Protecting Fruit Trees

Wrapping coats around flowering compact dwarf fruit trees helps protect blooms.

Protecting Fruit Trees Late Winter

Spring is literally only days away but winter is making one heck of a last hurrah this year. After several weeks of spring-like weather, five days of below freezing weather, including a hard frost have zapped my lovely blooming daffodils, hyacinths and possibly compact dwarf fruit trees.

Or maybe not.

After trying a number of different materials, I have found that wrapping my compact dwarf fruit trees in some of my winter jackets has successfully worked in keeping the flowers from getting nipped.

It's not the prettiest sight in the garden. Luckily I don't have neighbors close by or I would be a leading candidate to be reported to the lawn police. After all, who wants to be looking over to a neighbor's house to see shapes that look like strange creatures standing around.

My jackets are serving as compact dwarf tree covers during below zero temperatures.

I ran out of clothing so for my apricot trees, I used fleece blankets under dark honey bed sheets. 

Snow gathered on top of the sheets so I had to remove the snow to prevent the weight from damaging the flowers underneath. When I peeked, most seemed to still be okay but that was before the night with the hard freeze so we will have to see how they fare through those temperatures. It can take a couple of days before I will know wether this was enough protection through those temperatures.

Fleece blankets under bed sheets cover my flowering compact dwarf apricot trees.

Although this may not work, I couldn't sit back and not try. My compact dwarf fruit trees are small enough that I should be able to cover them if I can just get the right combination of warmth and lightness so that it doesn't damage the blooms.

Charlotte