Time will tell how plants fared over winter

I was in the garden center the other day, watching a young gardener. I guessed her age at 2 years old. She was running from one flowering plant to another, becoming more excited as the minutes passed. She was constantly saying, "Mommy, look, look." Her mother was calmly following her, telling her, "Patience, dear. Patience."

I mention this budding gardener and her mother because I think the recent weather has resulted in a lot of gardeners inspecting one damaged broad-leaved evergreen plant after another in their landscape. They are bringing samples for me to look at, and are asking if the plant is dead, or will it come out again this spring. My response to most of them is "Patience, patience."

Broad-leaved evergreens such as nandina, boxwood, abelia, azalea and rhododendron have been planted in the Heartland for many years. During normal winters they do just fine and show either no or very little winter damage because of cold weather.

This year the winter weather was a little tougher on broad-leaved evergreens because of the fluctuating temperatures. It was warm one day and very cold the next.

Broad-leaved evergreen leaves transpire -- lose water through the stomata in leaves -- during the winter just as they do during the summer. In the summer that lost water is replaced by moisture from the soil. In the winter when the ground is frozen, moisture can't be replaced, so leaves suffer damage. They will turn off-color, and may even turn brown or black.

This firepower nandina shrub has suffered winter burn. Even with brown leaves, the stems are still viable.

We have experienced a lot of days when the ground was frozen, but the air temperature was up in the 40s to 60s for a short period of time. These weather conditions are conducive to winter damage.

So what should you do right now if you find damaged broad-leaved evergreens in your landscape? My response would be, just like our young gardener's mother, "Patience."

My suggestion would be to fertilize your broad-leaved evergreens with a tree and shrub food such as a 19-8-10. If the broad-leaved evergreens are azaleas or rhododendrons, use an azalea food such as a 9-15-13. Make the application sometime within the next two to three weeks. The fertilizer will provide needed nutrition for the plants to repair themselves.

I would suggest that you do no pruning until sometime in late April or early May. You will have a much better feel for what part of the plant might be dead or damaged, and need to be removed.

If you think the shrub is totally dead, wait until late April or May to determine if you need to replace it. You may find that new growth will begin to show, and all you have to do is remove dead branches. This may save you a lot of money and effort.

This monkey grass has winter burn, but it is not dead.

If you have crape myrtles that show no sign of life, wait until mid- to late June before you dig them up and plant new ones. I have seen damaged myrtles begin to show signs of new growth as late as the Fourth of July.

Remember: Patience.

I would also suggest that next fall you spray Anti-Stress 2000 on the leaves of your broad-leaved evergreens. This product plugs the stomata of the leaves so moisture is not lost during the extremes of cold during a winter like we had this year. Your plants will thank you for it.