Evergreen & Shrub Winter Care

David Horvath from Davey's Lake Bluff office shares how you should be caring for your evergreens and shrubs in the winter to help ensure they'll thrive once spring comes back around!

In this episode we cover:  

• First thing that comes to mind for evergreen and shrub care in the winter (0:39)
• Anti-desiccants (1:11)
• Importance of reading the labels (3:55)
• What was Chicago's season like this year? (4:58)
• Should you be watering in the winter? (6:28)
• Snow loading (7:30)
• Mulching and fertilizing this time of year (8:59)
• What other work is done in the winter? (10:01)
• Shrub pruning advice (10:57)
• Right pruning tools (12:32)
• Inspecting the landscape in the winter (14:07)
• "Arbor Lane" (14:43)
• Why David enjoys his job (15:32)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about evergreen care in the winter, read our blogs, Winter Watering for Evergreens: What You Need to Know, When to Fertilize Evergreens: Should You Fertilize Evergreens in the Winter and Should I Wrap Trees for Winter Protection?

To learn about salt tolerant evergreens, read our blog, Salt Tolerant Evergreen Trees (By Zone).

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!

Transcript

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Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more, because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer.

I'm happy to welcome David Horvath back to the show. He's a sales arborist in Lake Bluff, Illinois, for the Davey Tree Expert Company. David, welcome back. How are you?

David Horvath: I'm doing very well, Doug. Good to see you again.

Doug: Good to see you. Evergreen and shrub winter care. What's the first thing on your mind when I say that?

David: Ah, first thing on my mind, I think of evergreens, and I think of those in particular that are along busy streets and what we can do to protect them. When I think of busy streets, we live in the Midwest, and I think of snow and ice and all the de-icing agents that are put down on the roads, and then traffic speeding along and splashing all of that on that evergreen foliage.

Doug: What can we do? [chuckles]

David: One of the things we can do is we can apply something that's called an anti-desiccant. Just think of it as like a saran wrap for the evergreen leaves. It provides a barrier to protect it from that salt.

Doug: If it's right on the road, that salt eventually could kill the tree or not?

David: It'll desiccate that foliage or cause it to brown out, because salt, by its very nature, removes moisture. Sometimes a physical barrier, like a burlap screen, might have to be put up if we're worried about excessive amount of salt spray getting into the root zone of the plants. If we're more concerned about just that spray hitting the foliage or the leaves of evergreens, then we're just looking at anti-desiccants to provide that sufficient barrier.

Doug: How about around the house? The same thing, driveways, sidewalks?

David: Exactly. On houses where we're putting a lot of these salts down and we have just movement of vehicles splashing, not that we drive that faster in driveways, but if it's a longer driveway, absolutely, you're going to get some of that splashing of that salt solution.

Doug: The anti-desiccant, I've heard arborists talk about that just on evergreens, not regarding salt, just as something to put on them to help them through the winter. Is that right?

David: Correct, especially evergreens that are in very exposed locations where they're subject to the strong prevailing west winds, for example. That can be a really good thing, because when we think about it, evergreens, they have their leaves on through the winter, but if we're in cold conditions and the soil is frozen, that plant is not able to take up moisture to replace that moisture that's being lost through the leaves. In winter, the air is really dry, so the plants are losing moisture still through their leaves. That anti-desiccant helps slow that process down, helps preserve some of that moisture in the plant leaf.

Doug: The one I know of is called Wilt-Pruf, but are you guys using something different?

David: We use one that is very similar to that. In a sense, it's an acrylic material. I always compare it to a clear coat on fingernails. The material is still able to breathe because we don't want to truly seal that plant up. We still want gas exchange between the leaves. Wilt-Pruf is just another product out there. On some of these anti-desiccants, we do have to be careful, read the label, because some of them can cause injury to some of the evergreens that we think we're protecting. Very important to read the particular label for that anti-desiccant.

Doug: David, that is a great point. I want you to expand a little bit on that, not just for anti-desiccants, but anything that you're adding around your tree. Read the label, for gosh sakes.

David: Yes. Just like human medicine. It is incredible how guilty we are. Me, as a homeowner, I think of other things I do in the house that have labels. It's shocking sometimes when you read the label and you realize what you've been doing maybe for years you should not be doing. Read the label.

Doug: Yes. I got a text the other day. The guy was telling me, "Well, tell me what you think of this. Here's how I'm fertilizing my trees. I'm doubling the amount of fertilizer." I'm just like, "No, the tree can only use so much. It's on the label for a reason." I'm sure you run into the same sort of stuff out in the field.

