Took lids off, and now some seedlings are dead (?).

Thanks zenpotter for your reply... I'm going to set out (sacrifice?) two of my containers to see how they do over night.. a milk jug with no lid (nasturtiums about 3" tall) and a plastic container (strawflowers 1.5" tall) with a hole-punched lid. It's supposed to be 22 degrees tonight and possibly snow tomorrow. I'm still skeptical that these little sprouts can withstand below freezing temps and/or snow. But here we go!

Di

I moved the ones that had sprouted (poppies and sunflowers) to the back porch. I left the ones that hadn't sprouted to fend for themselves.

Di, I hope they make it otherwise I am going to loose some.

Shirley: Please keep in mind that you are advising Tamara in N Ohio zone 5 based on your past experience in balmy Md zone 7.

I'm in SW Ohio, Cinti, where it was 80 degrees 2 days ago but for the next few nights it's predicted to be in the upper teens. I left most of mine outside last night and it got to at least 29 degrees. I haven't checked them yet. Tonight is going to be colder and I intend to put many of mine into the unheated garage. If I didn't have the garage I would move them into the house. Doing this might weaken them some but I'd rather have weaker live plants than dead proof that they can't tolerate those cold temps. I moved them into the garage several nights last year, too, and was never sorry and didn't see any obvious weakness. Granted, I am basing this on only one year of experience but I don't think many plants will survive temps in the teens. MAYBE perennials and very hardy annuals but I wouldn't put money on it.

Also, re: the discussion about the lupines being "completely cold hardy" that's not true. Most are, but there are also tender ones, so be sure about the type that you have. I lost my lupine Sunrise last year after being advised that all lupines can take the cold. Sunrise, for one, is an annual which did NOT survive the cold for me inside a jug.

I know that this sounds very negative but it is based on my experience. I'm sure your results will vary according to such things as local wind and temps and wind chills and humidity and... I'm not saying that this is true for everyone everywhere, but some newbies might want to take heed.

Karen

It hit 16º last night. I went out to check and I still have little green sprouts. I didn't check them all since the jugs are frozen to the patio. Out of 99 containers I only have 9 with sprouts so if they do go it won't be to many. We had the 80º weather last week as well so the poor little babies got fooled into coming up early.

It was so cold and windy here last night that I covered my dwarf jap maple with a sheet. The first attempt at securing with clothes pins resulted in it being blown off in 5 minutes as the wind ripped the fabric right out of the clothes pin. The second time my friend helped me and we used clothes pins and a couple of hemostats. That lasted about 30 minutes. Finally after my husband came home he helped and tied the bottom to the trunk and we wrapped the rest and closed with large safety pins. That lasted the night but the way the wind was ripping it occured to me that it could partially uproot the tree. Fortunately that didn't happen. (This dwarf is about 3 ft tall and has been in this raised bed for about 2 years.)

There is a reason this area is called tornado alley.

Karen

It was very windy here as well...enough to knock over a few of the containers that I hadn't yet moved indoors. I did leave 4 sprouted containers outside to see how they would fare. They are in plastic pots in large baggies, so I closed the baggies and moved them so that they were touching the side of the house. That's as close to the leap of faith that I could get. They are still okay this morning. Obviously, the ones inside are fine. The ones in my neighbor's glass enclosed (unheated) porch are doing okay too. The containers that had nothing in them yet were left completely exposed. They don't even have lids on them, so I'll be interested to see what still ends up germinating. Tamara

Tamara, moving them inside won't hurt them, but remember that it'll "undo" some of the toughening up they've been doing, and they'll get a bit wimpy after even a few days inside... as long as you harden them off (gradually moving them back to full outdoor conditions, as you would do with seedlings you'd grown indoors all along), they'll be fine.

I think I'll be moving my WS containers from the deck down to the patio, where they can go up against the house for the next few days... the pavers and the south facing foundation should help even out those night temps a bit.

It will be a pain to harden them off, but you gotta do what you gotta do. :-) I'd rather do more work and still have my seedlings. I wouldn't care so much if we had lots of money to spend, but we don't, so I need to make the most of what I have. Tamara

Tamara: I think the jugs that haven't germinated yet will probably be fine.

I haven't looked at mine yet today. They're probably OK since it didn't get that bad last night, but it's too cold for ME. The ones in the garage look happy though!

I had to google map your city to see where you are. I'm posting a link to an interesting map. If you don't know where Cincinnati is, it's right where Ohio, Indiana, and Ky meet. I'm actually west of the city so I guess I'm just about on the border of the dark green and light green areas. That map puts you in a less risky area for tornados than me but I'd guess being right on the lake makes your area pretty windy, anyway. People who don't live here for a long time really underestimate the force of the wind. When I was out moving my containers last night I thought the wind might take me away too. My fingers were numb, I was thinking about frostbite.

http://www.tornadochaser.net/images/frequency.jpg

We've also had a few earthquakes in the 30 years that I have lived here, fortunately they have never done much damage here . Many people are surprised to hear that we are in the New Madrid fault zone.

Karen

We've been blessed to not have any tornados around here, but we have had a few mild earthquakes, and we do get a lot of lake-effect snow. :-P What fun. Tamara

Peachy,

Strawflower & Nasties might not be the best choices for your experiment....don't you have any regular hardy perenials?

Suzy

Hi Suzy,

No, I didn't plant any hardy perennials... just annuals. What hardy perennials would have been a good choice? Cone flowers are already growing in my flower beds, what else?

I just thought baby WSd seedlings of hardy perennials would have more of a chance in the low 20s and teens -- and I am assumning NE is getting as cold or colder than Indianapolis.

Things like dianthus, penstemon, and primula could make it. Possibly lots of others, I just am drawing a blank.

Suzy

I hope that my seedlings that are up make it. Fortunately most hadn't come up yet. We have cold for another week at least that is what we have been told. I hope that the weather man is wrong once again.

Believe it or not we get an occasional very mild earthquake here in MN. No damage though. I did have the doors on my kitchen cabinets open up once. Tornadoes we have.

I think you are probably correct Suzy... it makes sense that a hardy perennial would be... well, hardier than a tender annual. I'll have to consider them for next year. And, yes, it is colder here in SE NE than Indianapolis... last night 20 degrees and tonight and tomorrow night in the teens. I'm so over this cold.

Thanks Karen for posting that link to hardy annuals.

I also found this on the FAQ page... the post: "The seeds are germinating! But we're still getting freezes!!!"

Answer: "Don't Panic! Amazingly, just when Winter is about to break, and you're still getting nightly freezes, the first of your flats will begin to germinate. When I saw this I thought that the seedlings were goners, but they thrived. The seeds know when it's safe to come up, it's part of their genetics. Most often the earliest seeds that germinate will be of varieties that as adult plants remain evergreen in your garden throughout the Winter. Some typical early sprouting varieties are: Dianthus, Poppies, Shasta Daisy, Yarrow, Anthemis, Hollyhocks, Asters, Cranesbill, Lettuce, Cabbages."

So that's encouraging... and I have planted some dianthus, hollyhocks, and shasta daisy so I may set them out and see what happens.

Di

>>dianthus, hollyhocks, and shasta daisy

Di,

i have all 3 of these that have sprouts and they seem to be doing fine in this cold snap.