Damage Assessment and What Worked .. What Didn't

Well I'm glad that's over with. My uncovered Confederate Rose got burnt badly. All the new growth is toast but I was not too worried about it because I know it will come back. It will just be about 2 weeks behind schedule. The brugmansia was surprising unscathed. I had put a chenille bedspread over them. I think the fluffy bits on the bedspread helped a lot. The datura in containers came thru unscathed with beach towels over them.

The canna on a whole survived. Those covered with cotton percale sheets got their leaves burned a bit, but the main stalks look ok. Those covered with buckets did better than those covered with boxes, but all survived. The parts of the leaves which where touching the sheets, buckets and boxes all got singed.

My only real disappointment was "Why didn't the weeds die?" Lol.

X

They don't call tham weeds for nothing!! Good to know your plants survived X.

so far so good here in hickory nc. i put black growers pots that sat in the sun all day over a lot of my newly planted pe rrenials and after 2 nights of this they are still standing! the hydrangea look damaged but i think they will rebud, and the peaches look damaged, but time will tell. i pray every night as i cover them and every morning at about 6 when the thermometer says 24! I think God is on the side of the gardeners!

I was amazed to find that nothing that I covered had any visible damage at all! Well, except for a couple that were a little squished by the coverings themselves. :) It supposedly got down to 26 but doesn't seem like it. The low in my "wannabe" greenhouse was 33. No damage there either.
Even the tiny little zinnia seedlings are still green. Guess I'll be covering them again tonight though...since I see we have a freeze watch. :(
Deb

Luckily I haven't put my roses in the ground yet. I planted them in pots so just brought the pots inside. Now just afraid to plant them. When is safe around here? Just moved here in October and would have thought frost season over with already...

DD this was unusual. We usually have our last killing frost in March. The last two winters have been unusually warm as well. Our climate is definitely changing.

X

Not really, Your average last frost date is 4/8 , which means that if you plant on the 8th that your chances of getting frost kill is less than 50%. BUT it is an average not an absolute. You are always rolling the dice, when you plant before the average last frost date.

I know we have mild frost in april .. I was talking about the 20 degree for a few hours that kills a lot of things. I was astonished to see that my butterfly ginger which was not covered came thru unscathed!

X

The sad thing is that by the time this wacky cold weather is over it will probably be too hot to plant down here in my area.

I have guests coming in for the week of the 21st. That always means it will be muggy, hot, and buggy. LOL

Since we dug most everything up, we didn't have to worry about most. I think our basjoo got burnt though. Not sure if it's because of the cold or due to the fact we left it covered till almost 11 today by a large trashcan. We left this morning and it was looking alright, but by the time we got home this afternoon it looked like it had been microwaved. I'm going to cut off the leaves and hope the stem keeps new leaves coming up. If not, I'll just cut it back to the ground and start over.

My tomatoes survived 27 degrees!!!! OK, I confess, I did cover them with milk cartons, but I still thought they'd bite the bullet--the azaleas did look mighty unhappy, though. They are in a wind tunnel, suspect that's why... Went camping and thought I'd die--back home to central heat, now. Makes you appreciate all that we have, like warm houses and a grocery store if the garden freezes, doesn't it? I just knew if I put those tomatoes out early, I would tempt Mother Nature..so you see, its not global warming, climactic changes or anything else--its just me!

DD: As X said, this really was unusual. Our average last frost date is either March 30 or April 8 depending on the source, and I too can recall the odd light frost this late, but I can't recall a freeze this bad, this late in many years. Obviously, spring is a gamble, regardless - as Farmerdill said - these are averages. I've been planting things out the last week of March forever, though and rarely have had any problems. So no need to flee to further south! :) ...and a belated Welcome to SC!

Deb

DevilDogs, Campobello is normally much cooler than the coastal areas and April frosts are not rare up there. Down here along the coast however it is unusual, especially this year when winter was so warm.

