Gardening This Weekend: December 11, 2025
Here are your mid-December gardening responsibilities. Run your eyes down the list to see if any applies to your landscape or garden.
PLANT
• Cold-hardy annuals. Pansies and pinks rate as the toughest, then ornamental cabbage and kale. Snapdragons come next, then for the southern half of the state, stocks, cyclamen, wallflowers, sweet alyssum and Iceland poppies.
• Spring-flowering bulbs as soon as you can. Soils are cool enough now to plant tulips and Dutch hyacinths.
• As soon as your area has received its first killing frost you can dig and relocate woody trees and shrubs that have gone dormant. Dig carefully and carry a ball of soil intact around their roots. Replant at the same depth as they were growing originally, and water deeply. Stake and guy as needed.
PRUNE
• Check trees for any evidence of dead or weak branches that could break under the stress of ice or winds. If you’re in doubt, hire an International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist to look things over on site.
• Mistletoe from tree branches as soon as you see it. Leaving it in place for more than one year will allow it to grow much larger very quickly.
• Mow lawn to remove fallen leaves and as needed to trim winter weeds to keep them in check.
• Remove all frozen stems and foliage from perennials and annuals to tidy up garden beds for the winter.
• Shrubs for light trims. Save major reshaping until mid- to late January.
• Never top crape myrtles. It ruins their natural growth forms, and the scars will be visible forever.
FERTILIZE
• Apply water-soluble, high-phosphate root-stimulator plant food to help newly transplanted trees and shrubs get established.
• Houseplants monthly with diluted liquid plant food. Anything more would stimulate unwanted lanky growth during dark days of winter.
• No fertilizer will be needed for poinsettias and other potted flowering plants while you have them in the house for the holidays.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Houseplants for scale insects and mealy bugs that can accumulate on plants when they’re brought indoors. These are difficult to eliminate. It’s usually easiest to address them with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol. Repeated treatments will generally be needed.
• Weeds sprouting up in annual color beds can easily be knocked down with a well sharpened hoe when the soil is just beginning to dry. That’s also a good time to add a 1-inch layer of finely ground compost or bark mulch. It’s probably best to spread it by hand so you don’t make a mess of the plants.