It may not seem like it, but the warm summer months are slowly starting to come to an end. The summer heat will give way to the cool fall season, which starts around mid-September. It’s never too early to start planning for the fall planting season and here are five reasons on why the fall is the best time to plant new trees and shrubs in Houston.
It allows the roots enough time to become established before next year’s summer heat
- In the Houston area the soil hardly freezes, which allows your newly planted tree or shrub an opportunity to establish its root system throughout the fall/winter. Once early spring hits your tree or shrub will have a solid root system and will focus its energy on top growth. As an added bonus, trees with established root systems can handle drought much better.
Shade
- We’re always looking for shade relief in the warm summer months and trees planted in the spring will not provide that because of the shorter time frame between the seasons. Trees planted in the fall have more than enough time to grow a shade canopy before the summer heat arrives.
Fertilizing
- Plants and trees store “energy” in the fall/winter because they do not focus on top growth. This allows the tree or shrub to hit the ground running in the spring. For further growth, you can fertilize your newly planted trees and shrubs which will produce robust growth in spring.
Water requirements are lower
- Because the shorter days and the cooler weather, newly planted trees and shrubs will require less water than they would need if planted in the spring.
Fall color
- There is quite a good variety of fall color trees that provide some pretty epic colors from golden hues to rich burgundy and many shades between.