David: Absolutely. Every week. I was going to say every day, but no, every week we run across that with our customers. It's always a good intention behind it. Just take a little extra time. Read the label.

Doug: What was your season like? I want to get into if we need to water or that sort of thing. What kind of season did you guys have?

David: We had a drought yet again. The spring started out pretty nice. I would say from a standpoint of spring, pretty normal or good spring rains. A little bit more so in the past. We had a lot of disease incident on our trees and shrubs. Then once we got into July, the rain pretty much shut off. We got back into moderate drought conditions again. I didn't check the drought map last week. As far as I know, we were still relatively dry. We've been getting a little precipitation here, but it has still been dry.

The recommendation going into this fall was if you have the ability to water your plants, please give them a good drink. Again, that's where these anti-desiccants can do us a favor sometimes. If we're going in the dry, these plants already have a battle against them. If we can do something to help reduce that winter injury associated with the plant going into fall dry, this is a good solution or help.

Doug: Well, right before we got on, I was out planting the last of the bulbs. We're in the same boat that you are as far as moderate and some areas severe drought still. I was so surprised when I was getting down to 7, 8, 10 inches how dry it is even at this time of the season. Should I consider watering at this point in the season if I get 50s?

David: Yes. If the ground thaws out, we just got through last week, Thursday, we were single digits for the high. Amazing. Over a couple days, everything froze over. We are in the upper 40s today. We have that very slippery layer on the top. We're, in some areas, just a couple inches under. We have a little frost layer already.

If you're able to get some water down, great. If not, and you have evergreens, it might be something to consider of possibly trying to see if you can still get an anti-desiccant applied. When those are applied, we do need above freezing temperatures. That's another critical thing is we're spraying a solution that contains water. That product also has to set or cure. We want temperatures above freezing for that to have good efficacy.

Doug: What else comes to mind while we stick around and talk about evergreens in the winter?

David: Evergreens in the winter. I think the other thing, too, to keep in mind is snow loading. If we think of arborvitae, what happens if we get heavy, wet snow on those plants? A lot of times, we get really, really concerned. We see the branches weighing down, and we want to try to help those plants.

Honestly, the best thing you can do is just leave it alone. A lot of times, that branch is under so much pressure, just the act of trying to help it, you're typically going to snap that branch. Just leave it alone. As it melts or the temperatures get colder and things get drier, some of that snow just starts to disappear. Then assess afterwards. If something needs to be done, call your arborist, have them look at it. If it's a larger evergreen and it has a big break, it's something we can look at, whether that branch has to be removed or possibly we can provide some bracing for that plant.

Doug: I'm glad you said that because it is so tempting when we get a wet snow and you see the load on, in my case, hemlocks. I know not to knock it off, but I know people, they think they're doing the tree a favor, but they're not, right?

David: Correct. As I said earlier, we have good intentions. We just don't sometimes see what the possible consequence of those intentions are.

Doug: With a tree like that, are we done with mulching or fertilizing, that sort of thing when we get into the coldest part of winter?

David: We are wrapping up. We have just a few properties that we were wrapping up fertilizations on here as we still had a small window of the soil being thawed. Like I say, we're just entering that window where some of the sites are starting to freeze up. Fertilizing is wrapping up. Mulching, if it's exposed, why not? You could get a layer of mulch down still. No reason you couldn't do that.

The other thing in preparation of some of these evergreens is if we're worried about things like arborvitaes that have those multiple stems, we could go in there now with internal bracing, like a belt loop, at about two-thirds of the height from the ground to keep those branches from splitting apart when they do get weighed down with snow. That's a really good preventative measure. Then that hopefully helps prevent us from being tempted to go out there with a broom and knock that snow off, and thus breaking the branches.

Doug: What do you think of the winter landscape besides evergreens? What other kind of jobs are you guys doing?

David: We're doing a lot of dormant pruning. A lot of times, we sometimes just focus on the trees, but we don't want to forget about the shrubs as well in the landscape. Our deciduous shrubs, winter's a great time to see that structure of the plant. Shrubs respond really well, especially if they've been in the landscape for several decades now, is to get in there and try to remove some of the oldest, thickest branches.

When I think of rejuvenation, we're targeting about a third of those thickest, oldest stems, trying to cut those down as low to the ground as possible. What we're wanting to do is cause that plant to start to push new, vigorous growth from the ground. That's going to keep that plant as healthy as possible. You're opening it up, you're increasing air movement to reduce disease pressure on that plant as well.

Doug: For somebody who doesn't really know a lot about pruning, is there any advice you can give them as far as going into a shrub? We often see it as we drive by landscapes where shrubs have really been hit hard with pruning.

