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

I ended up bringing all my 'faves' inside. My home office looks like a jungle now, with 3 plumerias, 3 gardenias and 2 olive trees! Haha! I couln't bring in my pomegranate... thought I was going to break myself just pushing it around the yard... so that one's getting the sheet treatment, she's a baby. Any other tips on the pom? I like the holiday lights idea, from above... does it really work?

According to the thermometer in my community garden plot, the low temp last night was 19'F!
Several buildings have had pipes burst due to freezing. I was up at a farm in Los Altos today. The animals water bowls were all ice this morning. They were broken up and refilled and had iced over again by the afternoon. Keep in mind that if your thermometer is mounted on a wall or fence, that the structure will absorb heat during the day and radiate it back out at night.

I didn't realize Sunnyvale got so cold!

Here is is only 8:30 and the temp is already 39 degrees. Shoot.

I don't think it got as cold as it had been the past few nights before. I take my dog out for her early morning pee and the lawn wasn't frosted like it had been the past two nights.

Kell, Sunnyvale is not supposed to get this cold. Neither is Los Altos. This is very unusual weather for us.

Well, I just ran a small space heater out to my portable garage (home to Kell's favorite plant ..er...uh.. begonia haulin' super beetle) for my brugs, iochroma, fuchsias and gingers which are spending the winter in there. I thought they would be ok, but I think it's actually going to be colder tonight than last. We're already 25º. Last night it was around 28 at this time and then warmed up to 35 with a strange wind that blew through. It never got below 29 last night. But it's bone chilling now!! I'm guessing the teens are coming.

We just got back from the movies (go see Night at the Museum, its very cute!) and I had to recover plants that mysteriously had their blankets removed. (wonder which naughty kitty did that!!)

Yep! It has been unusually cold even for us up north in the mountains. It was 14 here this AM.
Tonight it is overcast but still cold 21.9 right now. I'm hoping it doesn't get as cold as last night. I had to put some candles in the GH to help my measly heater. It did keep it a few degrees above freezing in there. I hope this is not going to be a "normal" thing getting this cold. I may be moving some place a wee bit warmer! We are usually in the low 30s. My Brother moved to Paradise about 6 mos. ago & ya know, it IS all that it's name impiles. It rarely freezes there. If I could move my yard, I'd go. LOL!
Everybody bundle up & keep warm! Bj

14 is too cold from me, Bj! LOL 2 ladies I know moved to Paradise and just love it there. I just checked and Paradise is at 22 right now. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=95969 I am forever looking for a warm place to move to . LOL I just got up to see what we had here and it is 31 degrees. So it still might drop down below 30. Hope everyone is doing OK!

I'm considering changing my location over there to the left to say 'Frozen Arctic Tundra' because I dont believe we're in California any more! BRRRRR... our overnight low hit 17.2 but most things look ok. The tropicals in the garage are fine.
I had to get hot water from the tap (thank goodness the pipes aren't frozen) to pour over the greenhouse door zipper to get it open a bit ago. Frozen shut!! it's 33 in there with the heater and fan running but things look ok. My plumeria are pouting but I think they'll be ok. Sure hope it warms up a wee bit!

Last night 'did in' my Aeonium Cyclops.
Their former big upright facing heads now hang low and floppy .

I can't bear to go outside and inspect the garden.
The view from inside does not look good.

Anyone know how cold is has been down in Santa Barbara ?
Sure hope that San Marco's Growers hasn't been hit hard. This nursery supplies much of Californias cool sub-tropical/ temperate plants.

: ~ o

Sorry about your Aeonium Michelle - I haven't even been brave enough to look at mine. Looks like we won't be out of the frozen zone until Tuesday night.

I hope that the citrus crop isn't decimated. I've been thinking of those smudge pots running all night.

