Such a beautifully flowering plant as a hydrangea panicle , will please the eye for many years, if you know how to cover it for the winter. After being imported to us from the southern countries, it was never able to adapt in a rather harsh climate. Save the bush in the winter is not too difficult, but this must be prepared in advance.
In which month to cover the hydrangea for the winter?
If you do not have doubts whether you need to cover a panic hydrangea for the winter, you can start preparing shelter for this shrub at the end of September. To begin with, it is necessary to cut off all the leaves, but leave the top slightly pruned and not to remove the upper inflorescence.
Due to such actions shoots are more lignified, which will allow them to survive the winter better, and the apical bud can not freeze due to a good shelter from dried buds. Approximately a month later, you can already start the final warming.
For those who do not know at what temperature to cover the hydrangea for the winter, one should focus not on the calendar, but on the indications of a street thermometer. When the temperature approaches zero or falls just below a couple of degrees, it's a signal for a caring gardener. For insulation, the following materials should be prepared:
- spunbond (lutrasil);
- dense cellophane film;
- sawdust or dry leaves;
- rigid wire for the frame or flexible tubes.
The time when it is necessary to cover the hydrangea for the winter, as well as the variety of shelter depend on the region. For example, in the south, the bushes of hydrangeas will be high enough and this will be enough for them. But in the western, central and eastern regions, shelter needs to be done thoroughly, because the temperature in winter here sometimes drops to minus 15 ° С-25 ° С. Even if such a decline is short-lived, it will ruin the branches of the plant.
How to properly cover a young hydrangea for the winter?
Having prepared everything you need, you can start working:
- The branches of the bush should be laid radially, that is, in a circle, if the bush is large, or twist all into one loose tourniquet, if the shrub is small. No violent actions are unacceptable, otherwise it may damage the integrity of the shoots.
- Directly to the ground, as a layer between it and the branches, lay a corrugated cardboard or lapnik with spruce for better cushioning.
- Shoots are wound in several layers of spunbond or lutrasil, and then stacked on the billet.
- From above, you can again cover the bush with lapnika or dense knot. The fallen snow will make from this shelter a real den, in which the bush frost will not be at all.
- If the shrub is erect and the branches are laid on the ground, it does not work out, they are wound with a spunbond, tape and build around a rigid wire frame.
- The frame is wrapped with a fine mesh, and in the middle a leaf litter falls, which will not allow the plant to freeze, and at the same time it will breathe.
When the shrub will be at least 3 years old, the shelter can be done not so thoroughly, and with time, only to hone the hydrangea. After all, over the years, the wood becomes denser, and the root system is so strong that it allows hydrangeas to survive the winter cold on their own.