I live in New York and we had a colder than average winter. Until 2
weeks ago, the grass in my lawn had been covered by snow for over 3
months. After the snow was melted, most of the grass was white. Even
after two weeks of warmer weather (50's and 60's), there wasn't any
improvement to the grass condition. I took a sample to my local
nursery, and a staff told me the grass was damaged. He believe it
wasn't deasese related, but probably due to the cold winter. The
grass that I showed him was perennial rye and it made up most of the
lawn. I had reseeded two areas in my lawn previously using different
grass seeds and these two areas look fine (quite green) after the snow
melt.

Is perennial rye more suspectible to cold weather damage than other
types of grass? I guess a few more weeks of warm weather would tell
me whether the grass would come back, and I am considering using
fertilizer to improve the chance. My understanding is that perennial
rye is a cold season grass and I am surprised it could be damaged due
to cold weather.

Michael