Don’t Give Up!

With our short growing season and long winter slumber, northern gardeners have to put on their patience pants. With annual vegetables and flowers, we can watch the bounty unfold before our eyes, but the plants offered in this catalog demand way more endurance and resolve. The prospect of adding new perennials, shrubs and trees to our gardens and landscapes can be so exciting—yet sometimes so disappointing. We want to fill in all those bare spots and soak up as much life and color as we can while the sun is high. It’s natural to want immediate results: the lush green texture, colorful blooms, and juicy summer fruit. But why is it taking so long?

Perennials: Sleep, creep, leap!

You may have heard the saying that new perennials “sleep, creep, leap.” The first year after planting, most herbaceous perennial plants will focus their energy into establishing a healthy and robust root system. This is the foundation of the plant, coaxing vital water and nutrients from the earth and anchoring in place. Some plants may literally seem like they are sleeping. While a squash plant will grow at an exponential pace sending vines in every direction, a new echinacea plant may have just a bit of foliage and no blossoms. We must remember that our “sleepy” young perennial’s first job is to settle in and get ready to survive its first winter.

In the second year you usually see a bit more vegetative growth “creeping” along and hopefully some of the first flowers. But the above-ground results may still not live up to your expectations or fill out the spot you carefully selected. After waking up from their first long period of dormancy, most of the plant’s energy is still being focused into the roots, building strength and resilience for the real show.

And then—WHAMMO—the “leap” year when plants start to reach their full potential, claiming their space with lush foliage and full blooms. Now you are over the hump and with basic care your plant should thrive.

Fruit Trees: Sleep, sleep… sleep?

Some fruit trees can take up to 10 years before flowering and fruiting for the first time! Ugh. It can be discouraging to care for your new trees year after year with no return on your investment. Producing fruit requires immense energy, and your young trees need to focus on their basic framework: stretching the roots that will feed them for years to come and the growing branches that will bear the weight of future fruit.

Occasionally a young tree will flower in the first year or two after planting. While it can feel counterintuitive and almost painful to remove those first blossoms, it’s best to pluck them off and let your trees use their resources for vegetative growth. It’s worth the wait.

Then one summer you’ll watch the first apples and pears take shape and begin to express their unique character. There’s nothing like when you first need a whole basket, or bushel box, to collect your harvest. Now your problem is what to do with all that fruit.

Don’t give up! Take good care of your plants, keep your eyes on them, notice what they need, give them basic care and protect them from the extremes of weather. And trust that in time, you will be rewarded.