FALL MULCHING

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Rhododendrons and azaleas both prefer slightly acid soils, and your mulch selec tion can play a part. I suggest you choose an organic mulch, like leaves or pine needles. A dry-leaf mulch (especially oak leaves), spread 10 to 12 inches deep, can be laid down at planting (these will decompose quickly to give you a 3- or 4-inch layer). A 2- or 3-inch layer of pine needles will also do the trick. Wood chips or sawdust—if they are weathered—or peat moss can be substituted for pine needles.

If you are using one of these mulches and watering your rhododendrons following a fertilizer schedule but still have an unhealthy-looking plant, there must be something eke going on Maybe you hue an insect or disease problem or grew the wrong variety for your part of the country. But let's not blame the mulch. It has a bad enough rap as it N.

Roses, Jug about everyone who grows roses agrees that putting down a layer of mulch after the ground has started to cool is necessary to protect plants from temperature extremes and heaving. What they don't agree on is how to do it. Mulching roses in the fall is fairly simple if you remember why you're doing it. Most roses am amazingly hardy, so Me mulch isn't meant to keep them from freezing. The goal is to maintain constant temperature and avoid repeated freezing and taming.

There are hundreds of methods and materials for preparing roses for winter-almost as many as there are rose growers. Probably the most accepted is to mound about 10 to 12 inches of mulch around the base of the rosebush. This should not be done until after the first hard frost. If done too early, the roses may be fooled into a late growth spurt, which will delay dormancy and lead to more winter injury, not less.

What you decide to do from this point is open to all kinds of possibilities. In areas where Me temperature stays well below freezing for most of the season, you will want to provide some additional protection. Some ]can toward the Styrofoam "rose cones" that fit around the mounds; others prefer ground corncobs, sawdust, or chopped leaves.

The rose cones work well when used in conjunction with mounded soil. They can overheat during those sunny January thaws, so it's a good idea to poke a ventilation hole in the top. Another suggestion is to weight the cone down with a stone or something similar; otherwise your rose cones may end up in the neighbor's yard.

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