Your epiphyllums are okay? I left some out on the south side of my house under a sheet and some of them went a little mushy so I brought them in.

My list is pitifully short.
Not covered and fine:
Coastal Redwood 6' tall planted in Oct, 4 other new trees all dormant and unknown at this time.
English Lavender (only flowers drooped over, plant is fine)
Spanish Lavender
Trailing Gardenia (mini gardenia and is planted supposed to be hardy to 10 degrees)

Singed and hanging in there
Dwarf agapanthus
Silver Lace Society Garlic

questionable:
purple fountain grass, still have a little green inside at the bottom of the four plants

I said pathetic small list. So I will add what I have covered up and believe will make it.
1. All my roses, not necessary probably, but determined not to loose at least half my investment, 30 plants, from last summer.
2. 3 Azaleas
3. 4 Butterfly bushes, maybe, half dead, made it through the first freeze though
4. 2 Austrailian Tree Ferns
5. 1 Bouganvilla I forgot to cover for the 1st two days because I forgot about it on the side of the house.

The rest are all extreme double toasted now with this second freeze, I don't this they will come back in the spring. I know wait and see but I have these huge gaps all over, not lumps they didn't melt down just fried and disintergrated.

Thanks, Wanda, I'll be watching this thread and making notes when this is all over and come spring making a list carefully and looking up what will work for me here in the central valley both with the cold and the heat I get in the summer. I'm not replacing anything in my yard that died with the same thing, one chance is all that one got:) I always had second thoughts about the 4 crepe mrytles I had anyways. They went in the first freeze.
Leslie

I think any tree that goes dormant in winter will be absolutely fine with the cold. I still think your crape myrtles will be fine, they should survive close to 0 F.

Crape Myrtles and butterfly bushes will be fine if in the ground. Lily of Nile will come through fine.

Penny

Yep, Heathen, so far all my epis (about 30) are doing just fine. Some are even just starts in 4" pots, while others are huge and several years old. I do keep them fairly dry. Did you water yours?

Leslie, the purple fountain grass normally goes deciduous in winter. Cut it back to about 1' in early spring. It should be fine.
Likewise......roses, butterfly bushes, and azaleas are cold hardy too. Actually, you should strip your roses this month and prune them back. I started stripping mine this past weekend.
Some spp. of Azaleas (reading another of your posts under the freeze warning) do get colored leaves in winter. Girards Hot Shot has beautiful red/purple foliage this time of year. Most can take temps down to 20 with no problem.

So.......let's have some more lists of what plants are sailing through

wanda

okay, heres whats thiving:
callistemon (bottlebrush)
Camellias
canary island date palm
washingtonia robusta
bauhinia yunanensis vine
bauhinia acuminata
freesias

heres whats NOT thriving :(
nine diff. citrics
calla lilies (they were really huge clumps and will re-sprout, but they are all mushy for now)
amaryllis (a large clump of each red, pink and white)
princess flower (tibouchina urvillea)
hibiscus rosa-sinensis
dwarf black tree fern
giant australian tree-fern
fuchsias
spathyphyllum (peace lilies -all black now)
banana leaf ficus
seveal diff canna varieties
clerodendrum ugandense
royal poinciana
plumbago
cape honeysuckle (the red and yellow varieties)
kalanchoe (christmas flowering ones)
and the list goes on and on.

I've been so obsessed protecting my citrus, I forgot about my poor potted hibiscus. Not doing well. It's been brought in, but possibly too late. Singed, droopy and getting worse each day.

Ok, I'll stick with a) only what I could bear looking at yesterday, and b) only what doesn't look like caca. Oh, and c) only plants in the ground, since most of the potted ones aren't pretty right now. Many of these are obvious winners.

