Brrr. It has been really, really cold, like 30 degrees or lower. Ok, I state the obvious, but herein lies the problem - we're in California. You know - "It never rains in California" or "Surf City USA" - that California? So I went to my encyclopedia and looked up Jack Frost. Did you know that Jack Frost is an elfin creature originating in Viking folklore who personifies crisp, cold winter weather? He leaves frosty crystal patterns on windows and our foliage. Oh...they make him sound so cute.

I don't know about you, but I didn't see a cute little elvish guy in my garden. But I do have a garden that approaches looking like a disaster zone. In temperate weather zones such as ours in California, we are not accustomed to awakening to freezing temperatures - and neither are our plants. (Note: I'm not referring to the high desert or mountain regions). We all are going to be coping with frost-damaged plants this spring. Here are a few tips to follow from today forth.

Be patient with your plants. The damage is done. And we might get more of the Arctic chill...who knows? Don't begin hacking away at damaged plants, pruning away what appears to be total destruction. It may not be. Many of our plants are highly resourceful and restorative. Here are a few tips:

Leave wilted foliage for now. If we get another frost, this damaged foliage will actually offer cover to the unharmed foliage beneath. Once you are fairly sure frosts are a thing of the past, gently remove the wilted dark leaves, but do not cut back the branches.

Chances are most branches have not been damaged. To test, use your fingernail to gently scratch the bark and look at the underlying plant tissue. It should be green or creamy and moist. Observe the leaf buds and watch them. As the warmer spring weather returns, these buds should start to plump up and you will know that new growth is beginning.

Once new leaves have begun to pop out on now-empty branching, you will see the extent of any freeze damage to the branches. If leaves sprout out along the whole branch... then excellent. But if there are areas on the branch where the leaf buds haven't developed and no leaves appear, this is the plant's way of telling you, "Cut me back to just in front of the first emerging leaf." That is how far back to prune.

There are also a few excellent precautions to take, when or if you know that a frost is coming to your garden. Cover plants with a sheet or frost blanket at night. Remove that cover in the morning to allow the next day's (hopefully) higher temperatures to warm up the plants and soil. Of course, if you have large tropical foliage plants, it becomes impractical to cover tree-height plants (unfortunately).

Now, enough of the "What to Do" information. What is actually happening to your plant? Why does the cold hurt it so much?

Freezing temperatures severely dehydrate plant tissues. Water in the plant tissue freezes and when this happens, the plant's cells expand, causing irreparable damage. It is only when the temperature rises that the damage to your plant becomes apparent. A "burned" appearance may start at the top of the plant on the highest leaves (or the leaves most exposed to the freezing temperature), working its way down the stem and on through to the lower leaves. This process does not manifest itself immediately, but certainly does within a day or so.

Think about the solutions utilized by the citrus growers and other large crop production: wind machines, smudge pots, water. Singly or working together, these techniques keep the ambient temperatures surrounding the crops higher than freezing. At least, they should in theory. But for homeowners, such procedures are not necessarily practical.

You will notice that plants next to your house have escaped damage. Frost, or more accurately, the cold air spills off the top of your house much like a liquid. Once it hits the ground, beyond the distance of the eaves of the roof, this is where you will begin to see frost damage. If you cover the plants (of a size practical to do so) that are next to your house and those located away from the eaves, you may escape frost damage as well.

But many of us were taken a little by surprise. Not that the weather forecaster didn't tell us that we were getting an Arctic chill, but that the chill would come down from the mountain elevations and into our gardens. So, we'll all have frost damage to deal with, beginning now and into the spring. But give your plants time to let you know the depth or severity of the damage to each individual. With luck and caring, many of them will come back by spring.

Roses must be pruned every year to maintain vigorous growth and to keep them flowering well. The best time to prune is while they are dormant.

Steps in pruning your roses:

• Think about each cut before you make it. All cuts should be at an angle and just above a bud that is facing away from the center of the bush.
• Remove dead branches and canes.
• Remove old canes that produce only twiggy growth. If your bush is old and has only these old canes, save three or four and cut those back to 2 feet.
• The height to cut your canes back depends on the type of flowers you want. If you want the long stems for cutting, cut your canes back to 2 feet. If you want profuse flowers, but you're not concerned about stem length, cut the canes back one third.
• Remove all branches that are thinner than a pencil.
• Pull off all remaining leaves, rake up all debris, and put it in the trash. Do not use this for your compost pile, as there may be overwintering insects and/or diseases.
• Spray the pruned bush with dormant oil spray.

Try a pluot! A pluot is a hybrid fruit, developed by Zaiger's Genetics. The pluot was developed by first crossing a plum and an apricot, making a fruit that Zaiger calls a "plumcot," and then further crossing the plumcot with plums again. Additional crosses were also made to create different varieties, selecting for sugar content and other desirables.

Pluots have become popular enough that you can now find them in many grocery stores in the area but they are still unknown to many people.

They are smooth-skinned, like a plum, but with a sweeter and stronger flavor. Different varieties have different percentages of plum and apricot, but all have more plum than apricot. The various varieties ripen between June and early October, have different 'chilling' needs, and different skin/flesh colors. We carry the ones best suited to our area. At Almaden Valley Nursery, we carry 7 different varieties as well as multi-grafted pluots.

So, if you would like to try something different, and delicious, in your garden, try a pluot!

Michael was born in a hospital and spent his youth growing up in the Windy City. You'll never find him auditioning for American Idol, as his worst subject in school was Choir.

Michael graduated from the University of Hawaii and has held some unique jobs, including working at the M&M Mars Candy Company and as a fishing guide at Lake of the Woods in Canada.

He has always been a straight arrow and in his spare time enjoys fishing, gardening, and more fishing.

My staff and I look forward to serving you this year. We'll go out of our way to make your day!

Matt Lepow