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pring is officially only two months away! But you will start to feel it coming around Valentine’s Day—even if there is snow on the ground, the days will be noticeably longer and the sun hotter. I love getting in my car and feeling the warmth from the sun in mid-February and beyond.
Despite the slight break the next couple of days from this cold winter thus far, we will be right back in it in a few days.
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Here in the DC area, most of us are located in growing zone 7, which means that our normal lowest temperature falls between 0-10 degrees. We haven’t gone below zero at this point, so all plant material specified for our zone should be just fine. As many of you know, I am in “zone denial”, so many of my plants fall into the zone 8 category (lowest temperatures usually 10-20 degrees) so some of my most tender things have browning on their leaves. As far as I can tell at this point, everything I’ve seen looks just fine. REMEMBER: If you have plants that are winter damaged, DO NOTHING to them until you see new growth in the spring (usually by early May). THEN trim out any dead wood. Most plants with damaged leaves will drop these leaves just prior to new growth and that is normal. And most broadleaf evergreens yellow and shed their old leaves, anyway, prior to new growth. If you are interested, here is a link to the growing zone map for the United States: www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap |
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If we get ice, DO NOT try to get it off plants that are bent over from it. You can damage the plants even more by doing this. I know you will laugh, but believe me, I’ve heard of people using everything from hairdryers to hot water to try to get rid of ice on plants. DO NOT. Most plants will bounce back on their own when the ice melts, and you can prune anything else in the spring. |
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Snow is a different story in terms of knocking it off your plants. You can take a broom and GENTLY knock it off your bent-over plants. A plant that comes to mind is boxwood—these can easily break under a heavy snow load. REMEMBER: BE GENTLE. |
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Remember that many of the salts that are sold for treating your sidewalks and driveway can damage plants and lawns, so be careful. If plants get splashed with salt from the street and burn, just wait until spring’s new growth before doing anything. |
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