Cold weather has a way of showing up uninvited in East Texas, and this freeze is no exception. Sometime next week after the temperatures begin to rise, many homeowners will be walking their yards looking for immediate answers. The truth is, freeze damage doesn’t always reveal itself right away. Some plants show injury within days. Others won’t tell the full story for weeks—or even months.
Start with your trees and shrubs. Do not rush to get to pruning. Woody plants are often the biggest question mark after a freeze. Broadleaf evergreens like azaleas, camellias, gardenias, and ligustrum are especially vulnerable when temperatures drop quickly after mild weather. Symptoms may include browned leaves, leaf drop, or blackened shoot tips.
Yet here’s the important part: don’t prune yet. Freeze-damaged tissue often looks worse than it is. Pruning too early can remove wood that might recover—or worse, stimulate new growth that gets hammered by the next cold snap. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension recommends waiting until new growth begins in spring before making major pruning decisions. At that point, dead wood is easy to identify and remove safely.
For the curious minded, lightly scratch the bark with a fingernail. Green tissue underneath means the plant is still alive.
Next is your lawn. Warm-season grasses like bermudagrass, St. Augustine, and zoysia are dormant right now, which gives them some protection. However, freeze injury can still occur—especially if turf was actively growing during recent warm weather or if it experienced repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
Discoloration, patchy browning, or slowed spring green-up are common symptoms. The worst thing you can do right now is scalp or aggressively fertilize. Let the lawn rest. Spring recovery practices that occur naturally will take care of most freeze-related damage without intervention.
Now let’s look into your vegetable garden. Tender winter vegetables and herbs likely took a hit. Crops like lettuce, spinach, onions, and brassicas may survive with minor damage, but basil, peppers, tomatoes, and other warm-season plants are finished. Even those that you kept covered with earlier freezes are almost certainly done.
But please resist the urge to immediately replant. East Texas freezes rarely travel alone. Clean up dead material to reduce disease issues, but wait until consistent warming before starting over.
Mulch still matters—even after a freeze. If mulch shifted or blew away during the cold weather, replace it. Mulch helps moderate soil temperature, protects root systems, and conserves moisture as plants recover.
Pine straw remains one of my favorites because it’s less likely to float, blow, or migrate out of place than many other materials.
One of the hardest lessons for gardeners is patience. Freeze-damaged plants may leaf out weakly, unevenly, or not at all come spring. Some limbs may die back slowly as internal tissues fail weeks after the cold event. This delayed response is normal and doesn’t mean you did anything wrong.
So what should we not be doing right now? Don’t prune aggressively. Don’t fertilize stressed plants. Don’t assume brown means dead. And don’t panic. Your landscape has seen worse and this cold weather is part of East Texas gardening. Most landscapes recover just fine with time and restraint.
The best move after a freeze is observation. Give plants time to show you what survived. When spring arrives, you’ll have clear answers—and a much better idea of what actually needs fixing.
Sometimes the smartest gardening decision is knowing when to leave things alone.
