We had our first heavy frost and light freeze last night. I am sure glad I bustled around yesterday and got all my potted plants inside. I covered some plants in the gardens with large buckets.
Our low this morning early was 31 deg.
Lin
First Frost/freeze
No frost here yet, but I am sure we will get it one of these days. I am also trying to get many things in the ground and gathering the ones to bring inside.
Oh how I wish we didn't have to worry about the frost.
Oh I know. I dread to see winter come. My yard looks so bare now that I've taken all the potted plants inside.
The town just over from us where my dd lives had 28 deg. this morning. We both live in the country and I think it always gets cooler in the outlying areas.
Lin
I laughed at the weather report that said we hadn't had a frost yet. Being in an "outlying" area I have seen three light frosts already! Had to melt it off my windshield yesterday morning. I've already enclosed a portion of my porch and moved my tenders. I am going to add shelves this weekend, seems I have more to protect this year than last. :)
got rather close at my house at 37 on my digi thermometer--I wasn't expecting it since they said lower 40's but you can tell it got that cool--a lot of the plants that always freeze back here looked nippped--such as rangoon creeper, clerodendrum ugandense. Defoliated the ugandense but that's ok, it always freezes back to ground level and now my Louisiana Iris' will get more winter sun, which I like. I'll have to watch the forecast for tonight--luckily I only have a few bulbs in pots and musical notes to watch out for.
I have seen it freeze here at Thanksgiving before.
This message was edited Nov 17, 2006 3:23 PM
Yeah, it got down to about 38 here at the base of the Hill Country as well. I didn't notice any "nipping"....but managed to get outside today and noticed quite a bit of wind damage from that cold front a few days ago! I heard that we had about 50 mph winds and I believe it. My fire bush is almost bare of leaves...and my red ruelia looks burnt from the high winds. Also had to repot some large crown of thorns because the wind had knocked the pots over and broke them.. :( And my poor wee Burr Oak that Lee gave me at the SA RU lost all of its leaves.
Melanie
Dawnin I have more plants to overwinter this year too. Weatherman here says that by Monday we may have another freeze. I can't always go by what they say though.
Lin
Our first freeze in usually Thanksgiving. We had 30 degrees this am. The more tender plants are sadly dropping their leaves. Most I moved to a protected spot. I'm happy it is over and we are on our way to spring... Yea!
They are saying 32 here Tuesday morning too.
Oh I'm not ready to see my yard bare. sigh I'll have to plant a lot of pansies and enjoy my camellia.
Lin
Camellia's are wonderful plants, I think. I have a lot of evergreen stuff and 2 big live oaks so it never gets completely bare around here...but I know what you mean. That's where you need lots of winter-growing bulbs! =)
I forgot about a freeze until a DGer from Georgia asked me if she should send me a Brug at this time. So last Night, with my cane in one hand and trying to retreive my Desert Rose in the other I found a Coleus, a Midnight jasmine and Lord knows what else is out there.
Sylvia
Oh Sylvia, bless your heart! maybe a neighbor can help you bring those plants in. It doesn't hurt to ask.
Josephine.
It got down to 34 hereThursday night, warmer in town but I live in the bottom area of Bryan so it gets colder here. Good thing I remembered to turn on the greenhouse heater. I still have a brug that was blooming in the ground as well as a couple passion vines that aren't hardy. Also some tomatoes that will need covering here come Sunday and Monday night, supposed to down to 36 so out here probably will hit freezing. It's so funny for me still to talk about this seeing as how my parents got their first frost clear back at the end of Sept. Haven't been feeling well lately so I really need to clean up the last of these tenders so I can relax instead of scurrying about every night covering things up.
:) Kim
they've upped the forecast low temps here for Tues am; I think that's because we are going to have a lot of wind again. That keeps the temps up--it just feels colder. I need to get out there and pick up loose small plastic pots--the last front scattered things everywhere out back...what a mess! But a great day today to do that--perfect weather out there.
It got barely to freezing the night before last. That's what you have to deal with when you live up here in the hills, gets colder here than in the lower areas nearby. I covered some things...keeps some blooms going for all those butterflies we have, for one thing.
This morning they took the 35 out of our forcast, but I am not trusting them, since the 17th was our average first freeze date. I have planted everything possible and brought in the hanging baskets, and most of the tender stuff. I took off work yesterday and did that and spread mulch too. More mulch to go down today.
Question:
I have two Crinum lilies for the first year, will they make it ok in the ground, or do I need to dig them to over winter?
Also, I have a Pink Angel Trumpet and a Yellow Brug that I have potted. I know they won't make it outside and I wondered if I can cut them back to 4" or so and move them in? Will they come out next year? If not does someone nearby want them? They are not huge, only about 4' tall.
Sheila_FW
Crinums will be fiine in the ground, then again I have a 2 year old lime tree in ground here.... I am trying some of my best tropicals this year (keeping cuttings just in case) with a little bit of care I think it will work.
Has your lime produced fruit yet Mitch? I'm going to give lemons a try, I have some good seeds I believe.
