These snow babies survived....does that count?
{{gwi:377403}}

No, vera, your little polar bears don't count. Sure are cute! What breed are they?

Karen

I left mine uncovered, haven't checked them since friday. I should probally do that soon, I just don't want to go out in the freezing rain.

Ummmm no Vera - but cute photo anyway. I think Big Brother is trying to get a little sleep. I get that same expression when my kids wake me up early on Saturday morning wanting pancakes.

I also left them to fend for themselves but haven't checked them yet.......we'll see.
Monica

Yep and they all seem to have survived (not that they are that big anyway, but they're there!)

Marianne

left all mine right were they were. I'm in northern MI and it has been COLD with several inchs of snow. I did take a peek yesterday and the one's I could wipe the snow off of looked good. I'm taking Trudy's advice and leaving them alone. So far so good.

I checked all of them and maybe only 1 or 2 were killed back. all the leafed out bud on my exposed trees (aka kentucky coffeetree, black walnut, persimmon, got frost bit. but will live.

I know...just being silly. I wanna play and can't...hmmmm maybe I can take up wind surfing.

So glad to hear all your sprouts are looking good!!

Vera

I haven't had a lot of sprouts yet, but those that I did have look fine so far. My next concern is the dryness-we have a lot of cold, but little moisture & it's no fun hauling water out back when it's this cold!

It was in the teens and 20s all last week and this weekend. The high today was maybe 50 and I found Zinnias of all things sprouting. I think it's funny that such a warm weather lover was my first thing to sprout.

I've had a number of freeze-deaths, but I new it would happen. Here in western Michigan we had about three weeks of unbelievably warm weather in March. I had a number of annuals sprout that normally wouldn't until risk of hard freezes is past. Now we've had a week of days in the low twenties. I lost several different cosmos, fennel, and dill. But, I new it was risky and I have more seeds. Luckily, none of my tomatoes had germinated. My perennials are happy as clams. I've got rudbeckia that have been uncovered for weeks. They're smart amd not putting on much leaf growth, but I bet those roots are going gangbusters! Happy sowing.
Martha

I had poppies, bok choy, kohlrabi, fennel, swiss chard, coreopsis, mixed greens, red mustard, radishes, cornflower, and some others that have done just fine with nighttime temps in the mid 20's. They even did well with the snow on Sat. No container covers or tarps. I did cover a number of my other WS containers. Things like peppers, tomatoes, cerinthe, cleome, balloon flowers, columbines and others, especially things that I didn't have anymore seeds of. I've even brought a few containers into the greenhouse, some tender annuals and perennials that grew like crazy during the above normal temps we had before the freeze. Knock wood, everything seems to have pulled through. I shouldn't say anything, we haven't warmed up yet. BTW those puppies are too cute.
Karyn

I have around 70 containers sprouted and all of them pulled thru the below 20F night we had last week. True champs. Must admit that most are perennials with a couple of hardies thrown in. No tenders wsed yet. However, they are on my south facing deck which has a hill underneath it. I have a feeling that they get some radiant heat from the ground beneath the deck during the night. Lucky me!

I left my lettuces, spinach, bok choy as they were, but the wind toppled them over and took the cover off that was on them (not one I put on for cold protection, it was already on it when I sowed them). The whole container of cups was upside down.

They are indeed as green as ever. So are my Cosmos, Bach Buttons-- those are ones I happened to see...it was still a bit chilly to stay outside that long.

I haven't had anything that isn't known for reseeding or liking cold germinate for me yet.

But cold snaps like this are why I always say: don't be in a rush to see green! I'd rather not know the container ever germinated early than to know and then lose the early birds. Even though I know there's other seeds in there that will more than likely germinate later, it still gives me a "sinking feeling" to lose any.

I'm probably more sad about the Stocks that had stayed green all through the winter. Now it looks like they are all officially dead. No snow cover while the temps dropped so low did them in. Here's hoping some of the seed they dropped will take when it warms up.

Linda

I left all my containers uncovered with temps 15 or lower several nights. Don't have many containers sprouted. I checked them today and they were still frozen even with today's temps above freezing. They are in a shaded area. Lows tonight are to be in the 20s with 2-4 inches of snow expected tomorrow. Snow/rain also forecast for the weekend. Probably won't know how the seedlings are until then. I'm with Trudi, what survives will be the hardiest.

Today I sowed hollyhocks, poppies, various perennials, and several mystery seeds (forgot the name before I could get them into a packet). Tomorrow will start sowing annuals and a couple of early tomatoes.
Bobbie

Of the dozen or so containers I had put out in Feb that had sprouted in that March hot spell most survived when I brought them in and treated like indoor starters. They never would have survived 10 days of temps in the teens at night and barely 30 during the day. Had I not let them be in the sun, they probably would not have sprouted and I could have left them out.

So I resowed a few a week ago and they are nicely sitting frozen in a shady spot on the north side of the house. I'll add some more to them soon. We may not get to 40 until the weekend anyway and I've still got seeds.

I layed straw on the emerging tulips and glads and strawberries and if we get snow that will insulate them and they will probably sit dormant till spring arrives in June.

The most I did for my containers was put the lids back on the milk jugs - only for those which had fully sprouted sets, though. Everything else stayed as naked as before. ;)

Took a look earlier today, and took all the lids off. Everything looks fine in the jugs - although plants in the yard took a beating.