I think you're ALWAYS rolling the dice with planting stuff, regardless of average frost dates. The problem is exacerbated by the narrow growing window we have for most crops in the coastal carolinas. It goes from cold to hot too fast for most cool weather crops (Broccoli, Cauliflower, cabbage, etc) in the spring, so we grow those things in the fall. Or we start them in January in the greenhouse and move them to the garden when the ground temp gets over 55 degrees. No matter how you do it, you're still facing the fickle whims of mother nature. Cool spring---you get a great crop. Warm spring---a really puny crop. Most hot weather crops do well if set out after the average frost date. For 4-6 weeks. Then it gets too hot and humid for them and growth slows down---an open invitation to a bug/fungus Ball. Tropicals handle the heat/humidity better than vegetables, in my experience. My Plumeria frangipani will bloom if I winter them over in the greenhouse, but not if I winter them over in an equally warm but darker work shop (both after entering dormancy). But temps below 50 degrees can set them back weeks, and temps below 40 degrees in the early growth phase means no blooms that year. Bottom line, it's the luck of the draw year to year. Average Frost dates are helpful as an anchor point, but the usefulness ends there.

My azaleas were in full bloom and our dogwoods can we say toast. They look so pitiful, I did not think it would get so cold and tonight a freeze warning also.

Oh well

Lavina

Brand new gingers I had just gotten from B &B got wilted in the Greenhouse. :( Hostas, toad lilies, lilies, cannas, bleeding hearts, etc.-all suffered. I guess I have to look at everything as a toughness test, right!

And it ain't over yet folks....

They are predicting it to be about the same or even a few degrees colder for the midlands tonight.....ya best get out while ya can!

Thanks for the info all (and the welcome :-) My neighbor told me when the maple trees bloom we are past the final frost. Guess that's a myth!
I've started about half of my seeds for my garden and have been just moving them in and out based on the weather so no biggie on them. My garden patch was just turned up last weekend so I have a lot of work to do on it before I'll be ready to plant. I'm planning on putting quite a few assorted veggies in big pots on my deck this year just because I know my garden won't be that good yet based on it being first year. However, I do have leaf mulch and horse manure/bedding mix that has been sitting around cooking for several months to mix in that I hope will get it ready and was surprised that the soil wasn't as bad as I expected. Found out that it's the same spot that two owner's ago had their garden about 6 or 7 years ago so I'm not dealing with straight clay.
While I'm thinking of manure, if anyone's planting grass, I have a preg mare using straw bedding right now and the used bedding will work awesome for covering seed plus adding additional seed and fertilizer. If anyone's interested, let me know, I have TONS of used straw bedding and free to whoever wants to come get it :-) That goes for the other manure too. We have 5 horses here and it's one thing I'm sure I'll never run out of!

We covered up all the bulbs again. Some have new growth coming out of the soil, so hopefully we'll save them. I also covered the now leafless banana tree, LOL. At least we tried to save it.

I'll be glad when this weather leaves for good. Our living room looks like a arboretum - there must be 40 plants in it.

Good luck everyone. Just one more bad night hopefully.

Oh Devildog, how fortunate to have a ready supply of manure and used straw; I am green with envy. Wish I lived closer.

Stono, I have been wheeling my plumerias into the garage each night this week. Hope they stayed above 40 in there. If they don't bloom this year they are history!!!

Lavinia, our azaleas looked pitiful this year also. They started blooming way to early and never put on the big show they normally do. It was just a little bit here and there and I wanted the usual over the top spring show. Oh well, maybe next year.

alice

I'm in the same frame of mind as you on the plumerias, ardesia! I've followed pretty much the same regimen every year, and some years they bloom, some years they don't. I have a big 12 foot one that I put out during the 80 degree weather last week, hoping to give it an early start. Instead, I believe I gave it an early grave because I chose not to bother moving it back in for the freeze. It's history, but I can always use the pot for something a little easier on the back...
They gave out the plant list for Plantasia at the meeting tonight (a first!). It's not on the web site (heck, they've still got Middleton Gardens as the feature on the web site, and we've had the VERY successful "Country Feast" since then...), but I know if you called the office they'd e-mail or snail mail you one.

Darn, I really wanted to get to that meeting but had a conflicting appt. down here. The spring and early fall meetings are the only ones I can usually make. During the winter it gets dark early and driving 17 through the ACE in the dark is too scary.

I might call Jackie and get her to fax me a list but really, I have guests coming that weekend and it looks unlikely I'll make it - again!!!

