Hows everybody doing with the freezing nights?

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

Ha, even the trees and plants in Michigan know that when it gets 70+ for a week they should just stay in winter mode, but 3 weeks got them and myself to believe in an early spring.

Looks like there is not too much damage out there, with now 2 nights of below 30' weather. I had put out my big pot of gerainiums and a pot of seedlings. (both being covered the last 2 nights) so far so good. The other seedlings were in small pots and I was able to easily bring in and will keep them in till later in the week.

I see my honeysuckle vine has been burned some, also some of the wildflowers in the woods look a little sickly. A couple more nights like this are sure to do some damage. Seems the tent worms can't be frozen. Too bad.

I have some wildflower seeds I planted coming up. They have frosted 2 nights now. I went to water them this morning and the hand pitcher pump was frozen. It takes pretty cold temps to freeze that.

So was everyone prepared? How did you are fare so far?

Bay City, MI(Zone 6a)

im only worried about the fruit trees tonight-seems this happens every yr and zapz my apricots! Plums are out in bloom too-sigh!!!

this to shall pass....................

south of Grand Rapid, MI(Zone 5a)

Our sweet and sour cherry trees are in full bloom...supposed to get down to 28 here and we are in a low spot that always gets freezes...I suspect tey will be toast again this year. So sad to happen just when the prices of things are skyrocketing! I had put out 5 pots of asparagus fern, but stuck them in the garage for the night...they will be fine.

Sanford, MI(Zone 5a)

I"v got all my new tender plants covered and hoping for the best my wigalia (sp) has more flowers on it than it ever has I hope it makes it its so beautiful
Gloria

Millington, MI(Zone 5b)

I have moved most everything that is potted into a coldframe. And covered the Crown Imperials with a small three tier greenhouse. I have hostas in pots that are under a blanket also. I hope everything will be ok.

Bay City, MI(Zone 6a)

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr jack frost!

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

Hoping for the best.
I watered my burnt looking honeysuckle vine yesterday morning and it looked good last night. I think I will water everything I can this morning when it gets warm enough.

Melvindale, MI(Zone 5a)

Well I haven't checked yet but I put the hummer feeder out a couple of days ago. I hope it didn't freeze last night. It is a glass one and could break if it did.

La Salle, MI(Zone 5b)

Well it did frost last night, I brought a pot of tulips in the garage that are just now starting to bloom, I covered all the new plants I got planted out last week, but there was just way to many others that I couldn't cover :( I am hoping all my DL's will be okay and various others that are out in the big beds. I have bleeding hearts that are in bloom that now look very sick :( so do the daffs :( It is really cold out there this A.M. Can't wait for the warm weather to come and stay for a while.

Grand Haven, MI(Zone 5a)

My daffs are nearly all done already, but I'm concerned about the curly mint, black mint and artemisia that I had dug up and transplanted to containers. Don't know yet if they'll be ok. The field behind us was all white this morning.

south of Grand Rapid, MI(Zone 5a)

26 deg here! I just took a garden walk and some things were still covered with frost. I'll know the damage by this afternoon. Clematis down by the ground had black leaves, but the upper ones seemed ok. Drat...just one year I'd like frost to skip on by

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

You are right, old Jack (frost) has overstayed his welcome. Time for him to go and not come back until Nov.

My daffs and narcissus are blooming and look ok this morning. Some of the lilies are pretty weepy looking, but the ires plants look good.

The water in the birdbath was frozen solid, and I saw a huge chunk of ice coming out of the hose hanging under the deck. That doesn't look good.

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

I have mentioned about the African Daisies that I planted from seed back in March. I transplanted the delicate seedlings into little pots and had them set all over in the window sills. When it got nice, they wanted outside, but I keep them in pots. Well guess what? they are all back inside now. But I got a bloom! (there are two more buds on this plant alone)
I am so happy! I did it!
A lot of satisfaction growing from seed. Watch out next year!

Thumbnail by cpartschick
Charlevoix, MI(Zone 4b)

Everything made it through the frost (for me). I don't think my Jacob's ladder nor my rhubarb made it through the winter this year. No sign of them. :(

Can anyone tell me if this is a good time to move Columbine? I have lots of babies to move...

