5 Photos
Yellow and red twig dogwood can add winter color and accent.
Wild Sumac in winter plumage
Bright red winter berries of the Oriental bittersweet vine. However, the vines have toppled the tree they were growing on.
Garlic chives will grow all winter even under snow cover.
Red twig dogwood at its winter peak of color.
When I awoke one February morning a couple of years ago, it was clear and calm with the temperature hovering around 30. But within some eight short hours, a bitter wind was howling from the north and the temperature had dropped to a nasty 4 degrees.
I remained undaunted, though, as the signs of spring were beginning to sprout. That’s the case again this year. In fact, just last week I saw the heads of new fern fronds peeking from their crowns, some sedums pushing up new growth and chickweed blooming away in the orchard. You can hear it, and see it, but we are all still desperate to feel it.
One very important thing to consider with this winter’s cold is that in a plant sense, there are two aspects to it. Many plants can tolerate cold, even extreme cold, for very short periods of time. One case in point may be last winter when for several days the temperature in Westhampton at the airport was near 10 degrees below zero.
Such cold, if short-lived, may very marginally affect hardy plants. But what is more devastating is prolonged cold for extended periods of time, just like we’ve had this winter. I think roses and hydrangeas may be good indicators. Rose grafts seem to fail and hydrangea buds seem to be damaged. We shall see.
I was walking up the driveway to the house one morning recently after one of our coldest nights, and for some reason, maybe a horticultural sixth sense, I glanced at a Kwanzan cherry tree on the side of the drive. The tree stands about 15 feet tall with a spread of about 10 feet. The trunk is about 8 inches in diameter and approximately four feet above the ground is the point where the tree was grafted; it is also the point at which branching begins so that the tree can take its characteristic vase shape.
Just below this point, I noticed a longitudinal crack in the trunk that ran from the first limb vertically down the trunk and below the soil. The crack was a quarter of an inch wide and penetrated the heartwood of the trunk halfway through the diameter.
What I was looking at was a condition known as a “frost crack” and in some varieties of trees, it is not an uncommon occurrence after severe winter temperature fluctuations over short periods of time. I was even more disheartened when I checked more of the cherry trees, only to find that in a period of just 48 hours, six of these spring blooming specimens were similarly or more severely damaged.
An arborist came over to take a look and he recommended that each of the trees have long bolts placed through the trunks. He said the bolts would prevent the splitting from getting any worse and to support the limbs above since an ice build up or severe wind might cause the tree to simply split apart and collapse.
Frost cracking of healthy trees that are between 8 and 15 inches in diameter is not uncommon in specimen plantings. But it is a very rare occurrence in the woods. In cultivated trees, frost cracks are more common in deciduous trees than evergreens and in most cases it may only appear as a breaking of the bark with only a hairline crack of the trunk.
Trees most susceptible to the problem are apple, crab apple, ash, beech, cherry, golden rain-tree, horse chestnut, linden, London plane tree, some maples, tulip tree, walnut and willows.
The problem may be more severe on trees planted in areas of poor drainage, possibly because there is more water available to the tree on a year-round basis and therefore a higher moisture content in the cells during the winter. Frost cracking appears to be more common on the south and west sides of the trunk.
Whitewashing the trunk may help reflect some of the winter sunlight and reduce some of the internal temperature fluctuation problems and various paper wraps may also be useful. In any event, have a certified arborist take a look as soon as you suspect that you’ve got this problem on a prized specimen.
As the season progresses and it begins to warm, the crack will close—possibly a great deal—only to open again, but wider, next winter. Infection from diseases or insects also needs to be considered.
All winter long, my eyes have been drawn to the sides of the highway where I see what appear to be red buds bursting with color. Sadly, this color display is not a sign of spring but the hideous fruits of the oriental bittersweet vine.
You can see it atop 120-foot-tall hardwoods or covering small shrubs on Montauk Highway. The vines can be pencil thin or as thick as your arm. In the end, these tenacious vines smother and kill the shrubs and put so much weight on the larger trees that they inevitably topple them.
The plunder of this vine can and should be stopped. It simply has to be cut at the base, at ground level. But you can’t just do one or two, it needs to be a community, village, town and regional effort.
Cutting the vines does not preclude the existing seed bank from germinating, but in all likelihood, it will kill the parent vine so it can no longer reproduce. And cutting down the vines may also give whatever it’s growing on a fighting chance at survival. A strong word of advice—don’t compost the fruits and never use them for decorations.
You can also see the precursor signs of spring off in the fields. It’s very apparent on the brambles. Up to January, their spiny tendrils were a dull brown, but now each sunny day brings a new hue of green, blue or red to them as they seem to grow and color with abandon.
Also, look for the bright red flower heads of the sumacs. In mass or natural plantings, their red heads atop 6- to 15-foot and taller branches and leaders give a wonderful affect against the winter browns and white snow.
Red and yellow twig dogwoods are now quite obvious at this time of year. These two give the winter landscape color and vibrancy that is often missing during the bleaker months on the East End.
Also look around at the maples, both tall and short ones, as they are showing their colors as the new growth on the twigs can go from dull to brilliant in the late weeks of winter. Even the forsythia is showing color. Not so much in the buds that are swelling, but look at the branches at this time of the year and they are showing true signs of yellow as they emerge from dormancy.
There’s also lots going on now in the world of bark. Yes, bark.
A number of species of maple, elm, sycamore and birch have bark that exfoliates at this time of the year, giving not only a show and range of colors but some incredible displays of texture and design that can be remarkable. More on bark another time. For now, get those seed and plant orders in. And, of course, keep growing.
Andrew Messinger has been a professional horticulturist for more than 30 years. He divides his time between homes and gardens in Southampton, Westchester and the Catskills. E-mail him at: Andrew@hamptongardener.com. The Hampton Gardener is a registered trademark.
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