Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Record low temperatures, 1 by david5311

david5311 wrote:
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(