
White heath aster.
Jennifer Weaver ©2023, Clemson Extension
Upstate Region- Ginger Long
- Hurricane Helene moved through the Upstate, taking down trees, branches, and twigs. As you clean up your yard, assess shrubs and trees for broken limbs and other damage.
- Prune out damaged branches on shrubs, but do not prune the whole plant. Wait until late February to mid-March to do heavier pruning. Pruning encourages growth, and frosts can damage tender new leaves.
- Have a certified arborist look at damaged trees. Find one here: https://www.treesaregood.org/findanarborist/findanarborist
- Look out for yellow jackets while cleaning up debris. Be aware that snakes often seek refuge underneath brush piles.
- Leave the leaves where possible. Let leaves break down naturally over the winter if they fall into flower beds. They improve the soil by adding organic matter. They also provide a habitat for beneficial insects like fireflies.
- If you do not like the look of leaves, shred them into smaller pieces with a lawnmower, then place them in flower beds. Other mulches can then cover the leaves.
- If a pre-emergent for winter weeds was applied to a warm-season lawn in September, apply a 2nd application in November, 8 to 10 weeks after the first application.
- Apply a second fungicide application for Large Patch disease control in warm season lawns if the first application was made in October.
- Shrubs and trees grown in containers can be planted this time of year. When planting trees, be sure not to cover the root flare.
- Purchase amaryllis bulbs and plant in early November for blooms close to the holidays. Paperwhites can also be forced for the holidays.
- Plant spring-blooming bulbs outdoors. If deer are a problem in your area, plant daffodils, alliums, hyacinths, squill, and snowdrops.
A large branch from a Red Maple fell from the strong winds of Hurricane Helene.
Ginger E Long, ©2024 HGIC, Clemson University
Leaves are beneficial to the garden and provide winter protection juvenile fireflies.
Barbara H. Smith, ©2021 HGIC, Clemson University
Amaryllis ‘Minerva’ can be planted in early November for blooms in December.
Barbara H. Smith, ©2023, Clemson Extension
