A low of 13F Friday?

Thanks, Deb. I'll throw something over my two jugs that have seedlings in them. Stay warm, everybody!

Angie

Wunderground originally said 17 for tonight then this morning they said it would be 20, now they are saying 22 so the trend is in the right direction but it is still way too cold for me and my plants.

We were under freezing temps nearly the entire day - I can't remember the last time that happened. It got up to 32 when the sun was at the back of the house, but in the shade it was COLD! And the darn wind didn't help - blowing covers off and all. Back to 22F now, and dropping - gonna be a long night. Looks like by Sunday it'll be getting warmer again. Gotta give NOAA credit, they predicted this two weeks ago. Luckily their new long range forecast looks to be much warmer again over the next month.

High today here was somewhere in the mid-30s. I'm glad to hear the forecast is changing for the better, because the last I had seen for S'ville. was 12!! As of 945PM, though it's 26, so..maybe it won't be so bad after all.

Wow, you guys are colder than some folks around here are right now. 28F at the airport, 20F here at the house (I think we're in a low area). But it was in the 40's last night and easily got to 19. So I expect right before dawn it'll get real close to 10F or so.

I think I'm gonna stay up later tonight just to make sure - I don't want to wake up to any surprises. Hope everyone comes out OK in the morning.



This message was edited Jan 16, 2009 9:59 PM

16°, outside at 8:30. 37.5 in the greenhouse. 73° in the house. Just fired up the kerosene heater. I'll go look in the greenhouse later on when it gets above freezing and see how things are .. I didn't yesterday.

How did everyone else do?

X

30 here, that sounds so warm after reading posts from other areas but it is still below freeezing. Brrrrrr

X: You're colder that we are. It was 20 at 7 this morning here.

Good morning everyone
We had a temp of 4 degrees last 2 mornings-- very very cold. I have started some seeds in quart ziplock baggies in 50 qt clear container with clear lid have in my basement that is pretty cold near the basement door. started them on 1/11/09 the zebrina malvas have already sprouted. planted 20 different flower seeds so we shall see what they do the bags sweat since they are zipped shut. I havent ws in containers before just throw the seeds out like poppy, bachelor buttons, coreopsis and larkspur and I have lots of flowers blooming by spring to late spring. This will be interesting to see how they do.

Jen

23* here as I type! Jensflowers, I hope your babies come through that 4* weather for you. I'm hoping mine come through, too!

12F for us last night, GH never got below 40F (woohoo). That's enough cold weather for me.

Whew! That's great keonikale. I went out and checked the greenhouse once the temps got past freezing .. everything looks happy and healthy, even leaves smack up against the panels didn't get frozen. I'm thinking the box fan makes a huge difference by keeping the air moving.

X

Good news, guys. Hope this is the worst we'll see.

X the fan is definitely the trick I think. I have it set up a little different than the diagram - but it seems to really keep the air moving.

Now, let's all get back to warmer days - and nights!

I hate to think about blooming trees being ruined by the cold. One thing in the plants' favor, though, is that it's been cold all week. It's really tough when we have balmy temperatures followed by abrupt cold snaps, like happend a few years ago. I envy you guys with greenhouses!

Debin, you really don't have to coddle your winter sown containers. After all, folks in frigid zones like Michigan and Maine winter sow. Cold is actually good for the containers. Of course, I'm assuming you winter sow only hardy annuals and perennials.

I've noticed that reseeded larkspur and reseeded poppies are surviving the cold just fine, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some cold damage to my variegated Pittosporum.

Hope everyone stays warm tonight~

This message was edited Jan 18, 2009 12:32 AM

went to bed last night with sleet and 1/2 inch of dry snow got up this morning to 32 degrees with about inch of snow and it is falling huge flakes right now piling up--- its beautiful!

Thanks, Fleurs. I was just using "an abundance of caution" ( as the politicians say ). :) It was such an abrubt shift from 70 one week to 20 the next!

Jens, how much snow did you get? - or is it still snowing?

It's been raining all day here, butmuch milder temps. 40s.

Deb

We're having a bit of freakish weather here at the house tonight. My family in Irmo is at 40F and the airport (not that far from me is reporting 37F). Forecast low is 33F. Yet here at the house it's 30F and my deck and water on the ground from the rain earlier has all frozen over - I about busted my butt walking out on the deck. Strange how it varies so much in so little space. Two thermometers confirm the temp difference though.

Yeah, that's pretty weird, K. Careful on that ice!
Not so bad here. An inch of rain yesterday, real foggy this morning, but now the sun's shining and it's warming up..49F.
Still expecting freezing again next couple of nights.
Deb

Too early to tell maybe, but how'd everyone come out in the hard freeze? I'm still haven't been brave enough to peek under some of the covers myself - will do that next weekend when it's warmer again.

