CARBONDALE Over the past few weeks, some home gardeners have seen the tips of their flowers and other plants poking their heads from the ground.
There's nothing to fear as long as no flower buds have started budding, one master gardener said. Flowering shrubs like forsythia, that have bloomed this winter, have already used up their blooms and might not flower much, come spring, said Jan Phipps, a master gardener with the University of Illinois Extension. "Once they open up, theyre finished," Phipps said. "But usually a plant that will do that because of a warm spell in the winter, it wont do the whole plant. Flowers whose leaves have pushed through the ground, but not yet budded, may also be OK come spring, she said. If tulips and daffodils are coming up now, that could mean that they weren't planted deep enough, she said. Gardeners should follow the instructions on the packet for planting, she noted. Typically, for tulips, you want to plant them 6 inches deep, from the tip of the bulb to the top of the soil. "If they are worried about the greenery getting zapped by the freeze, they can cover it with mulch and keep it hidden as best as they can," she said. Kelly Hooper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, agreed that the colder temperatures at night could ruin the visual impact of this season's perennials. Other plants, like cabbage and Brussels sprouts, are more frost-hardy and can take some colder temperatures, he said. Southern Illinois will experience some below-freezing nighttime temps on Monday and Tuesday, before the temperatures start to moderate 30s and 40s for daytime highs and 20s for lows later in the week, he said. Hooper could not forecast far out, but said he "would be very open to having a snowfall" over the next two months. Those home gardeners worried about adverse effects on their yard plants can take measures to cover them. He said he's seen covers as simple as buckets turned over plants to various forms of plastic and garbage paper to structures built of concrete blocks covered with timber, topped by plastic in effect, a mini-greenhouse. Of the mini-greenhouse model, Hooper said, We did that for million-dollar inventory and left them out all winter and they did fine."
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November 2018
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