Cold weather can wreak havoc on plants

I am not a prognosticator or a fortune teller, but I knew that we would have at least one more cold snap before the end of April. What I didn’t know was that we would have a few inches of snow!

If anyone thought that the previous warm weather and beautiful spring that we were having would last, I would have thought they were, well, not thinking clearly.

For the most part, and this is a huge generalization as there might be isolated instances in the Miami Valley, most plants and flowers survived Tuesday evening’s snow and temperatures in the low 30s.

However, the slightly colder temperatures dipping closer to the upper 20s Wednesday night into Thursday may be a different story. I suspect that some may see a good bit of damage to flowers and maybe even perennials (vegetables and flowers).

Predicting cold damage from temperature drops in the early spring is dependent on quite a few variables. Over the years, the biggest variable that I have observed having the most influence on the amount of damage is the temperatures leading up to the cold spell.

Many of the plants in our landscape that are coming up (perennials and bulbs) and blooming (trees and shrubs) tolerate spring frosts. This is the normal time of the year that they start growing and blooming, and they take light frosts.

Our average last frost date is April 16. Keep in mind that this is the AVERAGE, not always the last. There are years that we don’t have frost at all in late April or May. Then there are years where we have one after the other.

The most damage from drops in temperatures in the spring occurs when we have a good week or so of nice temperature such as several days in the 70s and then freezing temps.

The warm weather “pushes” growth and plants and flowers are nice and tender. When temperatures drop into the upper 20s after this, I can almost guarantee that we will see significant damage. This occurred in 2008 when we had three consecutive days in the 70s. The next night it dropped to 17 degrees.

There was significant damage to almost all perennials. However, the damage was only to the foliage. We cut all the foliage back and the new growth emerged unharmed.

Flower tissue is the most sensitive to cold damage and would likely be hit first if we have this kind of scenario.

Many of you perhaps observed your cherries, dogwoods, and redbuds after the snow on Tuesday. There was very little damage.

In my mind, the biggest damage occurs on fruit crops such as apples, pears and strawberries. If the flowers are frozen, there will be no pollination and thus no fruit. This is a huge blow for any grower which is why you see them take lots of precautions to prevent freezing.

In the backyard garden, you can also protect plants when weather conditions are conducive to freeze.

I usually take the easy way out and don’t do anything except for cutting all of the asparagus and my spring bulbs to enjoy the bouquets indoors. The rest, well, I let Mother Nature take her course.