Freeze warning issued for Bay area. 12/18/2006

The weather service has issued a Freeze and Frost warning for the SFO Bay Area. Napa is supposed to get to 22º before 7am.
It was easily 25 or 26 here last night. Lots of ice this morning.

Remember the three "P's" Pets, Plants and Pipes! I'm hoping my brugs do ok! They are covered with crop cover material. Everyone else is in the greenhouse with the heater running.

So does this mean tonight is going to be worse than last night? I hate this cold weather! The thing that really bummed me out was when I talked to my parents in Cleveland yesterday and they're having warmer weather than we are. That just doesn't seem right to me!

Yes! I was watching the evening news and they said colder tonight than last night. Brrrr. It's already below 40 now. It was 40 when the sun was still out so I dont know for sure what it is now but I've got the fire roaring in the wood stove (our only heat source) and called all my barn kitties in for the night.

Yuck, yuck, yuck. I hate cold weather too, but at least it's not freezing and RAINING! Is this the kind of frost that will kill all the nasties in the garden?

Well, we hit 23 over night. Brrrrrrrrrr. Haven't been brave enough to check my brugs but will when the sun is out all the way.

We were supposed to get to 29 here last night and I have a lot of newly planted salvia. I'll have to wait til later in the day to see how they've held up. We hardly ever get that cold and it's the first time in years that I've actually seen frost on our property. We've had a little of everything down here in the last couple of months, going from one extreme (for here) to another.
Sherry

I'm not sure how cold it got last night--it didn't feel quite as bad as the night before, but maybe I'm just getting used to it! I was pretty worried because I just had my whole yard landscaped, just finished putting in the last plants on Saturday but so far almost everything seems to have held up OK, although the water in my hoses is frozen so I'm not sure how I'm going to water everything! I had a couple tropicals that I accidentally left on my upstairs deck instead of putting them in the greenhouse with the others, so I have a feeling they're toast (Hibiscus 'Kona' and an unknown yellow Allamanda) but I'll wait until spring and see if maybe they come back (they've both survived some winter damage on my patio at my old house before I had a greenhouse, so I'm hoping they'll make a recovery!) And a few baby Cestrum's and Iochroma's that I had in pots look a little frostbit, but honestly I had too many of them anyway so if a few don't make it it's probably not the end of the world! Now I'll know which ones are hardy enough to plant in the garden!

It's also been cold and frosty here in Rancho Cucamonga! Haven't lost any plants yet but sure hope that cold wind stops blowing. Springtime, where are you?!!?!?!?!

Believe it or not, there's still frost on the ground here! It's 1:25 pm and the house across the street has a white yard! They are in the shadow of a hill so that explains it but it never warmed up enough to melt off! Brrrrr.

Ecrane, hope your new plants survive! My big brug 'Butterfly' which was loaded with flowers is melted now! It's in a 15 gallon can in my portable garage thingie and most of my fuchsias and brugs got melted. As did some more tender succulents. But those are easy enough to replace.

It was 24 here last night. Plants that have been growing in the ground without mishap for years now look like frozen spinach.

The sheet of ice in my bird bath still hadn't melted by 5:00 yesterday afternoon. One good thing, though: Days and days of frost tend to kill all of the usual pests. My roses look marvelous.

I wondered about your cute little begonias in the driveway, are they mush?

I lost some succulents and a B. 'Leopon' that were in my garage. They may bounce back, time will tell, but talk about spinach!

Those Begonias look okay. They've got the overhanging branch of that evergreen tree giving them some shelter, and even the Brugmansia under that branch is still hanging on to most of its late blooms, but my poor Durantas will never be the same, and the Iochromas are especially miserable looking.

We were so cold here last night. Even colder than the night before. Tonight looks like it will be warmer.

Night 1 I had lots of leaf burn on all my outside brugs which are most of them. But my begonias did great as did my Tibouchinas. I had not covered anything thinking I would escape any damage as I did a few weeks ago on that last frost advisory.

