Plant Away the Winter Blues
I look forward to each day durring the winter. For some people,
lamenting the past days of fall with its bright foliage in the
landscape and longer, brighter days, pre-Daylight Savings Time,
means they feel down when the dull, short days of winter arrive.
But there’s actually lots you can do around your lot (”punny,”
huh?) during the winter months.
For me, I have grown to appreciate each day with my interests in
the landscapes surrounding my farm locations. There’s a
satisfaction that derives from knowing that many dazzling
displays, throughout the winter, can be found by careful
observation. Yes, the days are short and the nights are long.
And yet, growing plants, and enjoying doing so, are year-round
activities that do bring unlimited hours of “quality time.”
One way to “get into” your plants is watering them. WINTER
WATERING IS IMPORTANT. And it’s simple. Make it a fundamental
item on your list of things to do. Get out and check on your
outside plants, enjoy being amongst your landscaping. The ground
may be not at all entirely frozen so plants still use water. If
the ground is not frozen you can still add water. The basic
question is will the ground accept water? If yes, just remember
that most plants have slowed metabolism in winter; they’re
dormant, not unlike hibernating bears. The amount of water must
therefore be LESS than during warmer autumn or spring days, and
MUCH LESS than during the hottest days of summer.
Evergreens lose water through their needles in the winter. So,
if you keep watering as long as possible into wintertime, from
seedlings to mature trees, these plants will ALWAYS benefit.
Winter drying of evergreens is a major stress factor. Surprised?
IT”S TRUE.
Snow and ice on your plants can be problematic. Tall thin plants
are not sturdy. They tend to bend under snow loads and may
require staking later to train them straight. If your small
plants have a light amount of snow covering them you may ease
the snow burden by lightly sweeping the snow with a broom. DON’T
vigorously shake them, they are like babies … they will get
“sylvic shaken-baby syndrome.”
If snow or ice is frozen to a tree’s branches, allow it to melt
rather than attempting to force corrections. If any branches are
broken, you probably don’t need to do anything unless there is a
split in the trunk. If the breakage of the plant is a complete
severing, the seedling or liner shoud be discarded. Sometimes we
just have to accept our losses. The labor time and effort to
repair a completely broken trunk is not worth the value of even
an exotic imported druit tree. It is also likely a poor quality
seedling will be the one prone to breakage and would only become
a a poor quality mature tree anyway. There is a market for such
plants however, as we have had many customers who want, “Charlie
Brown Trees,” stunted trees for special limited space or limited
height locations.
Warm spells in the winter WILL occur. You’ve heard of the
“January thaw,” right? Suddenly, there are two or three days of
phenomenally warm temperatures. Happily. this should not be an
“isuue” for your trees, shrubs, or perennial flowers. When a
warm spell occurs, get outside, use some shoe leather, and wear
out those leather gloves too. It’s great to have a mid-winter
break, right? For grownups too, not just as enjoyed the
mid-winter breaks from school.
Movement and fresh air are proven to aid in combatting
depression. Wintertime blues is in fact depression. Women get
depressed three time more often then men, but men get it far
more severely. So, GO OUT AND PREPARE YOUR LANDSCAPE FOR SPRING.
You might even see some pretty winter sights while you’re out
there and up close which you’d surely miss if you satyed inside.
Honest.
If you have covering on or over your plants, you may need to
provide ventilation. We normally open the doors to our
greenhouses when it’s warm enough. This is usually all that is
necessary. If you use cold frames, their temperatures may rise
so ventilation will be helpful if you have them. Close up as
nightfall arrives because, DUH!, the temperature will fall
rapidly. Note that when sunlight intensity is high, plant
tissues become active. Water loss at this time can’t be replaced
if the roots are frozen. This is called “plant desiccation.”
If there many freeze-thaw cycles, the crown of plants can be
heaved up exposing the roots. Root systems have a lower
tolerance to temperature extremes and can killed by freezing low
temperatures. A common way to prevent desiccation is to screen
plants in exposed areas with burlap. YOU’LL HELP PREVENT PLANT
DESICCATION TOO.
Now, varmint control is also important in the winter. There’s
less food available. Mice and rabbits feed constantly. Their
teeth grow constantly and they love to chew on tender plants. We
spread rat and mice bait about every two to three weeks as long
as we see it being consumed. Try and place your baits in a place
easy to monitor, a dry place accessible only to the varmints.
When the snow gets deep, mice will feed up higher on your
plants. They don’t like to dig in the snow for food and are
light enough to walk on top of most any snow. How wonderful for
them. How not do wonderful for the plants struggling to make it
through the cold weather. Mice most always take the “easy road”
to reach the first available food.
Watch for all tracks in the snow, large or small, or even tiny.
