Frost cloth is a good go-to in spring.
IF you got caught out by the big frost recently, you were not alone. I have seen lots of posts on facebook with people losing their veggies plants and early dahlias being burnt by the frost. I was up at 6am with warm water unfreezing hose pipes so that I could turn the sprinklers on in my nursery and melt the frost before the sun hit the leaves of new growth on some Michelia Figos to see that even the new spring growth on some star jasmine got burnt. A couple of tips if you forget to cover your frost-tender plants. Get up before the sun hits the plants, and hose the frost off them; this can sometimes lessen the damage caused by the frost. As the ice crystals form, they expand and rupture the cell walls which can cause your plants to die. Don’t be in a hurry to prune the damaged leaves off your plants, as if we get another frost this already frost-burned foliage will help protected the undamaged growth. Also, when you prune your plants it encourages new growth, and this young green growth is the most vulnerable to frost damage. In saying that, I am hoping it was a one-off as I will tidy them up to promote new spring growth before they go into our client’s garden, I will also give them a drench in seaweed fertiliser to also give them a boost it is great to help plants recover from a shock. Although I have never used them, there are sprays that you can buy to spray on your plants to protect them from frosts. They are basically a spray-on frost cloth, or it is simple as getting some frost cloth to cover your plants you can use all sorts of things as frost covers from old sheets to net curtains. This weekend we are scheduled for some fine weather, and as always Labour Weekend is the traditional planting time for most Kiwis. It just might pay to have some frost protection on hand.