But last night my brugs really got hit and my Distictis 'Rivers' which never has had freezer burn in all the years it has been here, got fried on top too last night. I did cover my better brugs though hoping to save the seed pods on them.

Brrrrr another 23º last night (well the thermometer said 23.7º so one could say it was 'warmer' last night than the night before! Kept that fireplace stoked all night long!

My crazy neighbor, here in zone 9a, decided to plant everything that grows in Hawaii, including fishtail palms. After 2 hours of 27 degrees, all 5 of his $200 palms have perished. Why do people do this? Is this what we call zone envy?

I grow stuff like that too, but I put them in my greenhouse for the winter! I'll occasionally try some zonal denial plants in the garden, but I treat them as an experiment with the full awareness that they are likely to not make it (and I wouldn't spend $200 on a plant I was treating as an experiment!)

We have a 6ml plastic greenhouse cover over our raised bed garden in the Sunnyvale community garden. I have a thermometer with min/max memory on the inside, with the probe hanging about 10" above the soil in my cabbage patch. The minimum temp INSIDE was 23.6'F this week. The cabbage and beet families did fine. My plumeria got frost burned leaves, but otherwise the stalk is holding up well. I'll probably wrap some extra fleece around the plumeria stem for the remainder of winter. It's doing better in the garden bed than it did on my deck. The cabbages and collards were all sweeter after the frost.

The palm tree on my deck is hanging in there. It seems to be taking the frost better than last summer's extreme heat waves.

Our director from the Arboretum just told me that freeze warnings for the bay area have been issued again. They are predicting 40 year record lows.

Head up bay area, looks to be cold on Thursday, Fri. and Saturday. Brrrrr.....

From Yahoo weather site
http://weather.yahoo.com/storm/USCA0156.html

(sorry about all caps, this is copied from the site above, not yelling... =º)


...MUCH COLDER WEATHER ARRIVING WEDNESDAY...
...RECORD BREAKING LOW TEMPERATURES EXPECTED BY THIS WEEKEND...
...RARE CHANCE FOR A FEW SNOWFLAKES NEAR SEA LEVEL...

AFTER ONE MORE MILD AND SUNNY DAY TUESDAY...A MAJOR CHANGE IN THE
WEATHER WILL BEGIN WEDNESDAY LEADING TO THE COLDEST WEATHER OF THE
SEASON...AND PERHAPS IN MANY YEARS BY THE END OF THE WEEK AND
UPCOMING WEEKEND. A STRONG TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE WILL SWING DOWN
ACROSS CALIFORNIA BEGINNING LATE TONIGHT. COLDER AIR WITH THIS WEATHER
SYSTEM WILL BEGIN TO REACH THE BAY AREA WEDNESDAY AS A SURFACE
COLD FRONT PASSES THROUGH. HIGH TEMPERATURES ON WEDNESDAY WILL BE
ABOUT 10 DEGREES COOLER THAN TUESDAY IN MOST AREAS. LIMITED
MOISTURE WILL ACCOMPANY THE FRONT...BUT A FEW SHOWERS CANNOT BE
RULED OUT...ALONG WITH BLUSTERY NORTH WINDS. IN FACT...BY LATE
WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY MORNING...SNOW LEVELS WILL PLUNGE TO
BELOW 1000 FEET LEADING TO THE RARE CHANCE OF A DUSTING OF SNOW AT
LOW ELEVATIONS...WITH EVEN A FEW FLURRIES POSSIBLE DOWN TO NEAR
SEA LEVEL.

If this weather keeps up I'm moving back to Ohio!

ooooh, maybe snow on the mountain tops behind Big Sur....wish I could go. We're having 80's down here again and I'm hoping for some of your cold to make it this far.

Waaahhhhh..... it's been almost summery for the last few days, and on the advice of the people at the garden centre I pruned my roses on Sunday. Should I be wrapping them in something to protect them from the cold weather?