Aesculus californica
Agapanthus praecox ssp. orientalis 'Blue Storm'
Amaryllis belladonna
Aucuba japonica
Buddleja davidii 'Black Knight'
Carex albula
Chrysanthemum x morifolium
Cistus ladanifer
C. x 'Sunset'
Coleonema pulchrum
Cyclamen persicum 'Sierra White'
Cyrtomium falcatum
Diascia hybrid 'Coral Belle'
Digitalis purpurea
Dryopteris erythrosora
Erysimum 'Apricot Twist'
Eschscholzia californica
Hebe 'Champagne'
Heuchera 'Dolce Peach Melba'
Jasminum angulare
J. polyanthum
Lamium galeobdolon montanum 'Florentinum'
Lampranthus spectabilis
Lavandula dentata
L. x intermedia 'Walvera'/'Silver Edge'
Lupinus albifrons
Mentha x piperita
Monarda didyma 'Petite Delight'
Muhlenbergia dumosa
M. rigens
Nemesia caerulea 'Blue Bird' (blooming!)
Osteospermum fruticosum (blooming!)
Pelargonium x hortorum
Penstemon x gloxinioides 'Garnet'
Phlomis russeliana
Salvia chamaedryoides
S. clevelandii 'Allen Chickering'
S. greggii (all 3)
S. x jamensis (all 3)
S. microphylla 'San Carlos Festival'
S. nemorosa 'Caradonna'
S. 'Nuevo Leon'
Scabiosa columbaria 'Butterfly Blue'
Trachelospermum jasminoides
Tulbaghia violacea 'Silver Lace'
Viola x wittrockiana 'Majestic Giants II Ocean'

I'm not giving up on the ones that look terrible, though. I'm in good company. :)

Brenda

OK, now I feel better about my garden. Thanks, everyone!

Most stuff is doing okay, but the CA fuschia and tibouchinas are pretty much toast for now. I'm crossing my fingers on my Meyers, they're a couple of feet off the ground so should be OK for now. Supposed to warm up starting tomorrow, thank goodness.

Only one bad, by me, so far.
I forgot to cover my Aus. Tree Fern. It got singed, but it is in a somewhat protected location and supposedly it can tolerate 20...so hopefully it will return.

My orange trees in the open are old & tuff. They look okay. The fruit looks okay on the outside. Inside might be another story. My mandarin orange is up against the house. It is fine (and loaded with fruit) as are my meyer lemons (under a big old oak tree).

Epiphyllums are okay. I think some handle cold better than others.

My Giant Bird of Paradise looks like it wishes it were in paradise...it looks beat down...but I doubt it is dead.

My only other concern is some of my salvias. I would not like to lose some of these. They look...poorly at the moment (if you classify an ashen-gray color as poorly), but I hope they will come back from the roots.

It was 22 on Saturday morning at 7:30 am. Today it was 26. Trend is upward.

My list of survivors pretty much mimics Wanda's. Agaves, dudleyas, aloes, echevarias, aeonium, senecio, kalanchoes, pittosporum, coprosma, etc., all fine. What has been damaged, crisped are Oxalis vulcanicola, red and chartreuse cultivars, which I was really enjoying this winter, and a couple plectranthus. Salvia vanhouttii 'Paul' has all top growth killed off and may not return. Acanthus 'Hollard's Gold' has some killed-off leaves but many more that are OK. Strangely enough, I've got a noisette climber 'Elie Beauvillain' in a serious flush of bloom, budding in Dec. and opening up in the 80 deg temps we had last week but doing fine with the low night temps too. Phygelius are OK, Euphorbia mellifera, myrsinites OK. Eight-foot tree of Euphorbia cotinifolia is fine. Large Salvia chiapensis OK. Salvia buchanii is fine, ditto Salvia 'Rosalita.' Small newly planted dierama is OK. Verbascum undulatum is fine. Daphne odora in pot OK. I've noticed the bloom colors on linaria and violas are incredibly intense now. Tired of looking at the mushy growth I've left on for further protection and ready to clear and move on!

Wow! You're in zone 9 and salvia gesneriflora is thriving? Mine is so dead. We are listed as zone 9a on USDA, but I think we're really an 8a. But I have several plants thriving because I planted for these occasional freezes. Thriving plants include Rhamnus Californica 'Mound San Bruno' (great shrub), Grevillea rosmarinifola, Ceanothus thyrsiflorus "sky blue", Salvia clevelandii 'winifred gilman', Santa Barbara daisies, Echium fastuosum, and the best yet, Teucrium fruticans 'Azureum' which is still blooming it's marvelous blue flowers through a couple of evenings in the low 20's. I highly recommend this one. Feel really bad for the citrus growers though.

Yeah, so far, so good with the gesneriflora. It's planted in a fairly protected area with a 6' fence on one side, a shed on the other and a green house about 5' in front of it.
One side has an ulmus parviflora and a 12' Ligustrum (privet tree) on the other side. Plus my compost pile is nearby. Some of the flower stalks are a little droopy, but the ones blooming seem to be fine.

Believe it or not, I walked around this morning and I've got a Clematis seiboldii florida with an open bloom!!!!! I think this plant is really confused!
Some of the blooms on the cymbidiums were toasted this morning and they are under a covered patio. The foliage looks ok.
My Oxalis vulcanicola melted too.

wanda

I love clematis, but it fries here in the valley. Even in a semi shaded area it just turns to toast. If you have a picture of the gesneriflora in bloom, please post it. I'd love to see it.

This is the third night of a freeze, but since I'm on top of a hill, most of the cold air slides down. Even still, I expected to see a little yellow bird playing ice hockey on the bird bath! Salvias, native did great, Aussie/SA drought tolerants such as leucospermum, leucodendron, protea, isopogon - no problems. Bananas, thin leaved crinum and iochroma are unhappy, but will survive. Amazingly, my tomato 'glacier' is still going strong, but 'taxi' is looking out of service. =^,,^=

I did a walk-about yesterday. i am surprised at the damage to the Salvias; but then, they were due to be heavily pruned in February anyway...... I doubt that any are truly dead down into the roots. The citrus leaves seem to be damaged, except for what was protected only by a light tenting of crop-cover cloth... perhaps less is more.

What really surprised me was the amount of damage being done by the ever-industrious gophers.

And, another discovery, one of the Agave americana, aka Century Plant, is putting up a BIG central spike. I wonder how this cold weather is affecting it.

Westelle the growers were concerned about their trees after they gave up on the fruit, your trees seem to be ok then? I'm sorry about the leaves, I hope less is more for you. On your Century Plant is the central spike where the flowers grow? I had been reading about that one and was curious.

After reading about everyone's Salvia's I'm adding that one to my list for spring purchases. If the bouganvilla doesn't make it I was going for a clematis next in that location for spring. It's on the side of my house where my living room window looks directly into my neighbor's house and fence. I'd rather look at a large flowering plant. If that won't work I'll go ahead and plant a mini climber there. Anything but seeing fence and the neighbor's house and they can see in my house through that window also. That's a nice little micro pocket West side there with 5' between the 6' tall fence and my house and the fence and the neighbor's house. We used the option to move the house over so that the house sits 10' over on the other side.

I'm taking out the Western Garden Book and looking up alot of plants when you all are through listing your survivors and no contest for the ones that are in and near the valley.

The things that came through unfazed and surprised me, are watsonia, phormium, trachelium, and even more surprising, alstromeria psitticina. Geum, wallflower and a forgotten verbena bonairensis are also just fine. The one that is looking best is lychnis coronaria. The felty grey leaves look so pretty with all the goldy brown leaves on the ground. We had record cold over the weekend.

I'm surprised all of you had no problems with your duddleyas. My poor little guy ended up with black tips on the first night :-( He's been inside since then.

Hi,

I'm near the coast in Los Angeles and although the weather channel claims our lows never dipped below 34 this last week, the Spanish fountain in my front yard has had about a 1/4 inch of ice every morning since last Friday.

Here's what I lost (although I don't know some of the correct names for these). These were all in the ground, as the containers were sheltered:

Aloe Vera (3 very large specimens with flower stalks) were completely obliterated. Ficus (nitida?) shrubs, the top 1/3 completely brown, wilted, and shedding. Agave (the light green with soft thin leaves) withered. Jade- flowers turned brown and are falling. Coleus plants are withered and fallen.

Other aloe and agave species seem to be doing okay so far. Echiverias and most other succulents seem to be okay. Ice plants and creeping thyme seem to be unfazed. Cameilas are thriving. Honeysuckle (orange) seems to be fine. Princess flower may be okay. Avocado, Orange, and Lemon seem okay, but might need another week or so to know for sure.

Anyone have any advice for the ficus? Should I just let them recover on their own?

lesdvs: The Agave americana - the Century Plant -- gets a hugely tall flower spike --- like 10-15' --- then dies. It doesn't really take a century to bloom, but the plants are older... mine have been in the ground HERE 10 years, and they were already pretty big when planted. I guess each huge "leaf" must be about 5-6' tall (long). I'll try to post a picture later.

Mamamia, I spoke too soon. The S. gesneriflora was doing great, but this morning, it looked a little sad, but I think it will be fine. The top is really burned bad, but the bottom is okay.

I uploaded some pics of damage and "un-damage" (if you will...LOL) to my picasa web album. I took all of these pics this morning. I hope you can see them. I just see blank boxes unless I click on each gray square. I'm new to this album.

Lusty, all my Dudleyas are doing great. Most are planted in the front yard. Sounds like your's was in a pot?

Leslie, As much as I love Clematis, it may not be the plant you want for that location, as most are deciduous and wouldn't offer any screening in winter. you could plant something like Hardenbergia (evergreen, winter flowering vine) or Star Jasmine and run a Clematis through it for summer flowers. A group 3, such as one of the viticellas (also easier to grow). Venosa Violacea is one of my favorites.

wanda

Here is a link that might be useful: Freeze at Wandaworld

Westelle, I'd like to see that photo, thanks!

Wanda, I've been looking at photos of clematis winding around with climbing roses and got that idea. Didn't realize they weren't an evergreen, hadn't gotten that far in my planning yet, thanks. I am so used to plants that do die back in the winter. Lowe's, HD etc are like candy stores to me and alot of times the info is not complete especially zone info and I thought I plotted carefully for what I did put in the yard. I was thinking dips below 32 and primarily how hot summer is here, had no idea we were going to have two weeks straight so far below freezing. BTW they were 2 degrees off last night, it was 26 not 28 and when I got up at 8am the back yard temp said it was 24 and from the frost on the ground I believe that one! I'll look up the ones you're advising on with the exception of Star Jasmine. I really love the smell of the flowers and love it in someone else's yard:) I would have thought that the way your back yard is enclosed your plants would have made it through better, sorry they didn't, you had some great looking plants, amazing what did survive. What will you do on the others, I know you're waiting for spring, but will you cut them all down or just cut back to where new growth starts on each plant at whatever height that is? Thanks for sharing your photos too. You can't measure in money your time and years in your plants, well you can, they'd be very, very expensive plants.

I forgot my one verbena didn't make it through this freeze and my 8 lantana were toast from the first freeze.

On a bright note I do have bulbs that are growing. I know what I planted but the writing washed off the stakes:) I'm trying to figure out where the crocus' are, in the mountains they'd be growing first by now and blooming soon, here I don't know, it looks like what's coming up now are iris. I planted those two, daffodils and narcissus. So I do have some color to look forward to while waiting to replant in the spring.
Leslie

Thanks for the lists everybody.

I also checked out local nurseries and Lowes to see what is surviving so I don't buy them. I guess there is no way they can't protect them all. It is frustrating to see and what is even worse is they continue to sell stuff that can't tolerate the hot dry wind in summer let along the cold in winter here.

Lost the bellfower, not surprised, and the heliotrope, but I'm crossing my fingers for green sprouts in the spring. Two mexican sage (the long, fuzzy flower spikes) I think I'll have to write off. I had cut them back because they were developing mildew, and then brrrrr. Well, I didn't like the placement of one of them anyway....The abutilon spent a couple of nights in the house, and then up against the wall outside, and though it looks a bit dried out, it seems to be fine. The bedding begonias are pudding; I'm looking forward to replacing them with impatiens and alyssum. The johnny-jump-ups are happy as little purple and orange clams and the salvia clevelandii says, "Cold, what cold? We didn't get pruned!" Dianthus, yarrow, rosemary and other herbage are fine, as are the daffodils poking up through them. The lemon tree is happily shielded by a live oak. The greens garden, placed very close to the house, got a little floppy on the first night, but now that they've been spending their nights under a pretty pink sheet, they are happily joining us for salads and stir-fries!