I think I *might* have ONE remaining astilbe, which is very depressing... it's one of the only plants I've put out that hasn't gotten eaten or ruined yet. :(

I'm too lazy to do anything to them. If they sprout, hooray for natural selection! If they didn't, well, they're still waiting and they're the smart ones.
If they HAD sprouted, I say: You did this to yourselves, now tuff it out!
So far I've not seen anything detrimental from the latter group.

It looks like mine all survived and look fine, but then I didn't start any tender plants until last week (and none of them had sprouted). What surprized me is that direct sown spinach and lettuce look really good in spite of sustained temps in the low 20's for a week. This is the first time in my life that I have seen frosted daffodil. There is no way that I would ws tender annuals until the first or second week of April--just too much risk for early sprouting and late freezing...

When the temps went into the teens the second night, I finally caved in and threw a tarp and a plastic pool on top of stuff to keep the wind off, but didn't have anything big enough to cover it all so it was really a token effort. Some pleasant surprises and a bit of disappointment but nothing to mope about:

Some of my tomatoes had sprouted - those didn't make it. The one monarda that had come up didn't make it, but there should be other seeds in that container so I'm not too upset. A container of honeysuckle sprouts from my mom's looks rather damaged but might pull through; if not, I guess I'll get a cutting this year. Red cockscomb practically flew out of the chute when it was warm; now it reminds me of the feet of the wicked witch of the East - curled up and dead, dead, dead.

I'm thrilled that the different echinacea varieties did so well, and even the hosta seedlings look untouched (unlike their leafed out relatives in the front yard which are piles of dark green mush for now). Most of the garden huckleberry survived, as did really most everything that had come up.

I don't think for a moment that the tarp had anything to do with the survivors; it did serve to make me feel a little in control, but that was about it. :-)

I left my remaining containers uncovered. Most were already planted out and most have survived. A lot of it was WS. Had to cover the veggies. We were getting temps around 17 for a night or two. VERY cold for this time of year for where I live. The only thing I am upset about is I think I lost most of my amaranthus. ***sigh*** I think I see a few of those sprouts that may make it but not many. Glad I HOS'd them.

Also ordered more seeds off of Ebay. Lost some Cosmos, Zinnias and Marigolds, Moss Rose- I have plenty of seed for these, not so upset about that. Everything else looks like it is making it so far. Might lose a melon plant or two. Other than that, A-OK. Some things have even flourished and started new leaves after the initial freeze. WS tomatoes, peppers, Bee Balm, pumpkin, zucchini- all doing very well!

Guess what? I was outside for a little bit today and found green in one bunch of containers, then decided to check more and found more green!:

Two types of extra fragrant Carnations
Pony Tails (Stipa something or other)
Coolio (Ornamental Grass, not the rapper)
Cantebury Bells
Lupine "Minarette Mix"

I'm excited-- but it really is too cold to walk around looking for sprouts!

I forgot one...
Alyssum, Basket of Gold

I think the lowest temp mentioned so far with survivors is 17 from Sqftgarden. Ccoupkir, Silverwind, and some others may try to claim the prize though. Roflol is being disqualified for using a pool. lol I'm disqualified for bringing mine inside so I can say that. lol

Hmmmm... I'm thinking the prize should be some sort of framed art. (Having trouble finding a good one with snow in the background)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:377402}}

My vote goes to Vera- she didn't even get our eastern prolonged hard freeze, but her babies do look like cuddly polar bears.

Karen

I LOL'd at that picture!! It would be so entertaining to get something like that and stick it in our living room - like I don't have enough to bother my husband with already. ;)

I haven't even got a clue how low it was, just that it was annoying.
Of course, NOW we're seeing 6 inches of snow and tons of slush along with it! :P It would have given me a ton of peace of mind to have it for insulation. *sigh*

LOL, Christie! Getting that as a prize is like winning the "major award" in The Christmas Story - that leg lamp! I'm glad I didn't qualify for the award - I'm sure my family would love having that Polar Bear Award hanging in the living room, lol!

:)
Dee

After several days of warmth (today's temp 76) all my jugs have thawed and it appears that the seedlings in all three jugs of chrysanthemum did not survive. The other jugs with sprouts look fine.
Bobbie

So who gets it?
So happy to have electricity again. The wind storms have been so bad here this week. We haven't had power since Monday morning, just got it back a few hours ago.

I left all my jugs out there to brave the cold. I had lots of sprouts of many varieties. Previous to the cold(it was below 32 for some time, but I don't think it got much farther below that), I had been checking them every day and recording what had sprouted. Now I haven't gone out back to check on them since the freezing weather has finally stopped. I'm afraid, lol. I'll have to make myself go look tomorrow after work.
Remy

Hi again,
Well it was beautiful when I got home! I went out back to check. I had one fatality, the cosmos : ( Though it might be two fatalities because I forgot about the Tri-color Daisies(Chrysanthemum carinatum) that had sprouted until I saw Bobbie's message. On a good note I had many more varieties sprouting!
Remy

Had hail where I work (across a mountain and 30 minutes from home). That freaked me out. Called home and my husband said it was just raining, no hail. Whew!