In the garden: How to help plants cope in a cold snap

The cold snap we normally anticipate each winter finally arrived along with the new year, and plants and humans both got a rude awakening last week.

What is this white stuff falling from the sky and coating the surface? It is, after all, January and we did need a period of cold sooner rather than later... so there it was!

Plants have been noticeably confused, with daffodils flowering earlier than usual, as well as spring-flowering plants like rhododendrons, some of which were flowering two or three months ahead of time. The longer the mild weather continued, the more damage would ultimately occur to plant growth once a cold spell did arrive.

Spring bulbs that have begun to poke out of the top of the soil will retreat a while longer and rest before reappearing once temperatures indicate it is favourable for growth. Using horticultural fleece to cover more tender plants, such as bananas, cannas and tree ferns that were not brought indoors for the winter months, will help to ensure survival during cold spells like this.

During the cold weather, it is certainly not a good time to be working with the soil, so now is an ideal time to get that shed sorted, tools sharpened and oiled, and machinery serviced before there is a seasonal rush.

Sorting pots and cleaning seed trays are both ideal rainy day jobs to get ticked off the list.

It is also timely now to sharpen the secateurs and loppers, with plenty of seasonal pruning to undertake throughout the garden.

Before undertaking major renovation pruning of flowering shrubs, do check if they flower on the current year’s wood like Hydrangea paniculata and Buddlejia davidii, or more mature wood like Philadelphus or Forsythia. Hard pruning shrubs that flower on the current year’s wood will not impact flowering, but hard pruning shrubs that flower on mature or two-year-old wood will mean sacrificing flowering for the year ahead as the shrub has had its potential flowering mature wood removed.

In the new year, pruning becomes a priority task for many established favourites in the garden, such as roses, wisteria, willow, and hazel, and winter is also the best time for major pruning on established garden trees that may need crown reduction or thinning.

Fruit trees will benefit from annual pruning to keep them in check size-wise, and productive by ensuring no crossing branches, dead or diseased wood and plenty of flowering buds.

The prunings can be added to the long-term compost heap or used as kindling once they have dried out.

Let there be no waste in the garden, everything can be recycled or upcycled, making it a closed system - maybe that can be a goal for this coming year, to observe how much of this can be achieved in the system currently used.

Prunings are one of the major by-products of gardening - grass clippings, weeds, spent compost from pots and leaves are some of the other major ‘garden waste’ components. All these can be reused within the garden in time provided a minimum amount of space is available for composting.

It does require some organisation and discipline around the handling of materials, and ultimately it is a very rewarding process which will be labour- and money-saving for the future.

The ‘chop and drop’ technique of managing herbaceous perennials and grasses is an interesting one which boasts doing less and achieving more by chopping down the tops of the plants and leaving the dead plant material on the surface of the soil as a mulch where it will compost in situ.

It certainly makes sense to cut back on transport of materials to the compost heap and the gradual decomposition of material back into the soil returning nutrients.

The mulch provided by the chopped up dead plant material covers the soil, protecting it from winter weather and providing habitat for insects and microbes over winter, providing lots of benefits.

It could work well in a more informal, wilder setting for sure, and certainly chopping up the material more than usual would be beneficial from a break down and appearance perspective.

Leaving defined edges or adding a layer of rotted mulch on top of the plant material will help create a ‘neater’ effect if that is what is desired.

Certainly, leaving dead plant material standing for as long as possible before growth starts is beneficial for wildlife for foraging seeds and using hollow plant stems to over-winter.

When we get to the new year, gardeners are mindful of seasonal work and getting ahead where possible, and it is good to give beds and borders a refresh before new growth starts to push through. Conditions will improve as the weeks progress and patience at this time of the year is of the essence.

Fungi of the Week

This cold spell will slow down the progress of many spring bulbs, but a few are already braving the elements and will be tested during the freezing temperatures.

It is amazing to see anything flowering in the depths of winter with frost and snow to contend with. It is not all about flower in winter though and stem colour and evergreen foliage also create a considerable impact.

Winter in the garden is about slowing down also and taking the time to observe. Last week, when examining a dead elm that had fallen, bright yellow fungal growth caught my attention. On closer inspection, it was a type of jelly fungus, a parasitic fungus which feeds on fungi that feed on dead wood.

The bright yellow colour is an eye-catching reminder of all that is going on quietly beneath the surface that most of the time we are not aware of.