If you are looking for a quick plant pick-me-up this time of year, you cannot go wrong with pansies.

My life might be closing in around me – the kids sick (they are), work and volunteer deadlines loom (they do) and a big soggy collection of garden beds needs attention at our farm (hello, weeds!), but I do have flowers in bloom on my back porch, thank you very much. Actually, the pansies are thanks to a local nursery and an impulse buy last week. I spied them there, nestled next to some other winter favorites, such as ornamental cabbage and kale. With some proper care, I might be able to enjoy them all winter like the proverbial fiddler who played as Rome burned.

If you, too, have purchased pansies recently, it’s best to get them into their permanent setting soon. You want to let the roots get a chance to develop before our frost season. The fast growing plants like good garden loam that is rich in organic matter and drains well. Give them as much sun as you can – too much shade means fewer, smaller flowers and spindly plants.

To transplant your pansies, remove them carefully from their pots and spread the roots. Tap soil around the roots gently, taking care not to firm the soil too tightly or to plant too deep. The crown should be above the soil level. Water the plants well.

Pansies like about an inch of water each week during the growing season and a general, all-purpose fertilizer. You can fertilize a week after planting, once again in early winter and then again in March or early April and extend the bloom throughout the winter. Take care to remove spent flowers, which will prevent seed formation, encourage more flowers and extend the blooming period.

Pansies are susceptible to slugs and aphids, as well as anthracnose and crown rot. If you are losing the plants to what appears to be a soil-borne disease, don’t replant them in that spot. New pansies will be vulnerable to the same ailment, and you should place them elsewhere.

Another flowering plant that can take an occasional winter turn on the porch, but actually prefers the indoors, is the poinsettia. If you’ve had the opportunity to venture to Al’s Garden Center in Woodburn, you know that these holiday favorites come in more colors than the traditional red and white. Al’s, purported to have the largest selection of homegrown poinsettias in Oregon, offers more than 31 varieties. They display 35,000 poinsettias in all, in varieties ranging from ‘Silverstar Marble,’ a poinsettia with variegated foliage, to ‘Cortez Burgundy,’ a handsome poinsettia with wine-colored bracts.

This year’s introductions, bred and raised at the center, include ‘da Vinci,’ a peppermint pink poinsettia. The Woodburn-based grower also offers ‘Freedom Fireworks,’ a dark red beauty with pointy, serrated bracts and leaves.

A potted Christmas poinsettia can be enjoyed a long time with proper care. Native to tropic Mexico and Central America, they grow as shrubs up to 10 feet tall. The large brilliant red blooms are actually whorls of red bracts, or leaf-like structures, rather than petals.

When you choose your poinsettia, look for a plant that hasn’t shed its pollen yet. If it has, you will see yellow pollen showing on the petal-like red and green bracts. Those showing the pollen grains don’t stay as nice for as long as the pre-pollen plants.

To keep poinsettias healthy, place a poinsettia plant in a sunny window and water regularly and thoroughly. Fertilize once a week with a complete water-soluble fertilizer. Keep hot or cold drafts away from the plant. The leaves may wilt if the plant is too dry, too wet or exposed to a draft. Never allow a plant to stand in water. Yellowing of foliage may indicate insufficient light, over-watering or lack of nitrogen.

If you want to check out some of Al’s Garden Center poinsettias online, go to www.als-gardencenter.com. How about that ‘Jingle Bells!’

Cathy Peterson belongs to the Clatsop County Master Gardener Association. “In the Garden” runs weekly in Coast Weekend. Please send comments and gardening news to “In the Garden,” The Daily Astorian, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 or online to peterson@paci fier.com

It’s prime time for bare roots plants, vegetablesLate autumn is a good time to browse catalogs and nurseries for perennial woody landscape plants, as January through April is prime planting time for most shrubs, fruits, nuts and berries.

Bare root plants, dormant perennial plants with the soil removed, are available at nurseries and through mail order companies. Some bare root plants may come wrapped in damp sphagnum moss or sawdust and packaged in plastic or cardboard containers. Bare root plants are usually easier to handle and plant than their container grown counterparts and are generally sold from January into April each year.

Vegetables such as artichokes, rhubarb and asparagus may be sold as bare root plants. Fruits sold this way include nut trees, caneberries, grapes and fruit-bearing trees, vines and shrubs. Ornamental deciduous trees and shrubs (without leaves) are also sold as bare root plants in late winter and early spring.

Plants should be planted as early in the spring as soil and weather conditions permit. Planting in soil that is too wet destroys the soil structure and can result in poor growth. If you are ordering from a catalog, try to time shipment to coincide with your planting date.

For more information about planting new trees, the OSU Extension Service offers a circular, “Selecting, Planting and Caring for A New Tree,” EC 1438. This 24-page illustrated guide provides information on how to transport a tree, store it temporarily, dig a hole and plant it. It also gives tree care advice including watering, fertilizing, staking, mulching and pruning. For more information on “Selecting, Planting and Caring for A New Tree,” EC 1438, visit the OSU online catalog, eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat