Now that winter is officially here, it's time to start thinking about winter s effects on our trees and shrubs. High winds, heavy snow and ice, frozen soil and huge fluctuations in temperatures can all contribute to plant damage in our gardens. A little bit of preventive maintenance will go a long way to help protect your trees and shrubs. Keeping your plants properly pruned will encourage stronger limbs and better branch angles.
Winter winds can be especially troublesome to evergreens.
Evergreen plants will continue to lose water through their needles over the winter months. Winter winds will hasten this process. Preventive measures will help to protect your plants. First, plant only hardy species, water well in fall to provide stores of moisture within the plant, and mulch properly to hold moisture in the soil and insulate soil temperatures. Sunny winter days will warm tree trunks and limbs as much as 15 degrees above air temperatures, this can result in sunscald. .