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Winter injury
Eric Hanson, Horticulture |
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Cold winter temperatures
usually injure flower buds before damaging older wood and
canes. When buds are injured early in the winter, they may
appear brown and dead before spring growth resumes. Late winter
injury may not be apparent until after growth begins. Severely
injured buds may begin swelling, then die, whereas partially
injured buds may develop only a few normal flowers. Injury
can be assessed by dissecting buds: dead flower primordia
are dark brown; live primordia are light green. Injury to
older canes and wood is not apparent until spring growth begins.
Branches and whole canes may fail to leaf out or break bud
normally, then cease growth and die when warm weather occurs.
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Cross-section of bud showing dead flowers (right) and twig dieback (top) due to winter injury. |
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