What’s next after an early freeze made some of our North Texas gardening decisions?
We all watched anxiously earlier this week as the freeze line kept dipping farther and farther south across Fort Worth and Dallas and our nearby neighbors. It’s always such a pain to figure which plants need to be covered and which plants need to be moved. Some need to be left to their own devices, and some just get your big, cold kiss of “Goodbye.”
That was made a bit easier when weather people started predicting low temps into the high 20s. Very few summertime annuals would survive that, so we are now pretty much freed to look toward winter plantings to replace them. Decision was made for many of us.
But there are some aspects of this that worry me just a bit. Some of our typically woody, perennial plants had not yet become acclimated to cold for the upcoming winter. Many of them hadn’t spent any time at all being exposed to temperatures in the 40s or high-30s. All of a sudden, here came the low 30s and even the 20s. We in horticulture say that those plants hadn’t been properly “hardened.”
Some of our plants keep growing right up to the first killing frost. It’s then, and only then, that they shut up shop and begin to go dormant for the winter. These are, for the most part, our sub-tropical plants such as Gold Star Esperanza, Mexican bush salvia and (shudder) several of our popular crape myrtle varieties.
I’m a big fan of crape myrtles. I spend a day or two a week working with an organization that’s about as fixated as I am on this great group of summer-flowering shrubs and small trees. (Actually, all crape myrtles are genetically shrubs. We just train some of the taller types into tree form.)
It’s been our observation over the past 30 years that when we have a very early first freeze, varieties that stay green and growing the longest seem to be more likely to suffer dieback from the cold. And it’s not always because the temperature dropped really low. Sometimes it’s because the plants had not become hardened before the first freeze rolled in.
To name names, if you have Natchez, Muskogee, Tuscarora, Sioux or Country Red crape myrtles planted near your home, see if they suffer any dieback over this winter.
It’s not uncommon to see these varieties lose half of their top growth. Sometimes they freeze clear to the ground. Yes, they send up vigorous new shoots from the ground come spring, but you just get tired of having to retrain them after this happens. However, it’s not the end of the world. Just trim out the dead wood next spring and reshape the plants. They’re still some of the finest plants we have for months of color during the summer.
Don’t be surprised if you see unusual patterns in your bermuda lawn after this kind of early freeze. For whatever the reason, frost forms across surfaces in irregular herringbone patterns, and the grass browns accordingly. People become quite alarmed, but it really is of no concern. They grass will bounce back, either during warm spells the rest of this fall or as things green up next spring.
Many of your perennial plants are going to look singed by the cold, and chances are they’ll need to be trimmed back significantly. Hardy hibiscus (mallows) come to mind first, but gloriosa daisies, cannas, and fading fall asters are turning it in for the winter in our gardens. They can be trimmed halfway back if that would make things look more tidy, or if need be, cut them back to within an inch or two of the ground. Note: mum plants will soon follow suit, but it may be too early to do that pruning now.
I like to leave a short piece of stem stub to remind me where each of my perennials is planted. That way I won’t accidentally run my rototiller through them when I get that urge to turn up the garden in January. (That’s a rare urge anymore, but when it hits, I don’t push it aside!)
Annual plantings get pulled now to make room for my winter/early spring color. To most Texans that means pansies and violas. They are the rock stars that bloom through it all. Really cold weather may shut them down for a couple of days, but they bounce back and keep right on flowering.
Prepare the soil carefully for pansies and all your other cool-season color. Add organic matter anew each year to supplement what you included the prior season. Rake out all the roots and debris, then plant healthy, vigorous pansies, violas, pinks, ornamental cabbage and kale, snapdragons and other cold-weather bloomers. Have pieces of frost cloth on hand to protect them from extremely cold spells. Apply a water-soluble, very high-nitrogen plant food to get them off to a quick start.
Finally, as you’re finishing up the new plantings and taking out everything frozen, fine-tune the compost pile. Compost is a valuable asset, and all that organic matter is too good to waste. It’s the original form of recycling, and it’s still a great concept that you don’t want to bypass.