Protecting Plants from Winter Hazards

Protecting your plants from the severity of winter weather requires more than mulching. While providing a protective layer of mulch for beds and roses is important, you can go much further to prevent winter damage. Always water plants thoroughly during the holiday period before the soil freezes solid. Roots freezing into moist soil will have far less chance of being damaged because they are held closer to 32 degrees by virtue of the ice controlling lower drops of soil temperature.

Some other hazards faced by your plants in the winter include cold drying wind, snow and ice loads, salt damage and quick thawing and freezing cycles.

Excessive weight from ice or snow can cause branch breakage. Knocking ice off abruptly cam actually cause more damage than leaving it alone. Excess snow can be brushed away gently, but ice is inflexible. If a long branch projecting several yards away from the tree is obviously stressed by the weight of the ice, a prop can be used to strengthen it. However, place the prop towards the outside end of the branch, well beyond the mid-point.

Some preparations can be made prior to the onset of severe conditions. While blizzards and freezing below 0 degrees in dry soil are extreme, a typical winter of drying wind, ice and snow can also wreck havoc with plants.

First, keep a broom or shovel on hand for gently pushing away excess snow during heavy snowfalls. Remember that the semi-inflexible wood has taken hours to bend down with the gradual accumulation of the snow’s weight. Do not push the snow away suddenly, or the abrupt shift of the branch could cause obvious and direct or even imperceptible breakage that may not be visible until the spring.

Consider supporting some of your multiple stemmed shrubs, small trees and evergreens with soft twine or rope laced loosely through the vertical branches. This will give the crotch areas added strength without removing their flexibility. The rope or wider strapping materials should be removed in the spring. Check with your garden center for a more thorough explanation. Larger plants can be cabled and braced, but this task is better left to a professional and may be unnecessary, unless you have plants with existing structural problems.

For exempla, large trees that have grown with a double trunk can be vulnerable in heavy winds and ice or snow overloads. A professional arborists can bolt through the bottom and cable the two sections at an appropriate distance above the ground, strengthening the tree without eliminating flexibility. This can create a new stress point, but in most cases the tree will not break. Since the area between the two sections is a frequent source of rotting, the added strength will protect against separation of the two sections.
Some more temperamental plants such as rhododendron and other broadleaf evergreens need special care prior to harsh winters. A problem can develop on those cold, sunny days. The plant’s evergreen leaves will get warm and need water. But since the roots are frozen into the soil, they are unable to provide the water; the leave will dry out and may die. There are two ways to prevent this problem.

First, you can use a chemical sealant called an anti-desiccant, (or anti-drying agent) so that the plant will tend to lose less water. Or, you can build a breathable barrier around the plant using several tomato stakes and some cheesecloth or burlap. The wind and sunscreen should provide a slowing of the wind and reduction of overall light while still allowing the plant to get necessary light and without touching the plant.

A landscape professional will generally try to locate these plants so that they are not in a southwesterly wind path, getting the harsh sunshine and winter storms, If that’s where they had to be placed however, the screen can prevent drying out which can kill our beautiful and expensive evergreens.

Other winter preventive measures include watching where you shovel. A heavy snow is already putting stress on small bushes: avoid placing shoveled snow on top of the plants in addition to the weight burden they are already enduring; and they may also contain damaging salts.

Water your mulched beds during unusually warm period of winter, such as during January or February thaw periods, especially if the winter has been dry. Remember a wet freeze is much less damaging than a dry freeze that can kill plant roots deep in the ground.

Mulching your plants for the winter is only the beginning or preventive measures you can take to keep your plants safe from severe winter conditions.