Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Freeze Damage to Ornamentals

It has been eleven days since the Easter freeze and we are still in a wait and see pattern. Many plants were very successful, an example would be the Hawthornes on Stephen Foster that are in full bloom today. I received word this morning that apples may end up with a crop after all. Flowers were open yesterday and Bees were in a flurry of activity.

For most ornamental plants we need to wait and see what happens before we take action. Do not fertilize this spring that will only make the problem worse however fertilization will be important this fall. There will be some plants like Japanese Maples that will likely have stem dieback which will require heavy pruning and as I said before other plants weren't affected in the least.

For much more information on this subject see the following link: http://www.ca.uky.edu/HLA/Dunwell/KYPlantDamage2007.html