Maine Home Garden News – February 2026
In This Issue:
- February Is the Month to . . .
- Plant Sale Planning
- Winter Sowing
- Backyard Bird of the Month: Tufted Titmouse
- Pollinator-Friendly Garden Profile
- Soil Health
- Ask the Expert
- Featured Resource and Featured Flashback
- Maine Weather and Climate Overview
February Is the Month to . . .
By Kate Garland, Horticulture Professional
Ponder the view of your landscape from inside your home.
This year, instead of thinking about how your landscape looks to others, ponder how it can give you joy from inside your home. Where do you spend the most time looking out your window? Focus your plans on improving those views in every season. Consider adding a shrub that offers winter interest, adding perennials or annuals for continuous blooms, or installing a feature, such as a birdhouse, bench or trellis to draw your eye outside and bring a smile.
Check on stored tender perennials.
It’s easy to forget dahlia tubers, dormant geranium plants, and other non-hardy perennials overwintering in cool, dark corners of your home. Remove any dahlia tubers that are damaged or rotting and lightly moisten any that appear to be dry. Avoid overwatering tubers as that can lead to fungal issues and decay. The roots of stored geranium plants should be soaked a few times over the course of the winter for 1-2 hours, but otherwise kept bare rooted plants in an open paper bag or hung upside down in a cool dark location until it’s time to take them out of storage for potting up in early April.
Reduce walkway and driveway salt use to protect waterways, plants and gardens.
Shovel first, pre-treat before storms, apply sparingly with 1–2 inches between granules (a 12-oz cup covers ~10 sidewalk squares or a 20-ft driveway), store materials covered and don’t salt when temperatures are below 15°F, as it won’t melt the ice when it’s that cold.
Shop at a winter farmers market.
Long-time Maine Home Garden News readers know that I believe it’s always a good time to shop at a farmers market, but winter is especially rewarding because this is soup season! The top-quality root vegetables and meats you’ll find at the market can form the foundation of hearty soups, while fresh breads and cheeses will round out the meal.
Sign up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) flower share.
Some subscriptions start as early as February and promise artfully arranged, locally grown flowers throughout the season. Maine has a tremendous flower farming community; let them brighten your day or the life of a loved one.
Start some seeds and make a schedule for starting the others.
Onions, parsley, pansies and violets are all great options to start in February. It’s much too early to start most other vegetables and annual flowers unless you’re winter sowing outdoors. Mark your calendar for when to start other types based on your frost-free date. Learn more about starting seeds indoors.
Maple sap flows according to specific weather conditions. Sap will typically start flowing when daytime temperatures are above 40°F, followed by below freezing night time temperatures. Check out our Backyard Sugaring resources and give it a try!
Enjoy shopping for seeds.
Maine has many well-stocked local garden centers and hardware stores ready to meet your needs and, of course, we have excellent seed companies as well. Seeds make a great Valentine’s gift for your gardening sweetie – the promise of flowers to come.
Give your houseplants a spin.
The short days are tough on us, but they can be even tougher on houseplants. Remember to turn them every so often for a well rounded exposure to the sunlight coming through your window. Let them take turns in the sunny spot if space is limited. Don’t forget to give them a little dusting while you’re at it, since dust can also limit light exposure.
Plant Sale Planning
Article and photos by Susan Joakim, York County Master Gardener Volunteer
Winter is when many garden clubs, schools and other organizations begin to plan annual plant sales. Native plants, those that naturally grew in a specific area prior to European settlement, are essential for life in their region and offer countless benefits. Not only are they low maintenance, but many also offer beautiful flowers in vibrant colors. Natives attract birds as well as pollinators. Adding native plants to your organization’s plant sale will provide customers with the opportunity to support your region’s ecosystem and help to prevent the loss of wildlife and insects in the area. When adding native plant selections to your plant sale, here are some things to consider:
Pre-sale logistics.
Time invested in planning will pay off when you attract more customers and offer a safe and fun experience for all involved.
- Site planning
- Find a location that’s able to safely accommodate the number of customers and volunteers you’re anticipating and offer good traffic flow for parking.
