The arctic blast

Are we in danger of losing beloved plants? I guess the fallout won't be evident until maybe February? What's your take on it?

Permalink Reply by GardenThymeGirl on January 5, 2010 at 10:08pm: Plants and trees have the ability to sense cold weather as it gets down to the mid 40s. They begin to slowly harden off for the winter, provided we don't have crazy warms days to mess things up. I'm pretty hopeful about the plants in my yard. I only put hardy plants for the most part in my landscape.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Polly McDaniel on January 6, 2010 at 1:34pm: I am kind of worried about one Japanese maple tree I have in a rather large pot. But I thought about it much too late to do anything to protect it. So now it's wait and see. I expect I may loose some roses, too.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Barbara on January 7, 2010 at 8:59pm: Depends on what your beloved plants might be. It's just cold. As long as your plants are rated for 5+ or below they are thoroughly safe. Those above zone 6 might be in danger, but I doubt it. Always best to check the zones when buying as it behooves the nursery to sell you something that might die.

On the other hand, if you've been taking a chance on zone 7 plants, you just might lose them. But you probably knew it was a risk when you bought them.

Other than mulch, there's not much you could have done to protect plants from a long freeze. Other forms of protection are only good for a day or 2.

And really, you're pretty lucky so far. In Ohio, from where I've been growing the last 10 years, we are susceptible to freeze/thaw sequences. It will rain, the temp will drop 30 degrees in no time, and voila! poor plants get a hard freeze. Plants have a difficult time with very quick temp changes.

Good luck.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Doug on January 8, 2010 at 11:15am: I lived in Raleigh for thirty years before moving here and planted pansies for winter color there, both in the ground and in pots on the deck. I discovered the pots on the deck here froze solid last winter, so there wasn't much color once things warmed up. Well, with my wife's permission (bless her heart) I put a plastic sheet down in the corner of the living room and moved all the pansy pots inside on January 1. They are still inside, and may be there for some time. But they are surviving! As for the ones in the ground, dunno.

Just like last year, but in a much smaller quantity, I have a few plants that never got in to the ground and are in the garage. I had about 90% survival last winter of those. As for my plantings, hopefully I have purchased plants hardy for our zone. But yah, it's cold out there and I sure wouldn't want to be out there everyday like my plants, trees and shrubs.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by GardenThymeGirl on January 9, 2010 at 12:01pm: Plants in pots have a very hard time in winter because of the danger of roots freezing etc.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Doug on January 11, 2010 at 10:51am: Right.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Barbara on January 11, 2010 at 12:02pm: I'm currently moving from Ohio (to Asheville) and our weather is normally similar to the rare cold you're having in Asheville.
People plant pansies here in October. They put them right in the ground and every time it thaws they perk up and get going. When it thaws for good they spring into action. So, in ground pansies will do just fine.

What else survives depends on how the weather goes. Some things respond poorly to a freeze/thaw/freeze cycle. We have a lot of that in Ohio, so have to be careful what we plant. On the other side, snow is a natural insulator. I never worry about plants covered with snow.

Rhodies and probably azaleas are tagged by nurseries with their low temp tolorance. You will know who is dead pretty quickly in early spring. I can tell the outdoor temp by looking at the leaves of the rhodies. The droop factor tells you. Forget the thermometer.

Barbara; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Katherine on January 20, 2010 at 9:02pm: I'm really please that all my lettuce, arugula, tatsoi, collards, kale etc made it through that cold! Last year I lost lots because it was really warm and rainy one day in Dec and the next dropped down to 15 degrees. Like the person from Ohio said, plants do not like that! This solid cold was much easier on them.

I have pansies in a pot on my front porch which is enclosed with plastic. It stays 10 or 15 degrees warmer than outside. The pansy pot froze and the pansies looked terrible, but I left them alone and by yesterday they were back in business!; ▶ Reply to This