By mid spring in New Hampshire most trees and shrubs have begun leafing out. Flowers and low plants are well underway with their growth. Frosts can still occur here even as late as the end of May but most plants can tolerate the frost. Things start being a little more problematic if a hard freeze occurs.
Frosts usually happen when temperatures hover or dip below the freezing mark, 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius. But a hard freeze happens when cold air pushes in, dropping temperatures down into the mid 20s fahrenheit. Many plants can tolerate even these frigid blasts but not all can.
Just over a week ago, a freeze warning was put out by the weather service for our area and that night the thermometer dropped to the mid-twenties. Fortunately most of my plants were still in pots so they could be moved inside the garage for protection. What was in the garden already had not yet sprouted and so were protected by the soil. Still many plants were challenged by these icy conditions and not all fared well.
My bleeding heart plant, in the process of blossoming, was bitten badly. The flowers were destroyed but leaves at the base of the plant survived, so I am hopeful the plant will make a full recovery. Tiger Lilies suffered damage with smaller plants getting the worst of it. Many do not look like they will make it. Larger plants, already several feet tall, looked really beat and for a while I wondered if they would pull through. Lower leaves wilted but the tops recovered. It remains to be seen if they will produce flowers.
Many trees and shrubs shrugged off the arctic blast but a few species got hit hard. Oak trees and one or two other species I’m not familiar with got the worst of it.
At this time of year, oaks are just starting to leaf out. The freeze destroyed the new growth, leaving behind withered brown vegetation. When they are touched, they are dry, crumbling under my fingers, so these will not be coming back.
Will trees be able to survive a hit like this? Looking about, I see many larger oak trees with their leaves blasted. Many smaller trees have been devastated as well though a few twigs here and there managed to make it through. As it is so early in the season, chances are good that the trees (many of whom surely have gone through this before) will be able to put out new growth. How acorn production will be affected by this remains to be seen. I have not been able to locate any information online which might tell me this. Many animals rely on acorns, eating them to fatten up for the winter or storing them away for lean times. Bears, turkeys, squirrels, chipmunks and others will all be affected by this if the acorn crop fails.
But nature is nothing, if not resilient. Natural selection will weed out those who cannot tolerate climate extremes, leaving behind the toughest and the hardiest. Northern New Hampshire is a good place for that. Like the old saying; If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.