- Clearly define which party is responsible for liability insurance.
- Marketing
- Develop an advertising plan to promote the event.
- Use signs to direct traffic to the sale, including where to park, where to check out, pricing, and payment options.
- Set up and operations
- Create a plant list in advance.
- Decide how plants will be organized and displayed—alphabetically, by sun/moisture requirements, native status, or by woody vs. herbaceous types.
- Determine whether you’ll allow online pre-orders and/or offer a holding area for shoppers to set aside plants while continuing to browse.
- Consider whether you will provide boxes, trays, or wagons for transporting plants.
- Financial planning
- What is the budget? How will expenses be covered?
- How will the money be handled? Will it be cash only? Who will take the money?
- Who will deposit it in the bank?
- Leftover planning
- Schools, community gardens, nonprofit organizations, and municipal sites are all great options for donating any unsold plants.
- Communicate with recipient organizations ahead of time to confirm interest and share a specific pickup timeframe.
- To save your team time and effort, try to coordinate pickup directly at the end of the plant sale to avoid moving plants multiple times.
Where to source plants.
Grow from seed or divide what you already have growing in your garden, but first determine with your team:
- What plants do you want to sell? Are you aiming to have plants only native to your specific region or also those native to a broader area? If offering a mix of natives and non-native plants, how will you help your customers know which is which?
- How many plants do you want to grow and how many of each species? Establish realistic goals with your team and start on the small scale to set a strong foundation for long-term success.
- Who will grow them? Consider a winter seed sowing party or organizing a spring digging crew, but be sure to not dig plants from the wild.
- How will the plants be labeled and how will they get to the sale location? Uniform labeling (plant name and pricing) makes it easier for customers to shop and helps improve the overall flow of the sale.
Keep it clean.
Use these sanitation tips from UMaine’s bulletin Best Practices for Plant Sale Donors and Buyers in Maine
- Use new, sterile soil and sterilized pots to prevent transmission of seeds, disease, and insect pests, which may be present as cocoons, larvae, or adults.
- Sterilize tools such as trowels and shovels. A 10% chlorine solution works well.
- Before you propagate, inspect plants carefully to screen out those with any sign of pests or disease.
- Pot up rooted cuttings rather than divisions whenever possible and always use new potting soil, not garden soil.
- If you do donate divisions, rinse the roots before potting, and manually remove the roots of invasive plants and other aggressive weeds such as black swallowwort, bindweed and quackgrass. This is labor-intensive, but can be effective if done thoroughly. Don’t be known as the plant sale that caused people to bring home unwelcome plant guests.
- Work with your group to ensure that all donors follow best practices. Perhaps the group could make bulk purchases of new pots and potting soil, for instance, to reduce the cost to donors.
Outreach & education.
Plant sales are a great space to educate gardeners on a wide range of topics. Consider having a resource table with handouts or a featured speaker to help build awareness of sustainable landscape practices.
- The state provides colorful education materials about invasive plants that you can get for free upon request.
- Local Extension offices often have printed materials on a wide range of topics to share. Grab a few soil test kits while you’re there too.
Volunteer coordination.
Volunteers are critical: they will be needed to help set up, take money, answer questions, tally people’s orders while they are waiting in line to pay, greet people, direct people to the holding area, help load cars if needed, remove tables, and clean-up. Be sure to recruit plenty of help for all stages of the event, and assign specific duties ahead of time.
Post-sale.
- Leave the event space better than you found it – especially if hosted by another organization or private business.
- Document what worked well and what needed improvement as soon as possible after the event.
- Make detailed notes on which plants were most popular and which were not sold.
- Keep good records of event expenses and revenue.
- Clean up the area as best as possible.
- Celebrate with the volunteers and any community partners that made the plant sale possible.
