What is your method of protecting evergreens in the winter time?

Question

I am trying to get a small sense of what most people do to protect their evergreens in the winter.

I personally wrap about 15, 10' arborvitaes each year and going up and down a ladder and around and around just seems like I am doing it wrong. I was trying to kinda invent a solution because I could not find many alternatives. I posted some idea I had to a website that makes random stuff and if they like the idea then they will make it. It is kinda hard to describe, but it is basically kinda like putting a hat on each tree so the snow does not get down the middle. With the idea I posted a couple pictures and a bunch of product details to the site, and I am starting to think I did not do the best job designing this because of my lack of responses. It is not too late for me to edit anything I submitted. So I was wondering If anyone else who has to prepare evergreen trees for winter thinks it is a huge pain? I also have not tested my idea so I am kinda iffy. Does anyone have any insight on if they think this would work or not? any negative repercussions? I have to wait a long while before I can test my theory.

I know this is a long question so I answered as many of other people's as I could before I posted and if anyone takes the time to throw me a little insight into my problem I will gladly do my best to field any landscaping questions, I have a good amount of experience in the field. Thank You

Answer 1

You need to define why you are wrapping the evergreen.

• it is at the limit of hardiness => use something better than burlap that provides some air movement but prevents drying winds from desiccating the leaves and water well in autumn
• it is a newly planted evergreen going through it's first winter. Watering thoroughly in the autumn is very helpful in preventing winter burn.
• the location is subject to regular cold winds during the winter. Maybe you should plant deciduous or evergreens that are hardy to several zones colder than your zone.
• snow load causes the plants to loose branches. This is where your idea would come in but proper pruning/shearing will also go a long way to prevent this.

After doing all of these things I now follow the lazy gardener approach and only plant evergreens where they do not require wrapping in the winter. It's a lot of work and looks odd on your property.

Edit: if you are wrapping for snow load then you should definitely prune them to a shape that sheds snow. Think pyramid rather than squared off. I have seen people use old garden hose to tie the major branches together. This you can leave on year round as the foliage hides it.