Below is some information and helpful tips on planting and caring for your native plants and trees in Floyd County. Please contact us if you have any questions about native plants you have received from SustainFloyd.
Storing Your Potted Plants Until Planting
Native plants can be planted any time of year the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. But planting during a heat wave will require extra supplemental watering. So, if you want to store plants until you’re ready to plant, choose a level area in part shade or bright full shade within easy reach of your water source. Water pots once a day, up to twice a day for small pots during high heat. You can tuck a little bit of mulch in the tops of your pots if they’re drying out too fast, or mound mulch around them and keep the mulch moist, which should help keep your pots moist. Meanwhile, you can scout and prepare your planting locations, and gather supplies.
Selecting Your Planting Site
Many native plants are widely adaptable and can grow in a wide range of conditions. However, if you want optimum beauty, choose a site as closely similar to the conditions described in the plant information provided. You can find additional information about your plants online at:
- Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora (read the Habitat description)
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- NC State Extension
- Gardenia
- Prairie Moon Nursery
You may notice that there is sometimes conflicting information across the many online sources. The best guide in the end will be to learn from your plants and your land.
In choosing your site, make sure to avoid buried utility lines, and not to plant trees too close to a building or driveway. Use the spacing guides provided to help judge this. Most people plant trees far too close. If you follow the spacing guides, your trees will grow into a beautiful form, rather than growing in lopsided shape around a roofline, invading your foundation, or blocking vehicles on a driveway.
Preparing Your Planting Site
If you have garden beds ready to receive your plants, you can skip the prep work.
All plants will benefit from being planted in locations free of weed or grass competition for at least the first year, if not indefinitely. Trees, shrubs, and most forbs will perform better if protected after planting by a thick ring of mulch. Undyed shredded native hardwood bark mulch or arborist wood chips are preferable. Have your mulch ready when you plant (so that you don’t put it off for years and lose your plants to weeds!). Local Floyd sources for mulch include:
- Slaughters’ Garden Center at 512 Floyd Hwy South in Floyd.
- Griffith Lumber Co. at the corner of Franklin Pike and Shooting Creek Rd in Floyd. Call them at (276) 930-2727.
Prepare your planting holes by removing grass sod and weeds in a diameter of 1′-2′ for forbs and 3′-4′ for shrubs and trees. If you are unfamiliar with the soil in that location, do some exploratory digging to determine the nature of the soil: is it rocky, is it highly compacted heavy clay, is there rock-like subsoil just inches down, is it moist dark brown and easy to dig down more than a shovel’s depth?
For trees and shrubs, soil amendment is not typically recommended.
For forbs advertised as tough, adaptable wild pioneers such as Frost Aster and Calico Aster, no amendment is needed. However, even these will appreciate and flourish with the below treatment.
For forbs that prefer “average garden soil” or “rich soil,” you will get fuller, lusher growth with some soil amendment in most native Floyd soils. Potting soil with perlite is not recommended. Bagged medium with pine bark or bark fines is not recommended. Manure and composted manure should not be used unless you have time for it to age properly (3 months for fresh manure, 3 weeks for composted manure). Garden compost or bagged compost such as Daddy Pete’s Mushroom Compost works well (Dulaney’s Greenhouse in Floyd usually stocks this). Do not simply dig a hole and dump a bag of compost into the hole, but mix it with your native soil at a ratio of no more than 50/50 compost to native soil (less compost usually works fine). Feather it out to the edges so that a gradual transition to the surrounding native soil is achieved. This way, good drainage and soil hydrology are preserved. While doing this, remove large rocks, and loosen the soil to a depth of 12″-18.” If planting at the dry edge of your plant’s preferences, you can create a wide shallow berm (like a shallow depression in the center of which your plant will sit) to facilitate water retention.
For forbs that prefer dry sandy soil such as Monarda punctata,you will want to dig up and loosen the soil. If it is hard to dig, you may add play sand as an ammendment similar to above, though at a lower ratio, using just enough that the soil feels loose and drains quickly. If soil is very heavy and sticky, you may need to add some compost as well as sand, and sift it through hardware cloth to mix it well. CW Harman in Floyd sells play sand in 50 lb bags. Dulaney’s Greenhouse in Floyd usually stocks Daddy Pete’s Mushroom Compost.
