HERE COMES THE FREEZING COLD AGAIN! With freezing temperatures, sleet and freezing rain in the forecast for Houston and the surrounding region LandEscape Designs has some tips to help protect your plants. Pay special attention to young, blooming, and sub-tropical plants, and winter vegetable gardens, especially when the temperatures dip below freezing. To protect at-risk plants: -- Drape a light blanket or sheet that is breathable over the plant. Cover the plant from top to bottom, side-to-side, and all the way to the ground, to make sure no heat escapes. (Do not use plastic, as it will suffocate your plant.) --Use a liquid polymer. The non-toxic liquid offers an additional five degrees of protection. Spray the plants’ leaves a day or two before the freeze to get that extra protection. --Cardboard or boxes over smaller plants will also do the trick. To protect trees: --You will want to wrap blankets around the trunk and over the foliage. -- Pay special attention to fruit trees with grafts. If possible cover the trunk up to and over the graft with soil and then a heavy mulch. --Wrapping the trunk with cardboard also helps. To keep fruit from freezing: --Flood the base of the tree. It allows the tree to soak up extra water, which absorbs the cold. --Pick your fruit before the freeze. Because we’ve already had below freezing temperatures many plants, shrubs and trees already have die-back. DO NOT PRUNE the dead, dry branches off, as it leaves the healthy part of the plant exposed to more frost and freeze damage. WAIT until the threat of freezing has passed later in the spring before pruning anything. Do not use plastic to cover plants as it transmits the cold. Use plastic sheeting ONLY if draped over a frame and not in contact with the plants. Bed sheets are not as good as frost cloth but will give a few degrees of protection. If sheets are all you have use two or three sheets in layers which gives more protection. Towels are thicker than sheets, but are not big enough to cover most plants to the ground. May only be useful for really small plants Canvas-like patio furniture covers are thick and would give some protection, but if there is any plastic content in the fabric, and it touches the plant, it would transmit the cold. Like plastic sheeting, furniture covers are best if over a stake or a frame and not in contact with the plant itself. The time to cover plants is just before the sun sets to trap in the warmth of the day. The only lights that will keep a plant warm are C9 lights. Placed on the ground beneath the clothes, boxes or frames, these lights emit warm heat to help protect the plant. List of a few sensitive plants: Succulents Bougainvillea Hibiscus Citrus Ficus Cannas Lantana All varieties of Carissa (Natal Plum) Tecomaria (Cape Honeysuckle) Tecoma (Yellow & Orange Bells) Passiflora (Passion Flower) Lonicera (Honeysuckle) Senecio (Mexican Flame Vine) Solanum (Potato Bush/Vine) Cuphea (Mexican Heather) Nerium (Oleander) Petunia Geranium Lobelia Kathy Vosburg President, Principal Designer
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:42:00 +0000
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