More than a month after winter storm, many questions remain about freeze damage

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More than a month after winter storm, many questions remain about freeze damage

Neil Sperry
·5 min read

I’m beginning to think that the aftermath of the February freeze will never end.

Everywhere I go people are asking about their favorite plants and whether they need to replace them or if they might muster the strength to live for another day.

The list keeps growing. I’ve brought some we have not addressed here before.

How did these plants fare?

Rosemary. Most did not do well. If parts of all of your plants have turned brown or dark gray, you need to mark it up as lost. Rosemary plants aren’t that expensive. You don’t want to waste most of this year trying to baby a wounded plant back to good health. Just start with a vigorous new one.

Figs. All of the trees I’ve driven past (I’ve admired for years) are large masses of big stems. No leaves. Just bare stems. The variety Celeste is the most winter-hardy, and the several that I’ve seen are making no effort to resprout. But if you have one that is putting out new shoots from its base, that will be the same variety that you had before.

Crape myrtles. I purposely haven’t mentioned these until now. They are just starting to leaf out and start growing. I’ll come back and amplify on them later, but for now, if you see new shoots coming up from a plant’s base, leave them there for a few weeks until we can see how the top is going to respond to the cold. You may need them as new trunks should there be dieback of the old growth.

Vitex. Some people call this “Texas lilac,” although that’s a name I certainly can’t explain. Also called “chaste tree” (another odd moniker), it’s a large shrub that blooms in late spring, usually with elongated heads of beautiful blue. Like crape myrtles, they are slow to leaf out. I think they’ll be fine. I’m seeing leaves opening daily. Sit tight.

Texas sage. I’m getting pretty nervous about these shrubs that we also know as “ceniza.” Those that do have new growth seem to have it sporadically throughout their leaf canopies. They may need to be pruned back and reshaped, even at this late date. Even though it may be a plant that’s native to Texas, it’s not native to these parts. And now we get an idea of why.

Wax myrtle. They were torched by the cold. Most of the leaves on many of the plants were browned by the low temperatures. I thought they might not come back, but now I’m seeing new growth on many. I must confess that this is not one of my favorite plants because it doesn’t seem to be happy with our alkaline soils, but if you have a plant that has served you well, it should be on the rebound.

Lemons, satsumas and other citrus. If you had these outside during the cold spell, they won’t be coming back. It was simply too cold. If you had one in a pot in the garage, and if the garage dipped below freezing for a few hours, your plant might have a chance if its stem is still pliable and green.

Lantanas. It’s too soon to make this decision. The upright types are more winter-hardy, so those are the ones most likely to come back, but they normally are the last perennials to pop out of the soil. Sit tight and wait. Hopefully they’ll be showing up soon.

Elephant ears. I know people have beds of these that have been in place for many years, but that string may have been broken. They’re sub-tropical plants, and while their tubers will tolerate light freezes, what we had back in February was a lot more extreme. Make plans to buy more.

Bananas. Normally these will come back for us if we mulch over their crowns, but I’ll be amazed if any of them does this time around. As with the elephant ear tubers, if you want bananas around you, this year you probably ought to plan on buying new plants.

Lady Banksia rose. All of the ones that I have seen, and all of the ones that people have reported on my Facebook page from all across Texas, have been brown-to-the-ground dead. I’ve lived and gardened in Fort Worth-Dallas for 50 years, and this is the first time I’ve seen this happen. And these are not plants that were infected with rose rosette virus. They were killed by the cold.

Carolina jessamine. It has struck me as odd that a vine that is native to the Piney Woods of East Texas could have been frozen out all across North Texas. How did it survive as a native plant over there in the forests for centuries? This one is worth replanting. I’ll bet it won’t freeze again for a long time. It’s too good a plant to ignore.

Revisiting plants from an earlier spotlight

Indian hawthorn. These are lost. They can be removed and replaced with dwarf hollies, dwarf abelias or other compatible plant. No plant that we grow was so universally damaged from the Red River to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Loropetalum (Fringe flowers). Some made it and some did not. Either way, by now you should be able to tell them apart. Look for their tiny new buds and slender new shoots. If you don’t see them, start pruning from the growing tips until you come to live tissues. You may have to reshape the plants to maintain some degree of uniformity. You may very well have to replace some of them.

Pittosporums. These are lost and should be replaced with comparable hollies or other suitable plant. Pittosporums should not be planted in North Central Texas. Shouldn’t have been in the first place. But I’ll bet you know that.

You can hear Neil Sperry on KLIF 570AM on Saturday afternoons 1-3 pm and on WBAP 820AM Sunday mornings 8-10 am. Join him at www.neilsperry.com and follow him on Facebook.

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