Healthy trees will put out new leaves. Don't forget that trees evolved doing this - late frosts happened before and will happen again.

Same thing happened in Iowa and surrounding states in May 2005 IIRC. They re-leafed from auxiliary buds lower down the stem, within a month the dead, ugly stuff will be concealed.

Where in SC are you and how cold did it get, anyway?

Thanks. I feel much better now! I am glad the ugly will go away. I am near the center of the state and it got down to around 24°. My hostas did really well. I have probably 500 in containers along with many plants I propagated and I ran the sprinkler on them all night. The ice protected them from the cold and they came through the night just fine! I moved my japanese maples in the house because I didn't want to take a chance with ice build-up on their young fragile branches. I don't ever remember getting such a hard freeze after everything leafed out before. I hope the peach farmers didn't get hurt too badly.

Sad to say, I think most peach growers east of the Rockies are looking at a total loss. Michigan might have fared OK because they weren't as far along yet. Mine in Ohio are toast, I think.

For you to get that kind of freeze now is comparable to us getting it in Mid-May. IOW, unprecedented!

the weather people are saying that the low on Saturday is the lowest temp ever recorded for the entire month of April. The previous record low was 31°. This is one record I wish we didnt beat. Walking around the garden yesterday was depressing. All the the new growth on nearly every plant in the garden was just hanging limp. I wish I had enough sprinklers to have protected everything. Hopefully most of the plants will recover.

This cold spell rarely happens this late so far south (snow between Dallas & Houston), but isn't unprecedented. Native trees are usually only superficially damaged. It's some of the exotic trees & farm-crops (including peaches) that suffer most. I've had hard May frosts here (last yr in late May) past two yrs w/no lasting problem.

1816, the year without a summer, produced 4" snow & sleet covering the ground in central VA northward in mid-June.

I still wonder how perennial plants, trees, and shrubs survived that summer (1816) - I see account of the summer itself but not the growth cycle of trees that year and the following year.

"I still wonder how perennial plants, trees, and shrubs survived that summer (1816)"

Most would have survived. There are still plenty of trees around more than 200 years old (well, would be, if people didn't keep on cutting them down!). Growth rates would be slowed markedly for a year or two, and seed crops would be close to zero again for a few years. In a normal situation this might mean an individual plant losing out to competitors, but in a case like this, everything is affected equally, so nothing much can take advantage of it.

Annuals could in theory be wiped out by an event like this, but they survive by seed dormancy, with 1814, 1815, etc., seed in the soil germinating in subsequent years. Most annuals have seeds that can survive for decades in the soil, to germinate when conditions become better for them.

Resin

Our southern red oak in the front yard looks toasted. We'll see if this is true or if they are just brown looking b/c they are new. Sorry about your losses in sc. I heard Charlotte got down to 21 degrees on saturday which is unheard of!

Well my oak has fully recovered. the leaves increased in size from the center of the tree to the tips...the tips are almost fully leafed out now w/ no real dieback!

How are you SC'ers holding up?

The oaks are pretty well leafed out again. I so see lots of dead secondary branches though, so I guess I'll be cleaning up all summer. The hickories are still not doing really well. They are leafing out, starting at the bottom and working their way up. Hopefully they will be fine. My poor crape myrtles are badly damaged though. They are starting to leaf out along the main trunk, but it looks like at least 80% of the smaller branches are dead. I hate the look of pruned crape myrtle, but I don't have much choice at this point. It is taking a lot of time, but I am pruning one branch at a time cutting only what has to be cut so they keep more of a natural look to them. Gardenias had to be pruned back nearly to the ground to get back to live growth. Several ornamental vines are dead. My garden really got hit hard. Next winter I will be ready with sprinklers on all beds so I can coat the plants in ice if we are going to get another cold snap. The plants that I ran the sprinklers on came through the cold snap undamaged.....even hosta leaves were undamaged!! Of course I can't do that for the large trees, but maybe more of my garden can remain undamaged.