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Protecting Plants From Winter Injury

Snow can be a mixed blessing in the landscape during the winter months. Newly fallen snow creates an attractive winter landscape, especially when contrasted next to evergreens or holly, nandina, winterberry, and other fruiting plants.

Snow does have beneficial effects as well. It helps to replenish soil moisture lost during the last growing season. It serves as a good insulator, especially around plants with borderline hardiness in our area. Light and fluffy, freshly fallen snow, with its millions of tiny air pockets, insulates the soil by maintaining an even soil temperature. This helps to reduce "frost heaving" of perennials in the landscape.

After a heavy, wet snowfall, it is usually a good idea to go out into the landscape with a broom and gently brush the snow off the shrubs, especially evergreens. Use a slow, upward motion of the broom. Do not brush down, as that will encourage breakage of the branches. You can also gently tap the branches. Evergreens are more susceptible to snow damage than are deciduous shrubs as they have more foliage surface for snow accumulation. The bending of the branches damages the bark and cambium tissue. This will result in cankers or death of the stem the following growing season.

You can tie evergreens such as yews, juniper, and arborvitae in a spiral fashion with rope or twine to compress the shrub's size and reduce damage from snow and ice.

Shrubs that would collapse under heavy snow loads can be protected or supported. Place small crates or wooden frames over them in the fall. You can make wooden frames from snow fencing. The crate and the slats on the frame will support some of the snow load.

Four or five inches of snow piled up next to trunk of fruit trees and shrubs make a nice, insulated home for mice and voles. Protected under the snow layer, these critters can tunnel right up to the tree trunk and start to feast on the bark. Unless you are looking for this type of damage, it won't be evident until later on in the spring when a portion of the tree or the entire tree wilts.

Mice and voles strip away bark at the soil level, thus severing the plant's ability to conduct water from the roots up the plant stem. Avoid this problem by stomping down the snow around the tree trunk.

Ice, while also beautiful when it covers tree branches and the landscape, can be much more damaging than snowfall to plants. Ice damage occurs when high winds break the heavily coated branches.

The best recommendation to reduce ice damage is to NOT knock it off the plants. Gently prop up lightly covered branches with a flexible support and let the ice melt. Rigid supports such as wooden props or stepladders may cause breakage at the point of support. By trying to remove the ice from bent branches, you can make the damage much worse to the stem tissue. Small plants that are regularly bent over by ice can be supported with a bicycle inner tube looped loosely around the stems.

Marc Teffeau has 23 years experience as a horticulturist and is a regular contributor to HouseNet, Inc.

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