6 Ways Winter Can Damage Plants Take these steps to avoid winter damage to plants in your garden! How to avoid winter damage to plants
As you put your garden to rest for the winter, it’s hard to know what the weather will bring in the next few months. Will this winter be colder or warmer than average? Did you prepare your plants for the unexpected? Will every perennial come up next spring? You can’t control the weather, but you might be able to help your plants survive the worst.
Here are the factors that contribute to winter damage and steps you can take that will improve your garden’s chances. With these facts, I hope that you can foil winter’s attempt to ruin your garden and emerge in spring victorious!
Why do hardy perennials sometimes not survive a winter? Cold becomes lethal at 28 degrees F for most plant tissues. But roots can survive much lower temperatures if they have had adequate time to acclimate. As temps cool in the fall, plant roots store sugars that resist freezing solid and move some moisture out of the cells, so if they do freeze, cell walls have some give and won’t burst. Plants native to warmer temperatures don’t always have that mechanism to protect them from cold.
But even hardy plants can suffer if temperatures drop too fast before these modifications have been triggered. Here are three things you shouldn't do late in the season so your plants are prepared for winter: