Since about the 1930's the USDA's Soil Conservation Service, and now the Natural Resources Conservation Service, has been telling us that we need to provide either a cover crop or a mulch to keep the soil in our gardens from eroding. It simply amazes me that we still have garden writers that tell people to not mulch rather than fix the soil so they can mulch. If you have a really badly draining soil, one that holds large amounts of moisture for long periods of time (an unhealthy soil) putting a mulch down will help encourage the rot that will occur because of that moisture holding soil.
If you have a good, healthy soil mulching will not cause rot, will not encourage rot, will only help your soil stay healthy.

nhgardener,
I think your original question re:mulch to protect the stems of your H.'endless summer' might be answered with this from the internet

http://endlesssummerblooms.com/en/node/5

quote:

Originally posted by JohnnieAppleseed:
wd8izh,

Ruth wasn't really the grandmother of all mulchers. She was just the first person to write a significant work about it. There were others before her. I think Dorothy Schroeder was one.

And Ruth's purpose for mulching was as much for soil enhancement and weed prevention as for plant protection. There is something to be said for gardenz's advice on waiting for the ground to freeze (or at least frost over) before mulching. We don't want plants to make a false start at the beginning of winter because of mulch applied too early.

I referred to Ruth Stout as such because she was the first publicly known to mulch so extensively. I know there were most likely others before her (including my own Great Grandmother).

As to the "false start", mulch slows both the freezing AND the thawing of the ground, so how can there be a "false start" at the beginning of winter. Other than through winter "false starting" itself (which happens here a LOT - hence we have Indian Summer only after the first snowfall). By slowing the freezing AND thawing processes, mulch puts your garden to bed much the way large piles of fallen leaves (in fall) put the forest floor to bed. The priciple is sound or nature itself wouldn't use it.

Possibly you're right. But a few years I've had plants start themselves in the fall when mulched in October, before days became consistantly cold. Particularly if the mulch was at the beginning of the composting cycle, causing it to heat up on top of the plants it was covering.

Now I wait until November before winter mulching and I haven't experienced that problem.

Johnnie, that was more because of the total weather pattern than the mulch. I had some plants, that normally do not germinate except in July germinate and start to grow at the end of August this year, in a bed that I did not have enough mulch on. The colder and wetter than normal September and October slowed the growth of these plants, but I doubt they will survive the winter (unless its mild) even with heavy mulch protection.

I would respectfully submit that a simple Google search will supply a plethora of information from varied sources espousing the proper/preferred timing of that final, additional (note: "additional") layer of winter-protective mulch to perennals.

In all the reading I came across on the subject (and my own personal experience) I've found approximately a 10:1 ratio recommending: To apply that heavy mulch after the ground either freezes, or (in your specific area) has received a couple/few hard frosts. That's not just one gardener's opinion. It's apparently many...and not just home gardeners at that.

If one is in an area where they never receive a frost or had freeze, then I think the question of when to apply is moot, as those folks don't have the worry of frost heave and thaw in the first place and should just continue to mulch as they always do throughout the year.

All of this still doesn't preclude the fact that if a gardener wants to put that "additional" layer of mulch around their tender perennials at the end of August - if they want to - then they can go ahead and do whatever the heck they want. It all depends on what their past experience has shown them what works for them and what hasn't. Apply or not apply? Now, then or later? Do what you think is best for you.

Wow, Gardenz! I appreciate all the research you've done!

I was about to "heavy mulch" this weekend, because the ground had started to freeze, but then we had a warm spell for the last week. So I guess I'll put it off for now, and hope that the ground freezes before my buds freeze and before we get snow!

nhgardener, I may have said this already, but I really don't know much about protecting buds on a plant by covering the whole thing over. I think the link franeli supplied about the Endless Summer care and your original suggestion from what you read about surrounding w/wire or tomato cage or whatever and encircling w/burlap might work fine for now. Maybe just hold off on applying the leaves a bit. Like I said, I don't know much about protecting buds, per se.

Around here in my garden, if buds aren't gonna make it through the winter, then that plant either doesn't stay in my garden very long or I just grow it for foliage. Like the only other hydrangea I have, a variegated leaf one. Originally had blue lace-cap flowers, but the buds were never hardy in my zone and I'm in a higher (or depending on your perspective: lower) zone than you! So I now just grow it for the foliage. Really pretty...when the deer don't eat it that is.

Gardenz,
right you are about this post...it was all about how to protect the flower buds along the stem of H.'endless summer'. Bud loss(winter kill) would diminish bloom for next year...However, H.'endless summer' does bloom on BOTH new wood and old wood.
Maybe the problem with nhgardener's shrubs are thatthey are just babies...I mean one is 12", the other 18". I think both plants need a few seasons to mature and develop a good root system.
Lots of folks here in Z4 have lots of blooms on their H. 'endless summer' .

gardenz, I try, very hard, to be sure all of my planting beds are mulched year around. I don't succeed well because the active soil bacteria in those beds digest the mulches before new material is available. As soon as material is available I start to mulch those beds again so they will be covered over the winter for all the reasons I have posted about why we mulch. Now someone with a heavy clay soil that does not drain well will have problems and they probably should not mulch until the soi lis well amended and drains properly, otherwise every gardener should mulch there soil, unless they gtrow a cover crop, if only to prevent soil erosion, because for many of us the other reasons are not a concern during the winter.

Kimm, I practice mulching the same as you do: Continually applying mulch. It breaks down. Mulch again. That breaks down...and so on and so on. Obviously, we share similar difficulties in keeping up. I, therefore, don't disagree with a thing you've said and, basically, have said so repeatedly.

The condition of the soil, the zone one is in, the kind of perennials that need extra protection, even the availability of additional mulching components...is all dependant on each individual gardener's circumstances.

Under ideal conditions, I prefer to wait till after a couple good freezes to make my final winter-protective application. Only personal physical limitations or climatic conditions have altered the timing of that final "mulching". Meaning, I may be forced to do it whenever I can. Or simply - not at all. Mulch - and $h!t - happens.