p>A late-winter freeze had Georgia homeowners rushing to cover their landscape plants
this week. But a University of Georgia horticulturist
said blankets over plants only serve to give their owners peace of mind.
"Outside of building a greenhouse at home, there isn’t much you can do to protect
your landscape plants from cold temperatures," said
horticulturist specializes in cold hardiness of landscape plants.
"The old trick of putting blankets over them really just makes you feel like
you’re helping out," Lindstrom said. "That little bit of protection isn’t going
to save them from the cold."
Lindstrom said covering your plants provides little protection as the wind usually
blows off the covering. "Even if the covering stays on," he said, "a
blanket on a plant isn’t going to create heat as it does on a person. We’re warm-blooded,
and we create heat. Plants aren’t. The only heat available under the blanket would be
coming from the ground."
The time to help your landscape plants prepare for the winter, he said, was last spring
and summer.
"If you take good care of your plants in the warm months by keeping them
insect-free, giving them ample water and fertilizing them, you’re helping build a hardier
plant," he said.
UGA horticulturists say temperatures would typically have to drop below 20 degrees to
damage the stem tissue of landscape plants.
"Twenty-four degrees isn’t all that terribly cold for a plant," Lindstrom
said. "If it’s a flowering plant, you may lose some of the first flowers. You have to
remember that landscape plants are outdoors 24 hours a day. They have adapted, and it’s
more of a gradual change for them."
Lindstrom said the only plants he would suggest giving the "babying
treatment" are prized possessions such as a banana tree. "If it’s a
one-of-a-kind plant and you really don’t want to lose it, build a makeshift shelter for
it," he said.
The key to making sure your landscape plants survive each winter, he said, is planting
the right variety.
"Don’t just buy a cultivar of azalea or other woody ornamental you’ve heard about
or one you think would do well in your landscape," Lindstrom said. "Do a little
research. Make sure the cultivar you’re buying is suited to your area."
