11December 3, 2014

The snowstorm that occurred just before Thanksgiving really made a mess of things in the yard. The wet snow weighed down many tree limbs and shrubs. Mondays thaw in temperatures allowed a lot of that snow to melt off of the plants. At this time, you should be going outside and looking for signs of damage to your plants. If you find any broken limbs, it would be best to remove those limbs. If the broken limb is left in place, the area of the break will allow snow and rain to accumulate. Over time, this will cause the area of the break to rot. In some cases, the snow will weigh down evergreens. Once the snow melts, the evergreen may come back on its own.

For future reference, if you have to get wet snow off of your plants, you can use your hands or you can lightly brush the snow off the plants. You should resist the temptation to really bang on the limbs with a broom. In cold temperatures, the branches of your plants can be very brittle. If you hit the brittle branches hard enough, you can cause the branches to crack or break.
Take some time soon and go out and check your plants for signs of damage.

Many of you will purchase some type of holiday plants for your home or office. Many of these plants will have the pot covered in a decorative wrap. When you water the plant, you should slide the decorative wrap off of the plant. If you don’t, the wrap will act like a large saucer that will hold water. Plant roots need water, but they also need oxygen in the soil. The decorative wrap will keep the water constantly in contact with the soil. In time, the roots will die from being kept too wet. Poinsettias, in particular, will die very quickly if the soil stays too wet. What you should do is to take the decorative wrap off the pot, water the plant in the sink and let the excess water drain away from the soil. Once the excess water stops draining, you can put the decorative cover back onto the pot.

There has been a lot of snow in Canada. You probably wonder how this can be a concern to you. Many of the balsam wreaths are made in Canada. The large amounts of snow make it hard for people to get out and harvest the greens that are needed to make the wreaths. We have not received all of the wreaths that we pre-ordered for this season. It appears that we will have all the sizes that we carry back in stock this past Tuesday. However, I don’t know how many other balsam wreaths we can get if we sell out on what we have pre-ordered. The gist of all of this is if you want a balsam wreath this year, you are better off shopping sooner rather than later. Later in the season, you may not find the size wreath that you are looking for.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.