Just last week my husband was asking me why I hadn't planted all the plants that are still in our garage. I told him that they were tender and that our freeze date was 4/15 and Atlanta always made sure to live up to that date.... and a few times even went past it! And I think this is the first Freeze since Ground Hog Day too.
Well here it is, sliding in right on time. He couldn't believe it. He'd never paid attention to it before. He just knew he couldn't understand why I was buying more plants when I still had some in the garage.
My question is this...
Can someone tell me how my 18 inch tall lilies are going to fair with tonight's 30 degree temps and tomorrows 28 degree temps? I don't have any clotches that tall and I'm afraid sheets will snap off the tops, meaning no flowers. Will the fact that its only 2 nights and not really sustained temps. mean that they might make it through this alright? Any serious Georgia lily folks out there or should I go to the Lily column? I thought home-grown people might know our situation better so I'm asking y'all about your experiences first.
Thanks for your tips!
I knew this darn freeze was coming!
I went out after work tonight and covered plants that I could with some 8" pots held down with a rock on top. I have some lilies that were about 12" tall, and I piled leaves around, in-between (to keep them from falling over), and over them as much as I could. If you have bamboo sticks or something to hold up a sheet or plastic over the lilies that would help. I think the wind and the chill from it will be worse on Tuesday night.
I hope this helps!
Carol
Are you saying that lilies need to be covered even if they haven't started flowering yet? Please say `No'....
Lilies will probably be okay. If it got down in the low teens then they might get bit back to the ground. Dogwood winter and Easter seem to coincide most years so it's no surprise on cold temps in early April.
It's only supposed to go down to mid/high 20's and probaby only for a few hours.
So I'm not going to cover my lillies, daffs or tulips (even those that have opened). Anyone disagree?
What about azaleas (mine are really too big to cover). Is anyone worried about this brief cold snap's effect on azaleas?
It's possible some things may get burned but it won't kill them unless it gets super cold (like two years ago ~ in the teens the middle of April). You might be able to save your blooms on azaleas if you want to cover them with quilts, sheets, etc but often times if it is breezy you have to use heavy material or tie sheets, plastic wrap to the bush so it won't blow off. We used to cover our azaleas but quit that practice several years ago. The bushes will be fine but the blooms might get burned without protection.
Most of the azaleas aren't fully open anyway, so I'll take the chance on burning a few blooms. They're all in fairly sheltered areas too.
Thanks for confirmation. I'll just let nature take care of itself.
My white azaleas that were fully opened are brown today. The buds look OK. The dark pink ones weren't affected at all. I did lose some cannas, but they will probably come back from their roots. Everything else seems to be just fine. The low here was 32, so not as bad as predicted.
Hey Catherine,
I was worried about the freeze but I did not cover anything as I would not be home today to uncover it. I walked around this afternoon and did not see any damage. How about you?
Brenda