Does snow help keep flowers warm?

[AnnaIkona]

I was certain that it was going to get warmer and warmer each day, as it normally does each year, so I planted some bulb flowers such as Tulips, Crocuses, etc, and some of them are already starting to bloom a bit. I also got some flowers, not sure what they are but look like Pansies a bit.

Unfortunately, it started to snow yesterday morning. After about 7 hours of snow, I came back from work and my flowers were under about 3 inches of snow! So I covered each of the Pansie flowers with milk jugs or plastic bags. The bulb flowers I left without covering them.

Every 5 or so hours l go outside and brush off all the snow on and around the pansies and the bags. This morning I undug the bulb flowers.

I was wondering do I really need to do this? I noticed that the soil wasnt frozen under the snow, and that's and so good thing. Before the snow came, a thin layer of soil was frozen often.

Any suggestions?

I was thinking about getting a large piece of plastic cover and covering my flower bed that has the bulbs growing in it.

Any suggestions are really appreciated!

[digitS']

AnnaIkona , I don't really know what to tell you about the plants you put in and the soil temperature but ..

. we have had quite a few mornings and nights below 0°F (-20°C) this winter. I think there has been one afternoon high of 45°F (7°C) but certainly nothing warmer and days and days of below freezing right around the clock!

The soil has been covered with a foot of snow continuously and has been added to recently but before that - I was checking the online agriculture soil temperature information. Those thermometer probes at various depths were ALL above or just a degree or so below freezing. Does snow provide an effective insulation? It sure does! Moreover, the earth around here at about 4 feet down is 55°F (12°C) 12 months of the year. So, warmth is moving up from that depth and it cannot escape quickly through the 12 inches of snow. Less snow than that would be less effective and your 3 inches of snow is certainly less than that. So, I don't really know.

Violets and the bulb flowers you named are quite cold hardy.

Steve

[AnnaIkona]

Thank you! I will have my flowers in plastic bags and will let my bulb flowers grow under a bit of snow.

Thanks again, and happy gardening! the spring season is so close!

[ElizabethB]

Hi Annalkona,

You really did not need to do anything. The ground temperature, not the snow is the issue. It takes extremely cold temperatures to freeze the ground. If the air temperature was below freezing the snow actually acted as an insulator.

Citrus is grown prolifically in the south. When commercial growers are faced with a freak hard freeze they spray their trees with water as soon as the temperatures get well below freezing. The water freezes on the leaves and limbs and keeps them from getting below freezing.

Take off the plastic. Your plants will suffer more from overheating in the plastic than they will from the snow. Sorry you dug up your bulbs.

We had a terrible winter this year - 3 days with temperatures in the mid to low 20's.

Unfortunately we were out of town and I may have lost or suffered serious damage to my young Satsuma. Had I been home I would have hosed it down. I am hoping that the graft are still viable. If it is I can prune damaged branches back to green wood and hope for the best. I will plant another Satsuma. If I can salvage this one it will be years before I can expect decent fruit production.

HMMMM! My best bet would be to dig this one up and plant a new one.

We often do more damage by over loving our plants than we do by neglect.

[AnnaIkona]

Thank you for the reply! Haha, next time I'm just gonna try to let nature do what it must do, and keep myself away I guess!