I keep my brugs in the ground. I cut mine back and start cuttings and then I mulch really good. They will be slow to come back in the spring. You should do fine.
no fruit - too young, it is just two years old but getting very thorny for sure...I just want to smell the flowers, that is one smell that I have really missed.
I think my one itty bitty brug got bit, it was about to bloom and got cold..
That was the 12th, here is today....Tell me is this bloom hanging out the end a bad sign? Should I go ahead and chop it down and mulch it? Or leave it for a few more days?
This is one of the very first pics with my new camera DH (Kevin) gave me today. see if you all can tell a difference from the picture above..
i would give it a shot...
I have a young Purple Datura that has two blooms just fixing to open up, go figure. I would wait on your brug Deb, don't give up yet.
And thanks, Mitch and Blooms for the answer for my plants. I believe I will sink them in the ground and take the cuttings like you said. I have mulched (12 more bags today) so my lilies should be fine.
This message was edited Nov 18, 2006 2:43 PM
Thanks Sheila and Mitch, I will hold out.. and hope. that's what I was hoping y'all would say-)
I posted something in ID forum, I bet you guys know what it is>>
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/671557/
Deb my brug looks just like yours. I don't know if it will fully open or not. I do think the light freeze affected it. I have already taken cuttings so I will leave this big one in the ground, cut it back, and mulch to see if it will come back out in spring. This will be my first try. I always pot them up.
Dmj you are so right. This has been a beautiful day and dh and I have been outside all day. I went ahead and cut my bougies back and all my vines and we moved all those inside. Gosh I have more plants than I did last year. I have taken cuttings of a lot of things just to see if they will root.
I got four of my new roses planted and mulched real well. I sure hope they do good.
Mitch I'm glad to know the crinim will be okay in the ground. Mine is in a huge pot right now but I will make a place for it in the garden since I know it will be ok.
Lin
I haven't seen the blooms on thsi one yet, I found it all alone on a sale rack at Calloways..along with my Night Blooming Jaz cestrum. For some reason I think the brug will be a peach/pinkish color..but I don't know yet.
The new camera took a great looking pic...superb color and clarity...
Thx Yuska!
I just got 3 and 1/2 spicebushes, I suppose it is fine to just sink them in now, right? When the shipment came I quickly potted them to get them out of the wrapping. The guy said to dig my holes and make big mounds of soil over them, and then plant them in the mounds and mulch around the plants. What would you all do?
Not all crinums are hardy--but I'm assuming you don't have a tropical crinum Sheila...I on the otherhand, do have several tropical crinums because I'm a bulb collector.
Really Debbie... I have one from Mexico that lives here with no problem..
There are a lot from the Caribbean that aren't grown in the mountains of Mexico--and a lot from South America and Africa too. Crinum covers a lot of territory. They are some of the few bulbs other than Herbertia pulchella I do have to drag in and out. These are species crinums not hybrids; C graminicola and 'Mayan Moon' both are definitely not hardy.
I doubt this one is tropical, since I got them at a swap in FW. She had a lot of them, so I am betting they are hardy. I may be on the safe side and pull one and pot it just in case. They were beauties, of course they are my first! LOL!
This message was edited Nov 18, 2006 8:43 PM
That looks like Ellen Bosanquet (my spelling is wrong, I'm sure) and a very nice bloomer--very pretty. Most of the hybrids are hardy--I wouldn't dig it up. I just have some collector's bulbs that probably no one would want other than a bulb fanatic like me--lol. That reminds me I also have a small pot of Ipheion sellowianum I need to find and pull in....It's somewhere out there in a "sea of terra cotta". This thread is a good reminder for everyone to think about some of the plants we never give a second thought to unless its about to freeze.
I actually had to get out there and use the soaker hose on my Louisiana Iris today--we haven't had any rain in 2-3 weeks now. How about ya'll up north? dry too? Sometimes plants will be fine in a freeze if you water them well a day or two ahead of time. Just another thing I often forget about assuming they are still moist when, in fact, they are not.
Yep Debbie we are dry up here. No rain in a while now. I watered everything good the evening before the light freeze. I have to remind myself to water too. As cool as it's been it's easy to forget. My coleus that I dug up and put in a pot looks great! They didn't even wilt down. I'm trying to root a cutting from my rangoon creeper vine. We'll see.
Lin
They root best in spring Dancey--just mulch it heavy and root it in spring when it puts on a flush of growth but well before flowering. Mine's already been "nipped"--I had to get out there today and mulch really heavy. I always hate to see mine loose its leaves--it is so huge and leaves a big "empty spot" out there when gone. Also cut back hard in spring--it flowers on new, not old wood.
Debbie
Now I have to go find some more Crinums.... trpoical ones. I used to have 4 of these in VeraCruz on the coast and I have one from them here.
Today I am harvesting.
I am on day 70 for carrots and peas and snap beans.
That will leave me with the chard, zucchini and squash to deal with, maybe burlap - I haven't decided.
Supposed to be 31 tonite.
W J
Well I just discovered I had a Brug today. ... thought it was a weed from the carport. ...hopped out there and saw the label ...