YORKTON – It’s getting to that time, gardeners, when we will think about wrapping our cedars or tender new spruces.
This a task that is as ‘Saskatchewan’ as hanging up the Christmas tree lights or bringing out the snow shovels! A dear friend of ours, who used to watch us put up our Christmas tree lights in early winter, always used to laugh and say that unless you put up the Christmas tree lights on the coldest day of the year, ‘it doesn’t count!’ in terms of effort or determination!
But when it comes to wrapping cedars, we don’t want to wait till the coldest day of the year, nor do we want to wrap them too early. The cedars should be wrapped before the first really hard frost.
We wrap cedars not to protect them from the cold, but to protect them from winter wind and sunscald dehydrating the foliage. The damage to the foliage can be not only unsightly when spring comes but can also hurt the overall health of the shrub.
First: do all cedars need to be wrapped? If they are well-established and are a good size and in good health, we won’t have to. Even the location can help us decide if they need a bit of extra help over winter. If the cedar is in a spot where the wild winter winds whip around it, we might want to wrap the tree if it is not too large.
But if the cedar is newly planted this year or is still getting settled, it is worth the time and effort to wrap it.
I have seen cedars wrapped and bound and trussed to the point that the ‘helping’ could be ‘hurting’ by making them become mis-shaped. We can be gentle with them! Beginning at the base of the cedar, start wrapping burlap fairly loosely (not to compress the branches against each other) around the shrub, each layer overlapping the last slightly, till you get to the top of the cedar. At this point, have a bit of excess burlap which you will carefully fold over to protect the top.
The next step is a matter of preference. Some gardeners take a ball of twine and wrap it around, garland style, to keep the burlap in place, tying the string at the top and bottom. This works fine if it is thorough. Because…it must be some kind of cosmic gardening law…that on the windiest and coldest day of the entire winter, the gardener will notice that the string has slipped and the burlap is billowing away from the cedar, letting in all that wind and cold air…and the gardener will have to slog through thigh-high drifts of snow to repair it before hypothermia sets in. To the gardener, that is!
The method we use takes a bit more time, now and in the spring, but it is secure. We use short pieces of twine or twist ties (these are great, they come in handy rolls that have a cutter attached) and lace these through the burlap layers every foot or two before securing them. Yes, it does take more time, but it certainly keeps things in place all winter. Plus, it allows extra stability where there might be more wind gusts over winter.
In the spring, we must be sure not to be too eager and uncover too early. Sometimes spring winds can still be very strong and very cold, bringing late season damage to our shrubs. Visit the hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca Thank you to our friends at YTW for their fine work. If the weather is still not too bad, enjoy a cuppa coffee on your patio for a few minutes (even if you have to wear a parka!) and have a great week!
