Protecting Your Evergreens With Burlap

Screening Is Right, Wrapping Is Wrong!

From Your Friends At Schriemer's

In our harsh Manitoba winters, it's often a good idea to protect your evergreens with a burlap screen, especially if they are newly planted, tender or marginally hardy for our climate. Unfortunately, many people don't realize that there's a right way and a wrong way to protect your evergreens with burlap, and the wrong way can have disastrous consequences. With that in mind, here is the right way to protect your evergreens for the winter.

You are protecting your tender evergreens from two elements; the wind and the sun. Strong winter winds are very dry and can cause moisture loss from the exposed foliage. Because the ground is frozen, the plant is unable to replenish the lost moisture, and the evergreen leaves eventually dry out and die.

Sunlight causes a different problem in late winter, when the sun is getting higher in the sky and its rays are warmer, but the air temperature is still well below freezing. This can cause the needles to warm, which triggers evaporation of moisture that the plant isn't able to replenish. It can also subject the needles to rapid freeze-thaw cycles which can cause ice crystals to form, killing the cells. It's especially important to protect evergreens planted on the south or west sides of white houses, where the reflected sunlight is even more dangerous.

Burlap is an effective baffle against the wind and will shade the plant from the sun. However, never wrap the plant like a "mummy". If the burlap is allowed to touch the evergreen foliage or needles, it can cause major damage by flapping and grating against the cold, brittle foliage on windy days. It can also wick away moisture from the leaves, making the problem even worse!

The key is to use burlap as a screen rather than a wrap. Build an upright frame or tepee by pounding stakes or metal t-bars into the ground a safe distance away from the evergreen. Attach the burlap securely to this frame, making sure it won't flap into the foliage during strong winds. If the plant is fully exposed on all sides, wrap it all the way around. If the plant is up against a wall or fence, you only have to shield it on the exposed sides. At the very least, make sure the evergreen is screened from the south and west, as well as from the prevailing winter winds.

Erect the burlap screen after your evergreens have gone dormant for the season, but before freeze-up (so that you can get the stakes into the ground); this is usually late October or early November in our region. Don't remove the screen until early spring when the threat of deep cold is past, usually in mid to late March.