WINTER A GOOD TIME TO TRIM ERRANT GROWTH.

Byline: JANE GATES GARDENING

February often offers Santa Clarita area gardeners a mixed bag of weather. Last week we got a chance to bask in warm sunshine and do winter cleanup chores and even a bit of planting.

If future weeks bring rain or cold, it would be a good time to put design plans or changes down on paper so you're prepared for the big spring planting spree.

Take advantage of the nice days in February to catch up on pruning. If you haven't pruned trees and shrubs yet, now's the time to do it. If your trees are overgrown and harbor dead branches, call in a tree trimmer. Make sure you have someone who knows and cares about your trees because different trees require different pruning. Sometimes the least expensive tree trimmer doesn't know this and lops off whatever is convenient, encouraging the tree to grow out unattractively, or wounding the tree and leaving it vulnerable to insect attack, or worse, decapitating a tree that grows from a single growth shoot, and condemning it to death.

Pruning of roses depends on how you want your roses to grow. Always prune with sharp, clean shears on an angle just above an out-facing bud. Taking the bush down to about a foot tall will encourage long, strong growth in the spring. Cutting back less severely, say, halving the length of the current branches will produce shorter stems with a bushier look. You will get more, but smaller flowers.

Butterfly bushes (buddleia) benefit by being cut back severely to about 12 inches from the ground, and young fruit trees have to be properly shaped during their first couple of years if you want attractive good cropping healthy trees. (Check in your gardening books about the best time and manner for pruning your specific type of fruit tree.) Also make sure you prune back your grape vines for healthier and more bountiful crops. Grapevines have also been known to swallow up fences and bury homes with their rampant growth, so it might be wise to prune hard in self-defense.

Bushes can be shaped and any decorative grasses that have gone into dormancy for the winter can be cut right back to six inches from the ground. If the dried grass flower heads have survived the past winds and rain, they can be used for indoor flower arrangements. If not, they make great short-lived cat toys! Leave the more tender shrubs and trees like hibiscus, brugmansia, citrus and abutilon alone in the cold of winter. Frost may cause some damage to outer branches that can be trimmed back in the spring. (This goes for perennials and climbers, too.) For now, those cold-burned branches will form protection for the rest of the plant from any more of winter's chill.

When frost hits, you want the soil to be moist enough that the roots don't freeze, but not wet. Make sure you provide a cozy layer of mulch around plant

roots (up to, but not touching stems). Temperatures have been known to dip under 20 degrees in the Santa Clarita Valley. When a real cold night is forecast, you might want to throw a light blanket of burlap over exposed, delicate plants. For tender potted tropicals, dragging them into the house or garage may be the only option. Just don't forget to bring them back out.