I was debating if I should bother with covering the plants. I mean, it was supposed to be a couple of degrees below freezing which meant it was entirely possible that it wouldn't actually freeze....
Boy, I sure am glad my kids and I covered my plants with Cheesehead's car washing towels before we went to the Y yesterday. TBO kept commenting on how it felt like we were on Hoth as we were doing our work. Leave it to him to relate anything gardening with Star Wars! Before you start ridiculing me, I was being realistic. There was NO way I would have remembered to cover them at night! True, it was 35 degrees at the time and about 1 in the afternoon but....
Alright I'm a bit eccentric! So far just a skiff of snow too, so that wouldn't be insulating them all that much. So... can I leave the frozen towels over my plants for a couple of days or what's the protocol on that? I mean, I'm not supposed to uncover them if it's cold during the day to, right?
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Cindy
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7 comments:
Ah, you changed your picture. I like it.
Thanks. I upgraded my blog today, now it's much easier to work with and I can figure out how to add pictures to my sidebar. Of course that means I lost some of my old info, but I'll find those links again and get them added.
Very smart move Cinj, even covering them early in the day with such cold temperatures. I don't take chances with new plants in this climate. The ground is warming, but new plants this time of year are often just coming out of greenhouses, haven't been hardened off, and can't take high winds or cold temps without showing signs of stress and damage.
I've seen what happens to them sometimes. Newly-planted perennials will almost always survive around here, but frostbitten leaves aren't pretty, nor is watching a what started as a beautiful young plant turn into a tattered or frostbitten one struggling for weeks or even months to get established in the garden while dealing with the shock of going from a warm greenhouse to a cold, or even worse, cold and windy garden in a few days' time.
It was chilly and windy here all day yesterday, then only 38 last night. I covered most of the babies, but missed my new brunnera. This morning it has a little damage to one of it's leaves. Coulda been the wind, coulda been the cold, coulda been both. I'm sure if I'd covered it, it wouldn't look like it does now.
Better to err on the side of caution. Kudos!
Cinj, wow still 20 degrees where you are... I just have to admire your tenacity. Down here in Florida I have to laugh when I see people covering all their stuff when the weather people even hint of freezing temps.
I guess the protocol is you can leave the covers on as long as you need to... only I'd be concerned that the weight of the frozen towels on your new plants would do as much damage as the cold... unless of course you happened to stake in some supports for the towels to drape over before you covered. Just something to think about... you know your area better than me. Personally I'd want my plants to breathe the fresh air and sunshine if there was any during the day... but I know re-covering is a real pain. Hope it all works out...
Meems @Hoe&Shovel
No one knows what to tell you---I sure don't. I hope those towels froze in a peak form so they aren't laying flat on them. I would say leave them covered and it will help to insulate them. I bet they will be Ok and just have burned edges. We had a nasty cold freeze last spring and all our stuff recovered. By recovered I mean it lived but maybe didn't bloom that year if the blooms froze. Our hydrangea blooms just fell right off as did our camelias. It took the Japenese Maple trees two months to recover. So it does happen even in the South. California just went through a real nasty freeze.
Just checking in to see if there is any news :)
I covered everything with towels. I have them folded in half so they are extra toasty. The only plant that I'm worried about leaving covered is my knockout rose. It's about 5 inches tall or so with no stiff branches to hold the towel up. So far everything seems to be doing well, I pick up the towels for a few minutes to check on things and let them have a little sun. I leave them covered though since it's still in the 20's. The warmest it got today was 29. Poor things! It's only supposed to last a couple more days. I hope it gets warm enough tomorrow for me to uncover them for a few hours. We'll see!
At least the towels really aren't wet frozen, they're just a bit cold.
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