Start your To-Do List by reviewing the November Tips you’ll find under Gardening Resources elsewhere on this website.
Make good use of those falling leaves under your trees. Add them to your compost bin or spread them into beds that could use a nutritional boost.
Planting Trees and Shrubs
You can keep planting new deciduous trees and shrubs this month, at least until the ground freezes. When might that happen? There is no way to be certain, but generally the ground feezes after the first hard frost. It’s reasonable to expect warmer-than-normal temperatures this November. Climate Prediction Center/NWS (you may want to bookmark this handy source). As long as the soil temperature is above 40°F, roots will continue to grow, and that root growth enables the tree to thrive and survive.
Bare-root trees can be planted in the late fall, winter, or early spring when they are dormant. Do not buy or plant a bare-root tree which shows more than 2 or 3 inches of new growth.
Charlottesville Tree Stewards,
Container-grown trees and shrubs and those that are balled-and-burlapped may be planted at any time the ground is not frozen. How do you determine if the ground is frozen? Your shovel will be unable to penetrate the soil if it is frozen. Avoid transplanting shrubs and trees on sunny or windy days, which can expose the roots to light and drying winds, stressing the plant. If you find yourself having to plant very late in the fall, be sure to mulch the area heavily to keep the ground thawed so roots can become established.
Before you bring a tree or shrub home from the nursery, do some advance thinking and planning, and here’s a good place to start: Planting a New Tree, The Garden Shed, Nov 2015 (note that the links to Va.Coop.Ext. articles are inactive due to updating). If you wish to plant on very compacted soil, you’ll need to amend a large area (not just the planting hole), as directed in Planting a Tree or Shrub/Univ.Md.Ext. There you’ll also learn about the benefits and methods for creating “tree islands” for multiple trees. Be sure to plan for the deer that will want to browse on your new tree and have a protective device ready to go. You can look at some options at Deer, Deer, Deer! Garden Shed.
Before you start digging a hole, consult some expert tree-planting instructions, such as:
- Planting a Tree or Shrub/Univ.of Maryland Ext
- Tree Planting Guide, C’ville Tree Stewards: The Charlottesville Tree Stewards recommend turning your tree into a “bare root” tree before planting, and they have produced a video to show you how, which you’ll find here: Tree Planting Video/C’ville Tree Stewards.
- In addition to the Tree Stewards video, you’ll find tree-planting videos at
If you purchase a balled and burlapped tree, find planting instructions for it here: Univ.of Ky. Planting Balled and Burlapped Trees and Shrubs in your Landscape.
As these publications and videos explain, it’s very important to dig a hole that is wider than the root ball — most experts prescribe a hole that is at least two to five times wider than the diameter of the root ball but no deeper than the height of the root ball. Remove any wires, ropes, and non-biodegradable material from the root ball before back filling the hole, and if you’ve got a containerized plant, you may need to deal with any circling roots.
- The received wisdom on circling roots has involved cutting them, but some authorities now suggest simply breaking a few and loosening them from the soil of the root ball, as demonstrated in the video mentioned above, How to Plant a Container Grown Tree.
Do NOT add any soil amendments such as compost or peat moss to the planting hole because this will encourage the roots to stay in the planting hole instead of growing outward. After you finish backfilling, apply about 1-2 inches of mulch over the site but don’t let the mulch touch the trunk of the plant. Leave a 2” to 3” gap between the mulch and the trunk or stem.
Water the plant well but not to the point that the soil becomes soggy. You’ll need to keep watering regularly for a year or more to get your tree established. For lots of good detail on how often to water and on how much to water based on trunk size, I highly recommend Watering Newly Planted Trees and Shrubs.
Before the first hard freeze, be sure to water newly-planted trees and shrubs deeply so that they are better prepared to withstand winter weather.
Transplanting an existing tree or shrub is a different ball of wax from planting a containerized or balled-and-burlap tree. That’s because it inevitably does some damage to the all-important feeder roots. You can reduce that damage by root pruning in advance — several months or even a year in advance. If you’re thinking about transplanting a tree or shrub, start by reviewing the basics at The Garden Shed Nov. 2020. For detailed directions, see Transplanting or Moving Trees and Shrubs in the Landscape/Penn State Ext” or Transplanting Established Trees and Shrubs/Clemson Ext.