Thanks!
Michelle

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

I have moved my wild columbine early like this with no problem.

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

Forgot to add, went out and looked at my big heavy pot of gerainiums and they look about a third dead. I even had them covered.
So I either now have to get the husband, quad and trailer and move them back inside or wrap them better tonight.

Grand Rapids, MI


I'm landscaping my very first yard this year, and the only thing I've gotten planted so far are some evergreens. So, while I feel like I'm way behind all the neighbors, at least I don't have to worry about protecting anything yet. :)

On the negative side, I work in a greenhouse and we know every time it gets cold out after having been so warm we're going to get a flood of calls about 'mysteriously' dead plants.

Has anyone here tried the Encore Azaleas up here? They are only supposed to be hardy to zone 6, but I was given some for the new yard and feel like it would be a waste not to at least give them a shot.

Plainwell, MI(Zone 5b)

My daffy are almost done. The tulips I have open made it!!! However one of my bleeding hearts is kinda burnt looking and bent over so I dont know!!! My clemitis is covered in blossoms and they look great!!! So glad man its going to be beautiful this year!!! All points covered with blossoms:):):):):) The vines are my husbands faves... Our silver lace vine is doing very good. Coming back nice. Really Im surprised that more wasnt frosted over... Sure was cold! Ronna

AuGres, MI(Zone 5b)

So far none of my fruit trees have leafed out. They are just beginning to at the tips. I guess that is a good thing since we got down to 22 degrees night before last. My flowers are all mostly in a raised bed so the daffs and the tulips survived well and still look good. I've been harvesting asparagus and putting it in the freezer. Hubby rototilled the veggie garden today. Boy my dirt sure is purty!! I put tons of leaves in there last fall and they all rotted. Lots of earthworms too. I dug up the three clumps of rhubarba we inherited when we bought this place and divided them and replanted them alongside the vegetable garden fence on the outside. The deer and rabbit don't seem to like them. I need to figure out how to cook them. I hated to throw them away when food is so pricey. We got the hazlenut trees planted and five more blue spruce transplants. I sprayed everything with Liquid Fence and so far no critter damage. I plan to build more cages. We also want to put onion sets out tomorrow if it's not raining. We sure could use a good rain.

May 1st. Won't be long before the frosts will stop and we won't have to worry about it.

Brenda

Millington, MI(Zone 5b)

Everything seems to be doing fine except one Crown Imperial. And it was looking a bit peaked before the cold snap.

south of Grand Rapid, MI(Zone 5a)

Both our cherry trees were in a blaze of bloosoms when the freeze hit. My clematis also got zapped. We'll see how things rebound

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

We have many wild cherry trees in bloom. They look good still.
Looks like everything perked back up execpt for my huge gerainium that I covered in several layers. Wow, it is now half dead.

Sounds like everyone did pretty well. Hope it is over now.

Plainwell, MI(Zone 5b)

Well did any one get a storm on friday?? We actually got some much needed rain!!! Yeah. Everything continues to look really good. So happy here we have been waiting for this sitting at our computers all winter now its here are we still are worried about the cold??? Crazy isnt it? I dont think we actually lost anything. But we are not fruit growers or anything feel sorry for them... But almost every year this happens.

south of Grand Rapid, MI(Zone 5a)

We had several downpours this afternoon. I took an evening garden walk and I was astounded to see how much things had grown today. It is been very dry here and they just needed a drink to grow.....we still need more though

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

Downpour? It was like being under a falls. Came straight down.

Looked like about 2" of rain yesterday. Boy, did it ever green stuff up.

I had just moved some plants around. Guess they got a good watering.

Melvindale, MI(Zone 5a)

We had a lot of rain here but it was much needed. Thunderstorms too.

Macomb, MI(Zone 5b)

I have to dig up 2 huge clumps of grasses....I'm hoping this rain made it
easier for me and my back this year! Hopefully it loosened things up a little bit better.

