It seems as though half the continent is experiencing record lows, which wouldn't be so bad if the same half of the continent didn't experience record highs all last week. Things are bloomed out way too early and getting slammed because of it.
Last night's low was 27F. It's supposed to get to about 20F tonight, so the cold success stories seen in these pictures might be only be for a day, but at least posting these is something to do inside, safe and warm.
Viburnum x juddii.
Scott
"Karen" azaleas still in bud.
Scott
Sorbus alnifolia. New foliage holding up okay.
Scott
Amelanchier x grandiflora flowers, still okay. I didn't take any pictures, but so far my "Donald Wyman" and "Louisa" crabs are hanging in there.
Scott
Daphne x hendersonii in bloom, snow-covered, and loving it.
Scott
Carpinus tschonoskii new foliage, looking like it might be burned, but maybe not. Hopefully, whatever has already been munching the leaves froze to death last night.
Scott
This message was edited Apr 6, 2007 5:27 PM
Paeonia japonica. So far so good. Not a shrub, I know. So sue me.
Scott
Even less like a shrub, Pulsatilla vulgaris considers a little cold weather a good time.
Scott
No records here yet, except for earliness of bloom and leaf out. Bad stuff due tonight and over the weekend. Here's a sampler from SOS (south of Scott):
Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) wishin' it was Bermuda...
'Popcorn' doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum 'Popcorn') palpably peeved...
Heads up, dybbuk!
'Holden Golden' variegated wayfaringtree viburnum (Viburnum lantana 'Holden Golden') simply deserves a better name, not torture...
'Joe McDaniel' magnolia (Magnolia x 'Joe McDaniel')...magnificent!
'Wildfire' black gum (Nyssa sylvatica 'Wildfire')...where's warmth?
'Zydeco Twist' contorted black gum (Nyssa sylvatica 'Zydeco Twist')..."We're not in Nawlins anymore, Toto."
Judd viburnum (Viburnum x juddii) jjjusttt innn jjjjeopardy...
'Cayuga' fragrant viburnum (Viburnum x 'Cayuga') crazily cold...
Spiced Bouquet™ fragrant viburnum (Viburnum carlesii Spiced Bouquet™)...a spit in the bucket now.
Yeah, supposed to be going down to 20 degrees F maybe lower tonite,
not good for the plant life. My tulips are drooping considerably already and most of the petals are flopped over, quite sickly looking, and will likely get worse!
Did anyone see that pitch threw out by the mayor of Cincinnati on the news on opening day for the Reds the other day?!
Whew!
Will, I didn't see or hear of it. What happened?
I've got a few of LuckyP's prized Shagbark hickory selections that have tender new leaves on them. I need to figure out some way to protect them, the temp tonight is forecast to be 25°.
Those guys next door are actually mowing the church lawn in jackets and gloves. Probably be brown in a couple of days anyways, so I'm not even bothering with mine.
This is the worst April cold I ever remember. I saw on the news this AM that all time record lows for the month of April are expected across large areas of the north central and eastern part of the country. Freeze across nearly the entire state of GA. The jet stream has dipped way, way down to a level across the northern part of Florida. There will be major crop failures.
And a lot of unhappy gardeners. I have had Corylopsis of various kinds in my garden for 15 years, and they mostly bloom in April here. C. pauciflora was in full bloom this past week. This morning it is brown -- I have never seen that before. Flowers have always tolerated normal April cold swings though really cold winters can kill some floral buds and diminish the floral display. C. sinensis fortunately not totally open yet so maybe will be OK.
But the big sad possible loss for me is my hellebores. They bloom in April here, unless they get lulled into bloom earlier in a warm winter, which a few did in January. Those flowers got nailed with the following cold, but the plants are generally still fine since the foliage emerges much later. But with the warm weather the past 3-4 weeks (up to now), my whole collection of 60 + plants was in full bloom and many with new leaves too. I had collected these plants from multiple trips to England, the PNW. Huge amount of cost and hassle in getting the plants here. This years floral display and seed production from these plants has been completely destroyed.
I thought they could tolerate the temps like this without a problem. But I think I may have been wrong, though I hope not. Temps went from 75F to 21F between Tuesday and Wednesday night. And the plants looked like the one below, in beautiful bloom 24 hours before, a plant that came from Farmyard Nursery in Wales. And they ALL look like this. No relief expected from the cold here for at least 3-4 days. I protected them with straw and nursery pots and blankets Weds night, but probably too little too late.
WAAAAHHHHHH!!!! :o(
Well, I think his pitch was headed toward third base or somewhere quite errant.
I've never seen it, only heard it on the late nite talk shows. At work we can listen to headphones but not watch anything, so everybody has headsets on.
Theres nothing like a little good natured ribbing!
Bless the mayor's heart. He's probably more popular now than ever.
Yeah, this surprise cold spell is really working on my plants too.
I have this Red-Tipped Photinia that I wasn't sure would even make it thru Winter.
Over half of its evergreen leaves fell off this Winter and I was thinking "thats it, there it went". To my surprise it made it thru the Winter, and was putting on new leaves, but now the new leaves are black. I took a photo of it yesterday, its in the flower bed with some of the tulips. Thats it in the background of the above photo also.
Oops, I just looked, I don't have another photo of the Red-Tipped Photinia. If you look close enuff in the above photo to the left you can see a little dark colored foliage on it I think. I'm going up there later I'll get a photo.
Jackets and gloves sounds familiar. That would be kinda unusual in Alabama though. I didn't know it was cold there too. Thats what I had on, but my lawnmower wouldn't start. I'm gonna try it again today (after many blue in the face attempts), if it don't start I'm gonna buy a new one, I need a new one anyway. I never thought about that, the green grass might meet the same fate as my plants did.
