Winter Weather and Landscape Plants
Most of the Midwest is expected to get significant snow in the next 24 hours. And following that snow will be extremely low temperatures. This is not all “bad news.”
Snow acts as an insulator for low-growing plants. I’ve noticed spring-blooming bulbs are already emerging from the ground because of the warm temperatures of late January and early February. This snow will help keep the bulbs cold, and pause any further development. So, don’t try to sweep the snow off your bulbs and perennials…it’s actually a good thing.
The icy precipitation from last week didn’t seem to harm much in the landscape, as far as I could see. At least in the Evansville area, there really wasn’t that much ice accumulation, so we didn’t lose many branches. However, much of that ice is still on the plants, and an additional 6 to 12 inches of snow may become too heavy for those branches to take.
Accumulations of heavy, wet snow on evergreens can also cause severe branch breakage. When heavy, wet snow accumulates on evergreens, gently shake the snow from the branches or carefully brush off the snow with a broom. When shoveling driveways and sidewalks, don’t throw heavy, wet snow or ice onto shrubs or small trees. The weight of the heavy, wet snow and ice can cause considerable damage. If branch breakage occurs on a tree, prune back the damaged limb to the main branch or trunk. Damaged shrubs may need to be pruned in the spring to restore their attractive, natural shape.
Evergreens, such as boxwood, arborvitae, yews and junipers often take a beating from heavy snow and ice. The good news is these plants have very flexible branches. Because of this flexibility, most evergreens do not experience limb breakage; however, the limbs and trunks may be bent out of shape (such as in the picture at the top of this article).
Given time the plant will often right or correct itself. Plants are made to take this type of damage from snow and ice. Don’t rush the natural process. Slowly the limbs will start to right themselves. This does not mean they will be as perfectly in shape as before. They may still be somewhat misshapen, but down the road, it will not be as noticeable. It may take six months to a year for this to occur.
My recommendation is to resist the temptation to help nature out. In other words don’t go out and pull, tie or stake the branches back into place. Doing this can weaken the limbs as they become dependent on the support rather than its natural wood. I know it is hard to resist the helping hand, but in this case, nature knows better.One thing you might want to try is to knock the snow off as it falls. This involves GENTLY brushing off the limbs with a broom. Avoid vigorous motions that causes the limbs to shake or bounce as the weight of the movement can cause the limbs to break.
Brushing only works with powdery snow. It is best to wait for ice or frozen snow that has adhered to the limbs to melt. Brushing or knocking off the ice will break the branches and pulls off the needles causing more damage. The good news is that most evergreens are resilient and bend but do not break.
If you need help with after-storm pruning of your landscape plants, contact me, and I’ll make repairs before growth begins in the spring.
| Ice Melting Chemicals Ice-melting salts can cause harm to lawns and nearby landscape plants if these products are overused. Since it is possible that this may be the only major snow event for the year, I doubt most of us will use enough salt to harm nearby landscaping. The University of Missouri has a good article on protecting landscape plants from ice-melting products: https://ipm.missouri.edu/MEG/2011/1/Consider-Nearby-Plants-When-Using-Sidewalk-Ice-Melters/ .  The picture above shows one of the most common problems with snow, salt, and landscape plants. People will shovel the salty, slushy ice and snow off their sidewalks and driveways and deposit it in the handiest space…landscape beds. The weight of all this snow will break and tear branches. And the salt will contaminate the landscape bed, causing symptoms of chemical burning in the upcoming growing season. I know the snow and ice has to go somewhere…but try not to dump it into landscape beds! If salty snow and ice is dumped into a landscape bed, flush it out with lots of water once the ground warms up in the spring. My best advice is to read the ice-melting product label directions, and use the product properly. Most salt products only break up the ice within certain temperature ranges. If it’s too cold, the salt will do nothing, so there’s no point in using it until the temperatures warm up the proper range. Use the right amount…the salt is meant to help make the ice melt enough so that you can shovel or plow it off the concrete. It shouldn’t be so thickly applied that it acts like sand for traction. |
| Cold Injury Low temperatures can cause damage to flower buds on many fruiting and landscape plants. Even though the temperatures in the tri-state have been in the teens (and may yet go lower), I feel confident that our blooming plants will be OK. Right now, we are in mid-February, and thankfully, we’ve had steady cold temperatures for the last several weeks. Most of our spring-blooming plants are fully dormant, and at their hardiest stage. I doubt we’d get noticeable loss of flower buds at this moment unless the temperatures dropped way below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Where we get into trouble is when a freeze occurs as the buds are opening and developing. The freezing temperatures at that point can damage the cells that will become the fruit or seeds. The further along in the bloom period, the less hardy the flower structures are. If we were to get temperatures in the teens during full bloom, as shown in the picture above…well, that would be the end of this year’s fruit crops. Not much we can do now to protect our plants. Keep an eye on the temperatures over the next several weeks, and record the lows. If you have dieback of stems or loss of blooms later this spring, recall this week’s weather. You can also have me come out and examine the plants, to determine if branches are dead or just stunted. |