What's with the late frosts?

I've got my little portable heater blowing on me right now. I know, I know: poor me!

The geniuses at the newspaper actually have a big photo spread and caption that shouts, "Red hot: As Mother Nature turns up the heat, we tell you how to avoid getting burned". I am not making this up!

Lol .. I just got finished bringing everything into the greenhouse and setting up the heating system again. All that's left in the ground are the crinum, ginger, brugmansia and canna. After looking at the hour by hour, it appears we will get about 3 hours of temps below freezing starting around 5 am.

X

Calling for 33 here now, woohoo. I am still going to cover the nanners leaves and turn my heater on - no sense making a silly mistake now. Plus it always gets a few degrees colder in L-town; I won't be surprised if we hit 29 or so. Basjoo are pretty resistant to freezes though, I've been super impressed by them this winter. I didn't loose a single one - not even the babies. And even one that "died" last fall before the frosts came back - so I was super impressed with that one.

My AL starts tomorrow - so I'm taking the new two weeks to plant, plant, plant. And we better be done with these cold temps!!

This message was edited Apr 7, 2009 2:06 PM

Whew! .. they upped it here to 33 .. anxiety level has dropped a bit!

X

Back down to 31 here. It's like watching a Yoyo on NOAA's website, lol

I wish I could get paid to be that indecisive.

Yea! I just got this little missive from the National Weather Service:

...Freeze watch is canceled...

The National Weather Service in Charleston has canceled the
freeze watch.

Winds are expected to remain strong enough overnight to prevent a
widespread freeze across coastal South Carolina and Georgia.
Therefore the freeze watch has been canceled.

The wind is almost as bad as the cold. It has been blowing steadily here around 25 MPH since yesterday.

I hate being out in that wind, but I keep telling myself it will keep the frost away. :)

I've checked several different forecasts and for Summerville, it ranges from a low of 29, all the way up to 34 - depending. I've just covered the things I'm most worried about and brought in the few pots I had out. Just hoping it stays nearer the 34.

I have a 4 ft tall Naval Orange that is covered with buds right now. The pot it's in is ginormous. Anyone think covering it will help? Can those buds survive 3 hours of freezing temps? I was able to drag the smaller Meyer Lemon into the garage.

Ardesia, your Blue Ginger is coming up - it's about 4". I mulched it up real good. Fingers crossed!

Deb

You know Deb, do you have a big umbrella? Maybe if you put it on top of the orange tree then a sheet over that and some of your christmas lights in the bottom, it might be ok!

X

I just finished covering everything. I hope that the weather folks are wrong, but who knows. Like many others, I've seen everything from 29 to 35. I'm hoping for 35.

That's a thought, X. Thanks. Though I never thought I'd have to drag those warming lights out this late in the year.

We here are being told that the wind is going to die back over night and we are going to down to 28 between 2-8 am. I tried to cover as much as I could but I plan on losing some stuff.

WHEW!!!!! Came out unscathed .. didn't get a chance to cover anything last night and I was really worried, but nothing got burnt in the slightest!

How did you guys in the upstate do?

X

We hit 30 here, lost some leaves (especially on my cannas which were not covered). Most everything I had the frost blankets on looks OK - but stuff still looks a little rough. I'm gonna move everything back out today - that should be the last of it.

My stuff all looks good, are we okay now??

It was 32 here in Raleigh, but no damage even on plants I didn't cover. I hope this is the last cold snap of the season.

32 here also in the foothills. Nothing got hit but a couple of early tomatoes I had put out. I covered them but they still got bit. That is ok, I have 40 more in the greenhouse.

Sounds like it wasn't so bad! Only got down to 34 here, says my thermometer.
As X said, WHEW!!! :)
What a relief.

Bonjon and TomH
just received a large shipment of caladium bulbs yesterday. I also got some cannas. I'm so afraid to plant them because of the cold nights. The closest to me is bonjon and TomH in Raleigh. What do you guys think about our weather? Should I wait another week or so? Should I just keep them in the packing boxes? Your advice would be appreciated.
Thanks-Lynda

Lynda - It's probably OK to plant the cannas now because by the time they are sprouting it will be past the time for frost in your area. With caladiums the biggest issue is soil temperature - if the soil is too cold they will rot before they sprout. So you may want to wait a week or two before planting those. Or, if you have some small pots, you could pot them up now and keep them warm until they sprout, then plant them in the ground.