Additional information:
https://mainenativeplants.org/maine-native-plant-finder/
https://extension.umaine.edu/gardening/manual/plants-for-the-maine-landscape/
Winter Sowing
By Jonathan Foster, UMaine Cooperative Extension Home Horticulture Outreach Professional
Photos by Brooke Fogg-Wolfe
Winter sowing is a “propagation method used throughout the winter where temperate climate seeds are sown into protective vented containers and placed outdoors to foster a naturally timed, high percentage germination of climate tolerant seedlings” (USDA). The technique essentially makes mini-greenhouses out of plastic milk jugs or other transparent/translucent materials, utilizing the same principles as cold frames and larger structures that help extend the gardening season. The containers are placed in a bright, sheltered outdoor location and periodically checked, but otherwise just left alone until spring arrives. In this controlled environment the seeds will undergo the proper exposure to cold temperatures, then germinate, and the new plants can be planted out like regular seedlings once they’ve established in the growth medium.
There are a couple of reasons why a gardener might try winter sowing. Many times you just want to get an easy head start on the season with a low cost propagation method. Also, some seeds require “cold stratification” in order to successfully germinate. This extended period of exposure to cold temperatures prepares the seed to sprout when temperatures rise to the viability point. It’s an evolutionary adaptation that signals when the cold season is over and it’s safe to begin growing vigorously. If you’ve purchased seed packets for such species, those seeds have either already been cold treated or will have instructions for how to do so before germination (always read the seed packet!).
Winter sowing outdoors has several advantages over starting seeds inside:
- trouble-free cold stratification for species that require it
- an early start for the planting season
- less watering and other management than indoor seedlings
- less investment in space, equipment and energy
- ease of transition from protected seedlings to the hardening off process when the season warms up.
You do need to keep an eye on the weather for warm days that might make the inside of the jugs too hot or necessitate a bit of watering. Also, please exercise caution when cutting plastic and wear protective gear, as jagged edges can deliver nasty wounds.
The basics:
- Clean and dry your milk jug (or other container adapted to the purpose) thoroughly.
- Punch several drainage holes in the bottom of a clear milk jug . As always when utilizing the greenhouse effect, you don’t want to fully trap moisture or you’ll run into fungal and algal issues.
- Cut the jug in half and fill the bottom with moistened, well-drained substrate.
- Sow the seeds at their standard recommended depth and spacing (listed on the seed packet).
- Replace the top of the container and seal it around the cut line with tape to lock in moisture. Leave the top openable in case of hot days, or just don’t cap the jug.
- Place your containers in a sheltered location where they won’t be blown around by winter winds.
Warm season vegetable garden crops are not great candidates for winter sowing, though the technique can be used to “cheat” for slightly earlier germination in the spring. For true winter sowing outdoors, brassicas (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale) should all be sown in February, and lettuce, beets, and spinach can be sown in March. If you want to experiment with this method for an early start on summer plants like peppers and tomatoes, it’s best to wait until April.
As for ornamental plants, seed packets give clues to good candidates for winter sowing. Look for descriptions such as “hardy annual,” “will colonize,” “requires chilling,” “can be sown in Fall,” or “can be sown early” (UMD Cooperative Extension, page 10). Options include asclepias, cosmos, pansies, zinnias, calendula, butterfly weed, echinacea, rudbeckia, and monarda. Hardy annuals and perennials can be started in January, standard annuals and tender perennials should be in March (Univ of IL Cooperative Extension video, time mark 15:52).
For further reading, the UNH Cooperative Extension published a nice discussion of winter sowing here, and the University of Missouri Cooperative Extension has a great page on the topic, too, including a step-by-step guide with photos.
Backyard Bird of the Month: Tufted Titmouse
By Maine Audubon Field Naturalist Stacia Brezinski
You don’t have to be an expert to know what’s on the mind of a Tufted Titmouse. As one of the most vocal birds in Maine, they’re a great subject for studying bird behavior. Their most familiar noises might be their squeaky (dare I say ‘mousey’) contact calls and the raspy, mechanical scolding which might follow you down the trail. This winter, listen for those contact calls as the first sign of a mixed flock passing through the area. Tufted Titmice and their relatives, Black-capped Chickadees, each form small flocks that forage together in the winter and call constantly to keep track of one another. It sounds busy and chattery. Flocks often combine and are joined intermittently by Brown Creepers, White-breasted Nuthatches, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. Titmice and chickadees forage at the ends of branches, so they often spot predators sooner than those species that creep along tree trunks and branches.