These clues to your plants’ survival are important to watch for.
Mouse damage usually CANNOT be corrected. You may not see root
feeding damage to stock til’ spring, so a little over-baiting is
the best solution. Yes, DO BE CAREFUL that the baits are only
available to the target varmint.
When its winter, remember that VIBURNUMS are the most
attractive, versatile, adaptable shrubs for any landscape. They
can be used as hedges or screens and in mixed perennial/shrub
borders. They can also stand alone as specimen plants. They
usually take the form of shrubs, but some species can become
small ornamental trees. They range in size from the Dwarf
American Cranberrybush at 2 feet tall by 2 feet wide, to the
Siebold Viburnum at over 15 feet tall. You can even plant one
during the midst of a wintertime thaw.
We feel that Viburnums are plants that have great winter
interest. All viburnums have white to pink flowers in the
spring. The foliage is large, attractive and often textured
leaves. Some viburnums have fragrant flowers that appear in
snowball shaped clusters in April. Their flower clusters can
consist of pink buds, which develop into white flowers.
As for the fruit of a viburnum, some are red and turn black with
age. The fruit is usually bitter tasting, bit it IS colorful.
Midsummer berries can be a vital food source for birds and their
tastebuds aren’t as demanding as ours. Viburnum leaves can be
glossy, dark green in the summer and then turn a burgundy color
in the fall. Viburnums have colorful red to purple leaves in
November here is southeastrern Pennsylvania.
Some viburnums can become medium-size trees, especially if they
are pruned. Viburnums excel as specimen plants or as anchors in
mixed borders. You won’t find a more versatile group of shrubs
for hedges or for massing in groups, since viburnums hold their
own in every season, as I’ve described. Some viburnums, such as
Prague Viburnum ‘Pragense’, are evergreen. Others, such as the
Leatherleaf Viburnum, are semi-evergreen in colder climates,
losing their leaves when temperatures dip below 10 degrees.
The great feature of viburnums is that they are so adaptable.
While they would like full sun and moderately watered,
well-drained rich soils, they will grow very well in part shade,
and in clay soils too. Diseases and pests rarely attack them and
they don’t tend to have to require any spraying. My kids have
run over my viburnums with lawnmowers and brush hogs and the
viburnums have survived. Their fibrous root system makes them
transplant easily too.
In your search for a good, hardy shrub with winter interest
consider the Viburnum family.
The ASIAN Viburnums have, in fact, long “ruled the roost” among
viburnums. Viburnums have long been popular garden plants,
celebrated for their white, often fragrant spring flowers to go
with their summer and fall leaf colors. Perhaps the most widely
appreciated viburnums are the Asian species, Burkwood Viburnum
(Viburnum x burkwoodii) and the Korean Spice Viburnum (V.
carlesii), both of which fill the air with a pleasant odor in
mid-spring. Also popular is the Doublefile Viburnum (V. plicatum
f. tomentosum), valued for its layered habit, fall foliage, and
clusters of red fruit, and the Viburnum Acerifolium
(Maple-leafed viburnum).
Although I wouldn’t garden without any of the viburnums, I have
a special fondness for several of our very “gardenworthy” native
viburnums. Though they may not provide the enticing flower
fragrance of their Asian cousins, I love them not only for their
rich fall foliage color, but also for their fruit displays. The
rich fruit displays attract wildlife to my garden in the fall
and then during the bleak winter months. In addition, several
viburnums are useful to today’s “waterwise” gardeners or for
urban conditions. They require only corrective pruning, and none
commonly suffer from pests or diseases.
I would be hard pressed to say which viburnum I would choose if
I could only have one.
Viburnums are moist woodland plants. In nature, they are found
along stream banks from Long Island to Florida. When you come to
our 5275 West Swamp Rd. location, just northeast of Doylestown,
ask us to show you some in their native habitat where we found
natural, native viburnums along our stream bank. Winterthur
Viburnums have great red leaves and abundant fruit in the fall.
I must note, this cultivar needs a cross pollinator such as
Viburnum Nudum. In conclusion, if you want some outside work
that’s good to do in the winter for both you and your landscape,
this is when I cut back our viburnums. Pressing issues of the
other seasons always seems to allow my viburnums to stand alone
untouched, but they thrive nonetheless, as I have described. In
midwinter, I always enjoy trimming back these plants. It is then
that I see all the nests that the birds haver built and can work
without disturbing their families. It seems to me that it is
easier to cut back and trim viburnums now. I always feel guilty
in the summer when I trim out ANY green foliage from ANY plant.
Wintertime frees me from those demons. And maybe will you too.
You can read more about plants at the following websites
http://www.seedlingsrus.com, www.zone5trees.com, and
www.highlandhillfarm.com
