Why I Oughta...

If you look closely at the photo below, you can see a few of the lights on our Christmas tree inside the house as a tell for the time of year this photo is taken.  This is what I see when I go out to feed the birds and critters in the morning:  our rhododendrons looking sad and curled up from the cold.  By midday, they've recovered and seem to be just fine.    I've come to really appreciate these two shrubs on either side of our back stoop.  This year, I didn't apply any Wilt-Pruf to them, so not sure what impact that might have on their overwintering.  They did, however, get a nice layer of new mulch this season, so I'm hoping they're tucked in nicely and will - once again - surprise me by surviving.  Having SUCH a tropical look in the middle of Summer is a real nice treat for me up here in Zone 5b.  Surviving the Winter in Zone 5b just strikes me as an oddity based on their look during Summer.  Guess that's why I'm drawn to them.

This is the second year that I've applied Wilt Pruf to some of our most delicate plants to prepare them for Winter.  Last year, I posted photos showing off how I applied Wilt Pruf to just one of our Rhododendrons as an experiment and it turned out t hat one that didn't get any Wilt Pruf seemed better than the one that has an application .  But, that could be for a variety of reasons - and perhaps the Wilt Pruf helped keep the one that was a little behind healthy during the tough Winter. I also applied Wilt Pruf to the small Weeping Cedar tree last Fall, but it didn't survive , so this is clearly not bulletproof. So...what is Wilt Pruf?  And why would you apply it to your plants before Winter? From this product listing : Wilt-Pruf is a natural, pine oil emulsion that is organic, non-hazardous and biodegradable. Simply, spray it on to form a transparent and flexible, protective coating that will keep plant foliage and stems from drying out through extended period...

I bought this small Weeping White Spruce in the end of May this year and planted it on the southside of our property close to the fenceline here (it is a columnar, very narrow tree !) at the beginning of June .  I seem to have failed to measure it and include it in my annual yard tree inventory post this year , so I thought it would be worth sharing this thing as it goes into Winter. I don't have the best luck with Winter conifers.  This past season, I lost my other weeping tree - the Alaskan Weeping Cedar - even though I tried to protect it with Wilt-Pruf.  Welp, actually, I don't have much luck with conifers anytime as I also lost my first Fraser Fir last season . I'm torn as to if I should apply the Wilt-Pruf to this Weeping White Spruce, but I'm thinking that it can't hurt.  Last Winter was brutal and the Cedar Tree was just a casualty of it - like the buds on all of my flowering trees and the Wilt-Pruf didn't seem to help on the Cedar.  If I mix up...

Back in December, I posted about an experiment that I was conducting with the application of Wilt-Pruf to one of our Rhododendrons that are located on either side of our back stoop.  Wilt-Pruf is an anti-transpirant that I bought to use on our fresh-cut Christmas Trees, but I also learned can be applied to any evergreen in an attempt to help it get through difficult Winters.  Wilt-Pruf is a natural product made of pine oil and creates a clear, almost flexible coating on the leaves and needles.   I sprayed it on just one of the Rhododendrons and figured it would be useful to compare the results.   The photo you see at the top is shows both of them on top/bottom.  The plant on the top is the one that had Wilt-Pruf applied.  The plant on the bottom was left bare.   The results?  Hard for me to say if it did anything, frankly.  I think the one that was treated has less spotting on the leaves, but maybe that's just ...