Weather Alert for California

I'm a little upset with the weather forecasters right now...last night they were saying it was supposed to be 30 after being 28 the night before, but instead I woke up this morning to see my outdoor thermometer reading 24!!! Thank goodness I noticed before I went to bed that it was already down to 29 and brought in my Deppea splendens--it wouldn't fit in the greenhouse so it was fending for itself outside and I figured if it was going to get into the mid 20's it might not make it. I saw frost all over the potted plants on my front deck and a few of them are things that might be a bit borderline so I'm worried that I may have a lot of stuff damaged.

It's 38F at our house this AM yet there's frost on the ground. BRRR.

Oh shoot Liz, I forgot about my Deppea splendens, just checked it and it's fine but I am moving it against the house under the orange tree.

Calif_Sue, Ooops! Is your brother okay? Please tell him how much I enjoyed his photos? I did read that he had sent the photos, but for some silly reason I thought you'd gone with him.
I'm not sure how cold it actually got outside last night. But I brought in the dogs. Even though they have fur coats, they were grateful to get warm. They normally prefer to be outside, after all they are working dogs, and they usually have to chase off coyotes, but even the coyotes were too cold to travel last night.
ecrane, weather forecasting isn't an exact science, they get it right more often than not, but they seldom get it right for where I live. Close but not exact.
Sure hope everyone's plants came through the night with minimal damage!
WIB,
SW

It was 31 here when I started working----my hummingbird feeders were all frozen, along with the birdbath. Usually we don't get this cold till Feb or Mar.

Janet, water turning to ice sounds so cold. I wonder how low it got in the night. How low does it usually get in Gilroy?

Singing Wolf, those covers must be great for they protect in an area that gets colder than where I am. And you can leave them on all winter which is so convenient. I just looked up Menifee on google map. So you get cold there in winter? I imagine you get pretty hot in summer.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=menifee,+ca+map&um=1&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title

I hope all your plants will do fine, PalmBob and it will get no colder there.

Here last night was colder than the night before too Liz. I am so glad I did not get all the plant covers off as planned. Finally being chronically late was paid off for I was so late leaving for lunch yesterday I tore out of here and left the covers on. I have so much more frost damage on my brugs this morning. All else looks fine. My coleus are all goners now. I bet my petunias have finally gone too. Though right now it was warm enough for me to be out in a T shirt. Oh how I enjoyed our warm November and first 2 weeks of December. I was thinking it was going to stay like that all winter.

I was thinking I lived in zone 10. LOL

Oh PalmBob, I just thought of your so blue cactus which you said were so cold sensitive. I hope they came thru the night without a mark!

Kell,
That's cool. You can actually see our place on the map, if you know where to look. We are at different elevations but it averages at 1600 ft above sea level. Yep, we get cold! When you live on a working farm as long as I have, (and are a Marine Corps Brat to boot), you learn to improvise. I might be able to get some photos today, am going to try. The lengths we go to for our babies.
It does get very hot at times here in the summer, which is why I had concentrated on creating shady areas and working with the weather when deciding where to place our house. I don't mind the warm temps, I hate A/C, but the rest of the family likes it. It may get up to the Hundred and teens. When it is dry heat it doesn't sap your energy as much as humid heat. You just have to stay hydrated. I do use misters on the back porch in the summer as much for my dogs as my plants. It also helps cool that west facing side of the house.
When listing our zone I wasn't sure which was more accurate 9a or 9b. We are right on the edge of both.
I've overwinter the pinkdot coleus outside with just a fallen leaf cover. I was surprised. All of the other coleus didn't make it through the frost. Still have my covers on my other plants. Mostly, because the fever came back.
WIB!
SW

My coleus have been deader than doornails for about 2 weeks now. We sometimes get down to 18 for lows, and in 1991 my waterfall froze & didn't thaw completely for a week because the highs didn't get above 32---but that was a REALLY unusual year. Even last year when we all had that really bad cold snap, it got warmer than that during the day.

It's clouded over now, so it shouldn't be quite so cold here tonight.

It was really funny watching the hummingbirds this morning----they'd come out of the redwood tree headed for the feeder, get about 2 feet into the open air, and head RIGHT BACK to the nest. I knew just how they felt. The down quilt was looking mighty nice, but I had an 8:00 a.m. meeting. Working from home is SO nice---at least I can work in my warm sweats and fuzzy slippers!

Imapigeon, can you move the feeders closer to the tree for the hummers? If they can't keep up their body heat, they have a hard time making it through the winter. I once found a hummer frozen to it's perch. : (
It was a very cold winter that year too.
DH reminded me that '91 was the year that we had an especially hard freeze here. The old well pump froze on December 21, that year. DH was in San Francisco, and I was about 5 months pregnant with what turned out to be a premie and had an overactive toddler too. Ended up having to haul water and PIL came and took care of toddler so I could get some rest. They even picked up DH from airport. Didn't have much except the trees, the amaryllis and honeysuckle make it through that winter.
Sweats and fuzzy slippers sound really good right now! : )
Let me know how you all make it through the night!
WIB!
SW

SW, the "hummer drama" only lasted till the sun warmed things up a bit. It got all the way up to 51 today, so our hummers are just wimps first thing in the morning. As am I....I keep an eye on them, though, and if I'm home I refill the feeders with warm water if it stays cold past mid-morning.
Hope you're feeling better! Being sick at the holidays really sucks, as I find practically every year.

