I live in Zoe 4b and I won't plant a shrub I have to wrap, however I've noticed that most people that have arborvitae wrap them or they are badly winter burned. I planted some dwarf Alberto spruce on the west side of my house and they were winter burned a little. I transplanted them where the fence in back yard would give them some protection against the wind and they haven't burned since.
Same as 2ofus, I don't tend to plant things that will need wrapping. I did wrap some new shrubs one year as they were planted late and I hated the way it looked.
We had a small evergreen that got really wind burned one winter so the next year we put up some posts and wrapped burlap around the posts. It wasn't touching the evergreen at all. Next spring the evergreen didn't have any wind burn and we have never protected after that. Now it is about 10 feet tall and the nicest evergreen... we have never covered anything else besides roses and since then we haven't planted any because they were a lot of work to keep healthy.
This was the first year I used burlap. I usually just water well in the late summer and in the fall. I still had a lot of damage though. I think my mistake was to actually place the burlap on the shrubs. Next winter I'll try Sherry's post method.
I've wrapped a few tender shrubs in Burlap in years gone by. As long as it doesn't actually touch the plant (as Sherry says) in any way it has its benefits. However, I no longer do it I just leave Mother Nature to get on with things. If a shrub or plant doesn't survive our Scottish winter then I don't buy any of that species again.
This winter, we had a record snowfall in the Boston, MA area. I am still waiting to see how many of my shrubs have broken branches due to the weight of the snow. As I saw them bowed under by yet more & more snow, I wished I had tied up some of the branches. Does anyone know if this would have worked?
We had a lot of wind burn that winter on quite a few shrubs, trees ...it is hard to say if that helped the following winter seeing Mother natures conditions are not always the same...
Sherry's idea is a really good one. I do not cover or have shrubs that need covering anymore. With the fruit and veg that periodically need covering in the spring, it is more extra work than I need. Having said all that, if I already did have a shrub that I really liked...then no measure would be too much trouble for me. hahaha. I would take any measure to save it.
Here in NC the problem isn't the cold as muc as it is the potential for 30-40 degree temp changes from day to night. This only happens once or twice a year but it's a complete shock for some plants to go from 65 degrees in the afternoon to 25 degrees at twilight just before dawn. In those cases we have wrapped some plants.
Jon, we live on a mountain at 5,774 elevation so the temperatures you mention is almost as drastic as you mentioned all the time. I try to plant what will live with just normal care in my gardens. I have more trouble with our alkali soil killing plants than the weather, but I also won't plant any plant that is not hardy enough or needs a lot of extra care. Other than my vegetables or annuals, those I will fuss with and cover in case of a late frost or unexpected snow.
Hi guys. I enjoy hearing about different gardening conditions/challenges that gardeners in other areas face.
