We hope you all came out of the recent winter storms as unscathed as possible!  Now that we’re getting back to work after our first closing in Company history, we are hearing reports from clients of everything from broken tree branches to completely flooded homes.  As we all assess our post-storm surroundings (now that we can actually see them again!), you will probably notice that your landscape doesn’t look the same as it did before the storm.  Here are a few things to remember as you take a look around:

1)  According to ABC News, there has never been a colder consecutive three-day stretch on record in Dallas Fort Worth than what we just experienced.  Between February 14th and 16th, the low temperatures here were 9°, 4° & -2° respectively.

2)   Therefore, your plants and trees were just exposed to temperatures they have never been tested against.  The USDA divides our country into “hardiness zones” to help guide us in deciding which plants & trees can be grown where (under average conditions).  Here in North Texas, we are in Zone 8.  While many plant species commonly used here are cold hardy up to Zone 5, they are not used to actually experiencing these temperatures, and we are about to find out how they fared.  Click here for a USDA Hardiness Zone map for reference:  https://plants.usda.gov/hardiness.html

3)  If you suspect you have a dead specimen in your landscape, don’t panic; it may not be.  It will be best to continue to water everything and then wait until Spring to see what puts on new growth and what doesn’t.  Spring flush will also make winter injury stick out like a sore thumb, giving us a clear road map for trimming.  We often perform a very simple “scratch test” to see if we find green under the bark of a seemingly dead tree, shrub, or perennial.  You can easily do this yourself:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0169I8uBAw

4)  Finally, many of you have landscapes that we recently installed for you that are still under warranty.  Please note that Acts of God (Acts of Nature) are not covered, as these things are completely out of our control.  Growers & Nurseries, who were already low on stock due to a surge in business related to Covid19, will have damage to their current stock and it will take some time for them to recover and to catch up with demand.  We will be happy to assist you with replacing anything that either didn’t survive or that you find unsightly, and we will do what we can to keep the cost as reasonable as possible.  

So in summary, it was really cold.  Your plants possibly suffered.  Wait until Spring flush to see what did and didn’t survive, and know that there will be some cost involved in making replacements.  Your patience & understanding are appreciated!