The common ivy (Hedera Helix) is considered an extremely robust plant that requires little care and can withstand winter temperatures. In this article we explain how you can recognize frozen ivy, how you can remove the damage and prevent it.
How do you know that the ivy is frozen and how do you protect it?
A frozen ivy can be recognized by its unusually brown, dried leaves and shoots. To avoid frost damage, you can protect freshly planted ivy or colorful varieties with a layer of mulch and tented fir branches.
How do you know if the ivy is frozen?
The climbing plant, which is considered hardy, getsuntypical brown, dried leaves and shoots. This cold damage to ivy sometimes only becomes apparent in spring.
Only in rare cases is the frost solely responsible for this. Frost drying is far more often the actual cause. When the sun shines on the leaves of the ivy, they evaporate a lot of water. At the same time, the roots cannot absorb moisture in frozen ground. As a result, the leaves and branches of the ivy dry out.
Do leaf discolorations always indicate frostbitten ivy?
This isnot alwaysthe case, because insome varietiestheleaves turn reddish in cold weather. These variants are even considered to be particularly hardy.
They produce the leaf pigment anthocyanin, which makes the foliage more resistant to icy frosts. As soon as it gets warmer in spring, the foliage of these ivy plants turns dark green again.
Very winter-hardy variants where this is often the case are, for example:
- Hedera colchica Sulfur Heart,
- Hedera helix Modern Times,
- Hedera Helix B altica.
How to protect ivy from frostbite?
So that freshly planted ivy and varieties with colorful foliage get through the cold season well, you canwith a mulch cover andtent-shapedFir branchesprotect from the harshness of winter weather.
How can I remove frostbitten ivy?
In order not to weaken the ivy unnecessarily, you should definitely wait until spring beforecleaning out frost damage. The plant then pushes off the brown leaves anyway and sprouts again.
If the withered leaves bother you, you can cut off the remains with rose scissors (€21.00 on Amazon). Cut longer shoots back to he althy wood and carefully tear them off the house wall or fence.
Tip
Don’t fertilize ivy too late in the year
Fertilize ivy for the last time in July. This is the only way to ensure that the young shoots continue to mature before the first frosts. Also make sure that the preparation used provides sufficient potassium, as this mineral supports the hardening of the branches.
