It has been almost 3 months since my conifer garden endured the 4-12-07 16F. -9C. freeze. A 50 year event they say. The following is my assessment of the damage to the conifers grown in my garden.

1. All but 2 pines lost all new candle growth for this year. The 2 that didn't have any damage but the same amount of candle growth as those which froze are Pinus cembra 'Chalet' and 'Compacta Glauca'. That is interesting and probably deserves some discussion by itself.

2. I lost 3 of my 4 Platycladus o. 'Morgans'. The damage didn't show up till the 1st of June. Started turning brown from the top and worked its way down. I removed the last one this week. A beautiful 3 ft. speciman. The smallest one survived, about 1ft. tall. I think because of its closeness to the ground there was enough heat radiating up to give it an edge.

3.All Chamaecyparis received some damage. Mostly branch tip freeze on new growth. My Cham. o. 'Spiralis' took the hardest hit loosing 2 branches and and excessive branch tip freeze. Probably 2-3 years before it begains to look normal again.

4. All Junipers took it in stride. No damage

5 Cedrus deodora had freeze damage on the needles that were growing on top side of the branches. The growth on the bottom side of the braches did not freeze. If I could have turned the plant over you would not see any damage. They have come back with new growth and looking good again.

6. Cupressus galbra, no damage.

7. Cryptomeria japonica had slight freeze on branch tips. Have since recovered.

8. Picea came through with no damage to the many cultivars that I have.

9. All decidious trees and companion plants froze. All came back but 1 Dogwood and 2 Acer palms. That's another story in itself.

Even thoiugh I lost some prized conifers there was a lot to learn from this experience and I consider myself lucky to get through this with so little loss. I am sure there are others that were not so lucky.

Dave