Snow Damage to Plants

Snow Damage to Plants

Snow damage to plants during a bad snow storm can seem to be devastating at first sight. Sometimes it actually is. The hope is that the plants will rebound and be all right.

We had a huge snow event in this area in the days following Thanksgiving. We got over 4 feet of snow in about a 3 day period. About 2 feet of it fell quickly overnight.

A BIG welcome to winter

This was our first real snowfall of the season. We had received a few slushy flakes about a week earlier but no big deal. This was a BIG deal. This much snow this early in the year is very uncommon, even for us in the “Snow Belt” of Lake Erie.

When that much snow falls that quickly, damage is to be expected. The temperatures stayed in the low 30s so the snow was heavy and sticky.

Snow damage to plants that still had leaves was the worst. All the weight caused lots of things to bend under the weight. Then the snow that followed pinned them under the snow, some all the way to the ground

What was tall was made low

There were several tall shrubs and bushes here that were reduced to a short pile of bent branches with 2-3 feet of wet snow on top. At best, the branches were bent but at worst, branches get broken or trunks are broken.

The problem is you just can’t go out and uncover these plants. First off, all you see is a large mound of white. If you go poking around with a snow shovel you are likely to do more damage than the snow.

You can’t just wait until the snow melts since it may not melt until Spring. Realistically, that probably wouldn’t happen, but you don’t know. Stranger things have happened.

Search and rescue

I went around the yard and tried to find some of the worst victims. I was wading through snow over my knees. As I came to where I knew something should be standing tall, but wasn’t, I poked around with my foot until Ifound the plant.

By gently removing as much snow as possible with my hands and boots, I would try and stand the bush upright. Leaving the trunks bent for long periods of time will cause the fibers to tear on the inside. This will cause a weak area later on, even though it stands upright.

My Lavender Twist Redbud was a leaning tower of branches with the top half buried in the snow. I was able to clear it and get it back upright. I had Golden Vicary Privets that stand about 7-8 feet tall. They were bent down to the ground and buried with snow.

Some things will have to wait

After removing the snow, and some small branches too, they are back to vertical. My large Variegated Weigela is still buried under snow. What was about 6-7 feet high is now 2 feet of bent and broken branches under 2 feet of hard-pack snow. There is no way to dig it out.

Snow damage to plants that are just bent over can hopefully be restored to vertical condition quick enough not to sustain serious damage later on. Some things have had branches broken off. I have been able to cut some of the damaged branches. The rest will have to wait until warmer weather.

Once these branches are broken, they can’t be repaired. During the growing season, once in a while you can mend a broken branch well enough for the plant to heal itself. The branch can callus and fuse back if the break is fresh and clean.

Usually the best solution to a break is to make a clean cut and let the plant heal over the spot. The plant or tree will grow over the area where the branch was removed. It is nature’s way of moving on.

Snow damage to plants like Japanese Maples

I had some potted Japanese Maples that suffered some broken limbs and trunk damage. From what I’ve been able to see so far, they should recover. I didn’t see any that were damaged down to the graft union.

The specific grafted cultivar is still there so hopefully they can start regrowing in the spring. If they had broken below the graft, the tree would be a total loss since only the rootstock would be left. That is a nice thing about Japanese Maples. They can be cut back severely and still recover nicely.

Bottom line is we’ll just have to see what things look like in the spring. Some damage may not be evident until later in the growing season. A seemingly light breeze may snap off limbs or a trunk that was actually weakened now.

Oh yeah. We are just starting the winter snow season. There will be lots more of this white stuff on the way. But this might be the last of the big snows this winter too. We’ll find out in a few months.