With First Snowfall, Time Is Now To Protect Plants

DENVER (CBS4)- With the first snowfall of the season in the Denver metro area, it's finally time to put the plants to bed until Spring.

Brien Darby, Denver Botanic Gardens Manager of Urban Food Programs, said to start with disconnecting hoses that are attached to walls and store everything away from the elements.

"If you still have plant that are in pots, it's a great time to start thinking about pulling those out and getting the pots stored appropriately as well, especially smaller ceramic pots because if you leave them outside with soil in them they're likely to crack," said Darby.

Other plants to pay attention to include trees, especially those with thin bark.

"If you have newly planted trees, or trees with really thin bark, like maple, honey locust, crab apple, that's when you want to use something like tree wrap. Tree wrap goes around the bark on the actual trunk, and it helps protect from sun scald which can happen in Colorado in the winter, but then if you have trees that are near sidewalks, this will also help protect against ice melt that could get on the trunk," said Darby.

As for those perennials that are still blooming, Darby said now is the time to prepare for more snow and freezing conditions.

"It's not something that you necessarily need to do tonight but going forward as we're starting to see these lower temperatures the time is now to start mulching around those plants and start thinking about cutting them back for the winter," said Darby.

Darby also said it's been an unusually long season for annuals. Typically with the first snowfall covering those plants can extend the lifespan but this season it's probably okay to call it quits.

"Usually we would cover annuals. At this point we're halfway through November, our annuals have had one of the best, longest seasons in a very long time so now's the time to think about pulling them out of the ground instead of covering them," said Darby.