With the recent ice storm that coated everything, you may be wondering how this will affect your trees and plants. The icy coating can actually be helpful in protecting them though! When everything is coated in ice, it effectively insulates the plants and trees, because the sun can still shine through but the wind is not getting to the plants.
The only danger to your plants when it comes to ice is the trees being weighed down and breaking branches. If branches do break off, now is the best time to trim the rest of the branch back to the trunk of the tree. If you wait until spring the sap will be flowing and you will lose some, which will affect the new growth on the tree. This should not happen with shrubs since they are low to the ground.
Unfortunately the ice storm did not happen right before the terrible cold from a couple of weeks ago. Aside from getting all the bad weather out of the way at once, as mentioned above the ice would have protected plants from the harsh cold and winds. When you lose plants over the winter it is usually do to wind and severe cold, we live in the Midwest where some plants can only survive up until negative 20 degrees. We will have to wait until spring to see what damage is done, but plants like roses may not have survived this cold winter, and the wind dries out pine needles and may kill some branches of evergreens, and occasionally the whole tree. This happens more to evergreens that are windbreakers, or some that are totally exposed out in the countryside. If you notice anything not growing back or trees with damage in the spring, give us a call at 815-475-7229 and we can assist in cleaning up the old and suggesting something hardier that may make it through these cold winters.
The only danger to your plants when it comes to ice is the trees being weighed down and breaking branches. If branches do break off, now is the best time to trim the rest of the branch back to the trunk of the tree. If you wait until spring the sap will be flowing and you will lose some, which will affect the new growth on the tree. This should not happen with shrubs since they are low to the ground.
Unfortunately the ice storm did not happen right before the terrible cold from a couple of weeks ago. Aside from getting all the bad weather out of the way at once, as mentioned above the ice would have protected plants from the harsh cold and winds. When you lose plants over the winter it is usually do to wind and severe cold, we live in the Midwest where some plants can only survive up until negative 20 degrees. We will have to wait until spring to see what damage is done, but plants like roses may not have survived this cold winter, and the wind dries out pine needles and may kill some branches of evergreens, and occasionally the whole tree. This happens more to evergreens that are windbreakers, or some that are totally exposed out in the countryside. If you notice anything not growing back or trees with damage in the spring, give us a call at 815-475-7229 and we can assist in cleaning up the old and suggesting something hardier that may make it through these cold winters.