THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996              TAG: 9602060288
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY TAMARA STANLEY, STAFF WRITER
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   68 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** A Metro News story Tuesday on the effect of the cold weather on plants incorrectly reported that ice cannot get any colder than 32 degrees. Water turns to ice at 32 degrees. Ice can get as cold as the air surrounding it. Correction published Wednesday, February 7, 1996. ***************************************************************** IT'S BEST NOT TO FUSS WITH MOTHER NATURE ICE HELPS PROTECT TREES AND PLANTS BY HOLDING MOISTURE.

Chances are your prized camellias and delicate palms, with their limbs shelled in ice, are warmer than you are.

When temperatures drop into the teens, plants, flowers and trees are better off encased in ice and covered with snow.

``The ice acts as an insulator and protects the limbs. After all, ice can't get any colder than 32 degrees,'' said Bill Binnie, director of horticulture at Norfolk Botanical Garden.

It's frigid air that causes the most damage to plants, breaking down cell walls and tissues. The leaves cannot absorb water and dry out. With an ice layer or a snow blanket, wind cannot rob limbs of moisture.

While homeowners might be tempted to knock ice off plant limbs, it's better to let ``nature take its course,'' suggests Jo Ellen Gienger, manager of Smithfield Gardens in Portsmouth.

Allow the ice to melt, she says. Attempts at knocking it off usually cause limb breakage.

Broken limbs won't hurt the plant and most will recover from breakage, Gienger said. ``It just doesn't look as pretty,'' she said.

Neither do many of the evergreens in Hampton Roads whose limbs have collapsed under the snow and ice. Binnie advises not pruning until the spring to allow trees to recover from the cold weather.

Trees can suffer a loss of 20 to 25 percent of their leaves when limbs fall.

A greater loss in pruning can make the tree susceptible to insects, fungus and disease in the spring, said Oscar Richardson, an arborist at Colonial Tree Care in Chesapeake.

Dangling branches should be cut. Richardson recommends cutting at the branch/bark ridge so that a starch wall forms where bark has been removed, preventing decay of the entire tree.

Because temperatures have been steadily low, nature has formed a thicker skin to tackle the recent storm.

Large trees - maples and oaks - are faring well. Evergreens - such as palms, pines and oleanders - are suffering.

Binnie says we'll have to wait to see if damaged plants and trees survive. If another ice storm hits, Gienger said wrapping bushes in burlap can prevent moisture from evaporating. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

COLD FACTS OF HORTICULTURE

When temperatures drop, plants like these camellias are better off

encased in ice, which acts as an insulator. ``After all, ice can't

get any colder than 32 degrees,'' says Bill Binnie, director of

horticulture at Norfolk Botanical Garden.

KEYWORDS: WINTER STORM COLD WEATHER by CNB