Gardening This Weekend: January 22, 2026
Notes below were written before our visit to Houston (see home page).
I am adding these warnings from my iPhone as we return home. The original notes will still apply after this cold spell passes.
COLD WEATHER WARNINGS…
Very low temperatures for prolonged periods of time threaten harm to tender plants in your landscape.
• Be certain they have been watered deeply, then protect them with frost cloth made specifically for this purpose.
• Do not use polyethylene plastic!
• Secure the frost cloth to the ground with bricks, river rocks, fireplace logs, etc. it must be in firm contact.
• If covering flowers such as pansies or bulbs position stones to keep cloth elevated should snow or ice accumulate.
• Leave plants covered as long as temperatures remain below freezing.
• Disconnect and drain all hoses and sprinklers.
• Keep all bird feeders filled for the duration.
• It will be too cold to leave pets outdoors during this spell. Provide a safe, warm place for them.
PLANT
• Dig and transplant established native or landscape shrubs and trees that need to be moved.
• Bare-rooted or balled-and-burlapped fruit trees, grapes and blackberries.
• Frost-hardy annual color in southern half of state, including ornamental Swiss chard, larkspur, stocks, sweet alyssum, Iceland poppies and others.
• Freeze-hardy annual color in northern half of state where hard freezes can still roll in. Pansies, pinks, snapdragons.
• Asparagus, English snap peas and onions as soon as possible in most of the state.
• Irish potatoes, Cole crops (cabbage, broccoli, etc.) in South Texas.
PRUNE
• Evergreen shrubs lightly as needed to shape. Avoid formal shearing whenever possible.
• Summer-flowering shrubs and vines to reshape, but remember that extensive pruning will lead to strong vegetative growth and fewer flowers.
• Never “top” your crape myrtles. It’s a message I’ve carried for 55 years, and I’ve yet to see a justifiable reason.
• Bush roses by half. Each cut should be made directly above a bud that faces away from the center of the plant. That encourages full, spreading growth. (Remove all rose bushes infected with rose rosette virus.)
• Grapes to remove 80 to 85 percent of canes in effort to limit numbers of fruit and improve overall quality.
• Peach and plum trees to outward-growing buds to encourage horizontal growth.
• Apples and pears to remove dead or damaged branches, also (with apples) to remove strongly vertical shoots called “water sprouts.”
• Figs only as needed to remove frozen tissues.
FERTILIZE
• Winter color plantings with high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food each time that you water.
• Newly transplanted trees and shrubs with liquid root-stimulator monthly this year.
• Asparagus beds with all-nitrogen fertilizer to promote vigorous new spears.
• Ryegrass and fescue plantings with all-nitrogen or high-nitrogen fertilizer, half or more in slow-release form.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Aphids on tender new growth, starting in South Texas during warm days. Most insecticides will eliminate them, or you can wash them off the plants with a forceful stream of water.
• Scale insects on fruit and shade trees, hollies, camellias, euonymus and other plants. Apply horticultural oil (“dormant oil”) spray according to label directions.
• Broadleafed weeds in any type of turf. Apply a broadleafed weedkiller (containing 2,4-D) according to label directions. Be patient. It may take a week for it to do its job.