early greening of all my perenials

Hi There! I'm here in zone 5 and were having a very nice weekend of warm weather. The good news is almost all of the perennials I planted last fall during the clearance sales seem to be greening up and have survived the winter. However - this seems to be very EARLY and I know were still going to get some very cold weather here (NW Indiana just outside Chicago). My question is am I in trouble here because the plants are starting to come out of hibernation already and should I plan on protecting them now anytime there's a cold snap? We had a great winter with lots of snow cover to protect them but that's gone now and I'm nervous because I've had rodos, roses etc that have suffered a late freeze and not bloomed in the past. Any advice would sure be appreciated!!!

If they are mulched and covered up leave the mulch there for a while. I was out side yesterday and noticed some of my plants starting to grow too, I did uncover some of my spring bulbs as some will not push up under the wet leaves all the way.
We have been through this type of thing before so no need to panic, I have been gardening for over 35 years in zone 5, the hardy plants will make it and the weak ones have already bit the dust. Nature has a way of sorting things out.

I'm laughing right now because your right - zone 5 is not for the wimpy plants!!! Most of my leaves have blown away, they still have a decent amount of mulch around the base, will you go out and try some type of cover if we get a freeze? Do you think this is extra early for the plants to wake up? Thanks for the tip on the bulbs, I haven't done that although I did even see one of those pushing up already too. Has that happened to you that an early warm up followed by cold kills off the flowering for that season, especially Spring flowerers like rodos?

i am south of you ladies, but i couldnt help but comment. i am surprised at how many of my perennials (hollyhocks, sweet william, even roses) stayed green even though we had a harsh winter. yay it looks like spring!

Chances are you'll get some burnt leaves if the temps drop back below freezing for any amount of time. If there's something really important, you can cover it, but like ladygardener said, on perennials, the weather will just winnow away the weak.

thanks for the reassurance - I feel better. Pandora I DO feel surprised also though - I guess Spring is on it's way. We had such a bad winter last year (not a ton of snow but lots of freezing weather, a few warm-ups early) that a good number of my roses took until July to fully recover - to the point where whole rose bushes stayed brown - I figured they were dead, they actually came back but it took until late June. I almost had pulled them out. Also my spring bloomers like rodos really never did much so I'm hoping to avoid that fate - the season just isn't long enough to give up your flowers until July!

These plants (bulbs) are so smart; they know just when to poke up, even when it is cold. The only ones I have ever lost to a late freeze were daffodils and it was only because they had started to bud in February after a very mild winter.

Zone 6b on the coast is a bit milder, but we got a few blasts of arctic air and winds, making it bitterly cold. All the new bulbs I planted in September and all the existing bulbs are coming up at the same time. Besides that, the tree peonies all have little red buds in their axils. I'm embarassed to admit I do not remember the plant in the pic, only that it is new this year, so I'll have to pore thru the empty bags I saved. What a beautiful harbinger of spring!

LOL - glad to hear I'm not the only one who does that sort of thing - I have some species tulips that completely caught me by surprise...

I live in zone 5 also , over on the east coast in CT.
Last year we had a few plants green up earlier than others - and we got frost in the last week of may.
Some of my first plants showing were lost , i lost a willow tree, butterfly bush, coreopsis, coneflowers and baloon flowers.
Mulching over in spring definately helps though because my bf threw a bunch of leaves on one section of our coneflower garden after we cleaned them up in late april, we noticed some coneflowers coming to life about a week or 2 after that, we thought we should get around to thinning out those leaves soon cause it seemed as if the ones burried were not coming to life as quickly because they were covered with leaves, well we never got around to thinning out the leaves. After the frost - the only ones that survived are the ones that were under leave cover. They sure did take longer to pop thru and green up - but they are the only ones that survived the drawn out winter and late frost.

Last year when the snow finally melted here- my violets were already blooming under the snow- isn't that a hoot! Wonder if I will be so blessed this season? LOL
I am in zone 4/5- The torrid rains did more damage to the plants as it rained so hard the soil could not take it all in and the rain was standing water. Last year was quite the year.
YAY! SPRING!!! It looks like we may thaw here next week???
Sandy

Hi everyone, I know it's been a little while but I just had to say - I've watched the weather and the next week here says 40's and 50's so I'm hoping (fingers crossed) were safe from the hard frost. I've uncovered all my roses and pruned and fertilized (am I crazy for believing in March in zone 5 - maybe but I'm desperate to get a jump start on the growing season). Everything is budding up and turning green except the russian sage and bee balm but I've heard they take a little longer?

I'd be careful doing all that pruning and fertilizing this far before your last frost date because that can stimulate new growth which will be more susceptible to cold damage. Plus if you have plants that already have cold damage, the damaged parts on the outer part of the plant can help protect the undamaged interior if there's more cold weather, but if you prune it off then the undamaged part will be exposed to the elements. So if you do get any freezing weather you may want to consider giving the pruned plants some extra protection.

Here in Wyoming all my plants are getting restless and starting to grow. My Penstemons are about 1" high, upright-growing Sedums, the same. My Sempervivums are also waking up.

We have had a cold winter with lot of snow. Today it was 70F degrees, over the weekend we are expecting snow and cold once again. They will all survive as they have done for a number of years. Even if they got frost bitten, the roots will remain alive and new shoots will come from those. If not, it is not a plant to grow here in zone 4. Only the fittest survie in Wyoming.

I've heard to prune approx 6 weeks before last frost which should be about now - is that not right? I'm assuming were safe from any "hard" or lasting frosts but definitely not from cold weather. Blomma - do you leave your plants covered and protected now still or do you let them wake up? It's a tough call, last year we had a bad spring and even though I didn't uncover or prune or anything there was definitely alot of dieback - took my roses a long time to recover?

ponyrosegirl
I never cover any plant, including my roses. Wyoming is tough on plants. They have to withstand -30F degrees. The coldest we have had since I moved her 9 years ago, was -20F degrees and only for a short spell. You never know. Also, they need to be drought tolerant. Our temperature flunctuate from one extreme to another. It was 60F degrees yesterday, today mid-60's. It is clouding up and we are expecting 1ft or more of snow, starting with rain after midnight. It will change to snow by morning and continue until Tuesday.

My roses are floribundas hardy to zone 4. I don't cover them either. Their roots are mulched inside a ring that I made from a grass edger. The branches normally die down somewhat but they bloom on new wood. As long as their roots survive, so will the plants. Likewise perennials that are hardy in my zone. If leaves become frostbitten, or freeze, plants will just send out new ones when conditions are right. I don't argue with Mother Nature. I leave all my plants in her hands.

The only time I have lost plants over winter, is when I got tempted and bought or sowed a plant that was only hardy to zone 5. That was a learning experience I don't repeat anymore.

As far as pruning. IF you mean cutting out all dead growth from last year, I do that late fall. Then go over them again as soon as the weather is comfortably warm, whatever the month. It goes along with raking. Due to our high wind which is often, raking in the fall is a waste of time. I don't have a tree, but neighbors do. Cutting out all dead growth in the fall makes raking a lot easier in the spring.

Thanks blomma, yes I cut down lightly the dead growth last fall but left most of the rose bushes to themselves over the winter. Then when they started to warm up and show growth these last few weeks I went out and did a more overall pruning and shaping. Raking here is an absolute waste of time in the fall also! I admire your ability to resist the plants out of your zone - it really is not worth the heartache is it?

I have no idea what I was going to say here

This message was edited Apr 1, 2009 11:23 PM

Blomma what happened? lol