Holiday Freeze and Plants

Hello all!

It has been a little warmer and we are now seeing the damage our plants may or may not have gotten during the freeze over the Holidays.

I have gotten a few questions regarding what to do with your plants and whether or not to dig them up or cut them back. Let me start by saying that, it is still January. As crazy as the weather maybe we could definitely have more frost coming. I know, I know, I'm ready for Spring also and have to quite often hold myself back from working out in the yard.

I am attaching an article from UT Horticulture that you can read about the scientific effect of what happen to our pants during the freeze and what to do. I am going to just sum it up for you here.

DO NOT cut your plants back right now, as I said above, we may still get more freezes. Right now, the plants need as much nutrition as possible. Perennials grow back from the root system, so what does that mean? The foliage on your plants may clearly have frost damage, but that does not mean that the root system froze. You will need to wait until Spring to be able to determine if your plants made it through the freeze. Some early blooming plants may already show a little green at the roots, which means they should make it. Keep you your plants covered at the bottom with mulch or leaves and hopefully they will start showing their prettiness come Spring.

Here is the article from UT Horticulture:

https://soillab.tennessee.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/129/2023/01/UT-Hort-Team-Handling-the-Holiday-Freeze-in-your-Lawn-and-Landscape.pdf

If you have questions, I am happy to help as much as I can.

We are looking forward to seeing you in 2023 at the farm.

Wendy