It was colder here last night than the night before. I was so happy that all of my newly planted tender babies hadn't been hit and then last night nailed everything. I have a few cloches and the things under those fared well, sheets did no good. I have a shade cloth structure 30x16 ' and was hoping the size and location, plus so many things being in there close together would help and apparently did. I think everything in there did okay. Thankfully I hadn't set out all of the new salvias because it had been too hot and dry. I've never seen a winter like this. Last week we were 86* and santa anas, then boom! I'm also hoping San Marcos growers didn't get hit,and the guy I get a lot of stuff from in Vista. The only good news about tonight's coming freeze is that I don't have to worry about it...everything's already been done in.

Call me crazy here in zone 9a, but I'm kinda liking the cold snap. It wakes you up and is a little refreshing don't you think? I only lost one plant, as even though we're 9a, I plant for zone 8b. I do hope the citrus is okay though. You guys are spoiled in 9b and above. It was 18 here in Lodi two nights ago.

Can't say I agree with you! The cold does wake me up, but I don't find it the least bit refreshing. I've lost considerable $$ worth of plants, and I feel that the climate we're supposed to have here is one of the reasons that I can justify spending such a huge percentage of my salary on my mortgage payments. If I'm going to live somewhere that things are going to freeze and I can't grow some of my favorite plants, I certainly don't want to pay as much for it as I am now! You can say those of us in the Bay Area are spoiled, but I don't believe it's really spoiling when you're paying extra for it!

I feel like those people who jumped off rooftops when the crash hit in '29. I would like the cold weather if I weren't losing so much.

OK Mary, I'll call you crazy! LOL You aren't telling me that it's fun when I'm fretting about my plants. I can get cold enough by running around in a bathing suit in the middle of any old winter night. (not my idea of a good time having grown up in S. Cal.) But I don't wilt and turn black. Oh Yuchhhh.
I have to say that I believe that the Cloud Cover has helped some. I bought a half a gallon and then thought I was nuts but have almost gone through the whole jug. The distictis under the oaks and on the fireplace are burnt but don't look hopeless. We have just two more nights to go.

Just having a little fun guys. Cheer up, the freeze will be over soon. Just think of the fun you'll have replanting in the spring!!! I love my plants too, but they can always be replaced.

Well Mary, unfortunately not all of us are made of money so it's not necessarily the case that we can all run out and replace what we lost. For you I'm sure that's true since you say you only lost one plant but many of us lost considerably more than that so try to put yourself in our shoes and then decide if you'd still be cheery and looking forward to replacing half your garden in the spring!

Got down to mid 20s here in southern California... lost a lot of palms that have taken years to get the size they are, and many will be extremely difficult to replace... NO, I don't like cold snaps like this... worst one I've seen since being in California for 15 years. Sigh. Place looks like a maniac with super Round Up ran through my yard.

Ecrane, you're absolutely right about the climate no longer justifying the prices we pay for our homes. One of my neighbors just sold her little house (1500 square feet) for $750,000 and moved down to Paso Robles, where she bought a brand-new house, almost twice the size of her old house, for just over $300,000. The weather down there used to be awful in comparison with ours, but not any more.

I find everything does OK till it hits 30 - 32 then I start to get damage on some things. My huge bougie still looks good though the flowers are gone. It may defoliate in the next few days though. I guess it is not staying cold for very long at one time.

Had you covered your Aeonium, Michelle? You had a lot of succulents too didn't you. I sure hope they OK. Nothing is sadder than a frosted plant.

Sounds like you guys are really suffering. I got really hit hard a few weeks ago, but this time I see to be losing the very tops but the lower parts are still solid. Tonight it is already 36 degrees. So I may be crying tomorrow.

I hate when this cold hits us. I remember the last bad cold snap, I lost things right down to the ground.

So sad Palmbob. Makes you wish you had those hot pots they have in the citrus groves. But it sounds like those didn't help either this time around.

Funny Zuzu, all week I have been looking online at property south of here. Cambria annd Los Osos, though the prices do not look so cheap. Hard to tell though unless we go and look in person.

