The forecast in my region is for 29. All my roses are leafing out and I'm wondering what will happen to these young leaves. Is there anything I can do to protect them, or don't they need it?

Shoot ... all the perennials are coming up so nicely, too!

NOAA is talking about 21 here on Tuesday night. However they've been wrong before and I'm hoping this is one of those times. Keep your fingers crossed.

Kate

A revised forecast is now calling for 27° which isn't so bad. I'm with Kate, keeping my fingers crossed.

Last week we here in Kansas Zone 6 had temps drop for 2 nights down to 27 and 24, but it warmed up during the day. No real damage observed other than a couple rose tips going limp.

Hopefully you will all fare as well.

Kate

Thank you for the warning, Jeff! When i read your post yesterday my forecast was 26. It is already down 24 today. What I don't like is that the temperatures dropping to freezing point by 9 pm and do not come back till 8 am. Guess, hydrangeas and some tender plants will need to be covered tonight. Roses are on there own! There are too many, and they are in prime protected areas anyway!Maria

Hydrangeas will definitely wilt. We just had temps go down to 30 and the two big hydrangeas that I couldn't cover the leaves wilted on the top. I was able to put shredded leaves on the base which protected those leaves. And this was just a few hours of below freezing.

Any new growth on the roses will be toast I'm afraid. I just cut off anything that was limp, and most of it was new red foliage stems and buds.

Also if you have any Japanese Maples that are leafing out, try to cover mine. 2 years ago when we had our Easter freeze both of mine were badly damaged and I had to cut off a lot of dead branches and they wound up half the size that they were before.

Friday night I had left all my new arrivals from various mail-orders (roses and perennials, all leafed out and with with buds/blooms) on my back patio huddled next to the house, because it was supposed to go down to 34--didn't cover them. It actually went down to 30 (d'oh!--that's what I get for trusting the forecast), and while I did lose a big flower bud on Prairie Harvest, everything else looks OK.

For one night, you'll hardly notice. The day-time temps are high enough here, and it won't stay at 27 degrees for long.

The big Easter Freeze was 14 days in length. Doubt a few cold nights here and there will kill your bushes.

Get this - a low of 24 now, April 12th, is a lot different then New Years Day. Yes, it will be low, but the sun is high, and that means the lows are gone by 9 AM. For any lows to hurt your roses, it would have to be at least 27 degrees night and day for a week. We go through this jazz every year here in Georgia and our roses are fine. Yours will be too. Don't sweat it, OK?