When a threat is identified, whether that’s you, a cat, or an Eastern Screech Owl, their enthusiastic “jway-jway” and “seet” calls are hard to interpret as anything but sounds of displeasure. One of their alarm calls sounds like a mechanical “chick-a-dee.” These calls summon nearby birds of any species to mob predators. Studies on both titmice and chickadees have revealed that the number and frequency of the “dee” notes in the call communicate information about the specific threat. A study published in 2022 demonstrated that even neotropical birds that have never seen a bird in the Paridae family (chickadees and tits) respond as intended to the “chick-a-dee” call. Eavesdrop on these charismatic Maine residents all year round in deciduous forests and backyards.
Pollinator-Friendly Garden Profile: The Children’s Garden at Fort Williams
Article by Debbie Schulz, Cumberland County Master Gardener Volunteer
Photos by Allan Amioka, York County Master Gardener Volunteer
Every summer day, buses arrive at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, loaded with people eager to see Portland Head Lighthouse. The oldest lighthouse in Maine and the first built by the United States government, it is said to be one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world.
Many visitors aren’t aware of another gem in the park: the Children’s Garden, which has also been described in superlative terms as the largest and most beautiful native plant garden in Maine. While those claims could be up for debate, the Children’s Garden has my vote. Its name might suggest that the garden is exclusively for children and parents. What I found instead is a space of beauty for everyone. You will feel comfortable there no matter your age.
The Children’s Garden is a certified Pollinator Friendly Garden, containing 1.5 acres of mixed habitat including a rain garden, woodland, meadow, pond and stream. It was designed in 2012 and built/planted in 2016-17. The five pages of plants listed on the Friends of Fort Williams website include over 168 native trees, shrubs, ferns, and perennials, with a few biennials and annuals as well. The Friends organization enhances and maintains several areas of the park, in addition to the garden.
Native plant purists will be happy to learn that the plantings are moving away from native plant cultivars. In the initial years of the garden, the range of true native plants on the market was limited. As more straight species have become easily available, they have found their home in the garden.
The Friends use ecological practices to enhance the survival of wildlife. Leaves and plants are left undisturbed in fall and winter to allow pollinators to successfully overwinter. Seeds are collected and plants are divided and slowly spread along paths and historical structures in the park. In the process, the initial plantings have evolved and been rebalanced. Like any garden, it’s a work in progress.
Sprinkled throughout the garden are signs and structures to spark children’s imagination and play. Plans are in place for a playground at the margins of the garden to complete the integration of play and discovery.
As you walk you will see native plants in huge numbers throughout the park. One area I discovered last year has been planted up with snakeroot. You may not have considered growing snakeroot, but in the right setting it’s absolutely beautiful.
The Garden is a part of a weekly free birdwatching walk during migration season in spring through late fall. Incredible numbers of birds have been observed including a flock of snow buntings one fine fall day. Many birdwatchers are also avid native plant enthusiasts so you may hear a lot of educational conversation about native plants.
You’ll want to linger at Fort Williams. See the stunning lighthouse, eat a lobster roll and walk the many paths along the shore. There are historical buildings, some of which are more like relics with fragments of stone and brickwork. Some paths appear to be accessible by wheelchairs. Picnic tables and benches encourage you to sit and enjoy. Ample parking is available at the overflow lot near the park entrance, which, at this time, is still free year round.
You may find yourself agreeing with me that the Children’s Garden is one of the loveliest native plant gardens in Maine.
This article is part of an ongoing Maine Home Garden News series highlighting gardens certified through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Pollinator-Friendly Garden Certification program. Each feature showcases how certified gardens across the state are supporting native pollinators through intentional, research-based practices. For more information about the certification program and see a map of certified public gardens, visit extension.umaine.edu/gardening/pollinator.
Don’t Guess: Soil Test
By Rebecca Long, Coordinator of Horticulture Training Programs
This article launches a new Maine Home Garden News mini series focused on building healthy soils. Over the coming months, we will walk through essential best practices such as soil testing, adjusting pH, selecting fertility sources, and applying amendments to help you make soil health a priority in your garden this year.