David: It can be a daunting task, especially those shrubs that have been repeatedly sheared year after year. The one thing I try to remind myself and remind my customers is that shrubs, while they're not inexpensive, they're not as much of an investment as some of our big shade trees. Boy, if you do something really wrong, it's not the end of the world. It is just a shrub.

I think if we remind ourselves of that, we help encourage ourselves, get out there, get plugged into the landscape and try something. It is really therapeutic. It can make you feel good. If you really just make it simple, do one task. If it is just, "Hey, I'm going to try to take out one-third of the thickest, oldest stems," you can get in there with a small handsaw or a loppers.

Yes, you might have some holes in that plant that look a little goofy, but the likelihood is you're not going that shrub. That shrub is going to come back in spring. It's going to likely push some new growth. If your intention is to get rid of that plant that's all manicured and have it more natural shape, that's the path to take it down is by selectively taking out some of those thick old branches.

Doug: Since we're talking about pruning, let's talk about the right tools and sharp tools.

David: Yes. Right tools, right away, I'm thinking of just hand pruners. We want bypass pruners instead of anvil pruners. Anvil pruners, it's a sharp blade that's crushing that plant stem against a flat surface. That's not the best tool to use. Rather, go for that bypass pruner. Up from there, we think of loppers. Those are going to be for your thicker-sized branches.

If we're getting into three-quarter of an inch or larger, we want to jump up to that. Once we start really getting past an inch and a half, we want to start looking at handsaws, a good sharp handsaw. There's a variety of handsaws out there. If you're doing something in a shrub, try looking for something smaller.

I've discovered personally, because shrubs are really typically tight spaces, and doing little home projects around the house, especially with drywall, they make those little drywall punch saws. Those actually can work really good in shrubs. It's a really narrow blade that's sharp, and you can get in those really tight spaces in that shrub. Sometimes thinking outside of the box, but it's still a good sharp tool, and you can get in there compared to using a regular pruning saw that you're so limited to really just making cuts on the outside. Get a tool so you can get on the inside.

Doug: What a good little trick there, huh? That's why we're talking to you, David. [laughs] What else comes to mind for you when we're thinking about winter care for evergreens, shrubs, maybe even the landscape in general?

David: I think, in the winter, for me, as an arborist, it's a good time to inspect that landscape. Inspect your trees. Inspect your shrubs for damage that may have occurred when the leaves were on the plant. Now the leaves are gone on the non-evergreens. You can see damage in there. Winter's a great time for those inspections on your property. Start to get a punch list together for next season.

Doug: Listeners can't see you. We can see each other. We mentioned this once before, but the sign behind you says Arbor Lane. Where does that come from? Did you have it made, or did you find it somewhere? I don't remember.

David: Oh my gosh, there is the old fairgrounds in the county next to where we are, and Walworth County. They have these days, it's like a whole week in summer, and people just bring in all kinds of stuff. There was a guy that had an old school bus, and he just had crates filled with street signs. I thought, "What are the chances?" Sure enough, he had one. I didn't even care about the cost. I had to have it because I'm an arborist. I need an Arbor Lane.

Doug: It is the perfect thing to have in an arborist's office. Again, I know we've talked about it before, but just tell me a little bit about the inspiration you have for this job and what you get out of it.

David: This job is so rewarding. What I get out of it is I get to be connected with nature every day. For me, this job, being able to work outside, being connected with nature is very rewarding. Like any job, there are a lot of stressors, but I get the benefit of being in nature. Even when I do get stressed out, I can get plugged back into nature, and I can calm down. I also have the ability to educate the public, educate homeowners. For me, that's a passion of mine, is to be able to educate. To have that ability every day, that's a blessing.

When I started in the industry, I started in landscaping and plowing snow in the middle of winter. It seemed like every time you got a snow storm, it was 2:00 in the morning. I thought, "Man, this is not what I planned on doing." I saw an advertisement to work with trees and shrubs, and I chose that opportunity. What a treasure it's been. This has been now 25 years in this industry. I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Doug: David, I'm going to leave it right there. It was great to talk to you again. Wonderful information to help us out here during the winter. I know we'll talk again.

David: Absolutely. Thanks, Doug.

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Doug: I don't know if you could hear it, but if you saw us during that interview, David and I were smiling the whole way through. Great to catch up with him. Now, tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I am your host, Doug Oster. Do me a big favor. Subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss a show.

If you've got an idea, maybe a comment for the show, there's two ways to reach us. You can send us an email to podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com. You can also click the link at the end of our show notes to text us a fan mail message. Your ideas might be on a future podcast, and we'd love to hear from you. As always, we'd like to remind you, on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

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