The Value of Cold

Frost

Red Buckeye - Aesculus pavia

Today is a cold day here where I live. The high is not expected to go much above 50 degrees F and the low will be in the 30's. It's been an unusually cold winter here compared to recent ones and it is not pleasant to be working in my landscape. For many, this is cause for consternation. Folks on social media are bemoaning these chilly temperatures and wondering how best to protect their plants. Call me callous, but I am appreciating this winter. In my native plant landscape, my plants will do just fine. In fact, I'm expecting a spectacular spring. My plants respond that way to these chilly days and nights.

In a native plant landscape, designed with plants adapted to your growing conditions, cold is most often a stimulus and not a detriment. This is especially true for my natives that originate from north Florida. This fall, they actually changed color and lost their leaves the way they are supposed to. In a warm fall and early winter, my deciduous trees and shrubs get a bit confused. The leaves do not turn brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red. They simply turn brown at scattered times throughout the winter and eventually drop. They need a series of chilly evenings to change color and fall in unison the way they do in north Florida. 

The same is true for their spring flowering. In warm winters, they will eventually bloom in the spring, but they often do so half-heartedly and scattered over time. It's after a cold winter that they flower with the gusto that makes them truly beautiful additions to my landscape - not to mention increasing their value to pollinators and the birds and mammals that will eventually consume their fruit. Cold is a signal that they look for and they respond. Warmer winters may be more enjoyable for my comfort outside, but I relish the cold we are getting.

Native plants are more than just adapted to cold, they need that signal to complete their annual life cycle properly. That is not true, of course, for plants that originate in the tropics, but I do not live there. My home is in the temperate part of the state, even though some winters do not see any temperatures at or below freezing. Global climate change does not mean that I should not get an occasional freeze. They are predictable, even necessary, to maintain the flora native to my region.  

The dozens of flats of seedlings that I now have planted and which have seedlings emerging are also adapted to this weather. There already has been a half-dozen mornings where they were covered in frost. It has not killed them or burned their tender new foliage. In fact, some germinate best only after these type of evenings. Species like the yellow coneflowers (Ratibida pinnata) have germinated poorly up to now. I am expecting, based on past years, that much more will emerge within the next few weeks. These are the conditions their seeds are best adapted to.

I am spending much of the next few days inside and I miss the warmer Florida temperatures, but I know that my plants are enjoying this. That is not true for my neighbors and my social media friends that have planted their landscapes with tropicals. Perhaps, someday, they will move away from these types of plants and accept that we are living in a temperate climate that is sometimes very unforgiving to their approach to landscaping.