Planting Pot-Grown Plants
Plants grown in pots often do better if the roots are washed free of potting medium before planting in the ground. This is more true of plants grown in the bark type medium commonly used in the nursery industry today, as well as for trees and woody plants. Rinsing roots also moistens roots which protects them from transplant shock. Make sure to do this in the shade as roots can be damaged by exposure to sunlight.
About Native Plants Distributed by SustainFloyd
Our Forbs were grown from seed in a lightweight potting medium and should not need roots rinsed prior to planting. Our trees and shrubs were grown in a lightweight potting medium from bareroot stock and may still benefit from having roots rinsed immediately prior to planting.
Planting
It is best to plant in the early evening or on a cloudy day. Make sure that you will be able to water your plants immediately after planting. If you have to haul water to your planting site, bring your water with you along with your plants, shovel, gloves and any other supplies you prefer to use.
Forbs (Non-Woody Plants)
For forbs, dig a hole in your prepared planting spot (see Preparing Your Planting Site above) that is wider and deeper than the root ball. Remove from pot by squeezing around the outsides of the pot to loosen the root ball. Then, while firmly holding the top of the pot with one hand flat across the top, fingers parted around the stem and gripping the lip of the pot to prevent anything from spilling out, tip the pot upside down and pull the pot free with the other hand. You may shake firmly downward while firmly holding onto the upside down plant and roots in one hand and the pot in the other to get it free. It is best to do this while standing so you don’t crush the top of the plant by scraping it along the ground.
When planting a potted plant, loosen the roots, especially the bottom roots with the ultimate goal to get the soil you’re planting into on both sides of the feeder roots. Narrow plugs should only need the bottoms of the roots loosened a little. If roots are very dense and wound around a pot, loosen as well as you can (rinsing the potting medium off can help with this). You would ideally open them up into a tent-shaped or octopus-shaped root mass. For these, create a soil cone inside your hole to drape the roots over. If roots are too bound up for this, scoring the sides and bottoms of your root ball with a gardening fork or knife, or in extreme cases, slicing a thin layer off the outsides and bottom will stimulate new root growth. Our forbs should not need this.
Holding your plant so that the finished soil line will be at the point where the stem meets the roots, no higher, no lower, fill soil back in around the roots. Make sure no tiny roots are sticking out of the soil (even one stray root can make the whole plant struggle) and that the plant is straight and centered. Pat soil in place, water to settle the soil and remove any air pockets. If the soil settles so that roots are now exposed, bring more soil around to cover all roots, taking care not to cover the stem. Mulch well making sure not to bury the stem, though mulch is not as problematic for stems as soil. Water again with a sprayer setting to settle mulch and soil into place, and to dampen the mulch so that it helps keep your plant moist as it recovers.
Trees & Shrubs (Woody Plants)
For trees and shrubs, it is generally recommended to dig a hole 2-3x wider than the container, but no deeper so that the root flare where the trunk meets the roots is at or slightly above the level of the ground. However, if you have dense rock-like subsoil mere inches below the surface, or soil that is heavily compacted clay or full of gravel or rocks, you might consider removing rocks and loosening the soil in a wider area as well as a little deeper (see note*).
After washing the potting medium out of your roots (do this immediately prior to planting while protecting roots from direct sunlight), unwind and straighten any large coiling roots, and generally rough up or loosen the roots so that they will be stimulated to grow out and down. If coiling roots can’t be practically straightened in your hole because they are too long, you may cut them to a shorter length. A certain degree of root pruning will stimulate new healthy growth.
Some experts recommend slicing the outer 1.5″ from the sides and bottom of the tree root ball (see Plant Virginia Natives and Virginia Department of Forestry). However most of our trees and shrubs do not have large root balls and this would result in a high % of the root ball being removed, which would be detrimental. Furthermore, not all guides recommend this practice (see Planting Trees from Virginia Cooperative Extension). Use your best judgment.