I don't know if it got colder last night than it has the last two nights or if it's just the cumulative effect of multiple nights below freezing, but a bunch more stuff died on me last night. The paper this morning says it only got to 34 overnight here, but the exterior thermometer on my greenhouse was reading 19 at 7:30 this morning, I think the real truth is probably somewhere in between! My kangaroo paws have been getting browner and browner each night, and now there's not much green left so I'm not sure if there's much hope for them. The really bad part is I'm now losing plants that are supposed to be hardy in much lower zones than zone 8-9--it looks like I've now lost my Penstemon's and CA poppies (these were newly planted so I guess maybe that's why?) And the biggest shock and disappointment is my Fatsia japonica, one of the few plants that has been around for a while and was not newly planted, plus it's right up next to the house where it should have been warmer, and in theory it's hardy to zone 7, but I looked at it this morning and the leaves are all wilted so it looks like it's a goner too. It was so pretty this year, it was actually supposed to be removed as part of the re-landscaping but I decided I really liked it and didn't get rid of it, now I wish I had because it's a big huge thing and is going to be a pain to dig out! And this is all just what I noticed when I ran outside to get the paper this morning, who knows what I'll find when I go out and do a real check!

We didn't get nearly as cold last night as the night before. I though I would share the following email from Don Mahoney, our director at Strybing.

So I see that I'm not the only one in a panic over the weather. I wish I had the foresight to have started reading 'before' the killer frost hit, so that I could have covered things. My garden is in complete ruin. This is my third winter, so it was quite a surprise to see any damage. But then again, I've never seen it dip below 30 or even below 35 in the 22 years I've lived here! So the question I have, is what to do in the aftermath? Once it's brown I'm assuming it's dead? Should I cut it back? Or is it best to leave it as-is to protect anything that didn't die?

ah begoniacrazii you read my mind and answered my question as I was typing it! Thank you

Sorry all - I haven't looked at my tree ferns yet . They are under sheets and I'm afraid to look at them. It was colder last night than all the other nights. What was up with that?

I also read that they are racing around finding warm places for homeless people and animals and that pets that are normally left outdoors at night may have suffered.

Looks like it won't be lows in the 40's until next week.

Its best to leave the dead leaves, etc, alone. Trimming your damaged plants now might cause further damage. Also, do not give up hope, many of your tree ferns and other subtropicals may recover. I would water them sparingly (if the soil is dry) and provide some protection if more subfreezing temps are predicted. Good Luck.

This message was edited Jan 15, 2007 10:56 AM

Don Mahoney's advice and recommendations should be well-taken; he's very knowledgeable and well-respected regarding his abilities as the Horticultural Manager for the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum.

At the University of California Botanical Garden all the horticulturalists and propagators were also scrambling last Wednesday-Thursday, moving plants and getting vulnerable ones covered with frost cloth. I asked a couple of our C&S experts at the Garden to do a walk-through of my propagation area on Thursday and give me their advice. There were only 3-4 plants that they recommended taking in and/or covering that I hadn't thought of. I was able to put everything that needed protection into my little greenhouse or a part of another greenhouse that I use. It was nice to know that I really do know my plants. I just hope we were right.

The Garden has its own weather station posted on its website and I've been monitoring it from home. The good news is that most early mornings, just after sunrise, it was no more than 30F. I think that's partly due to the fact that the Garden is up on the west side of one of the mountains rather than down on the flats. I'll know tomorrow if there was any damage, both in the Garden and up in my propagation area.

At home I didn't cover anything. I do have a small greenhouse where plants weathered the cold just fine. The outside plants so far don't show any damage. In monitoring the Weather Channel for my area and comparing their projected temps to my own thermometers, it seemed that every one of their projections were 5-7 degrees colder than what my thermometers showed. There was only one day I was a little worried, when it was 40F outside and we also had a cold wind. However, I have high fences and between the fences and the buildings the wind is typically deflected so that there's only a light breeze inside the fences. We'll see what the next week or so shows, but so far so good.

My heart goes out to those of you who were more affected by our cold weather. I hope that many more of your plants survived than it looks like right now. After I go to the Garden tomorrow I might be crying right along with you!

Marilyn

Good luck at the garden Marilyn - I hope that everything is well there. I only brought in my cane begonias. I didn't think that they would make it through the frost. I hope that they don't think that it's spring from being in the house for four days but I'm not hauling them in and out. The papyrus looks pretty sad today.

