Louisiana Gardeners – Not So Fast in Removing Cold Damaged Plants

A week ago much of Louisiana's I-10 corridor from Lake Charles to Lafayette to Baton Rouge and New Orleans was on winter weather alert. Most of us were a bit skeptical of the forecast, after all, 19 of the 20 previous snow storms forecast for the area never materialized, but this one did. And it "materialized a lot" if you know what I mean.

The snow has come and gone and while we are still coming out from under that arctic blast of last week it's time to start thinking ahead. Louisiana winters are brief, to say the least. We generally get our coldest weather from mid-January through mid-February. So, just by looking at the calendar you can see there are still plenty of chances for even more cold snaps and dare we say even more wintery precipitation.

Most Louisiana landscapes, yards, and gardens are not designed to handle extremely cold temperatures. In Lafayette last week the morning temperature was reported to be just "4" degrees, that's extreme cold and chances are you had some plants damaged by the drastic drop in temperature.

Your first instinct might be to prune back or remove the dead or dying plant material. However, that's not what horticultural experts with the LSU Ag Center suggest. Before you start assaulting the shrubs and plants with sharp objects give them a week or so. In that time you'll be able to asses which parts of the plant are dead and which parts are still living.

An easy check is to use your thumb or fingernail to scrape away some of the plant's bark or skin. If the underlying material is green then that part of the plant is still living. This should help you in knowing where to prune.

And if you do some snipping, make sure you don't prune a plant back to the ground. This kind of cutting makes the plant susceptible for future freezes, which based on the calendar, we probably will have at least one if not two or three more.

You can always reach out to the LSU AgCenter for answers to your lawn and garden questions. They have experts who can offer you advice or point you in the direction of good reference materials that will help keep your lawn and garden growing even through the worst of what Old Man Winter can throw our direction.