SALT LAKE CITY —  With the freezing temperatures we’ve been seeing these past couple of weeks, many people are wondering how their plants are surviving this cold weather. Should they be concerned about anything in their yards?

Last week at the KSL Greenhouse show, Taun and Maria discussed how the winter weather can damage certain plants.

One type of species that can take quite a bit of damage from low temperatures is the evergreen Japanese Euonymus. They will usually grow from 6 to 10 feet tall, and they’re only hardy down to about 0 to 5 degrees above zero. Anything lower than that will likely lead to some damage.

“It may not look like it, but over a period of three or four weeks, the leaves… will start to turn brown because they were damaged by the frost,” Taun said.

You can see this happening to other plants, such as English laurels, photinias, and maybe some English boxwood.

Because it’s so cold, a lot of the damage may not be visible until spring.

You can see winter damage in areas where you’re growing marginally hardy species.

In the Cache Valley, there are some peaches that are hardy down to 10 or 15 degrees below zero. When the temperatures there got down to 30 to 35 degrees below zero, those peaches get severely damaged.

That’s why you want to look out for marginally hardy things, such as pluots and Japanese plums.

For 75 to 80 percent of the Wasatch Front, the temperature was at zero or 1 degree. Taun says that’s not cold enough to damage a lot of plants, so your fruit trees, lawn, and perennials should be just fine.

Listen to the full segment on our podcast below!

The KSL Greenhouse is on every Saturday from 8-11 a.m. You can follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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