Protect Your Tender Plants In Winter

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29843, 8 June 1962, Page 8

Protect Your Tender Plants In Winter

Some of the more adventuresome amongst you may be growing plants that are tender and difficult to bring through the winter. Tender trees and shrubs seem to be most susceptible to damage by low temperatures in their early years and, as they age, become more tolerant. If these tender plants can be carried

through the first, and perhaps the second winter, then often they- will establish themselves and grow away.

The parts of the plants which are most susceptible are: The growing tip which, being the last part of the plant to develop, may not be properly ripened at the onset of cold weather. The retention of the tip is most im-

portant in the case of trees where the aim is to have a well shaped plant Root systems, especially those of surfacing rooting plants. Stems and trunks of some trees and shrubs have the tendency to split during prolonged frost which usually results in death. In exposed positions cold winds can defoliate evergreens. If protection is given in one of the following ways the chances of bringing a tender plant through the winter are considerably increased. (1) Protect the growing tip by tying a piece of sacking or a handful of straw over it. (2) Mulch the ground around the plant with a thick layer of straw or leaves to reduce the chance of the ground freezing. (3) Place straw mats, or straw threaded through wire netting, around the plant and hold in position by stakes to provide protection against the wind. (4) Protect stems and trunks from splitting by tying sacking or straw around them.

Some shrubs may have the tops frosted but they will break away again in the Spring at or near ground level. With these it is a good idea to draw soil up and around the stem.

Low growing shrubs may be protected by covering with branches of conifer or having straw strewn amongst them. This protection should only be given when* the weather is severe and removed again when the weather becomes milder.

Herbaceous plants can be protected with cloches or. by covering with ashes, sand or soil.

Alpines are more susceptible to damage from damp or a combination of damp and cold than from cold alone. A sheet of glass placed at a slope over the plant and supported by wire or wooden pegs will shed moisture and keep the plant dry.