some passives in tree do not work

so winter spirit currently says adds 10% physical as extra cold damage
it only directly applies to standard melee attacks
does not add to any skill gem configuration i have tried
i was expecting that to be a considerable boost to build unless i am not understanding something
was this intended to only apply to direct melee gems?

it applies to all physical damage, including spells and ranged attacks.

It needs the spells themselves to have base physical damage.

It does NOT add cold damage to spells based on the physical damage of your weapon.

It will work, I think you are probably misunderstanding the mechanics, maybe in the way that the above posts have mentioned. If you want someone to confirm it you can list the exact interaction you are trying it with or public account so that someone can advise. Alternatively, if you want to verify yourself, you could try and application like POB, it will show whether or not the damage is increasing based on the parameters entered.