Weeding
Now is the time to remove chickweed and other winter annual broadleaf weeds that emerge in the fall; chickweeds, henbit/deadnettle, Carolina geranium, and buttercup are the winter annual broadleaf weeds you’re likely to see in your gardens now. Get them now before they disperse seed next spring. Other weeds — the annuals — are about to die anyway, so don’t waste your energy on them; among these are crabgrass, foxtail, and spurge. If you’re having trouble identifying a weed — or are worried that it might be a wonderful native plant — try using Virginia Tech’s Weed Identification site, Weed Identification/ VT.edu.
Be on the Lookout for Spotted Lanternfly
Spotted Lanternfly has been found in Albemarle County. It feeds on grapes and fruit trees as well as many of our favorite native trees. If you see a spotted lanternfly in your yard, what should you do? First, report it to Virginia Tech. If you can easily eliminate it with mechanical means, doing so may reduce the local population and help out local fruit-growers. Between August and November, spotted lanternflies tend to leave their favored Ailanthus trees (the invasive tree-of-heaven) and move to common landscape trees like maple, river birch, and willow. What if you see them on one of your trees? So far, research indicates that you probably needn’t worry about just a few so long as your tree is healthy. But at this time of year, the adults feed heavily on tree sap for weeks, and research has shown that this can stress trees by reducing their energy storage for winter. If it looks like an insecticide is needed, get details on which pesticide and how and when to use it in this new article from Virginia Cooperative Extension: Best Management Practices for Spotted Lanternfly in Yards & Landscapes.
Adult spotted lanternflies start laying eggs in mid-September, so now (and until April) is a good time to scout for and destroy their egg masses on branches and trunks of shrubs and trees. You can scrape off the egg masses or treat them with dormant oil. You can eliminate a lot of spotted lanterflies by destroying their eggs over the winter months (smash or scrape them into alcohol.) Local farmers and orchardists will thank you.
There’s still time to remove woody invasives like autumn olive using one of these methods that apply a small amount of herbicide to a cut in the stem or trunk —
- the “hack and squirt” injection method
- the “cut stump” method
Late fall is actually a good time for these methods because water and nutrients (plus any herbicides) are moving down into the roots at this time of year. For detailed directions for these methods, see CONTROLLING INVASIVE PLANTS Effectively & Safely with Herbicides/Blue Ridge PRISM.
Photo: Brianna Privett, CC BY 2.0
If you’d like to enjoy paperwhite narcissus or amaryllis over the holidays — or give them as holiday gifts — now’s the time to get started. Plant paperwhite bulbs, pointy side up, in soil or in water. In just a few days, roots will sprout, and in about 4 to 5 weeks, blooms will emerge. Plant around Thanksgiving for bloom at the holidays. Amaryllis is another bulb that can be started in November for holiday season bloom. On average, amaryllis will bloom about 6 to 8 weeks after planting. For detailed planting and care information, read The Garden Shed/Amaryllis .
SOURCES
Best Management Practices for Spotted Lanternfly in Yards and Landscapes and Va.Coop.Ext ENTO-344NP
Residential Control for Spotted Lanternfly (Va.Coop.Ext)
“Deciding If and When to Treat for Spotted Lanternfly on Ornamentals,” Penn State Extension
The photo of a henbit seedling is VERY helpful! Many sources give excellent information on the mature form of a weed, but that is often very different from the form of a seedling–and it is best to take them out young. I wondered for a long time whether the vine seedlings I kept removing were oriental bittersweet, but they were too young to show the characteristic berries. A cousin who is a retired forestry prof showed me the characteristic orange roots that are an identifying characteristic even for a six-inch seedling. It is good to be sure the stuff I remove regularly IS the notorious invasive! Articles and notes on identifying various stages of weed growth and reminding us learners when and how to remove them are very helpful and not easy to find. Thanks!
I’m so happy that photo was helpful. Being able to identify a weed or invasive at the seedling stage is a valuable tool indeed. We love hearing that we’re succeeding in helping gardeners. Thanks for getting in touch.