Patience.
This is probably one of the hardest virtues for someone to achieve, especially when it comes to dealing with plants and hard freezes. Almost everyone in Acadiana has had some type of freeze injury to plants in their landscapes. Many of you have already pulled up some of the brown plants that were injured but maybe you should have had a little more patience and given the plants a chance to recover on their own. If your budget allows you to move along faster than Mother Nature, that is okay but for many patience is your key.
I was at a home yesterday, the client's fire bush was brown, and he had pulled back all the mulch away and wanted me to take a closer look. At first, I thought the plant was dead but as I got down on my knees and looked closer, I saw evidence of small reddish leaves coming up at the base of one of the branches. You need to remember that the roots of plants benefited from the warm soil temperature and received little to no damage from the cold. That being said, all the stored food in the root system will be going into those buds that survived the cold and the plant will take off and begin to fill in the space it once occupied last year.
The citrus in your yard follow the same trend. Have patience and wait to see if any small buds begin to appear on the trunk and branches of your trees, then prune the dead wood above the new growth.
Some palm trees may not send up a new spear leaf until August or September so remember to practice Patience!
This is probably one of the hardest virtues for someone to achieve, especially when it comes to dealing with plants and hard freezes. Almost everyone in Acadiana has had some type of freeze injury to plants in their landscapes. Many of you have already pulled up some of the brown plants that were injured but maybe you should have had a little more patience and given the plants a chance to recover on their own. If your budget allows you to move along faster than Mother Nature, that is okay but for many patience is your key.
I was at a home yesterday, the client's fire bush was brown, and he had pulled back all the mulch away and wanted me to take a closer look. At first, I thought the plant was dead but as I got down on my knees and looked closer, I saw evidence of small reddish leaves coming up at the base of one of the branches. You need to remember that the roots of plants benefited from the warm soil temperature and received little to no damage from the cold. That being said, all the stored food in the root system will be going into those buds that survived the cold and the plant will take off and begin to fill in the space it once occupied last year.
The citrus in your yard follow the same trend. Have patience and wait to see if any small buds begin to appear on the trunk and branches of your trees, then prune the dead wood above the new growth.
Some palm trees may not send up a new spear leaf until August or September so remember to practice Patience!
Dan Devenport
Dan Devenport is the Parish Horticulture Agent for both Lafayette and Vermilion parishes.
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