For Release May 1, 2001

Evaluate Weather Damaged Landscape Plants Now

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

All through the spring I was telling everyone to just sit tight to wait and see how severe the damage was to landscape plants. Spring came late and everything seemed a little slow in waking up. This made it difficult to really evaluate the summer drought and winter cold damage. But now we’ve had some good rains and enough warm weather that you should start to tell how severe the damage is.

There are still a few plants that are slow in breaking dormancy. Blue spruce and boxwoods are just now showing new bud growth. But most everything else should be showing at least some signs of growth. Several species were hit very hard by the weather extremes of the past year.

It is difficult, when we have a combination of weather extremes, to sort out just exactly what caused the damage. Sometimes it is just the combination of extreme conditions. I feel that most of the damage we are seeing was caused by the extreme heat of August and September. Remembering back, August had 17 days above 100 degrees. We also had an eleven day run from late August through early September with temperatures ranging from 100 to 109. These temperatures were accompanied by winds and low humidity, exacerbating the problem.

These conditions severely stressed a lot of plants. Now, take that stressed plant and subject it to below zero temperatures just four months later. Just like you and me, if the plant is stressed, it is more likely to have other problems. Even if it does survive the weather extremes, the plant is more likely to have insect and disease problems move in this year.

Burning bushes were hit hard last year. I have seen many that appear to be dead. All above ground plant parts are dry and dead and I have seen no evidence of shoots coming up from the roots. If you have one that looks like this, cut it back to about six inches in height. If you don’t have any root shoots in another month, rip it out. I would not hesitate to replace it with another burning bush. We have generally had good luck with this species and I wouldn’t let one extreme weather year stop us from using this plant in our landscapes.

Yews of all kinds were hit hard. All ages and types suffered last year, but younger plants probably worse than others. This is a plant that has marginal adaptation to our area. They seem to do best on north and east exposures where they are sheltered from hot summer winds. Over the past decade we’ve been planting more and more of these on south and west exposures and now we’re paying the price. Yews can regenerate new buds at the crown or stem level. If your yew is brown, start looking at the stems and base for new growth. If you see new growth, trim back to this area. If you don’t see new growth, replace the plant.

Spruces, especially blue spruces, while popular, are in no way, shape or form, adapted to this area. We are always living on the edge with these plants. New growth is starting to be visible. If your plant lost all of its needles during the winter, there is little hope that it is still alive. If it still has green needles then there is still hope for it being alive. The big question is how deformed will it be. As new growth comes on, you will have to decide for yourself.

Just about everything else probably falls in between these extremes. Some plants are well adapted to our area, they just had a rough go of it last year. Other plants are marginally adapted and we need to be sure to use them in the right location. Others are not adapted to our area and shouldn’t be used. As you replace weather damaged plants, do a little homework so that you minimize potential problems in the future.

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