Will
Easter morning low of 31F expected here near Gainesville, Florida. I'm not sure what to do with potted plants showing some new growth... I do have some frost cloth, and an uninsulated shed with some room inside. I'm in a clearing on a low ridge and that seems to make things worse. Might just water everything before sunset, go to church for Easter VIgil, go home, and hope for the best.
Mark., maybe just as well I didn't plant out the tomato seedlings yet
Actually, he was standing in front of the mound and was attempting to throw the ball to Eric Davis, the former Reds great, who was standing behind the plate with a mitt in his left hand, as one who was expecting to catch a ball would. The mayor wound up and threw in a very awkward, jerky motion, and the ball went off almost towards the dugout on the first base side. Fortunately, it was a very weak throw and it kind of dribbled into the foot of an umpire who (certainly thought) was standing well aside of the action. The umpire did the only thing he could, which is to promptly signal the mayor out of the game. Eric Davis, astonished, turned to the side to go fetch the ball. The whole thing was in reality, everything the late-night jokesters would have you believe. Meanwhile, the mayor's office issued its own top-ten list regarding the throw and has let it be known that the mayor would like another try.
Scott
I have seen on television many times where fruit growers put sprinklers on their trees. Does that actually work, or is that for the fruit only and not the foliage?
Escambia,
I don't have any real experience with the idea of watering to prevent freeze damage but a couple of years ago, we had a freeze on May 2nd and the sprinklers ran on some plants and not others. The ones that got watered seemed to have less damage than those that didn't get it. Aesculus parviflora didn't seem to mind the weather a bit with an icy coating.
Regards,
Ernie
It works by spraying relatively warm water over the foliage, thus preventing it from freezing. The difficulty is making sure the spray reaches all of the foliage in sufficient quantity - needs an awful lot of water. Anything that gets just slightly sprayed gets covered in ice, and can collapse as in an ice storm.
Resin
OMG david, that is just terrible ((hugs)) you poor guy. VV at least you got to see some of your beloved shrubs bloom, the cold won't kill them from the roots, will it? I have enjoyed seeing the floral display, doesn't look like we'll have one here, after all. My tulips fainted from the cold, without opening. We sure have been subjected to some freakish weather these past few years. Very discouraging for new gardeners, but challenging as well!
I have always understood that spraying crops like citrus with water protects them from freezing by taking advantage of the heat of fusion, the heat released when water undergoes phase change from liquid to solid...and, like Resin said, it takes a whole lot of water.
It looks like we escaped the hard freeze here. It was forecast to be 25° last night, but I really don't think it got below 32°.
That just blows my mind that this freeze penetrated as far south as coastal Alabama!
WIth some relief, and while admitting that what we've gotten has been bad, I don't think our lows, like yours, have gotten quite as cold as they predicted. I think in my little piece of suburban heat, our lowest was 26F, which is a good deal better than the 18F they called for.
Scott
I talked to my sister on the phone last night. She lives in Marquette, Michigan. At the beginning of the week, all of their snow had melted. Over a 3 or four day period, they've gotten about 48 inches of snow and she said it was still snowing really hard while I was talking to her. I guess all that snow might protect her small plants some, but how depressing to think that she has to wait for all of that to melt again!
Rob
Our area went from 81 to 19. Enough said.
We had about 22 degrees last night here in south west Arkansas. We made make shift cover for plum and cherry trees/but did not think about our crepe myrtle bushes. This morning the leaves were drooping and look like they are dead. Will they get their leaves back this year when it starts to get warm again? I don't know what to do to help them. They started getting their leaves when it got so warm in March. Also my rhubarb plants have big leaves already and they are drooping also. I'm glad I didn't put in a garden yet ie tomatoes and peppers. Couldn't find the kind I wanted.
Here's pic of what was a "Green" hardwood forest as late as April 6!
Conifer50
I have the same question as marionr, is there anything we should do to trees/shrubs that were starting to leaf out or in bud and got frozen? Will they get new leaves? I'm pretty sure the buds are finished until next year, right? I'm just sick about my huge doublefile viburnum, Japanese maples and wisteria that were full of buds and starting to leaf out........all limp now.
WE were in the 50s today, but snow showers are predicted for tomorrow. I don't know what to tell you, as I don't know myself what to do. It's freaky.
I think that once the damage is done, there is nothing you can do but watch and wait. Most woody plants have 'reserves' which allow them to survive some catastrophes like this. Most plants have adventital buds which may be very small or even impossible to see but which may swell and produce leaves when the weather finally starts to improve. I have seen it before -- plants which look like they had all their new growth fried will start swelling buds from what look like bare twigs and then look almost as good as new in a month.
Having said that, let's hope this event is not followed by a freak mid May freeze. There is even more possibility of damage then. I had a couple of magnolias just leafed out a few years ago when we had a freeze on May 25, and they both died.
BTW, My hellebores rebounded from the 'almost dead' appearance in that picture above far better than I expected. Much of the floral display is lost for this year, mainly because the flowering stems were partly broken in the cold. And there was some leaf burn too. But all the plants will survive and some look almost as good as new. After 18F. It was the worst cold damage I have seen when the plants were in full flower and partial leaf, and still, they came back to flower better in another year.
BTW, My hellebores rebounded from the 'almost dead' appearance in that picture above far better than I expected
Spoken with a stiff upper lip Resin!
This message was edited Apr 11, 2007 10:39 PM