If roots can be opened up at the bottom and arranged in a tent shape, this is ideal. Widen your hole to accommodate the fully opened roots if necessary. Form a cone of soil inside the hole to rest the opened up root ball over. You may need to dig the hole deeper around the edges to receive the longer roots. Double check that the root flare is at or slightly above the level of the surrounding ground. Back fill with soil removed from the hole making sure to fill in any air pockets (roots hate air!), making sure no root tips are poking out of the soil, and gradually tamp down until the entire hole is filled, soil on all sides of the roots, and the root flare level with the soil or slightly above. If you have removed many large rocks and gravel and there is not enough soil to fill your hole, use topsoil or native soil free of root clods from elsewhere on your property.
Water well to settle the soil, and to prevent transplant shock. If roots are exposed after watering and settling, add more soil until all roots are covered. Mulch the entire 3′-4′ ring you cleared around your tree or shrub. If you prefer a neat and tidy appearance that is easier to mow, you may edge the mulch ring by digging a v-shaped channel around the outer edge of the mulch ring. This will slow down the encroachment of grass and weeds into your mulch.
Remove all tags, wires, or ropes from the stems or trunk. These can strangle and kill the plant as it grows. Our trees and shrubs should not have any of these, but double-check to make sure.
*Loosened and dug soil tends to settle. When planting trees and shrubs, digging deeper than the pot can result in plants settling so that the root flare (where the trunk meets the roots) sinks too low and gets buried which can kill or stunt a tree or shrub. However, by planting so that the root flare is gently above the surrounding soil level by means of a low mound, this can be prevented. See diagram in Planting Trees from Virginia Cooperative Extension labeled “For very heavy clay or compacted soils, the root ball may be one third above the soil surface.”
Watering Your Plants
Water needs vary widely among native plants. Some resilient forbs such as Frost Aster and Calico Aster need almost no watering after planting, except when extreme transplant damage occurs or during extreme heat. However most plants need to be watered at first daily, then every few days, with supplemental water during drought or extreme heat during the first few years.
For trees, the prescribed watering regime is:
- First two weeks: Water daily, ensuring the soil is moist but not soggy.
- Weeks 3-12: Water every other day or every two to three days.
- After 12 weeks: Water once a week, adjusting based on rainfall and soil moisture.
However, many native trees may only need watering during the first few weeks, with supplemental water during drought or extreme heat during the first few years. Others, if well-sited and planted in ideal conditions may only need watering during the first week. Do not wait until trees droop or drop dry brown leaves to water! If this happens, more regular water will be needed even after it has recovered. Planting in the heat of summer means more consistent water will be needed until the fall rains come.
Protecting Your Plants
Deer browse, and in some cases, rabbit browse can severely inhibit or even kill your plants. If you are planting something that has never grown in that area, expect it to be “sampled” aggressively. In fact, planting many of one kind of plant is one way to protect them. Some plants, such as passionflower are highly palatable to deer and may need permanent protection such as growing inside a fence. Others, such as dogwood will need protection until they grow taller than deer browse height (about 5′-6′). Tree tubes or round cages constructed of metal fencing wire 5′-6′ high and held in place by stakes work well. SustainFloyd has tree tubes for sale (link to purchase). A 5 ft wide roll of 14-gauge welded wire is available in 50 ft rolls at Home Depot. Wills Ridge and other local hardware stores usually stock this, but call first. If leaves are accessible through fencing, cages need to be wide enough to prevent deer from nibbling them through the holes. Wills Ridge and Home Depot sell supplies for stakes – orchard stakes are untreated and may be healthier for roots, but you can also use pressure treated 2×2’s balusters cut on one end at an angle for driving into the ground. There are many other fencing options.
Young tree trunks will need to be protected from deer horning – the bark scarring can be terminal in some cases, and unsightly in every case. Tree tubes work for this, but there are other options. Tubes can be slit lengthwise to get them installed on the trunk, then lashed closed with long zip ties. If they hold their shape, they don’t even need to be lashed closed to effectively deter deer horning. Once trees grow to a trunk diameter of 4-5″ you should be able to remove the trunk protection.
A Note About “Soft Landings”
If you want to add forbs around your tree to create “soft landings” for Lepidoptera (caterpillars) hosted by your tree for them to land in so they can complete their lifecycle underground, now is a good time to plant them in your freshly mulched and loosened ring. As the tree grows, you will need to replace full sun or part shade plants with full shade plants, but thus is the nature of the ever-changing landscape garden.