January is not for slackers when it comes to gardening

It’s counterintuitive, but January’s garden often requires more work than the summer garden.

There’s soil to be amended, beds to be turned, trees and shrubs to be pruned and sprayed for fungus, bare-root stock to be planted and weeds to be removed. We need to plan our gardens for the coming growing season and start buying seeds and plants.

Here we look at three aspects of gardening that require thought this month.

We’ll start with one intrinsic to our Sonoma County climate. Because we are in USDA Zone 9, our winters are comparatively mild. That means we can grow all kinds of clematis vines that regions of fierce winters can’t. But not all clematis are pruned the same. Some will require attention and pruning soon, in late winter.

Some bloom on new wood, some on older wood, and that determines when they should be pruned. Pruning at the wrong time means you’ll be cutting off flower buds.

Clematis experts have divided these vines into three groups. One flowers on wood from last year or before. Another blossoms on older wood in the spring and then again in the fall on new wood that grew during the current year.

The third group includes late-flowering clematis that blooms on new wood.

Of the first type, which blooms in spring on old wood, prune them lightly after they finish blooming.

If pruned too hard, they may take a few years to recover. These species include species C. alpina, C. macropetala, C. montana and C. spooneri. Hybrid, named varieties include ‘Apple Blossom,’ ‘Blue Bird,’ ‘Crimson Star,’ ‘Rubens’ and ‘Snowdrift.’

It’s the second group of clematis, which blooms early in the season on old wood and then again late in the season on new wood, that requires attention in late winter. Prune them lightly in late winter when the vine is dormant.

After the early-season flowering, prune about a third of the shoots back to the lowest pair of healthy buds to encourage new wood for the late-season bloom. Species include only C. florida. Cultivars include ‘Barbara Jackman,’ ‘Duchess of Edinburgh,’ ‘Empress of India,’ ‘Fairy Queen,’ ‘General Sikorski,’ ‘Hemryi,’ ‘Nelly Moser,’ ‘Prince of Wales,’ ‘The President’ and ‘Vyvyan Pennel.’

For the third group, clematis that bloom only on new wood, all shoots should be cut back in late winter to the lowest two healthy-looking buds.

Species clematis in this group include C. tanguitica, C. terniflora, C. texensis and C. viticella. Cultivars include ‘Comtesse de Bouchaud,’ ‘Ernest Markham,’ Gravetye Beauty,’ ‘Huldine,’ ‘Jackmanii,’ ‘Perle d’Azur’ and ‘Warsaw Nike.’

When to buy seed

Another gardening question that often pops up in January is how long until I need to buy fresh seed?

Many times, gardeners buy packets of seeds, sow some in the garden or in starter pots, fold over the packet top and stuff the half-empty envelopes in a drawer.

Later on or in the next spring, they take out the packet and wonder if the seeds are still viable. The packet may carry a notice: “Packed for 2019” or whatever year they were put on the market. But how do you know if the seeds are still good?

You’ll know because you’ll tear out or print the following chart, which tells you exactly how many years garden vegetable seeds will last before they start to sputter out and fail to germinate and you need fresh seed.

New varieties

Finally, vegetable breeders are working across the country to breed new and improved varieties of our vegetables.

The most reliable source to learn about these introductions is All-America Selections, an independent nonprofit that tests new, never-before-sold varieties for the home gardener.

After a full season of anonymous trials by volunteer horticulture professionals, only the top garden performers are given the AAS Winner award for their superior performance.

Here are the All-America Selections winners for 2021 and for 2022 so far (more to be named in June). To see who sells seed of any of these varieties, visit all-americaselections.org/winners, click on the photo of the variety and look for the “Where to Buy AAS Winners” link.

2021 winners:

Shallot ‘Crème Brulee’ is easy to peel, with a coppery outer skin and rosy-purple interior. They have a slight citrus flavor when raw and a sweet caramel flavor when sauteed.

Spicy-hot pepper ‘Pot-a-Peno’ features a compact habit perfect for a hanging pot. Hang it in a sunny spot outside the kitchen door and have spicy-hot green (and later, red) jalapeno-type peppers close at hand.

Winter squash ‘Goldilocks’ are bright orange acorn types. They are high- yield and disease-resistant, with a rich, nutty flavor.

2022 winners:

Eggplant ‘Icicle’ is a long, cylindrical eggplant with a pure white skin and smooth, nearly seedless flesh. Its flavor is outstanding.

Lettuce ‘Bauer’ is an oakleaf type that makes a beautiful ruffled head of tender green lettuce. It grows perfectly in pots or window boxes. One young head makes a salad for one diner.

Pepper ‘Buffy’ is an attractive red-ripe hot pepper that holds its fruits high on the plant, making it ornamental as well as delicious. ‘Dragonfly’ is also an AAS Winner. It’s a thick-walled, sweet, blocky pepper with a dark purple color when ripe.

Three tomatoes win AAS awards for 2022: ‘Pink Delicious’ is extra-early, extra-sweet and very disease-resistant. ‘Purple Zebra’ is a disease-resistant tomato with dark red skin striped in green. ‘Sunset Torch’ is fruity-flavored, golden yellow with reddish stripes and the size of a golf ball, so it’s perfect cut in half for salads.

Watermelon ‘Century Star’ produces 10-pound melons with dark green skin flecked with stars of gold and sweet, seedless red flesh.

Jeff Cox is a Kenwood-based food and garden writer. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.)