Question: I still have not planted my tulip and daffodil bulbs. Can I still safely plant them now or should I wait for spring?

Answer: By all means plant them now as long as the ground is not frozen. You will need to plant them a little deeper then usual and cover with three inches of mulch. If you can't get to it now and the ground freezes, you can store them in your refrigerator until the ground unfreezes. Of all the spring-flowering bulbs, tulips and daffodils are the most forgiving of late planting. Tulips can be planted until mid-February as long as they are firm and not chalky and hard. Daffodils are usually fine to be planted until at least the end of March.

Question: In my area the weather has been unseasonably warm and next week is supposed to be colder than normal. My bulbs are up, the grass is turning green and it looks like the trees and shrubs are starting to swell their buds for spring. What should I do?

Answer: The bulbs that are not showing buds will be fine. The leaves may get a little bit brown at the tips; but should this happen, it is not life threatening. They should bloom fine this year and should be perfectly normal next year. If the buds are showing, you definitely need to cover the bulbs with additional mulch. If you want to protect the foliage, follow the same procedure even if the buds aren't showing.

Obviously you can't protect the entire garden, so concentrate on the plants that are most subject to damage from a precipitous cold snap following a long warm period in the winter. Focus on plants that will not recover if they are damaged.

Peonies that are showing foliage above the ground must be buried with mulch so that no leaves are showing.

Pink or blue blooming Hydrangeas (except Endless Summer) may loose all of their flower buds but will not die. Surrounding (but not covering) the hydrangea with several layers of burlap may help, depending on how cold it gets.

Japanese Maples are a particular concern. The low-growing dissected-leaf weeping types are especially subject to damage in these climatic conditions. I suggest temporarily adding several inches of mulch and surrounding and covering the maple with several layers of burlap. Remove the burlap covering the top of the tree on warm days.

Your hybrid tea, grandiflora, floribunda, English and Romantica roses should already be hilled up with about 18 inches of mulch and they should be fine at least below the mulch. If you have not already done this, do it now.

Most old garden roses, shrub roses and climbing roses should be fine, but it doesn't hurt to take the precaution of mounding them up with mulch also.

Most of the other plants in your garden should be okay. There maybe some partial damage to some plants and there may be a few that suffer significant damage, but it is hard to predict where this will occur. It is not practical to protect the entire garden.

If you have a particular shrub or plant that is of value to you, surrounding it with several layers of burlap will certainly not hurt; it can only help.

Covering perennials that have started to grow with evergreen boughs will be beneficial. Covering the entire perennial garden with a heavy layer of mulch to protect it is not a good idea. More perennials will probably perish from early spring damp rot than will die from the cold.

Question: A few years ago I planted quite a few nice ornamental trees in my yard. Then the drought came and with the water restrictions, I couldn't water and they suffered greatly. Most have come back quite nicely, but my Stewartia and Japanese maples have not recovered and are dead part way down. Should I replace these trees or will they eventually recover? Can I still plant trees this winter while the ground is not frozen or should I wait until spring?

Answer: Stewartia and Japanese maples recover very slowly from stress. Yours sound so bad that I doubt they will ever mature into handsome trees. You have two options. One is to replace them and yes you can plant now as long as the ground is not frozen in your area.

The second option is to cut off the trunk to just above the ground and let the tree re-sprout as a multiple stemmed tree. This will take several years, but in my opinion it is better to force the tree to re-sprout with young vigorous shoots from the base than to allow it to sprout less vigorously from a crippled, deformed, partially dead stem. If you choose to cut back your tree, be sure to allow no less than 3 and no more than 5 shoots to mature.