How plant parents can get through the fluctuating weather, according to an expert
The weather around Metro Vancouver is anything but consistent, and it’s affecting our little green friends. Between warm winters raising concerns for the beloved cherry blossoms around the city and then a looming snow forecast for March, knowing how to keep your plants alive can feel a little overwhelming.
Buck Buchwald, the Site Supervisor at VanDusen Botanical Garden, shared that keeping plants alive at home during the seasonal variations is actually very possible. He shared that there are a number of nifty tricks that plant parents can use to keep their gardens thriving.
“Containerize them,” said Buchwald. “Put them in containers and then if they have the room, they can take them indoors for the winter.”
Keeping smaller plants in containers is a trick that they use at the Van Dusen Botanical Garden, according to Buchwald.
The main advice he gave for plant survival is to be patient, and that plant owners should not “give up on a plant just because it looks like it’s leaves [are] decaying or not in great shape.”
Sometimes plants can look worse for wear because they are trying to adapt to the environment, but can then spring back to life once the cold weather starts to warm up.
“It’s potentially snow on the leaves just kind of weighing them down, and then they die. That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Buchwald shared. “That means that the tree or shrub or plant is just trying to cut its losses, shed dead material and then it’ll make space for new material.”
“The plant is just trying to react to its circumstances. Likely it will shed those leaves and then the buds will release new leaves shortly.”
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According to Buchwald, the fluctuating weather is not a new experience for Vancouver. However, the seasonal trends are starting to have an impact on the flora around the city, and while there are tricks to keep smaller plants alive, the big tree species are “dying out.”
“Our big tree species, Douglas fir, western red cedar, western hemlock, those trees over the course of time can potentially have a negative impact due to drier weather,” said Buchwald.
“People have noticed that cedar trees are dying out. The summer droughts are ultimately having an accumulative impact over the course of the last decade.”
With the weather variations in each season having different impacts depending on the plant, Buchwald shared that home gardeners should “just do some research on their plants if they want them to last.”
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