Sorry some of you became so defensive about this post. Didn't realize I was touching on raw nerves here. The fact is that once in a while mother nature does what she wants. I'm in zone 9a here, but since all time lows are in the teens, we are really a zone 8a. So I plant accordingly. It makes no sense to spend alot of money on plants that are borderline, so please don't take your frustrations out on me.

Happy replacing.

And crying over plants, are you serious or seriously nuts?

Mary, a little more sympathy might be in order here. I'm not sure what sort of reaction you expected when you start off by calling us spoiled for being in zone 9b/10 and then tell us cheer up because won't it be so much fun to replace all of our treasured plants in the spring, but if you put yourself in someone else's shoes for two seconds I think you'll be able to see why people don't appreciate comments like that at a time like this. It's very nice for you that your garden wasn't hit hard, but you're in the minority here. And don't lecture us about climate appropriate planting--I'm sure there were a few "zonal denial" plants that were lost, but a lot of people lost a lot of things that should be hardy here and that they have been growing in this climate for years and years. Sorry if I sound a bit snippy here, but it's just not nice to make light of someone else's suffering and that's exactly how you're coming across. I certainly hope that's not how you intended it.

Well said!! There are those of us who have plants that we feel like ARE our children. After all, we've taken care of them for years and years, watching over them like mother hens do their chicks. But our plants can't pick up their roots and move to a place more to their liking when we get one of these 20-year freezes. For those who lose beloved plants it really is a grievous time.

Please don't be critical if you haven't had the same experiences or feel the same way others do about this situation.

Marilyn

This message was edited Jan 15, 2007 5:03 PM

Mary, if you don't like our whining or defensiveness you are totally welcome not to subject yourself to it. You probably should go to another thread more to your liking. We have a right to discuss how we feel about losing plants that we care for. This is a garden website after all.

Oh Doss, my cane begonias gave up the ghost when it dropped under 50.

Marilyn, I sure will be hoping for the best for you. I would just die if my collection like yours at UC would be hurt. Please let us know how you did.

I think I may just cry myself if my staghorn bit the dust.

Marilyn, I will keep my fingers crossed that your collection at the Garden is OK!

On a happier note, it looks like my Fatsia may be OK after all--I just checked it and it's looking a lot less droopy than this morning. Everything else that has gotten all wilty looking has never perked up again, but for some reason this one is looking better now. The flower heads on the top are still wilted, but the leaves look fine so I'm not sure what was going on this morning but I think it may make it now. I am just hoping that this all ends soon, I have a bunch of plants that are still hanging in there, but I don't think they can take any more nights below freezing.

And I think we have 1 more bad one, Liz. Shoot!!

I always loved pansies because they will droop in the frost and by midday they perk up again and bloom! Such a plant of hope!

I was just looking at some of the So. Ca pictures on the brug forum. Boy what a shock for them too, they are zone 10. Poor Clare really got hit too. What a shame this is for sure. So many beautiful plants that were doing so well for so many years to get so hurt. If I were PalmBob I would be hysterical. His palms took years to grow. How hard to replace them all and wait for them to grow back up.

I'm still waiting to hear what kind of damage the SFO arboretum had. - I shudder to think of losing even one plant in the collection. Going there is such a reprieve for me each week, and I see how hard all of the gardeners work to keep things in tip top shape.

Still a few more nights of this to come, we better keep bundled up. I love pansies for that reason too Kell, and the poppies we bought at Annie's do the same. They look like they're going to be mush but the sun comes out and the spring back to life.

Sorry about your cane begonias Kell. I keep mine outside but right next to the floor to ceiling windows of the family room. They take it down to almost freezing. But those can take forever to get big.

I almost hate to look at the brug forum. I haven't been out to see mine. Don't want to.

I've typed a response to that sour note coming from Lodi... Like a hundred times.... I am demonstrating some incredible control here..

But guess what? I not only cried.. I nearly puked... I'm so sad... and PROUD OF IT TOO.

So from Lodi to all of you who suffered losses... My heart goes out to you too... I hope we can help eachother heal.

Your DG friend,
Joyce