I just sprayed everything but my ferns with Cloud Cover and covered my succlents and as many of my ferns as I could with floating row cover. I sure hope that it helps. I've pruned my roses too. Here it's only going to get down to 28 supposedly. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Does anyone else have any ideas?

Okay, now,I'm really sorry I grumbled about the heat...just heard we're going to be in the 20's down here again this weekend. "Be careful what you wish for"

I am in deep doo. My tibouchinas are way too big to cover as are many other things. But those I will miss the most. In the last big freeze they went to the ground. Killed me.

So tell me, you can't spray cloud cover on ferns??

Oh help Oh help. I am on my way out to cover all with sheets and that frost cover now. I moved things around Wednesday. I will bring more stuff in the house. It is the things planted in the ground that I am hysterical about. I have a 30 year old bougie that goes straight up to heaven it is so tall. It even still has a couple of flowers on it. Woe is me.

Not to mention my HUGE 25 year old staghorn that is growing 360 degrees around a post on my porch. I have no clue how to get that one covered well. Too many other things around near it to get close to wrap it.

I wish I could order a crane to come and put a huge plastic square over my lot.

You could wrap it with that row cover material you got yesterday. You can also wrap it with Christmas lights before you do for a bit of extra warmth.

The crane is a very good idea! Why didn't I think of that. I went to Target and bought a bunch of cheap sheets on sale as every nursery was out of row cover.

And Wegman's told me not to put Cloud Cover on ferns. Let me know if you did it and it works. Sorry about your staghorn though. I would imagine that it would be OK to use Cloud Cover on that. Wegmans just said nothing with fine leaves or fuzz.

I'm worried about my ferns and four big Mexican Climbing Hydrangeas in addition to a lot of other things. My citrus tree looks fine after last night but I don't think that it got all that cold here - as not in the 20's cold. I may even lose the dahlias that I leave in the ground, who knows? I've been on line looking at what is at risk. Think that the Cannas will be fine... I don't think that my tibochinas are going to make it either.

Whahhhh, and this was when we got home from vacation on Sunday. Before this big freeze!

Whahhhh is right! We're already 36º now. I suspect it will be 17-19 before the sun comes up tomorrow. I've got row cover on everything. just cranked up the greenhouse heater and fan - I'm sure that everyone in there will be fine. It's my brugs in my portable garage I'm worried about.

Hope all of your begonias are safe Sue!!! Actually my b. poponoei went to 23º a few weeks ago and the rhizome is still nice and firm. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm putting some straw over it tonight along with the crop cover, just in case. Hope my Cantua pulls through!

Most of my begonias went to my Mom's while I was on vacation. I have several in large pots that are still there, leaf damage but the crowns look OK so far. I am surprised at how well they do take the cold, much better than brugs, ears and bananas but they will for sure be set back.

This is my old big double white in the ground, looked like this Sunday when we got back, before this current cold snap which may do it in to the ground.

rats! can you throw a blanket or sheet over it for tonight?

This weather stinks doesn't it! I don't think it got that cold last night, when I got up this morning to let my dog out it just felt like our normal temperature, but then during the day it never felt like it warmed up any, so I think tonight's going to be bad. I'm just hoping that whatever is going to die already died in the last freeze and hope that most of the stuff that survived that will survive this one too. My main problem is that all my stuff was just planted in late Nov. and early Dec., I think most things that I have in the ground would be hardy enough to survive these temps but since they're not established yet I'm afraid I'm going to end up having to replace a lot of stuff. But there's just too many plants for me to be able to do anything to protect them--maybe if I hadn't had to be at work all day I could have done something, but when I get home it's already dark so that's a little too late!

I am not going to worry about it Lali, it's been down to the ground and mush before and I thought it was a goner and was much smaller. If it does indeed not make it, I want a standard in there anyways, that one was before I knew you can control the branching to make one.

