If you used cardboard boxes, plastic rings, or stuff to hold the mulch in place, or Styrofoam cones with the top cut off and filled with dirt; I would get them off pronto so the mulch or dirt can breathe. This lets the ground thaw which was one of the reasons we Northeners put mulch down in the first place.

It is so easy and the temptation is there to prune too early. I wouldn't worry about the mulch. We may well get another late freeze like we did last year. I plan to do a clean up of last year's leaves and try and get a head start on the weeds. Rain, if it stops snowing, will help knock down a lot of the mulch anyways so I wouldn't worry about it untill we closer to pruning time.

Where are those Forsythia blooms anywho? I'm ready!

Just my humble opinion. They don't call me Foghorn for nothing!

I don't know what the seasonal average temps are supposed to be but on the whole it DOES seem a bit on the cool side to me. Or perhaps it is because a watched pot never boils.

I wish we had a way to edit our post so when we say something stupid we could go back and change them.

With Cedar bark, you should be just fine. Others, if you used something containing peat moss, maple leaves, or other mulch that holds water unnaturaly, well that is another story. That is why many members in the border zones leave it to nature.

Those of us with little snow protection, or pushing our zones are happy with the help our our hardwood mulches provide and seem to get by.

Have fun!

Impatiently waiting in Iowa

Foghorn

No collars, just cedar bark mulch and not very deep, I'm afraid. It snowed before it got cold in the fall and the snow stayed until the start of January. Then we had a thaw and the roses I planted last fall were bare. Before it got a chance to get cold again I put down about 4 or 5 inches of cedar bark. The mulch is still frozen but it can get very warm in my sun trap, south facing backyard (on a hillside) when the termperature gets above freezing, the sun shines and the wind stops blowing. I was woried about the risk of canker, etc. but perhaps I'll leave things alone for a while longer. Thanks for the responses!

Ruth

Remove protection when the Forsythias bloom.