Delane

AuGres, MI(Zone 5b)

Delane,

Good luck digging those clumps of grasses up. Years ago at our city house I had planted a clump of white plumed pampas grass which is NOT hardy here. We had a few El nino winters and with protection it made it through and grew big and beautiful. I had strangers knocking on my door wanting to know what it was and where I got it. THe last year I had it there were 82 plumes on it. It was about ten feet tall. Well, finally we got a real winter and the temps dipped too low and it bit the dust. My husband had a terrible time digging that out. He dug down so far and finally got the chain saw and sawed it off below ground level and just covered it back up to rot. :)

I now have hard grasses planted down by my pond that are slowly making bigger clumps and spreading. The deer don't bother them and they look natural there. I sympathize with you trying to dig them up. It was all I could do to cut them down each year. :)

Yesterday hubby and I drove to Standish to Jay's fruitmarket. Their greenhouse opened yesterday and I bought all my vegetable plants there and one hanging basket and a flat of wave petunias. The prices were $11.99 a flat which is more than I used to pay at Blocks downstate but gas is so high going back down there is just not an option. My guess is that Blocks will be raising their prices as well. This was a nice buying trip. We were the only ones in there shopping and I got the pick of the plants since I think we were about the first customers. We're planning a really nice , full vegetable garden this year. I made a mistake and bought what I thought was yellow summer squash but turns out it's yellow zucchini called Gold Rush. Says on the tage it was an ARS winner so we'll try it and see if we like it. I like to try new things.

It looks like it's going to be another rainy day today. It's cloudy. We got a big downpour yesterday which was good for all the trees and thigns we've planted. My plants I bought yesterday will stay in the garage till Memorial weekend. I might go ahead and plant the broccoli and a couple other things that can take the cool weather.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Brenda

Macomb, MI(Zone 5b)

Sounds like Brenda's been busy...
Thats so funny you mention the chainsaw...my girlfriend told me
that her husband had to get the chainsaw out too...LOL
It's beautiful and sunny here today....wooo hooo
I may go "attempt" to dig those grasses out and let the
sun warm my bones up...it's only 48 so far sapposed to get to 59
they say...and tomorrow even warmer and sunshine again YAY!!

Enjoy the sunshine everyone...

Delane

AuGres, MI(Zone 5b)

Don't break your shovel Delane!!

Yesterday we drove to Lynch farms. They have a couple nice greenhouses full of healthy looking plants. I bought my sweet potato vines there. Their flats were a buck cheaper than Jays fruit market at $10.99 a flat. Oh well. I'll remember that for next year. I bought a flat of marigolds there too. I have some cosmos seeds to sow. I wonder if it's too soon to sow them? What do you think? I know I can replant the big red vebennea hanging basket I bought. They can take temps down to 20 or 30 I think. I never have luck leaving them in the baskets. They get rootbound too fast and need more water than I can remember to give them. I take them out of the hanging basket and plant them in a bit pot.

Hubby planted onions yesterday and I fertilzed all the trees. Oh my. That is a lot of work and I need more fertilizer. I worked the fertilizer into the soil around the trees.

Have a great day everyone.

Brenda

Traverse City, MI

It's been interesting here in Traverse City. Even though we've had a number of nights that dropped into the high 20s, we haven't had a heavy frost or freeze. My 'indicator' plant is a star magnolia in the lower garden. The blooms look like brown crepe paper after a freeze, but they are staying white and beautiful. The sweet cherries are starting to bloom all over the place, so we're all praying that we stay a 'no-frost zone'.

Macomb, MI(Zone 5b)

Brenda I did break my shovel...but not on the grasses I was digging up some wild irises that I planted 2 years ago...omgoodness those were worse than the grasses and they were going crazy so I had to move them to my new wild flower bed...I had to get the good shovel back from my neighbor to dig the grass out and they weren't bad I was really surprised they came up relatively easier than in the past. I was outside all day yesterday and loving it ;o) sounds like you were busy!!

It's beautiful today...
Delane

AuGres, MI(Zone 5b)

Delane,

Sorry about your shovel. I don't think I've ever had wild iris in a flower bed. When we moved here I saw wild iris out in the fields along the ditches. I just left them where they were. :) How long had your grasses been planted for them to come out so easy? You're lucky. Mine were planted in a heavy soil so that might have made it harder. My soil up here is more sandy so shoveling is easier till you hit the clay layer then it's cement. :)

Today hubby helped me plant a flat of cabbage and a flat of broccoli. I lightly hoed around my asparagus plants. I want to get some compost and manuer around them before I harvest any more. Once you cut down the spears you can't see where the plants are.