Though it's pretty warm today considering - back on the roller coaster. I woke up this morning to see there is a 70% chance of snow tomorrow for the midlands, more for the upstate - low of 18F again (glad I didn't uncover everything).

I am starting to see some damage from those 30 degree temps we had down here. It appears to be the stuff that will come back from the roots. I wrapped one banana in polyfill quilt batting and it had no damage. I put one of those huge collapsable garden buckets over another and it fried. Although the plastic did not touch the foliage, I did not remove it during the day and I am surmising the condensation built up and kept the plant too wet. The scary part is our forecast for later in the week calls for SNOW!

Yes, I just saw a couple of hours ago. There is a winter weather warning for Dorchester, Berkeley - possibly an inch or more of snow between 8am and 10pm tomorrow!

I didn't see any unexpected damage from the hard freeze. The things that had been holding on when they shouldn't have in the first place, are now toast : new banana leaves, ginger shoots, wandering jew, iris that were blooming, Mex. petunias that were still green. Nothing that won't come back from the roots, like Ardesia said.

Deb

Ardsia snow?? Here? I seem to have bottomed out at 28 degrees surprisingly or i didn't look at my temp gauge one day. It keeps the low for a 24 period.

I have to go look at the forecast now. I'm not seeing snow for around here???

It's not looking like snow will move in until about 4 am with rain predicted to precede the snow for a few hours. I worry much more about ice and breakage than the cold temperatures. Still, it's a mercy that it's been cold for more than a week now because the plants will be much more acclimated than if there were a sudden freeze.

I'm guessing that a great deal of the damage from the lows of this past weekend will take awhile to appear.

Ardesia, it's so wrong that after all that bother of the collapsible bucket your poor plant succumbed to too much condensation. Hopefully, the plant will surprise you by being more resilient than you think.

There may be some fun photo opportunities tomorrow morning~

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=Bluffton%2C+SC&searchType=WEATHER

Check it out; not much of a chance but it is fun just thinking about it. Keep the camera ready in case you get a few flurries. Your kids will think it is as cool as a 3' blizzard back in NY.

LOL, like minds......

We got to about 17 here in Columbia on Friday night/Sat morning , but the tenders in the garage came though okay. Potted plants on the patio covered with sheets appear to be okay. All in the ground look none-the-worse for wear, but may see some damage later in my Daylilies, but they will come back just fine.
I had a fern that got left out Thursday night, though, and it is toast - Interesting microclimate note, though: One little frond is green, the rest is black - interesting that the green frond is the one that was sorta underneath the holly bush that it was next to. The nursery guy says that the fern is called Macho (?) and is like a Boston fern, not to be left out in winter, but goes great guns in the summer.
Live and learn - hopefully it will come back this summer.

Projected something between none to 2 inches of snow tonight, so covered the pots on the patio once more - probably should not bother, as if we do get snow it will insulate, but if we get ice or sudden freeze, may crack the pots.

I love snow and we get so little of it here... Fun!! Will give me a chance to watch the inauguration and work on planting some seeds and making tags. maybe I can catch up on my garden journal?

Pyromomma: I have a Macho Fern. I keep it in a big pot that stays in the garage over the winter. That baby is HUGE.
It was pretty well hydrated before the freeze, it probably wil come back, but you should probably get it under good cover if you can.

Deb

It is inside now, I will repot it soon and keep it as a "inside the Living Room" for the winter plant. So I should put it in a BIG pot?

Might as well. :)
Take a look.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/172684/
Deb

Hmmmm we will see what happens. The Cresent is about dead on for me. I didn't know they had those different weather stations set up. Going to have to check out the wunderground a little more.

Wowza! I gotta get a bigger pot!

Chance of snow here on the coast tonight. I'll let you know in the am.
Question for all you fern growers. We have six (6) very large Kimberly Queen ferns that I planted in large pots at our church. They have been beautiful but are severly burned now due to our low temps over the last few nights. Should I cut them back now ? I know that they are OK with temps around 40 but they could not take the "teens". The pots are so large and heavy that they could not be moved.
Thanks for any advise.
B

This message was edited Jan 19, 2009 10:52 PM

Throw sheets over them at night for the coldest, but I would not trim them back now - that foliage still acts as a bit of insulation.

Well, 7:30 am .. no snow here.

X

Dusting of snow here this morning and 30*. Schools all closed, some courts, but not mine yet :-(

Forecast still says snow, but not a flake ..so far.

Pyromamma: "Wowza! I gotta get a bigger pot!" Thanks for the laugh. :)

Deb

Here's my Macho this morning.

Core, check out the wundermap; second item on menu right under the radar map on Wunderground.

little sprinkling of snow and some flakes flurrying now 32 degrees

A little cap of snow on my frog this morning

Temp here has dropped 10 degrees since 7am, it's now 31F, but the precip stopped a couple of hours ago. I imagine if anything starts falling, it'll be snow.

Froggy looks like he's sugar-coated. :)
Deb