Ah well, just hang on to your hats. Sorry Sue about your banana and your brug. I also have a couple brugs that might bite the dust - probably will. I need to replace them too though so that's OK.

And sorry Ecrane about your newly planted landscape. Perhaps you were smart and planted things that weren't going to croak in the cold?

I think that I'm asking a lot of Cloud Cover - hope that it delivers. I had ice on a sheet all day today as I turned on the sprinklers at bedtime. Do you think that I should do it again tonight?

I was smart and planted (mostly) things that aren't going to croak in the cold...if they're established (the un-smart things for the most part live in the greenhouse). I'm just worried that since they're not at all established yet that it may knock a bit off their hardiness, and there are some things that are only hardy to zone 9 so I'm worried those may not make it. Oh well! The stuff in the front yard at least I think the landscaper has to replace if it dies within 90 days of when it was planted, it's just the stuff in the backyard that I'm responsible for since I purchased and planted it on my own.

Hope the Cloud Cover comes through for you! I tried it on a few of my more sensitive things before our last freeze and they still came out looking frostbit, but it could be they would have got hit even worse without the CC. I'm not sure about the sprinklers--I tried to drain the lines on my drip system so water doesn't freeze in there overnight but keeping the water running in the lines should also stop it from freezing (I'm leaving my hoses dripping slightly to keep them from freezing--have a nice hole in one of my hoses from not doing that the last time we froze!)

Well, not sure what happened, but the lowest we got was 28 last night. In fact the temp went back up to 35 during the night. Scratching head!!!
I guess this is good news. and hopefully we wont get down into the teens as predicted.

I worked all yesterday and covered just about everything with every sheet, blanket and towel I own. I used up all my frost cover, and sure wish I had bought more. Tom came home early to help me, but all thru he kept repeating I HATE PLANTS! LOL

We got the staghorn covered in frost cloth, round and round. Our neighbors must really wonder about us. My brugs in the front look like white lollipops, I covered them in that frost cover and then used garden velcro to hold the cloth tight around the trunks. I have blue sheets and a blue velour blanket over my hibiscus in front. LOL

I got up at 6 am to see what the temp was, 32! So no 24 materialized. Though the next 5 days look grim, with the next 2 nights being 25 degrees.

Did everyone else make it thru OK??

My garden looks like a cross between a shanty town of wayward cast off sheets and blankets and crispy critter town.
I have doubts that the heliconias will survive and the Iochromas look like toast but from experience I believe the rest of my subtropicals will sprout back from the lower trunks and root stock.

This weather is not zesty.

So far so good. It didn't get that cold here either - but it seems that we have two more nights coming. My mother ferns and the climbing hydrangeas made it and so did the big orange tree. I peeked inside the Australian Fern covers and they don't look great and I haven't been out to see the brugs yet. the echevarias are ok and that's a good thing. I don't know if the statice made it yet because it got pretty frayed in the last cold spell but I sprayed them with Cloud Cover (I have a lot, they pull my perennial garden together). Here's hoping!

But my big distictus looks terrible - I probably lost them both. :-( Should have wrapped their roots.

I don't think it got as cold here as it was supposed to either, although it was definitely below freezing (I left my hoses dripping overnight to keep the pipes from freezing, and was greeted this morning with a big icicle connecting the end of the hose to the ground! ) But I don't think I lost any new plants this time which is good, I lost a bunch in the last freeze--all my Iochroma's and a couple Cestrum's all of which I thought were hardier than they apparently are, and a Hibiscus, Allamanda, and Holmskioldia which I somehow missed accidentally when I was putting things in the greenhouse and didn't notice them until I saw crispy brown leaves among my other hardier outdoor containers. And there are some nice brown sticks in the garden, but I'm not sure what they used to be--I think some of them were Salvia's which will hopefully come back for me. We'll see what happens the next couple nights!