It was a pretty day today. I took Juliet (my dog) in to have her teeth cleaned. She had 4 pulled with stitches. Poor baby. She feels better though and was HUNGRY when she got home. Joey goes next Monday. All my money is going on dogs this month between their yearly physical, heartworm, flea stuff and dentals. They're worth it though. My mom is 92 with dementia and lives with me. I told her that Juliet had her teeth cleaned today and they had to pull 4 of them. She was so serious when she asked me if I was going to get her some false teeth. ha ha ha About cracked me up. She can say some of the funniest things sometimes.

I heard we're supposed to get rain for the next few days. Anyone else hear that? I hope so. That would be great for all the new trees and stuff I got planted.

Brenda

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

That is funny.
I had a cat once, siamese if you please. Had him forever. He was very special.
As he got older his teeth started to fall out. Then he got the worst bad breath and started to get sick.

I took him to the vet and had to have his fang teeth pulled. Seems the little ones rot out, but when the fangs get bad, they get infected. Well, you should have seen him yawn after that. Funny.

I was worried, he ate dry cat food. The vet said, it wouldn't hurt him and he lived another couple years. (he was 21 when I had him put to sleep due to another illness)

AuGres, MI(Zone 5b)

WOW, 21 years old! I had a cat once that lived to be 22. He was the best cat and never missed using his litter box even at the end. The last year I started cooking for him. He would meow and I'd scramble him an egg and mix it with baby food peas. He was so spoiled. He lived up in his window seat. I had no idea that cats could live so long. That is a big commitment.

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

Never had a cat after that. Someday maybe.
Got a big bumbling dog instead.

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

So at 6am this morning, I was dozing and my husband walks up to the bed and leans in to whisper sweetly in my ear "its 33' outside"

ARGHHHHHH!

Arms and legs started to pinwheel as I threw myself out of bed, threw on a sweatshirt and some slippers and shot outside to save my plants. (I saw DH giggle at my reaction, I know I did!)

Do you know why they are called slippers? There is no traction on a deck in 33' weather.
I did not fall, but I went back inside and got some shoes on. Brought in my plants I could, including 2 bleeding hearts I just purchased for gifts.
Wrapped up my big gerainium, that is now half size due to the freeze from last week. UGH!

2 weathermen, not one but 2 said it would be 39' for the low. And one of those weathermen is known for his "weather garden" UGH!

Oh well, just have to wait and see what damage is done.

La Salle, MI(Zone 5b)

I didn't try to cover any of my plants, I did turn the heater on in the gh and put a few in there that was setting out, and my maters. But the rest will let nature do its thing, all the indoor sowing I did and the gnats got a hold of are on the front deck and have been for a while now. if any survive ok, if not a big lesson learned (either way) I just wish it would WARM up and stay for the next 5 / 6 months, I am so tired of cold.

AuGres, MI(Zone 5b)

I have one of those clocks that shine on the ceiling at night that also has the outside temperature. My sensor is on the deck right up next to the house. When I woke up around 4 a.m. it said 32 degrees on the ceiling. :) All my tender stuff like tomato plants are inside the garage. I open the door during the day so they get light and air and they're protected at night from any late freezes. The only thing I've planted can take a light freeze like broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, onions etc. We've sowed some spinach seeds but I don't think they've germinated yet. I'll walk down and give everybody a drink today and check them out. The tulips are fine. They don't seem to mind a light freeze.

I do wish it would warm up. I haven't taken my geraniums out of the house yet that I overwintered. I'll wait till Memorial weekend and even then I'll check Accuweather's long range two week forecase to make sure the nighttime temps are consistently above 40 degrees. The soil has to warm up or the seeds I plant won't germinate well. They'll just sit there.

I'm off to play with the grandbaby. We're babysitting today. She is loving playing outside.

Have a great day eveyrone.

Brenda

Gladwin, MI(Zone 5a)

Everything looks ok. I think I got the plants in before damage and even the gerainium looks ok. (well, what there is left of it from the last freeze)
Looks like we will have a normal mem day weekend. Cold rainy, last 2 years have been hot and sunny, I knew that wouldn't last!

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