Your post-freeze landscaping is probably a mess.  We have been fielding many questions on our pm.  We are doing our best to help you all find out if your plants are dead or alive.

Woody Ornamentals! Say that three times real fast! (we have a video about this at the bottom of this post.)   

Garden Guy tells us how to check and see if our woody ornamentals are dead or alive. (Oh and here is an easy definition for what a woody ornamental is: Woody ornamentals have hard stems and can be trees, shrubs, and sometimes vines. )  Bam. Done! 

“On the woody ornamentals do the scratch test. Scratch the stem and see if it’s green.  Using your fingernail, or a small knife or anything sharp, scratch some bark off of the dead-looking part of the plant. If you see green, the plant is alive and will hopefully flush out new growth in the spring, advises “

“ if you find green in the stems.  Cut back the plant with sharp pruning shears and then wait for it to flush out again, quipped Garden Guy.” 

If you feel like too much of the plant is brown and you don’t want to wait for it to grow back, you can, of course, replace it with a new plant too, he added.

Just because there are brown leaves on a tree or shrub does not mean it is dead.  The leaves froze and they will fall off.  That is perfectly fine. Check us out here in the video below talking about leaves being brown on shrubs:

To truly see if your woody ornamentals and/or trees are actually alive, give them the ole’ scratch test!

Using your fingernail, a small knife, or anything sharp, scratch some bark tissue along a dead-looking part of the plant. If you see green, it’s a GO!

This green means the plant is alive and will hopefully flush out new growth when it warms up.

Stark Bros. knocks it out of the park here with their scratch test pics and demos. 

Want to see us again?  Ok! Here we are below talking about the scratch test and woody ornamentals

along with his wife, Garden Gal, dish out just what you need to know to access your landscaping and plants post-freeze right here.

We left out thousands of tips and tricks and left out thousands of words too!  What you get here is just what you need to know and nothing more.  You’re welcome! – Sabrina, Garden Gal

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.  Garden Guy is Houston’s number one residential garden consultant with 30+ years of real experience at homes just like yours. If it happens in backyard and front yard landscaping, he’s seen it!    During the In-person Garden Consultation: Todd will listen to your needs, see your plants and landscaping, and advise you for up to one hour about what to do with the landscaping.  Post -meeting you receive a custom solution sheet and landscaping re-install recommendations to use as a guide for your home landscaping or to hire us for a turnkey installation. 

Need a Houston Garden Consultant?  Garden Guy, Todd Farber, conducts via zoom, facetime, or a combination of texted pictures and a good old-fashioned phone call. You’re low-tech, hey so are we! 

Thanks for reading!