Bergenfield Flower Shops

Bergenfield NJ News

Dec 15, 2015

Unexpected season's greetings as mild North Jersey weather tricks plants into ...

North Jersey Weather Observers, on Sunday, the thermometer in Hawthorne rose to 68 degrees, breaking the record for that town, set in 1928, while in Bergenfield, it was 67 degrees, which broke the record set in 1984 — and more milder-than usual days are forecasted for at least the next week. Ziff says the warm weather appeared to be a continuation of an unusually warm November — the sixth warmest in records dating back to 1893, records show. Are these plants essentially being tricked into flowering at the wrong time? Or do they know what they are doing? “They will stop blooming,” says Bruce Crawford, Rutgers Gardens director, who also predicts a self-correction. “Worst-case scenario is that the newest growth will undoubtedly die back to more mature wood.” Walter Perry, owner of Perry’s Florist and Gardens in Glen Rock, believes that this out-of-season blooming might actually help down the line. “Winter damage should be minimal and spring growth should start early,” says Perry. “If the weather pattern holds as it did the last time we had a big El Niño, spring blooms were about three weeks earlier than “normal” years. This gave us a longer growing season.” In the short term, many green-thumbers fear what will happen — especially to roses — when there’s an inevitable cold snap. Pyle of Edmunds’ Roses is mostly reassuring. “It can be somewhat stressful to plants to experience a cold snap during a mild fall, but most plants will not suffer long-term injury from this type of stress,” he says. “Once truly cold temperatures set in, leaves will die and drop from plants due to cold damage. … This damage can be pruned out in early spring once growth resumes.” Pyle adds that in a typical fall season, perennials drop their leaves early enough to give the plant more time to keep nutrients in its roots, which will be much-needed fuel for new growth in spring. “Losing leaves from a cold snap in a mild fall can reduce this nutrient ‘recycling.’ [But] any negative impact from this nutrient loss can generally be offset in spring by fertilizing plants early in the season when growth begins, however.” One thing that’s clear is that gardeners will need to adjust their pruning schedules. Perry says that he now recommends “a light prune of roses from around Thanksgiving till Jan. 1 or when the ground freezes some and the plant is dormant. By light pruning, I mean reducing a plant by about half, removing anything that is likely to act as a sail in the winter winds. Then prune again in the spring when the forsythia blooms, shaping the plant and removing dead, damaged and diseased canes.” And what if this warmer trend continues for a while? Will this affect the roses and other plants come spring? “Typically not,” Crawford said. “If January continued to be warm and then February was indecently cold, I would suspect to see a lot more dead wood come spring. Hopefully, January will gradually become colder and the plants will remain dormant till March.” Flagler takes a wait-and-see position on this. “This is something of a new phenom and we cannot always predict with certainty how plants will react to new conditions and new ‘norms,’ ” he says. “Healthy plants that are winter-ha... (NorthJersey.com)