Ahh! Slow starters like me. : )
The colder it gets, the longer it takes to get moving in the morning.
I am almost getting used to it, seems like I get this way every year when the temps drop, and I get tired and stressed from the Holidays, I get sick. Maybe my body is rebelling! LOL!
Time for soup and crackers.
WIB!
SW

WOW, two beautiful sunny California days. A bit cool, but gorgeous! It was 51 degrees at 4 pm and is expected to drop to just 37 tonight.

The roses are amazing in my yard. Some of them are still BLOOMING; others aren't even throwing out buds any longer. It's a hoot to watch them. Peace, for example, is probably the most peaceful of the shrubs right now. OTOH, this little miniature just keeps throwing out buds and blooming, with bright green, strong, enthusiastic leaves. AMAZING!!!

"Warm" thoughts for a blessed Holiday for all of my DG "buds."

Linda

Frost on the ground today... yuk!

I am actually getting enough of a mini-canopy (3' high) that it keeps the frost off the grass near the palms... though that doesn't do the palms any good... I couldn't care less about the grass... but someday, some of these palms may actually have enough height to be a canopy for other palms- THEN that will be a good thing

Only 'casualty' so far are the freezer-burned leaves on my Agave attenuata... bummer... should have dragged it in under the eves.

I have iris stocks ready to pop and the frost is not going to help....

Sorry about your Agave Palmbob. It's so hard to know what to drag in and what to leave out.

NOAA (forecast.weather.gov) has issued a frost advisory for parts of Southern California extending from coastal Santa Barbara County through the southern end of Ventura County including Oxnard, Ventura,Camarillo and Thousand Oaks; along the coastal section of Los Angeles County (Malibu etc.); In Orange County south from Huntington Beach to Del Mar in San Diego County. Temperatures will be downright cold in some areas with a low of 29 at my home in Camarillo. Time to bring the more sensitive plants (and make sure the pets are inside for the night).

Forecast to be 34 here tonight...sure hope it goes no lower and I'm glad I checked the forecast and went out and covered alot of stuff.

We just got home from San Marcos and the temp was dropping as we drove. It's 40 here now.

32* tonight, 34* Sat night, 40* Sun night >>>> Central California (Fresno).

It was 28* one night last week brrrrrrrrr!

I covered the doggie door in the sliding glass patio doors last night, as it was leaking co-o-o-o-ld air! Gonna haf'ta teach those dogs to ring a bell to ask to be let out at night, rather than stick their noses into the blinds (ugh).

Linda

Winter is finally here. Little 6+ft rose tree has finally turned yellow and is so colorful, even without little pink blossoms.

Pretty tree Linda. 28 is brrrrr. It's only supposed to be getting down in the 40's here so we are back to normal, at least for now.

Thanks, Doss, it's a sweet little thing and nearly absent thorns. I keep a finch sock hanging from it much of the year, but the tree rats or squirrels gnawed into the upper portion earlier this season, so I took it down.

As I moved the cursor across the screen at the top of this thread I once again noticed the headline: . . . Arctic Blast Sets Sights . . . and I recalled watching the glorious clouds moving across the bright blue sky today in a direction totally opposite from what we usually see.

You see? Typically our weather seems to blow gently, as a rule, from the south. I'd never given it much thought before sitting outside for lunch at work one day with a former SoCal who pointed it out to me. You could see them move from the SW to the NE. I was stunned the first time I learned of it. I'd always thought our weather, rain clouds, winds, storms, came down from the Carquinez Strait through the San Joaquin Delta. But it looks like we are typically more affected by SoCal storms.

It seems that the winds, storm bodies they show on the evening news seem to hit the coast and head south, then once the mountains are out'a the way, they move back north again, headin' our way. Now that's how I understand it and doubtless someone else has a better knowledge base with which to provide me greater accuracy.

But it sure looks like I describe it {chuckling} looking upwards.

Kell:
Here is my take on covering plants to protect from frost. See photo. I recycled some above ground pool supports and plastic. I got rid of the boxes. Despite the freezes here, most things came through ok, except there is some frost damage to my Tecoma stans, my agapanthus, and my Canna's. I'm pretty sure they will all come back fine. I covered everything I could.
Doss, still haven't had a chance to go get the Cloud cover. : (
Planning on doing some cold sowing, and the weather is perfect for that. A nice clear day, but too cold. I will be putting on four layers today.
Still waiting for the leaves to fall off the trees. Weird weather! Especially with the freezes.
WIB,
SW

You shouldn't have any trouble with your cannas, SW. They are supposed to be hardy down to zone 7. I whack mine back to the ground every winter if they don't go completely away. Nice way to cover plants. I can't imagine better.

I have to give Kell credit. I've been rolling around the photo she posted above in my mind, thinking about what I have on hand that I could recycle, and it all came together.
I'm glad to know my Cannas will come back. A friend gave the big clump of Canna to me before she moved to WA. My son's gave me the smaller clumps. : )
I'm really glad the Sea Lavender seems to be thriving under their A frames. : )
WIB!
SW

My cannas die to the ground every year and come back stronger than ever.

That is so good to know!
Thank you, imapigeon!
WIB,
SW

If you want some of mine, send me a dmail. I have a few varieties, and enough to share of 3 of them. A couple of them have done a little TOO well in places.