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Winter 2026

"The color of springtime is in the flowers; the color of winter is in the imagination." 
— Terri Guillemets

A new year invites fresh intentions and renewed curiosity. Winter, often seen as a quieter season in the garden, is actually a wonderful time to deepen our skills and expand our understanding. In this issue, you’ll find practical and inspiring guidance on winter-perfect techniques such as espalier, rose pruning, grafting, and pruning native plants — all ways to grow as gardeners while our landscapes rest.

Beyond the garden, we’re focusing on critical home maintenance: protecting your outdoor living spaces from winter’s toll and securing the rainwater your landscape will depend on later. Plus, for a bit of lasting cheer, learn the secrets to keeping your holiday poinsettia healthy well into the new year.

As always, being a UC Master Gardener is about more than tending our own gardens. It’s about caring for our communities. We’re proud to share how our collective efforts continue to make a difference in addressing food insecurity, reminding us that every skill we learn and every plant we nurture can have a wider impact.

For those looking to dive even deeper, our UC Master Gardener website offers an extensive library of additional resources and guides to support your winter projects.

We hope this winter issue informs, inspires, and invites you to read on.

Hedwig Van Den Broeck and Robin Mitchell, editors - Contact Us

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Putting the "YAY" in Espalier

Whether you are a newly budding gardener or a vine-ripened horticulturalist, espalier (pronounced “es-PAL-yer” or “es-pal-YAY”) is an artistic and skill-building method of growing plants that can be incorporated into your home garden. 

The word "espalier" refers to the technique of training and pruning a woody plant to grow in a flat, two-dimensional plane, usually along a wall, against a fence, or between support posts. This style of growing can be an incredibly beneficial method for saving space, improving access to fruit, managing pests, and protecting plants against harsh weather..
 

Easy Guide to Hard Pruning Roses this Winter

Roses bring a stunning beauty to the spring garden, and who can’t resist sniffing those first few blooms?

Roses are also prolific growers, climbing high and wide during the growing season. This growth can become unwieldy and, worse, sap energy from the shrub.

The key to abundant blooms this spring is hard pruning your roses in January or February, after the last frost.
 

Tree Grafting for Garden Fun

Grafting is the process of joining two trees or plants to grow as a single entity. In most cases, one plant provides the roots, root crown, and lower trunk, collectively known as the rootstock, while another plant provides the upper leafing, flowering, and fruiting parts, known as the scion. 

The goal is to create a single unified plant that takes advantage of the best qualities of each half. For example, a rootstock may offer disease resistance and hardiness, while the scion offers diverse fruit varieties in a single plant or tree.
 

Pruning Native Plants

In general, perennial plants are best pruned when they are dormant (although there are exceptions to that rule). This can mean, depending on the species, that California natives are pruned on a different schedule than non-native plants.

The timing of native plant pruning can be quite different from non-native pruning, because the native plants are generally dormant in the summer, rather than in the winter. But the time to prune is dependent on the plant family.
 

Rainwater Harvesting for the Win — Part II

Water is the very definition of life. It is the source of all life on Earth; it is what we search for on other planets to prove the possibility of life there. Without water, everything dies. Extreme heat and drought are the enemies of all life.

But we are running short on water.
 

Winterizing Patio Container Gardens for Small Spaces Gardening

With winter’s chill in the air, it’s essential to prepare your container patio garden to withstand cold weather. Start by moving the most sensitive, smaller plants inside the house or in wind-sheltered wall nooks to take advantage of the extra warmth. Insulate larger pots by wrapping them with burlap, bubble wrap, or frost blankets, especially if they’re made of ceramic or clay, which can crack in freezing temperatures. Water less frequently, but avoid letting the soil dry out completely, as winter winds can cause plants to dehydrate.

Here is some extra care advice that will help your small-space garden plants survive our cold weather or heavy rain spells and bounce back to thrive next spring.
 

Poinsettia

What do you do with these plants after the holidays? Many throw them away, but you don’t have to. You could keep it as a green house plant that will last 10 to 20 years, or you could plant it in the yard and watch it grow to 10 to 15 feet as a green shrub and live for decades. 

Poinsettias will grow outdoors in USDA climate zones nine to eleven, but not colder than 50 °F.
 

Fresh Produce, Real Impact: Fighting Food Insecurity in Contra Costa County

Every Wednesday morning, something extraordinary happens. Nearly 300 pounds of sun-warmed tomatoes, crisp lettuce, and freshly picked herbs travel just a few short miles from soil to table—not to a farmers market or grocery store, but directly into the hands of local families who depend on this harvest to eat well that week.

As the cost of living continues to rise, an increasing number of our neighbors are facing painful choices between keeping the lights on and putting healthy food on the table.
 

Loose Leaves for this Winter

Winter in Contra Costa County is a unique bridge between seasons. While the landscape appears to rest, this is a vital window for critical landscape maintenance and integrated pest management (IPM) that will determine the health of your garden for the rest of the year.

UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County are currently enjoying a winter break, but we’re eager to reconnect with you when we resume our regular schedule this February! Mark your calendars for February 17th—you won't want to miss our first webinar of 2026, 'Good Bug, Bad Bug,' where we’ll dive into the fascinating world of garden insects. And for all the tomato lovers out there: the countdown is officially on for our beloved Great Tomato Plant Sale (GTPS), kicking off April 11th!

Eager to read more? Here are a few articles we also like to share:

• Radio-Tagging the Migratory Monarchs
• Growing Happy, Healthy Meyer Lemon Trees
• In case you are interested in our Frequently Asked Questions.
• Or explore our website, where a wealth of gardening expertise and resources are available at your fingertips.

And here are a few more fun January & February dates you could observe:

• 1/6 - Apple Tree Day
• 1/6 - National Bean Day
• 1/9 - National Apricot Day
• 1/10 - Houseplant Appreciation Day
• 1/12 - National Hot Tea Day
• 1/16 - National Quinoa Day
• 1/21 - Squirrel Appreciation Day
• 1/24 - National Seed Swap Day
• 2/2 - Groundhog Day
• 2/2 - CA Kiwi Fruit Day
• 2/5 - Western Monarch day
• 2/14 - Valentine's Day
• 2/17 - Random Acts of Kindness Day
• 2/17 - National Cabbage Day
• 2/20 - Love Your Pet Day
• 2/28 - Floral Design Day

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Feel like taking a walk down memory lane? We invite you to explore our collection of past issues to see just how much News to Grow By has blossomed.