Whew!
That's what most of us are saying regarding the major snowstorm that went through the Mid-Atlantic states, completely staying south of Western New York.
Phrases like "Hate that white stuff", "So happy I didn't have to shovel", "Let somebody else deal with that mess", were tossed all about the past couple of days. Granted, I am very happy we didn't receive 2-3' of snow also, but......what are your plants thinking?
"BRRR, its cold, where's my blanket, I'm freezing" might exactly be what your beautiful perennials and shrubs are thinking (ok, plants don't think, but imagine if they did). Snow, when it naturally falls and is left undisturbed, is the best winter protection your plants can have!
What? Is this writer nuts? Well, that could be a topic for another day, but on this topic I'm perfectly grounded. Snow is nature's insulation blanket on plants and their root systems. When we have bare ground and those cold temperatures, and more importantly those sub-zero wind chills, many plants become stressed. Without the snow blanket, the soil surface is exposed to all those cold, drying winds. And even with mulch, the roots of your plants are more exposed to damage. Shrub stems and branches are equally vulnerable to the winds. Come Spring, the winters where we have prolonged open ground and snow cover bring the most visable die back, and even fatality, with plants vs. the winters of "the good ole days" when we had a snow blanket the entire winter season.
So, while I'm not wishing a storm of 30" of snow all at once, a good 6-12" snow, 3 or 4 times, with no thaw in between, is exactly what was on your landscape plants' Christmas wish list. I guess now that wish is on their Valentine's Day wish list.
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