By Tamara Galbraith

So, December has passed and your once-fresh holiday tree has gone from Christmas to crispness. No matter. When you're ready to take down the decorations, explore all your options of how to reuse or recycle a cut Christmas tree.

Many communities across the country offer a recycling program, whereby trees are collected and ground up into mulch for municipal use. Areas with lots of manmade lakes will sometimes collect and sink old trees into waterways to slow erosion. Check with your local city government or county Extension Office to see if such a tree collection program is in place.

Also, if you have the space and don't mind "the natural look" in your landscape, lay your an old tree in a remote corner of your yard; it makes a great hiding and nesting place for birds, rabbits and other small creatures.

In either case, just be sure all non-natural decorations, like tinsel and ornament hooks, have been removed. While sparkly mulch might have an interesting look, it's not very good for the environment.

Winter is a good time to plan your rose garden.

Perhaps your garden isn't properly zoned, and you have roses, heavy water users, growing next to drought-resistant plants. Winter is a good time for moving roses to a better spot. Prepare new beds now; dig up the roses and move them there next month.

Despite the demands of holiday activities, some gardeners also find time this month to prepare the beds for bare-root planting. To do so, spade the ground deeply and put in plenty of a good soil amendment. Don't be dismayed if you have clay soil. Roses thrive in it, but be sure to test the drainage, and if it's severely impaired, install drains or build raised beds for your roses.

Study your rose collection with the idea of weeding out poor performers. Why struggle along with a plant that's worn out or simply not right for our climate zone? In the interest of water conservation, it's far better to grow a handful of choice roses than a great many mediocre ones. There are roses now which not only are wonderful performers, but are disease tolerant as well!

If you are going to plant roses later, plan your color scheme now, and decisions will be easier then. All too often roses are planted with a shotgun approach; no thought is given to color compatibility. The best-looking rose gardens are designed like a rainbow, with a progression of colors flowing from one side to the other. Make sure that clashing colors are widely separated. Don't, for instance, put one of the new brilliant orange roses next to a bluish red.

For a bigger display, plant at least three roses of one variety together. Also consider planting one bed solidly with a single variety. You seldom see this done in a home garden, but in the right spot the effect is stunning and shows your originality.

Mark Stepien
Green Thumb Garden Professional

A number of plants can be pruned this month, but don't prune such tender or tropical plants as bougainvillea, hibiscus, eugenia, philodendron, Natal plum, or lantana. Pruning tropicals now will stimulate growth that could be nipped by frost. Plants that can be pruned now include deciduous fruit trees, low-chill raspberries, grapes, native plants, and wisteria.

Care for Deciduous Fruit Trees:

Once deciduous fruit trees have gone dormant and dropped their leaves, they can be pruned. You can do this job now or wait until next month. Every type of deciduous fruit tree needs different treatment. Consult multiple books to get the most comprehensive approach, or consult us for proper pruning methods. Follow up your pruning with dormant spray. Dormant spray is best used more than once, so even if you don't prune this month it's wise to use dormant spray now on all deciduous fruit trees and the many ornamental trees that drop their leaves in winter.

Grapes:

Prune grapes this month. There are three major pruning methods depending on the type grown. Young plants of each type must be pruned differently from those that are mature.

Save trimmings to make ornamental wreaths and baskets. Start a wreath by wiring one bendy stem into a circle, then wind others around it. Add ribbons, dried flowers, and berries, and use the wreath in Christmas decorations.

Low-chill Raspberries:

With the introduction of "subtropical" raspberries, Southern Californians can enjoy this normally cold-weather berry. These relatively new low-chill raspberries are now grown commercially as well as in home gardens. They require different and much easier pruning than other types of cane berries.

All low-chill raspberry varieties bear their berries almost year-round on new wood that they put out almost continually. The simple pruning method for all low-chill types of raspberry is to cut all the canes down to 3 or 4 inches, now or in January. New growth will spring from the ground. Dig up the suckers to form new rows of plants; if you let your existing rows get too wide they'll become unmanageable.

Fertilize your raspberries in spring when they start to grow, with an evenly balanced fertilizer such as 16-16-16, and give them plenty of water. Spray them regularly for caterpillars; they love raspberry leaves. (If you didn't prune other cane berries like blackberries, boysenberries, and loganberries last month, prune them this month.)

Native Plants:

Native plants can be pruned any time during the winter growing season. Some gardeners prefer not to prune them at all except to remove dead and diseased branches. Other gardeners prune to show the "good bones" of certain plants. A little judicious pruning can often uncover an artistic shape that's already there but hidden by foliage.

Wisteria:

If you didn't prune wisteria in summer, do it now. Observe the buds. Small, narrow buds are leaf buds. Round, fatter buds, often found on short stubby growth called spurs, are flower buds. Don't cut off the flower buds or flower-bearing spurs. Prune off long "streamers" or "twiners" (thin, young stems that grew rapidly this year). Carefully untangle them from older wood if necessary and cut them back to two or three buds to stimulate the growth of more flower spurs. Retain twiners going in desired directions and tie them loosely in place.

If an established wisteria never blooms, cut into the ground around the plant with a sharp spade to prune the roots. This may stimulate bloom, perhaps not next spring, but the following year.