Well the crazy weather is at it again. Snow for a few days and then rain and flooding, besides being a pain in the neck for us, our plants are having a hard time coping as well. Last week just before the snow came, I was out back looking over some plants when I noticed a hydrangea that was starting to open it’s leaf buds already. Of course this is not suppose to happen in January and the buds will end up freezing off and stunting to hydrangea from budding out normally in the spring. 

As a result, I now know that this hydrangea will probably take an extra month to bud out in the spring. Many times in the spring we have customers pulling plants out of the ground that they think died over the winter, when in reality if they just would have waited the plants would bud out. This is going to be happening a lot this spring as the crazy winter weather will be confusing many plants into budding early. If we could just get enough snow on the ground to stay all winter long it would keep the plant root protected but also a steady cold to keep plants from sprouting too early. How many times have we had apple blossoms come out in early March when we get a quick warm spell, only to be frozen off a week later with a twelve inch snowfall. 

Unfortunately I fear that this is going to happen again this year. I have been seeing many plants both a home and at work that are starting to swell their buds and if we get a warm snap they will start to open. To help prevent this from happening you can still put some burlap around your plants to shade them from direct sunlight that will promote budding. By shading the plants you will keep them cooler which can prevent them from budding early. Just make sure you take the burlap off by late March to allow for the natural bud cycle to happen. Keeping an eye on your plants all year round is very important. Back in December when I was putting up Christmas lights, I had to move some small pine tree seedlings that were in the way of a couple of my inflatables. When I dug them up I noticed that each one of them had at least one egg mass from a Gypsy Moth. 

Left untreated each one of these masses could produce a thousand gypsy moth caterpillars in the spring. So the masses that I found got destroyed, but this spring I will be spraying a natural biologic pesticide called BT or Thuricide to combat any gypsy moth caterpillars that do appear around my yard. BT is a genius specific bacteria that only affects caterpillars. It will not harm earthworms, bees, ladybugs or other beneficial insects. New York State may do some woodland spraying themselves this spring as the Gypsy Moth problem is becoming more widespread. Last year many acres in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties were affected by the leaf eating caterpillars. It was the first time in over twenty years that we saw widespread Gypsy Moth activity. It used to be a seven year cycle for the caterpillars but they were absent for many years since back in the mid-nineties. So if your yard isn’t a mud bowl, that some time to check on your plants. Trust me when I tell you, they aren’t happy about this weather either.