Master gardener Linda Naess knows the growing season in Prince George is never long enough.
This year is definitely an exception.
Now nearly three weeks into October, the city has yet to experience a killing frost, good news for gardeners still seeing some of their flowers thriving well beyond their normal expiry date.
“Last year was late, but not this late,” said Naess, president of the David Douglas Botanical Garden Society.
“I’ve still got stuff out there blooming, I’m not going to touch it. I remember when we used to have frost the end of August or early September. I remember going back to school and my flowers were pretty much gone after the frost had hit them."
Some of Naess’s perennials are looking pretty dead and will need to be cut back before she puts her flower beds to rest for the winter and she suggests it’s always a good idea to not cut them right down to ground level. Leaving about six inches of growth helps collect snow and forms a layer of much that protects the roots from the cold, which is on the way this weekend. Sunday's overnight low is predicted to hit -8 C.
Last year’s winter kill was exceptionally bad in Prince George. A dry and unseasonably warm October led right into winter weather at the start of November. By late December, the temperatures sunk into the low minus-40s and there were a few cold days in February when it got down to -35 C without snow cover. That resulted in mature trees and shrubs dying all over the city.
To ease the stress of what was the second driest summer on record in P.G., Naess recommends giving all your trees and plants a thorough soaking to relieve drought stress before the ground freezes. That will help leave roots well nourished by the time spring comes around.
Prince George is in Zone 3, according to its level of plant hardiness. But Naess says some parts of the city like the lower Bowl area closer to the river are at significantly lower elevations than the Hart or College Heights and some plants rated Zone 4 or higher are surviving through our winters.
“You see on Facebook a lot of the gardeners are still picking vegetables,” said Naess. “That’s amazing, this is October. I don’t think too many Canadians are upset about climate change. If it means one less month of winter, we’re happy.”
