Horticulture Hotline 01/23/23
Bill Lamson-Scribner
We finally had some freezing weather over Christmas, and I’m so glad that it wasn’t an ice event too! Broken tree limbs, power lines down, Ravenel Bridge closed because of ice spears, no WIFI, no TV, no heat, switching on lights that don’t turn on… If you haven’t already pruned your plants that turned to a black mush, you can wait and some of the damaged foliage and branches will help insulate the plant for the next freezing event. I know some of you that maintain high end properties aren’t going to be able to get away with this, so prune away or replace. Sometimes it depends where the damaged plant is located. By the front door – one set of rules. In a big bed mixed in with other plants in the backyard, maybe another set of rules.
I work with many properties that micro-climates played a big role in the damage the cold did. One property has a house with a large oak tree in half of the front yard. The canopy of the oak held in the heat of the earth in and the grass stayed green, while the other half of the yard went dormant.
Ted Beckett first showed me how this worked with his tall pines (pre–Hurricane Hugo) at his nursery on John’s Island. For those of you that didn’t know Ted Beckett, he was the head horticulturalist at Magnolia Plantation when they had a nursery then started his own nursery. He was responsible for many of the old camellias, azaleas and other plants around the Lowcountry. With trees holding in the heat of the earth like a tent or a frost blanket, his plants were protected. The important thing is the protection come from above the grass or plants.
With cold you don’t want to have the sides blocked off like a valley in a citrus grove. When I worked in citrus, the grove owners would hire helicopters to fly over low areas and blow out the cold air. I have seen stadium fields that suffer cold damage because of the seats and the bowl they produce hold in the cold air, when practice fields next door is fine, since there are no seats.
This is a good time to rake out beds and do some good sanitation. Old leaves can harbor disease and insects. The accumulation of leaves can damage your plants by making them planted too deep, insect and disease entry points, adventitious roots, … Somehow when Paul (AKA Super Garden Hero) and I were talking about it on the radio, we started talking about the original Lamson-Scribner spraying the first fungicide that he developed (Bordeaux Mix) in a coat and tie!
With Valentines Day coming up, why not buy a nice decorative pot, some good potting soil, some good fertilizer, some nice plants and some wetting agent and have a present that can last forever?
It is about the time to put preemergent herbicides on your lawn that will stop small seeded annual summer weeds from coming up and terrorizing your lawn. These products are very safe to use in and around shrub beds and trees (of course check the label). They will not only keep weeds out of your lawn, but will also keep them out of your beds. Dimension is a very good product, but there are numerous others based on your needs.
As with any product, read, understand and follow product label when applying.