Why spend the time and money to do a soil test for your garden?
A soil test reveals what you can’t see with the naked eye: pH, nutrient and organic matter levels, and contaminants like lead. With this information you can take action to increase your success growing whatever sparks your fancy, be it vegetables, fruit trees, or native flowers. Plus, following soil test recommendations helps avoid the risks of applying soil amendments blindly which can be a waste of money and result in over application of nutrients (a potential environmental issue) or over correction of pH (a costly mistake to fix).
Start with a basic $20 test from the state’s soil testing lab.
These labs use methods calibrated for local soils and provide clear recommendations based on what you plan to grow. That guidance is a major advantage over at-home test kits, which don’t offer enough information to take meaningful action.
More expensive soil health tests can be interesting, but they don’t always lead to clear next steps. Unlike amending nutrients and pH, which are best done based on a soil test, there’s little risk to implementing soil health practices without taking a soil health test first.
Ready to test?
Check out the Maine Soil Testing Service site for video and written instructions for collecting soil samples. Check back in the next couple issues for more articles on what to do once you have your soil test results.
Ask the Expert
Ask an Expert Feature Question:
“I have a fir tree which is around 20 years old. Some time ago it appeared to ‘morph’ to what it is now – like 2 different trees growing as one… I am interested if you can shed any further light on the tree.”
Answer by Jonathan Foster, Horticulturist
What you’re seeing is something called “genetic reversion” in horticulture. Many ornamental features in house and landscape plants, like variegated foliage or compact dwarf forms, originated from a mutation occurring in the growth point of the plant (the meristem) on a normal individual of the species. These mutations to appearance often happen in the outermost layer of tissue and spread horizontally across the outer boundary of the plant meristem as it grows.
Steven Bernstein.
Imagine the meristem as a balloon that can’t be popped, with a slowly spreading blotch of color (the mutation) on the surface–if you could push your finger up from inside the balloon at the splotch, your finger would be covered with that mutated color. Back to plants, any shoot that grows up through this zone of expanding epidermal tissue will be “coated” in an outer layer of cells that bear the mutation, with the mutated layer spreading and growing with the new shoot. The new plantlet with the mutated appearance in its outer layer of cells can then be propagated vegetatively by cuttings to sell as an ornamental “cultivar” (a portmanteau for “cultivated variety”). As long as you are continuing to take cuttings from successive generations of the plant with mutated cells in the outermost layer, you can continue the line with the desired decorative trait showing.
However, the plant tissue immediately beneath that outer mutated layer is also pluripotent (meaning able to differentiate into many kinds of cells) and still carries the original DNA in the interior of the plant. Occasionally (often in response to damage that penetrates several layers deep), a new shoot will emerge from this deeper, non-mutated tissue and push out as a new plantlet, only one without the mutated cell outer “skin.” The new shoot won’t show the ornamental effect that the mutation originally produced because those cells aren’t present in the new growth. In this particular case, your dwarf, conical white spruce (Picea alba) was grown with a mutated expression (for dwarfism) in its outer layer, but sent out a new shoot from non-mutated meristems (without dwarfism), which means it reverted to the original plant DNA at the point of that transition line. It’s then continued growing like a regular white spruce does since then.
Unfortunately, the reversion is permanent in the new shoot, so that top portion will continue to grow out in its tree form if left alone. Cutting out that section is the only way to reclaim the original ornamental shape, and you may need to monitor the cut stem for a couple of seasons to make sure it doesn’t continue to put out reverted growth.
Enjoy more great questions and answers on our Ask the Expert page. [Photograph credit Steven Bernstein, used with permission]
Featured Resource
February is Browntail Awareness Month. This is a great time of year to scout for webs of the invasive Browntail Moth in tree canopies and make a management plan if they happen to be in your landscape. Learn more about population trends and answers to frequently asked questions at this website.
Featured Flashback
Did you know Maine Home Garden News has more than a decade of archived articles? This year we’ll be highlighting one timeless treasure each month, drawing from years of research-based gardening guidance that remains just as relevant today. We invite you to explore the archives and discover even more practical information. There is far more waiting to be found!
