winter

During the winter months it is sometimes necessary to protect certain landscape plants.

Winter is a strange time to think of flowers in the landscape. Yet it can be a surprising awakening of the garden. Several types of trees, shrubs, vines, annuals and perennials bloom between fall and spring.
 

   Winter Jasmine

Cold injury, the damage caused to plants by freezing temperatures, may occur on the fruit, stems, leaves, trunk and roots. Water inside plant parts can freeze and expand, tearing cell walls and causing them to leak. This damage may go unnoticed until the plant fails to come out of dormancy in the spring.
 
There are three types of cold injury. The first is called a ‘burn’.

Spring is almost here - ready or not. And this is the last call for many winter garden jobs. Try to do these chores as soon as possible, before your plants really start growing.
 
    Photo: Tea Scale

Control scale insects on branches of shrubs and trees with a dormant oil spray.

Cold damage to ornamental plants can be a problem during the winter in the Georgia landscape. This is true whether you live in the upper elevations of the mountains or in the most southern regions of the state.

Christmas cacti, popular as houseplants, are readily available at florists, garden centers, and hardware and mass marketing stores to brighten Georgia homes during the dark winter. Many are sold already in bloom. With a little care, these plants will flower again during the following year.
 
   Photo: Texas A&M University

The bleak, blustery days of winter often give us the feeling we should be working inside instead of attending to our landscapes. On the really cold days, this certainly makes sense; but there are actually a number of important tasks that should be done now to prepare our landscapes for the coming spring flush.
 

Pruning
Begin now to prune shrubs and trees (including fruit trees) to shape them and remove dead wood.

This is the time of year when many people ask questions about feeding birds, such as: how do I get started? what types of feeders should I use? where should I locate my feeders? what kinds of food do birds like most?

Perhaps the onset of cooler weather prompts more folks to start thinking about the little birds and how these creatures will survive the winter. Indeed, bird feeding was once considered pimarily a winter activity.