Due to their natural beauty and long-lasting appeal, memorial trees are among the best sympathy gifts to give to a bereaved friend or family. If you have lost someone yourself, planting a memorial tree in your garden is a good way to honor a loved one’s life. However, not all memorial trees will survive the changes of the seasons. This is especially so during wintertime. To make sure that the tree survives the harsh weather elements, proper care is a must.
In this blog, we discuss a few important steps you can take in caring for your memorial trees before and during winter.
How the Winter Season Can Adversely Affect Memorial Trees
There are many reasons why the winter season can be deadly on trees and plants in general. Cold stress can affect even the most mature of trees during the winter, especially if there is a sharp change between warm temperatures during the day and cold frost at night. Cold stress can result in injuries both on the bark and the interior wood itself. The last thing you would want to happen is dedicating a memorial tree to someone you love and seeing it waste away to frost and cold stress.
Winter drought is another issue for trees and plants during the winter season. Trees may not be able to absorb enough water as the ground remains frozen. When trees begin to lose more water than their capacity to absorb it, drought can occur. Branch breakage can also happen during windy seasons.
Care Tips for Memorial Trees During the Winter Months
So how do you care for your memorial tree especially during winter? The following tree care tips for the colder months are especially helpful:
- Although cold stress can pose a serious problem, trees are often able to self-heal through it. One possible complication, however, is if the tree is relatively young. Young trees are especially vulnerable to irreparable winter damage. To help prevent this, you may want to wrap the tree bark as early as fall.
- To counter the effects of winter drought, apply a substantial amount of mulch over the base of the tree before winter comes. Not only will this help regulate root temperature as the colder season sets in, it can also help mitigate rapid moisture loss.
- Prune your trees regularly to avoid branch breakage in wintertime. This is usually called crown reduction. However, you have to prune at the right time to avoid subjecting new growth to possible winter damage. This is especially important for younger trees and specific species of memorial trees.
- Certain animals can also nibble at the bark of your trees during the cold season. Mice, deer, squirrels, and other pests can damage your memorial tree through chewing, gnawing, and digging through mulch. Make sure you have a pest management strategy at hand for this tricky season.
- Don’t forget to fertilize in the fall to encourage better tree growth and resilience during wintertime.
Check Out a Selection of Memorial Trees as Sympathy Gifts from the Comfort Company
Now that you have a few essential care tips for your memorial trees, you can start planting one in your backyard, within a private memorial garden, or even in a community park.
You can also give a memorial tree to a bereaved friend or colleague as means to help them put up their own garden memorial. Since not everyone can be into gardening and tree-growing, you can help pass on these care tips for memorial trees or tree care maintenance in general.
Looking for a few tree species to plant or give as a sympathy gift to others? Visit the Comfort Company here.