Protecting The Outdoor Broadleaf Evergreens

Is there anything you could do with outdoor plants, trees, bushes at this time, or if you haven’t covered them by now in burlap or whatever, or is that the way to cover them? Is it too late? 

No, absolutely not. You can still do some protection with some stakes and some burlap. Burlap is good. Burlap is the way to go. You don’t want it wrapped really tight around the plant. You kind of want it off the plant just a little bit. That way you’re not suffocating the plant in any way.

One of the main things we talk about this time of year is a product called Wilt Proof or Wilt Stop. And what that is, is it’s a leaf sealant. That’s kind of like Chapstick for plants, if you want an easy analogy. It seals the foliage on evergreens, especially leafy evergreens. Now, most needled evergreens have a waxy coating on the cuticle, and so it generally doesn’t give off a lot of moisture when really cold and windy, but your leafy plants like rhododendrons, azaleas, Pieris japonica, boxwood, and several others have a tendency to get what’s called winter burn.

And that doesn’t come from the cold. It comes from dehydration. So if we seal the leaf, we prevent that dehydration from happening. You’ll see a lot of azaleas and rhododendrons. It is a liquid spray. 

Now, I had somebody come in the store the other day, buy some of it, and she’s like, when can I apply this? I said, okay. Normally this time of year we’re above freezing. And I do see next week we’re supposed to go in the 40s. So if this is something you want to do to protect your plants, next week would be a great time.

All it has to do is be warm enough, long enough to dry on the foliage. So a couple hours. We just need a couple hours above freezing, allow that liquid to dry on the foliage, and then it’s going to protect it through the entire winter season.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).