I usually only mulch in the spring. I've heard for winter mulching you should wait until the ground freezes, THEN mulch them. The idea being that once the ground freezes and you mulch you are keeping the ground in one state. To mulch when warm keeps them warmer longer, but they might have more of freeze-thaw cycles and the plant heaves out of the ground. Counter-intuitive, but I've read that several places.

I do most of my mulching in the spring. I will probably not do any more mulching this year (for the reasons gottagarden gave), but if it's a hardy established plant I don't think mulching now will HURT it. I'd be more worried about mulching a smaller, newly planted perennial than adding mulch to something that's got its roots dug down deep.

I'm hoping for better snow cover this winter than we usually get. Somehow, Penny, I don't think you'll have to worry as much as I will about getting enough SNOW ;-)

Laurel

Oddly enough last year we had 0 snow cover and I actually lost some hardy perennials such as all my coral bells and all but one purple coneflower and some of my agastaches so this year I was thinking about adding some of the leaf litter near the plants that would be most vunerable. I thought you had to wait until the ground froze but wasn't quite sure.

Penny