Hampton Gardener: April Ramble

Farmers used to say that March was the cruelest month. The snow started to melt and disappear, the ground began to thaw and the birds of spring began to reappear, but it was still too cold to plant or get much work done. It’s the same for gardeners. Suddenly a 40-degree day seems downright warm after a winter of days in the teens and single digits—but spring and April are finally here and we’ll be planting in no time.Statistically, it was the coldest winter in more than 50 years and the second coldest in the history of written weather records. It’s tempting to compare the winter of 2013-14 to this past winter because it was cold as well, but there are important differences. This winter we had plenty of snow cover and that may, I say may, have protected our plants better. Also critical was that the winter of 2013-14 started much earlier, with brutal cold in late November and early December, whereas this past winter the cold held off much longer though it was notably colder. This may have given some plants a longer period of time in the late fall to harden off.

There’s a great deal of fear of the damage done to landscape roses, hydrangeas and the plants we saw damaged a year before, but only time and patience will tell. Some hydrangea buds I’ve looked at were not promising. I think there also has to be another consideration. When we buy plants that are listed as “hardy” to a certain hardiness zone I’m not sure that means what we commonly think, that the plant will fully survive the winters indicated on the plant tags or literature. I think it’s more common that the plants will survive, but they may not fully survive. Take the case of the many hardy hydrangeas we’ve lost and some of the buddleias. In many cases, where there was severe dieback in the winter of 2013-14, gardeners who pruned back their hydrangeas and held off on feeding them found that, while many didn’t flower, the plants vegetatively recovered and put on some good growth. I noticed that two of the buddleias in my trial garden seemed totally dead, but I left them in place and by the end of the summer both had sent up new growth. Granted, they were small, 2-foot shoots, but hopefully those were the shoots that will lead to more growth from new roots this year. Maybe. So these hardiness claims may apply only to the ability of the plant to regenerate, not necessarily reflower.

For those of you following the plight of the monarch butterfly, this spring’s northern migration is off to a slow and stalled start. Reports from Mexico in the third week of March showed that late snows in the Mexican mountains where these butterflies overwinter, as well as rainy, cold weather along the southern portions of their route, have stalled their initial movement north into Texas then up the Gulf and East Coast. It’s also a little confusing because there apparently is a small population of monarchs that overwinter in Texas and it can be hard to determine if the butterflies spotted and moving north are those Texas natives or the bulk of the population from Mexico. Stay tuned.

And for those of you who have purchased Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed) seeds, keep in mind that you can’t simply plant the seeds and expect germination in a few weeks. The germination of the seed depends on several factors, not least of which is how old the seed is and how it’s been stored. The best strategy is to find an isolated spot outdoors where you can mark and sow the seed in loose, sandy soil. The seed is ideally sown outdoors in the fall and it then germinates the following spring, especially if it’s fresh seed. Otherwise the seed can be sown outdoors now and it will germinate erratically over several months. Once germinated, the seedlings should be left in place for a year to allow a tuber to develop. The following spring, as soon as any new growth emerges, you can carefully dig and transplant the tuber, or do this in the fall. If you are growing the plants and want to collect seed, this is done in the fall as soon as the seed pods begin to split and open. Some pods should be left in place for natural distribution while you sow those you collect. These plants are very “lean” growers and need virtually no care once they are established.

Snow is actually good and critical for most northern lawns, but as the snow began to melt and reveal last year’s turf, a few things came into view. If it looks like some strange beings established an interstate road system in the top of the turf, what you’re seeing are the trails of voles. These small rodents remain active all winter and scurry about looking for any seed, root, shoot, crown or bulb they can get their mouths on. They need to eat their body weight in food every day, and that keeps them constantly moving under the snow. The voles really don’t tunnel, but push their way through mulch, turf and leaf litter. Most poison baits are useless, but old-fashioned mouse traps baited with small pieces of apple seem to work.

Not to be confused with the voles are the moles. Moles travel under the soil and unlike voles they are not active all winter. However, as the snow melts gardeners often find mole tunnels and burrowing in their lawns and gardens. This tunneling probably takes place when snow falls on ground that isn’t yet frozen early in winter. In some spots the snow will actually keep the ground from freezing, and in these spots the moles may remain active if insects are still available for them to feed on. But I think the majority of the mole work we discover in March is work done in December.

And speaking of insects, the past two winters, brutal as they have been, have really helped us. The hemlock woolly adelgid overwinters on the hemlock trees and is very susceptible to cold winters. We should see a dramatic reduction in their numbers this year, and the back-to-back cold winters may actually reduce their number to the point where natural predators may begin to get the upper hand and balance nature again. Gypsy moth egg cases are also very susceptible to cold winters, so we expect their numbers to be very low again this year.

Not the case for the grubs of Japanese and Asiatic beetles, which have surged on the East End the past two summers. These insects overwinter as grubs in the soil, and as the soil gets colder they just go deeper to stay warm. They will emerge later this spring, as the ground will remain colder longer, but they will return. If you had beetle issues last summer, expect them again this summer unless you’ve got a control program.

Regrettably, ticks also seem to be somewhat immune to the winter cold. They may appear a few weeks late this year, but their numbers will not be appreciably reduced. The emerald ash borer, which is a big issue off Long Island, may have met its match in the cold winter, though, as there’s some evidence that as much as 70 percent of the overwintering borers may have been killed. There’s also some evidence that the stink bugs that have been a problem in homes and gardens may have had high winter mortality. However, those pesky ladybug beetles seem to have stayed nice and warm in our cracks and crevices, as they are now reappearing in homes, garages and sheds. Keep growing.