So how much small talk have your heard in the last several months that included?: “Long Winter”, “Crazy Weather”, “Cannot wait until spring”, You Think Winter is Finally Done?”, etc. Here at Thoms Bros. we officially started our season on April 7, a week later than usual. In the last two weeks we have seen temperatures into the 70’s and on tax day 2014, we officially did it! We broke a 150 year record for snowfall in a season.
So April 15 was another day our crews could not work in the field. Whether it is snow or rain, we assume we will not be able to work six days a week in April. That just goes with the territory. But it just proves the old saying, “If you don’t like the weather in Michigan than just wait a minute.” With Tuesday’s high of 32F we are now expecting seasonable temps for the weekend and above normal temps for early next week.
What will this past winter and the crazy weather do to our plants? With some plants the damage is quite obvious right now.
Winter burn can be seen on many types of boxwood. These boxwoods were especially susceptible since they were out in the open and had road salt sprayed on them. Also, some boxwood are hardier than others.
Winter damage can also be noticed on other evergreens throughout the landscape including yews/taxus.
This is Cephalotaxus harringtonia fastigiata. It is rated for zones 6 through 9. Even though we are in zone 6 on average, this past winter was at least a zone 5 for us. I would not normally plant zone 6 plants, but I received two free from the APLD Conference. You can see the bottom is still green and the top was green like this at the end of February. We started losing some of our snow cover in March and the top got exposed resulting in the yellowing. We will see how it recovers.
Obviously evergreen damage is quite visible this early in the spring, but how about our deciduous plants and perennials. This Carpet Rose in a grouping of 8 has very little green in the stems. I would assume you will never notice the winter damage in later summer, but cutting back the brown stems right to the ground will need to be done here very soon. Usually most stems in roses will stay green throughout the winter, but this was not a “usual” winter.
On April 12, many locations in Metro Detroit received heavy hail. Hail will not usually do any damage to plants.
The next day on April 13, a storm that produced shear winds went through the area. Many large, older evergreens can be seen on their sides.
This 200+ year old oak had severe heartwood rot and the cambium (outer, growing part of the trunk) was the only thing keeping this majestic tree upright.
Now that we are FINALLY done with winter (I think), let’s hope most of our plants recover and we can enjoy a beautiful spring and summer.
