BOSTON — We experienced a true New England winter—the frigid temperatures, the snow, and the blizzard. Even though we are moving on to spring, we’re starting to notice how our trees and shrubs weathered during the season.
A local arborist showed me the things to look out for in our yards as we clean up after that long winter.
“Everything looks rougher in the winter, right?,” said Jonathan Quinn, an arborist with Hartney Greymont.
“Like the winter just ended, the worst is over, and nobody’s looking quite their best yet, right?”
It was a rough winter—the cold, the snow—but Jonathan Quinn, an arborist with Hartney Greymont, says this was the winter we’re supposed to have.
“There’s supposed to be snow on the ground for a good six to eight weeks or more,” said Quinn. “It insulates the ground. It helps prevent drying out and freezing of the soil. So overall, the snow was a good thing for below ground, but there was a fair amount to a lot of damage above ground.”
Some of the damage above ground came from Mother Nature—other damage came from animals, like rabbits feeding on plants and anything within six to ten feet of a salted area suffered.
“Salt desiccates—it dries things out,” said Quinn. “Also, salt aerosolizes pretty easily, so that’s why you might have thought you put the salt on the ground, but the branches six, seven, eight feet up higher can get brown because of the salt.”
After the snow melted and people started assessing their yards, Quinn says they might have noticed several things up above—from cracked and splintered wood to discoloration—all signs you might want to call an arborist to check on the stability of a tree.
“If you scratch it hard enough, it should be either green or brown, right?” said Quinn. “So that’s brown and it’s dead. An easier way to tell is if it snaps right. Live branches, like this one, are still alive, have a lot of bend to them, and they’re green.”
And when it comes to pruning, Quinn recommends doing it now to encourage better growth later into the spring and summer.
“Pruning makes wounds,” said Quinn. “As you make those wounds, the plant comes out of dormancy, starts growing, and has the best chance of growing over the wounds you make.”
But if your rhododendrons are still brown by the end of May or early June, he says that might be time to replace that shrub. If you don’t have a lot of time, he says the two things you can do that will make a difference are plenty of watering and a little bit of cleaning up.
“You’re going to do some good if you’re even just cutting out the dead or cleaning up the dead leaves, right?” said Quinn. “You don’t need to do too much, but the right interventions at the right times go a really long way.”
When it comes to planting new, you want to wait until the morning frosts are over, so Quinn recommends waiting until at least early May.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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