Tag Archive for: Pruning frost damage

Last winter, we suffered a severe cold snap.  Okay, for those of you who live in more northerly climates, it wouldn’t seem all that cold to you perhaps.  But, we had temps that ranged in the low 20’s for three days in a row, which is definitely below normal for us.

As a result, many trees and plants that normally stay green in the winter, suffered severe frost damage.  That included my mother’s young Sissoo tree (Dalbergia sissoo).

frost damage

Frost damage

I wrote about her tree and how the top died back to the ground.  However, there were some new growth coming up from the bottom.  So instead of taking out the tree, we opted to cut off the dead portion and let one the new growth take over.

frost damage

We re-staked the little tree and waited to see how it would do.

That was in the beginning of June.

Now, just 4 1/2 months later, look at it now…

Sissoo tree

Doesn’t it look so much bigger?

That’s because it is.

Why has it grown so quickly?  Well, that is because it had a great root system – actually the root system of a grown tree, so it had many resources to help it to grow quickly.

Sissoo tree

It is still hard to believe how quickly it grew.  But, we are so happy with the decision to give it a chance instead of buying a new tree.

Sissoo tree

If we had planted a new tree, it would never have grown so quickly.

So, next time you have a frost-damaged tree, wait a few months to see if there is any re-growth – even if it is on the bottom.

You never know, it might end up with a fast-growing tree and save yourself some money at the same time 🙂  

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5 days and counting until my daughter’s due date.  We had a ‘false alarm’ on Monday.  But, I guess our little granddaughter wasn’t ready to come yet 😉

Every year about this time, I get tired of seeing this in my garden……

My brown shrubs

My brown shrubs

Pretty ugly, isn’t it?

Just looking at my frozen Lantana, causes me to feel the pull of my pruners calling out to me.

Even though I know all the reasons that I should NOT prune them now, it would be so easy to prune them back early.

And so, to keep myself from venturing into the garage where my loppers and hand pruners are stored, I will keep repeating the following reasons to stay away……

1. If I prune early, I may prune off branches that are actually alive on the inside.

2.  I can cause irreparable damage by pruning early since that stimulates plants to produce new growth, which is especially susceptible to frost damage and may even kill my plants.

3.  The brown and crispy stuff actually protects the interior and sometimes the lower leaves of my plants from the cold.

I will go out prune to my hearts content once the danger of frost is over, which is about the first week of March in my zone 9a garden.

Okay, I feel much better now about leaving my brown shrubs alone…..for the next 22 days and counting down 😉

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I have some special news to share with you all in about a week.

It is something that I have been working on for a while now and it is getting ready to debut soon.

More later 🙂