The average last frost in Columbia is April 7. At least one April frost/freeze is normal. There seems to be collective amnesia among midlands gardeners every year when this normal weather pattern occurs.

never forget that's "AVERAGE last frost" - doesn't mean the latest frost on record.

I'd wait another week to 10 days on the caladiums. those things can't handle much cold, and the nights are still nippy - it was really cold this morning up here.

just jumping in the conversation . . .

I had Caladiums - I refused to plant
- thinking between the rain and frost whenever I'd wait a while.

Purchased in on of those plastic bag mixed lots in a home store . . .
dont ya know they stared without me!

Yesterday was quite chilly too.

But I put them in individual biodegradable pots with starter soil
- and sat in the sun for a couple hours to warm them up a tad.

and i can see growth from the time i potted them in less than a half a day!

ok so it appears THEY are ready to sprout
- but this ongoing chill . . .

I will bring them in as the sun goes down.

will harden them off in the next week or so -
- hopefully by then it will be warmer on a more consistent basis!

I spent the day putting 12 brugmansia in the ground .. I'm terrified we're gonna have a surprise freeze.

X

with all our late cold, frosts and that last odd snow end of March, my irises are all confused.

SDBs are supposed to start blooming 3 weeks or more before IBs, IBs start blooming 3 weeks before the TBs. the early blooming TBs have always bloomed first.

one of my established SDB did bloom about right, even with the snow, the rest are just thinking about it still. one new planted one just started blooming yesterday (should have been early March). one IB bloomed on schedule, five opened this week, the rest will bloom sometime this next week. they should be about over now! and some of my earlymid and mid blooming TBs are starting to open, while all my early TBs but one, are just thinking about it.

they are all mixed up!

(with all this rain, I haven't been able to get all the weeding done, so have only fertilized where I've weeded - yup, those are the ones going to town on the blooming!)

Just heard on our local news that we could be in for another frost.... I thought it should be over by now. I guess it's time to get the sheets and Christmas lights back out.

50glee or anyone,
Please don't think i'm dumb, but what did you mean when you said you would "Harden them off?" You can tell I'm new to this.

X, I don't think we've had a freeze here this late before, have we? (Oops! Is that going to jinx us?) I don't see any overnight lows below the mid 40s in the forecast for the next week at least. (You must be pooped from planting!)

Bonjon, my Iris are acting a bit odd, too. Some are early, some are late.

50glee: Sounds like you have a plan! I'm going to wait 1 more week, I think, before putting caladiums in the ground - juuust to be sure.

Deb

Lol .. believe me, I've been lurking on the 10 day 4 & 5 times a day and tonight they are predicting 39 for S'ville. In checking out the records for the end of April & beginning of May, there have a few in the low 30's.

So glad I didn't start any of "my precious" Iochroma seeds I just got today.

My Iris were right on time .. only have a few of the "graveyard whites". Now the amaryllis were about a week or two early.

X

Oh no. I saw the low would be 44. Darn.

Oh darn indeed .. These cool nights are really messing up my tomato schedule. They just aren't growing.

X

I think most of us down south are safe now - tonight's the last really chilly night (maybe some frost up in NC or the upstate). I have put EVERYTHING out now, so I will have a serious panic attack if it gets really cold again. Thankfully NOAA has forecast a warmer than average weather pattern for the next 21 days. So let's hope they are right - I'm ready to see stuff grow.

Me too! Is it too early to put out the hummingbird feeders?

No, they are here and humming happily.

Thanks .. I'll do that today.

IB irises blooming now

and bleeding heart

Hope I didn't jinx myself... NOAA just dropped their low tonight to 35F. The humidity is REAL low though (thankfully), so I'm gonna go do a no-frost dance or something... and pray.

Ack! Better get the sheets ready and bring in the maters!

I'm just going to hope for the best and not try and cover stuff - too much has been going on and I'm just praying mother nature is gentle tonight. Worse case I guess I'll have sun and frost burnt leaves. But they grow back :)

Good luck folks, I am trying to remember the hows and whys but isn't it possible to spray the plants with water before the sun come up to prevent leaf burn? (or something like that)

ps to john, 16 days until we leave but who's counting, LOL


Edited to add, I just checked the forecast and it looks like the temps in the Midlands will be around 50 Good news.

This message was edited Apr 18, 2009 6:02 AM