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Wow -- another unusual winter!! Where has all the snow and ice gone? I can't ever remember a winter this devoid of precipitation. Just what kind of problems can lack of snow create for us ponderers. Well, you would think that this is a good thing and for the most part it is. Aside from the lack of moisture that, hopefully, that will come in the spring there is one other problem that I have never experienced before -- until this year. It is called "sublimation". This is the process of ice evaporating directly into the air without it melting to water first. In a normal year the snow sublimates some but hardly ever does the ice become affected because it is normally covered with snow.
Now, you say, what does it matter? Well, I am observing hardy marginal plants that I have planted in black pots starting to "lift" out of the ice. Actually, it is more the process of sublimation of the ice away from the black pot. The black absorbs more heat and the ice sublimates quicker at that point. This process is actually exposing some of our marginal plants to the atmosphere when they would normally be snug under an inch of ice.
To correct for this I have been topping off my ponds to fill in around those pots. In one pond, however, the whole ice layer lifted still leaving the pots exposed. If there was snow on the ground, I could have shoveled some around the plants. Of course, if there were snow I would not be having this problem in the first place. Needing some kind of snow or ice shavings I decided to drill a lot of holes in the ice with my ice auger (being very careful to not get close to the liner). I then shoveled the ice shavings around the base of the plants. This is fine until we get a lot of warm weather melting the ice shavings.
Another technique that I'm going to try when the outside temperature is very cold -- say, less than 20 degrees -- is to use a fine water nozzle and spray water up in the air over the plants. The water should fall as fine ice crystals around the plants. Basically, this is copying what the snow ski areas do to make "snow".
I would take the time to check your marginals to see if your pots are "lifting" out of the ice. It is very important to keep these hardy marginals snug with one inch of ice over their crowns. Hopefully, by the time you read this we will have had some precipitation and this problem will no longer occur.