Hail, snow and frost are coming, so pack up those garden plants | Living

Give a Dutch person three rays of sunshine and he or she will be at the garden centre. But the Dutchman also knows: in March the weather often changes. Is the announced snow a reason to worry about those newly repotted plants or that neatly pruned shrub?

That depends on your plants, says Arnold van Vliet, biologist at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). After August, many plants go into ‘hibernation’, he says, and are less sensitive to frost. The hibernation lasts until about April, but due to the early spring, many plant species will already be out of hibernation. Plants that sprout too early are more vulnerable to night frost and the fluctuations in the weather are then less favourable.”

Van Vliet finds it difficult to say whether there is reason to panic about plants, because species differ greatly from each other. Some plants are less sensitive to frost than others. A boxwood, for example, is quite ‘hardy’. Snow also has an insulating effect, protecting plants against low temperatures and icy winds. But plants can also collapse under the weight of a layer of snow. Furthermore, many plants cannot stand it if the snow and icy wind are accompanied by a lot of rain. A stroke of luck: the wind will not blow very hard in the coming days.

Plants in pots are most at risk during (night) frost: the root is then above the ground, which increases the risk of freezing. When planting in the ground, the roots are much better protected. A tip for plants in pots is to insulate the side of the pot: with bubble wrap or Styrofoam.

If it starts to freeze really hard (but it doesn’t look like it for the time being), then a fleece cloth can be the rescue for plants in the ground, because of the light fabric, the plants can still get enough oxygen. Do not use foil, as this can suffocate the plant.

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