Q: When should I prune my roses? They never go completely dormant in the winter.
In Southern California, we don’t experience winter like the rest of the country. Most gardening guides will tell you to prune your roses in late fall, once all the leaves have fallen. In areas with mild winters, many perennials, including roses, don’t drop all of their leaves by winter.
When the days become shorter and the temperatures drop, most perennials will stop producing new leaves and flowers. These plants are going dormant in a different way. Many roses will continue to flower, but not as enthusiastically as they do in the summer. Once you see this “slow down”, you can start winter pruning activities.
Q: What kind of vegetables grow well in the winter? Specifically – leafy greens for salads or cooking?
One of my favorite leafy green vegetables is Swiss Chard. This beet relative is easy to start from seed and will produce all winter (and spring). Small leaves make an attractive addition to salad. Larger leaves can be used as a cooking green, like spinach. Since it grows upright, it tends to be easier to clean and has fewer pest problems than spinach. The thick stems are easy to remove and can be sliced crosswise and sauteed in olive oil or butter. Rhubarb chard has red stems and leaves and looks like rhubarb. Bright lights has pink, red, and yellow stems and is very attractive (and delicious). My favorite variety is Erbette, which has smaller, tender leaves and slender stems.
Other leafy green vegetables that grow well in mild winter climates include escarole, a bitter green that forms a loose head of ruffled leaves. Radicchio grows in a tightly formed, softball-sized head with burgundy and white leaves. Kale thrives in the winter, especially after the weather turns cold enough to keep the aphid population low. We grow Red Russian and Tuscan (Dinosaur). The kale is productive enough that we can blanch and freeze many one-pound bags for later use.
Salad greens such as arugula and lettuce can produce all winter as well. Garden arugula (rocket) will stop producing when the weather warms up, but Olive-leaf arugula will continue throughout the year. Both have the characteristic peppery flavor that pairs well with blue cheese, walnuts, and a vinaigrette dressing. Lettuce types include Romaine, Bibb, and loose-leaf varieties. You may have seen seed packets labelled “Mesclun”, which are simply variety packs of different types of salad greens. This may seem like a good idea, but if you are direct-seeding the young lettuce plants can be difficult to separate from any weed seedlings.
Los Angeles County
mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/
Orange County
ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/
Riverside County
anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-955-0170; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/
San Bernardino County
mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu