So sorry to hear about your ice storm. Many of us had a terrible ice storm in 2007 in the late spring--after the roses had already started growing. Really terrible. A number of my roses had to be cut back nearly to the ground before I could find really healthy centers in the canes. You might want to double-check those canes when your spring officially arrives. Some of my rose canes didn't look too bad on the outside, so I didn't prune them back like I did the others. Well, those canes just never got with the program again--reluctant to grow and bloom although they did bloom a bit--but not big healthy growth/bloom. So midsummer I started checking the centers of those canes to see if they were glistening white. They weren't. So I trimmed them down drastically to white centers--and the roses finally took off and bloomed as they were supposed to. In other words, double-check to make sure the center of the cane is as healthy-looking as the outside of the cane. Good luck, Kate

Michelle, It is 3:35 p.m. and I am watching The Weather Channel and it sounds like Arkansas is really getting it already and conditions are supposed to worsen, so I guess the Fort Smith forecasters may "ignore" ya'll even more if you're not having the ice too. Yes, we can hope we're wrong, but "in my bones" I feel like it is going to be a bad one. I can tell by the number of birds coming to feed, and we have huge numbers today. I just refilled the feeders and put out deer corn an hour ago, and the birds are having a big old pre-storm feeding frenzy right now. Randy and I both use the Weather Underground a lot and I love their forecasts. If you've never used it, you can access it via www.wunderground.com. Randy, I agree about the internet accuracy, but I have to say that our local TV forecast (Channel 12, KXII, the local CBS affiliate) has improved a lot since Steve LaNore became their chief meterologist. Still, I take it with a grain of salt and merge together their forecast, various online sources, the NWS and my own "intuition" to arrive at my own idea about what I think "will" or "might" happen. I bet the Eskies had fun. If it snows, and they get to go out and play in it, I hope you'll take a photo of them to share with us. Ada, Uh-oh. That's not good news. Y'all be careful. I think the perennials will be OK as long as their roots weren't bone dry. If they were bone-dry, you might have some root death. After all my bragging about what a fine job our local electric co-op does keeping the power up, I saw we're now forecast to get about 1/2 inch of ice here. Well, if that happens, the trees won't even have to bring down the poles and power lines, because the ice on the power lines will bring everything down all by itself. Oh, I dread the power being out. Our house is all-electric, so if we lose power, we're gonna be cold. Moni, I'm glad you're hubby is going to be able to make it home safely before the icing gets worse and the roads are even more dangerous. We went out and did all our errands early. Now we're just waiting for the fire pagers to go off, because as soon as the temps hit 32, the accidents start popping up on the Interstate like dandelions pop up in our pastures in spring. I don't really understand the sudden ice storm trend the last 5 or 6 years. Our first few years here, we had some gorgeous snowstorms and that was so much fun for someone like me who grew up in snow-deprived Fort Worth. These last few years, though, it is all ice and no snow. I'd rather have snow. Well, if I had a choice, I'd rather have 6" of rain and nothing frozen, but that's not gonna happen! Dawn

George, Like Carol, I heard that Cherokee County was extremely hard hit. I was trying to type a response to you last night and our internet service went down in the middle of the heaviest sleet of the day, which fell here after 7 p.m. Miraculously, our internet service is back up early this morning, and so am I. I feel really bad for Jerreth, having to hold down the fort alone in this mess, but you know that she is a very strong, capable and self-reliant woman and she will be fine. (Would you expect any less from your better half?) You, on the other hand, may be in the doghouse when you arrive home from warm and sunny Mexico. LOL (You probably shouldn't say much to her about this trip, except to talk about how very, very, very hard you worked down there while she was home in "a winter wonderland". It wouldn't hurt to mention you were thoroughly miserable about being away from her at such a time and that you wished you'd been home to help her deal with the weather situation.) All I can say is that the timing of this trip worked out well for you, if not for her. If there is anything that we can do from here to try to make contact with your family or to find out further news for you, let us know. You know that we are your gardening family and we'd help in any way we could. I am praying that Jerreth, the home place and all the family are fine in your absence and that you remain safe and well also. I don't think Ilene has been online since the ice started falling, so I suspect either her internet service is down or the power is out. I hope she and the rest of our gardening family are doing OK in this horrid ice storm. George, this is the absolute worst ice storm I've ever seen. I know that EMSA responded to almost 500 calls for medical assistance, and hundreds of those were for people who slipped and fell on the ice. In many places, freezing rain and snow fell first and made the outdoors a vast skating rink. Luckily, many of us then received either sleet or snow on top of the ice, which actually helped by covering the slick surfaces with something that gives feet and tires a little traction. DS was at work at D-FW Airport last night and was responding to a report of a vehicle hitting a pedestrian when his ambulance slid and crashed on a bridge. Then, a city of Grapevine Fire Truck responding to the same accident crashed on the same bridge and then 2 more vehicles crashed. Thankfully, no one was hurt, except (I presume) the pedestrian hit by the original vehicle. I am just glad DS was not driving the ambulance, because the airport is never happy when someone wrecks a vehicle that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course, when you have to work in the worst of weather, things like that happen. Busy1, We have containers of water stored, although now that the stuff has stopped falling from the sky, I am hopeful we will not lose power. Last night, I thought it was about to go out, but it didn't. I feel lucky to still have power when so many others do not. I think it is marketing genius to raise green tomatoes for the "frying" market. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that people specifically request them all summer long. That could be a very special market niche that is great for business. I hope y'all come through the storm OK too. Our roads are a disaster here, and we won't get over freezing until this afternoon, but no one, to my knowledge, has lost power in our county and all the accidents have been minor ones of the sliding off the road type, so we're truly blessed here in Love County. And, only 0.07" of stuff fell here, officially, so it really wasn't enough to break the drought, but then I didn't think it would be. Stay safe and warm everyone. I'm gonna go start a "check in" thread so we can keep track of everyone and know that they are OK. Dawn

For you guys who know what I'm up to, an update. My large trachy is now covered for the season, as of this past Sunday. I did go with a version of dln949's method. I've been monitoring temp since it was completed and it seems that this one will be a definite winner! A quick description. Frame built from 2x2 pine posts, 1x4s for supports, all assembled with screws. The 2x2s are driven about a foot into the ground and staked very solid and secure. The enclosure is just high enough for the tree, about 7 feet. It is an odd shape because of the slightly raised triangle planter it is in. It's about 4'x3.5'x4'x3', and about 7' high as stated. It has a supported roof of 3/8" plywood covered with carpet. The enclosure is wrapped in chicken wire stapled down, except for on the roof. Over the chicken wire are two old but good shape bed comforters (bedspreads). They are stapled on, ground to roof. They staple on at the ground on 3 sides directly to the wood borders of the raised planter. Over the comforters is silver bubble wrap insulation which comes in a 4' wide roll. This is tacked on with staples and heavily duct taped at the seems and wrapped round and round with duct tape. All seems are overlapped by about a foot. Also the insulation over-wraps the roof. The thing is air-tight! Over the insulation is a waterproof tarp covering the whole thing, tied on tightly but able to be easily removed if I need to sneak a peek at a spot where I made an access hole which can be opened where I can get at the power strip if needed. Around the outside base of the enclosure are leaf bags packed tight to the bottom and anchored down by bricks and 6x6 timbers. I hand-packed more leaf/grass mulch into the areas between the bags and against the enclosure under the bags. Inside the enclosure: 5" deep cedar mulch as normally is in the planter. Under it is a "rope light" right at the dirt around the trunk right on top of the roots. On top of the cedar mulch is a string of mini outdoor xmas lights zig zagging over the ground/mulch in there and especially around the outer perimeter of the enclosure to keep the ground from freezing. Over the mini lights is a 6" layer of loose leaves and packed a little higher around the outer walls. Wrapped around the trunk and crown area of the tree is another string of mini xmas lights. The 2 strings of mini lights and the rope light are ALWAYS ON. Then zig-zagging throughout the inside of the enclosure frame, but not touching the tree or enclosure walls are 2 more strings of xmas lights, a string of white c-7s and white c-9s connected in series. These are connected to a "thermo cube" which comes on at 35 and off at 45 degrees. Also connected to the power cube is a clamp-on reflector fixture with a very bright CFL bulb in it for a little extra heat if needed. All of this extra heat only comes on if/when needed and has already tested to be very effective. When they come on when it hits 35 or so, which only happened twice that I have observed, it warms to beyond 45 in there within minutes, and they turn off. I believe this will protect it to well below zero for sure! My remote thermometer is mounted on a bracket about midway up the wall inside the enclosure far enough away from any of the xmas lights where it is accurate and transmits to about anywhere inside my house from all the way across the yard. A few more notes: I did not use the "Night Watchman" for this enclosure (thanks Jim for the "cube" tip). The Watchman is sufficient for one large string of xmas lights, but no more wattage than that. Two strings and it does not work right. The Cube is for higher wattage applications and an absolute PERFECT device for our needs here! I will use that Watchman thing for my needle palm which will only need one string of c-7 lights when I do cover it. The needle has a rope light under the mulch at the base/roots right now and the ground is warm to the touch there. I'll leave that on when the large trash can goes over it in a few weeks or when lows dip under the teens at night. The needle is taller than I thought, I might have to mulch it higher so it fits under the plastic trash can. The Watchman will prevent it from overheating under there and it will be easy to check on periodically. Bottom line, this was a pretty easy enclosure to build and assemble. I might not use it next year, maybe I will, depending on how easy it comes down and what condition it is in. I'd say I have about 4 or 5 total hours invested in its assembly and setup. Total cose: About $100. That includes the lights, materials, remote hermometer ($11.95), Thermocube ($8.95), etc. I really need to figure out how to post pictures right here on GW, rather than that outside link thing. I have a ton of pictures from all summer, to every step of the building process of the enclosure. I'd love to post them... So that's my outdoor palm's protection setup. Wish me luck, and good luck to you guys!