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             The Gardener Guy of Tulsa, Oklahoma

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Winter Winds

Don't ask me to prove it in a court of law, but it's my belief that wind is more of a killer than cold. Whenever we get a strong sub-zero wind for a couple of days, I lose woody plants. One year it was my Reliance peach tree, which was finally fully grown and all set to produce bushels of mouth-watering fruit. Another year I lost a Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) that I'd brought up from Pennsylvania (even though I knew that was only marginally hardy here). Other years we've had colder temperatures but less wind, and borderline-hardy woodies like the Kousa dogwood survived.

It's also my theory that it is the first three years of a tree or shrubs life that are the most critical. Once a tree is well established - and doing well, not limping along - I believe that it will survive harsh winters better than youngsters. So I pamper young trees and shrubs during that break-in period. After that, most have to fend for themselves. This past October I replaced a fringe tree (Chionanthus viginicus) that I'd planted near the Cornish firehouse for our garden club in 2003. The site had truly horrible soil. The past two springs the tree had died back to the ground, but sent up new growth from the roots each year. It was clearly not happy there. I decided we needed something tougher, and replaced it with a hawthorn (Crataegus viridis), a variety known as Winter King. With a name like that, it shouldn't complain about winters, and will have nice berries to show off against the snow when it matures.

As a certified tree-hugger, I couldn't very well just throw the fringe tree on the burn pile. So I brought it home and planted it. I picked a site with good soil and a little protection from the north wind. It should do fine. But when the wind started howling at zero degrees, I started to worry. About 7 pm I went out with a flashlight and an old blanket and wrapped the young tree. I tied the blanket to keep it from blowing away. And I fluffed up some hay and banked it around the base. We'll see how it does. I'll pamper it for a few years, and then it'll have to survive on its own. If it doesn't, it's firewood.

When we take down the Christmas tree in January, I use my pruners to cut off the branches from the trunk. Evergreen branches are terrific for protecting roses and tender shrubs. I use the branches to create a windbreak, criss-crossing them around delicate plants. Then I top it up with hay, creating a warm little nest.

The other problem we may see, come spring, is the loss of perennial flowers. We had warm temperatures, rain and flooding. The ground softened up and rain penetrated the upper layers of the soil. Then it got cold, ice came down and everything froze rock hard. That's a recipe for disaster.

Most plants hate wet feet as much as we do. Roots rot, and lose their ability to respire if in water or ice. Water-logged earth that freezes and thaws is prone to producing frost heaves, cracking and lifting. This can then expose roots to air, drying them out - which can be as bad as sitting in water.

So, although you can knit a sweater for your favorite rose or wrap a new shrub in a blanket, there's not much you can do this winter for perennials that are lodging in water-logged soil. But, come spring, you should keep an eye open for plants that have been lifted by frost. Gently push them back down, and add a little topsoil if necessary. And add a task to your "to-do" list for the summer: improve drainage.

Improving drainage to an existing flower bed is not easy. I've read about installing gravel-lined trenches and drain pipes to move water away. But who wants to hire a backhoe or spend the summer digging and calculating slopes? Not me. Adding lots of compost in the top 12 inches of soil is my solution, albeit imperfect. That, and selecting plants that naturally prefer wet locations.

So if January proves to have been overly harsh, you will have open spaces to fill in the garden come spring. This is a good time to get out your reference texts or buy a glossy gardening magazine. Start reading up on the best new cultivars available. As much as I miss some of the plants I've lost over the years, I never get discouraged. I look at those loses as opportunities to try some new plants that I wouldn't have had space for otherwise.

Henry Homeyer is the Vermont/New Hampshire associate editor of People, Places and Plants magazine. His website is www.gardening-guy.com. He may be contacted at gardening.guy@valley.net, or P. O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, N.H. 03746.