A 12' Plumeria that you have been moving in????? How big is your GH?

I have a question for you guys relating to this topic. I just read in 'The State' how one lady protected her strawberry crop by irrigating them and covering them in ice. She said it created an igloo effect (which I understand in principle).

But.... How and/or why would that be any better than the freeze or frost? It seems like the same thing, or am I missing something?

Hope someone comes up with the correct answer; all I know is when I was working at a large wholesaler in Maryland we had a sprinkler system hooked up to the alarm and if/when the heat failed, the water came on to coat the plants with a thin layer of ice to protect them. Wish I could remember why????

I found a link explaining it all. Apparently as water freezes it releases heat.

Irrigation For Frost Protection Of Strawberries

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/frosprot_straw.htm

X

Ah, that's it. I seem to remember hearing that before. That to freeze it had to release heat and hence warming. Nice find.

Thanks X!

Your welcome .. I remember when I was growing up in florida hearing about how they turned the sprinklers on the orange groves when it was suppose to freeze.

X

Hey everybody! Weather.com says there's a 60-70% chance of rain tomorrow for SC!!! Yahooo!!
Deb

And they upped the low to be in the 40's next Monday. Woot! Now I can put stuff back out and let the rain do my watering. Looks like we might get more rain this weekend too.

Whew .. I know .. i just got finished putting down fertilizer on the lawn! If it doesn't rain, you can blame me! LOL

X

This calls for a celebration. I'm gonna go unwrap my Queen palm! LOL!
Deb

Ardesia; my greenhouse isn't big enough for that thing to be moved in and out but ONCE a year! Hence the decision to leave it out. Feel sort of guilty about it, because it was a beautiful plant. But I don't think they're worth the effort. Too fickle in this environment.

I hear 'ya. Last year I tried taking them out of the pots and letting them go dormant in the garage over the winter. It took forever for them to come out of dormancy and they never bloomed for me. This year I left them out and they did well until I had to go out of town for a week and moved them into the garage in case it got cold. They didn't like that and lost their leaves but they are coming back now. It has been misting for a couple of hours this morning and my plants are almost smiling; it has been so long. Now if only it would rain.

Rain this morning - Yay

I've had a plumeria for going on 4 years now and it's never bloomed. Makes great leaves which fall off in the winter, but never blooms. I'm getting close to pitching it myself.

X

It seems you both have had the same luck with plumeria I've had. The only one I've ever had bloom I just lost to root rot a month ago. It was brought back from the Big Island last year. I also lost two other cuttings this winter. That makes a total of 5 lost cuttings in 2 years.

I have two well established plants remaining, one from HI and one from Orangeburg, SC. Neither has ever bloomed, but I'm hoping I can get them back outside here soon and once they have leaves I'm going to fertilize them a lot. I think the lack of sun in the past has been what hurt me. Perhaps that and I've been hibernating them (which I've now been told not to do anymore). Luckily at the new house I have a place they can get sun ALL day long... over 6 hours worth I think.

So this year or next I hope to have them blooming.

This message was edited Apr 11, 2007 11:02 AM

I was just about to order a plumeria, but after reading all your experiences, I think I may change my mind. I have enough finicky plants already! ;->

Checked my mandevilla this morning and they're up at least 3" more in the past couple of days. Perhaps the frost inspired them to get bigger!

We have about 1/16" of rain so far. :D
Deb

I have a 'regular' old plumeria and I would love to get read of it!!! It's big - 4 feet tall? It bloomed every year until last year - and I know it has to be because I refuse to re-pot it!! Hey Deb, I work in Fort Mill - is that far from you? You want it? LOL!! It's too big to ship! Truly it bloomed just fine but it has outgrown the pot and to be honest I really don't like having it in the house all winter. It's just ugly sitting there with no leaves!

Nicole

Oh yea - and both my Japanese Maples look like someone set them on fire. :( Noticed that last night. I suppose they will put out new leaves but they were so pretty!! :(

I may be able to help you on that. My Aunt is visiting in Rock Hill and will be coming home next Monday .. let me get in touch with her and see if she'd be willing to bring the plant if Deb wants it.

X