Our part of Ohio and thus many of our plants were hit pretty hard with frost and freeze damage during these past few weeks. We are just about finished with the really damaging temperatures (but dare I say that?), and many plants should be fairly safe.

On the other hand, if you have planted annuals that are sensitive to cold temperatures (tomatoes, peppers, impatiens), then be sure to protect them if frost is predicted.

A good many of our perennials, trees and some shrubs experienced frost and even freeze damage. Now is the time to start cleaning up and dealing with the damage.

Perennials that got hit by freeze or a hard frost likely have brown foliage or even dead foliage. The best thing to do if the damage is pretty severe and you have lots of brown foliage is to cut them back to just above the crown or growing point. If there is just a little bit of damage, then simply remove the dead leaves or flowers.

There are some plants that you might not be sure about what to do. For instance, our lilies (true lilies, not daylillys) got hit pretty hard just as they were emerging. The growing tips of some of them are completely dead, and the flowers did not survive. These should be cut back to the ground. If there is enough energy in the bulb, new growth will emerge.

Some of them just got hit with enough frost to brown some leaves but not kill the stem. They still have buds on them and will flower, but they look awful. When we take off the dead leaves, the plant looks pretty bare. But we will still have flowers.

As I surveyed my garden the other night, some of the foliage on my allium looks terrible, but they are still blooming. My roses have slight damage to some foliage, and this is easily removed.

Most disappointing to me is my collection of Japanese maples. I have several very small and newly planted unique cultivars that I didn’t protect when it got below freezing.

The foliage was killed, and I kept hoping that the branches would send out new foliage. However, because of the age, the tenderness of the stems and the stage of growth when it froze, I lost quite a few stems. Therefore, I am going to cut them back fairly harshly and see what happens.

Normally you shouldn’t fertilize trees that are in stress, especially if it’s due to root stresses. If the roots aren’t healthy, then they can’t absorb the nutrients.

However, in the case of my Japanese maples, the roots are still quite healthy. I am going to fertilize and see if I can “push” some new growth. I paid too much for these little babies and I have to do everything I can to try to save them!

The bottom line is that some plants just aren’t going to look as nice as they normally do this season due to frost and freeze damage. Clean the plants up the best you can and hope for better next year.

Pam Corle-Bennett is an Ohio State University Extension horticulture educator and the state Master Gardener volunteer coordinator.