Garden plants are shielded against frost and drying winds in various ways.
Earth is hilled around roses, boxwood, and exposed broadleaved evergreens are screened with windbreaks, and strawberries are mulched around their crowns with light, airy materials (buckwheat hulls or salt hay) before severe freezing weather arrives.
Roses By The Sea
Salt spray is so damaging to both climbers and hybrid teas in the Connecticut seaside garden of W. D. Barlow that he wraps each plant individually for the winter with salt hay.
Neighbors chide him about his sheaves of wheat, but plants die back very little. Sutter’s Gold grows to 6 feet.
New Rose Bed
The first winter for fall-planted roses, whether hybrid teas or other types, often is the hardest. Always hill soil high around plants at planting time.
Bring in extra soil if necessary. Add straw or evergreen boughs for extra protection in localities where winters are severe.
Azalea Mulch
Broadleaf evergreens and azaleas need several inches deep mulch to prevent deep frost penetration, hold soil moisture, and add humus to the soil.
Oak leaves worked in between azaleas above will rot down and need not be removed in spring.
Specimen Boxwoods
Near New York City, valuable boxwoods first get thorough watering with a water wand or porous hose. Then, the ground is deeply mulched with straw or salt hay.
The burlap screen does not touch the plant. Top braces carry a snow load.
Mulched Strawberries
Two types of mulch are pictured. Salt hay is in the center of the bed, and buckwheat hulls are in the forepart of the bed.
Buckwheat mulch an inch deep stays on the year around, and hay is removed in spring. This column is of James Jack’s gardens.
Hybrid Tea Roses
Before the cold weather, cut back the long canes to 2 feet and bundle the tops together with soft twine.
Hill soil is high around the plants. When soil is frozen, cover the entire bed with straw or dry leaves to keep it frozen.
Exposed Rhododendrons
Fall droughts and varying degrees of the hardiness of hybrid rhododendrons often cause even old plants to lose their flower buds or suffer foliage injury when exposed to wind and sun.
Burlap screens nailed securely to a wooden frame with laths provide ideal, unobtrusive protection.
Pomegranates at Williamsburg
This fruit is hardier than most gardeners realize and withstands low winter temperatures at Colonial Williamsburg.
These plants in the Palace Gardens are wrapped with burlap in mid-December; the cover comes off in mid-March. The branches are tied in first. Burlap prevents winter sunscald.
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