Actually, Leslie, I'm fairly pleased with the way the plants came through and I didn't lose much at all except tender perennials, mostly sold as annuals and possibly the plectranthus, but I'll wait to see if they come back from the roots. Most of the damage was merely foliar which is no biggie or some top/side branches. They'll come back. Which leads me to answer your question. I'll wait til March to cut things like the Salvias, Brugs, Plectranthus, Heliconia, and Banana. The "annuals aka tender perennials" were pulled out this past weekend. I know they're not coming back. These are plants like Salvia splendens, zinnias, impatients, fibrous begonias, etc. Most are sold in 6-packs or 4" pots. I already replaced them with some primroses and pansies I had sitting in my "plant ghetto" waiting for homes. LOL

Often, the labels on the plants at "real" nurseries, rather than the box type stores have the hardiness on the label. Also, check your western sunset book. They'll give you the zone hardiness.

pbsjones, the heliotrope probably won't come back unless it was very, very protected. I consider them one of those "tender perennials" that I grow as an annual. I've had them get really fried in "normal" winter temps unless protected. however, the Salvia may come back. I've had them sprout even when i pulled them up and didn't get all the roots.

looks like we're almost back to normal winter temps. I, for one, sure can't wait til spring!

wanda

I'm new to this plant, but was delighted that my sedum ogon was happy as a clam during all the cold weather. I've been coaxing it along as a groundcover and its tiny chartreuse leaves have been a cheerful sight in the damp ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:503219}}

Besides my 'Apricot Twist' wallflower, which is blooming its little heart out now just when I need it most...:D...I'd have to say that my Sedums have brought me the most joy of any of my plants throughout the tough freezing temps we had. They are all so pretty right now, with their new growth. This is my first year with them, and I can't wait to get more!

Congrats on your Sedum, Cowper! :)

Brenda

Old Bird of Paradise finally bit the dust, that's o.k. I've been trying to get that huge clump out for 2 years and finally it's gone! Noticed yesterday that the Daylilies have been busy underground and lots of new shoots are appearing. Creeping Thyme is doing fine, spreading as hoped for. Roses looking a bit naked, but o.k. /Camellias, Azaelas are o.k. too. We did have some hard freezes here, but most everything had gone dormant or had been moved inside, so damage was minimal.

LOL, Calpat! I found a few silver linings in the frost too, when it came to "pruning" or "editing". I was finally able to get my Iochroma coccinea pruned down to a manageable size and thinned out. I've been putting off that job for 2 years!

Too funny! The weather did indeed take out most of my Tecoma capensis, which, as some might recall, I'd never pruned. I was promised that someday, I'd eat my words, and sure enough! LOL It got the much-needed pruning, so it's no longer the monster Cape honeysuckle it once was. :D

Same with my chocolate mint Pelargonium and Lantana montevidensis. They shall return, though!

*gulp* It's 5am and 35F....

Brenda

Update for Presidents Day (well, the week, anyway).

My limoniums gave up the ghost - they probably weren't helped along by a heavy mulch of falling walnut leaves and strangulation by Oxalis pes-caprae, the dreaded Bermuda Buttercup weed.

Through highs and lows, the Rhaphiolepsis indica "Ballerina" continued to bloom like a champ. It's a really amazing, cheap, fast-growing, handsome subshrub that deserves more interest from CA gardeners. The frost withered the blooms on the Loropetalum 'Rubrum' but the plant itself is fine.

I was walking by a neighbor's house on the top of the hill and had to actually stop and admire their gorgeous Cerinthe Major Purpurascens sprawling in their front yard and starting to bloom. I was so jealous, mine never came back! :(