Why do certain trees and shrubs need to be protected during the winter?

A new woody plant took root in your beautiful backyard during the spring. You’ve watered consistently and the new friend has been well maintained during the summer. Now, it’s fall. The weather has started to become colder, and winter is right around the corner. You may not be sure what steps to take and ask yourself, why do certain trees and shrubs need to be protected during the winter?

Here are some reasons why certain trees and shrubs need winter protection:

-Heavy snow and icy wind may affect vulnerable woody plants. For example: roses will need to be mounded, so they can stay uniformly cold to prevent freezing and thawing. Sometimes in the North Country, we can encounter heavy snowstorms and instant thawing afterwards. Therefore, this occurrence can cause more damage to delicate plants, but also to small trees and shrubs. One way to reduce the damage is to prevent shoveling or plowing the snow onto the woody plants. It’s also best to try to avoid letting snow from the rooftops fall onto them.

-Deicing salts can also be damaging to certain trees or shrubs. The salts that are placed on the roads may be out of our control, but we can minimize their impact. One way is to reduce the amount of salt applications to driveways and sidewalks. For example, you can wait until the precipitation ends, remove the snow, and apply the deicing salts to paved pathways. This method can reduce damage to the nearby woody plants.

-Critter damage can affect certain trees and shrubs due to food scarcity during the winter. Rabbits can severely hurt woody plants like maples and oaks when they are young. An effective way to prevent this is to place chicken wire, hardware cloth, or a tree guard around the base of the tree or shrub. The preferred height of the fencing material should be about 24-36 in. to prevent the rabbits from climbing or reaching over the fence after a heavy snowfall. Deer may often feed on the lower branches of yews, arborvitaes, and other evergreens. To physically exclude and prevent deer from browsing certain plants: you can place tubes, wraps, wire fencing, and wire cylinders around the trees and shrubs. Once spring comes, the non-permanent structures will need to be removed. Applying extra protection to your smaller, woody plants can prevent severe deer damage as well.

-Desiccation and sunscald injury can occur during the winter as well. To prevent desiccation, you can deeply water susceptible evergreens during dry periods during the fall. Keep watering them until the ground freezes. Woody plants like boxwoods, arborvitaes, and yews are most susceptible to this injury. Sunscald injury may occur on the bark of the trees, especially fruit trees. Wrapping the woody plants in the fall with plastic tree guards or tree wrap helps prevent this injury.

There are other reasons why certain trees and shrubs may need winter protection. But here are a few practices you can get started or continue this fall!

If you have questions about tree and shrub winter protection, feel free to contact our local CCE Office at 315-788-8450 or Cierra Williams at clw247 [at] cornell.edu.