Fall: A Good Time to Apply Compost – Article originally posted in MHGN October 2012 issue, written by Mark Hutchinson, Extension Professor (retired), University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Knox and Lincoln Counties.
Maine Weather and Climate Overview
By Sean Birkel, Assistant Extension Professor, Maine State Climatologist, Cooperative Extension, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
Moderate to severe drought conditions persist across the majority of Maine, and extreme drought continues to affect a portion of coastal Cumberland and York counties. Little change is expected until spring when melting snow can seep into the subsurface and recharge groundwater. More information is available on the Maine Drought Task Force website.
With the New Year upon us, statewide temperature & precipitation summaries for all of 2025 are now available from NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance:
Maine Statewide 2025 Temperature & Precipitation Rankings
- Annual (Jan–Dec): 17th warmest (top 1/3), 38th driest (bottom 1/3)
- Dec: 44th coldest (bottom 1/3), 59th wettest (average)
- Nov: 47th warmest (average), 32nd driest (bottom 1/3)
- Oct: 12th warmest (top 1/10), 57th driest (average)
- Sep: 17th warmest (top 1/3), 27th driest (bottom 1/3)
- Aug: 38th warmest (top 1/3), 9th driest (bottom 1/10)
- Jul: 13th warmest (top 1/3), 8th driest (bottom 1/10)
- Jun: 23rd warmest (top 1/3), 60th wettest (average)
- May: 32nd warmest (top 1/3), 17th wettest (top 1/3)
- Apr: 32nd warmest (top 1/3), 24th wettest (top 1/3)
- Mar: 18th warmest (top 1/3), 24th wettest (top 1/3)
- Feb: 62nd warmest (average), 55th driest (average)
- Jan: 38th warmest (top 1/3), 14th driest (bottom 1/3)
NOAA statewide rankings for January 2026 are not yet available from NOAA, but station data show temperature for the month near the historical average. January began with a weeklong cold wave that brought single digit and below zero morning temperatures, followed by above normal temperatures in a warm wave January 8–16, near normal through the 23rd, and then colder than normal through the end of the month. January precipitation was below normal in Bangor and near normal in Portland and Caribou. Summary maps from the Northeast Drought Early Warning System show large 30-day precipitation deficits in northwestern Maine along the Quebec border.
The last week in January saw the development of a major outbreak of Arctic air across much of the continental U.S. and southern Canada, bringing freezing temperatures down to the Gulf Coast from southern Texas to northern Florida. This pattern also produced an expansive storm system with heavy snowfall and mixed precipitation from Texas to New England and into the Canadian Maritime provinces. Severe ice accumulations impacted several states along the southern boundary of the storm system. For Maine, this storm system produced a nor’easter that dropped several inches to over a foot of snow – powder – owing to temperatures remaining in the single digits during snowfall.
As of January 28, both the U.S. and European models show below or near-normal temperatures persisting through at least mid February. If the forecast holds, then this winter season is on track to be the coldest in several years.
Visit weather.gov for the most up-to-date forecasts. For maps of expected snowfall, ice potential, and storm onset/end timing visit the National Weather Service Gray and Caribou forecast office winter weather pages.
For additional information, including historical temperature and precipitation data, weather forecasts, and seasonal climate outlooks, visit the Maine Climate Office website.
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Maine Home Garden News was created in response to a continued increase in requests for information on gardening and includes timely and seasonal tips, as well as research-based articles on all aspects of gardening. Articles are written by UMaine Extension specialists, educators, and horticulture professionals, as well as Master Gardener Volunteers from around Maine. The following staff and volunteer team take great care editing content, designing the web and email platforms, maintaining email lists, and getting hard copies mailed to those who don’t have access to the internet: Abby Zelz*, Barbara Harrity*, Kate Garland, Mary Michaud, Michelle Snowden, Naomi Jacobs*, Phoebe Call*, and Wendy Robertson.
*Master Gardener Volunteers
Information in this publication is provided purely for educational purposes. No responsibility is assumed for any problems associated with the use of products or services mentioned. No endorsement of products or companies is intended, nor is criticism of unnamed products or companies implied.
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