Winter Frost Damage

Written by Madame Parsley

I believe that we are going to see a lot of frost and cold damage to plants coming into clinic this spring.  Last week we had a hebe that had most of the outside leaves damaged while the inside leaves were OK.

Remember that the cold weather that happened in November and December will now be showing up in plants. Right now and with all  the glorious sunshine, gardeners are starting to head outside and they will observe any damage for the first time.

 It is time to brush up on winter cold damage to plants !
 I have copied the pictures of winter injury from the article in the PNW . Please follow the link below to see the entire article.

 Examples of winter damage:
Winter injury of rose. Note the
black and yellowed canes.
frostdamagerose

 

Winter injury on Eucalyptus tree. Note that the base of the tree protected by the surrounding vegetation is still  alive. Jay W. Pscheidt, 2010.

frostdamageeucalyptus

 

The white, yellow, chlorotic
leaves on the Mexican Orange
(Choisya ternata) in the center
of the picture are only on the
exterior of the canopy and
developed shortly after the snow
fall event.
Jay W. Pscheidt, 2012.
frostdamage3
Maple with a weeping canker
injury from freezing winter
temperatures. Canker is shown
in the upper portion of the
picture with discolored, stained
bark around and below.
Jay W. Pscheidt, 2007.
frostdamage4
The winter of 2013-2014 killed
many Ceanothus in western
Oregon. This plant almost died
but still has some life at the base
of the plant.
Jay W. Pscheidt, 2014.
frostdamage5
Marion blackberries are very
susceptible to cold temperature
damage. All above ground
portions of this plant were killed
but the crowns are still alive
sending up new primocanes.
Jay W. Pscheidt, 2014.
frostdamage6
Winter injury on peach caused
flower buds to wither up and
drop off. Flower bud scar to the
right of the pink buds and a
dried flower bud below.
Jay W. Pscheidt, 2014.
frostdamage7

Leave a Reply