I'm really unsure of the extent of my damage. I checked my apricots and there seemed to be some tiny fruit that was still solid and normal looking. I could open it up but I might as well wait. The plum blossoms and all open peach blossoms were frozen solid in the morning but look normal now. I might as well just wait and see what everything does but I really think my unopen flowers will be fine. Just about 20 miles south of me in Westchester County, NY, there seemed to me no damage and no frozen blossoms at all, even though I arrived at a site there before sun had hit them. And this was a site at the base of a hollow. What pisses me off is I was grafting in Greenwich today and even though they are a zone warmer than me there trees are at exactly the same state of development- what's wrong with my site! The best news is that most of my customers seem to have gotten off scott free.

I have had a totally different weather pattern so my observations aren't pertinent to your question, but perhaps they'll be interesting in themselves. It looks as though we're going to have a third drought year after a second year of Zone 9 winter temperatures. I'm looking at my garden and wondering what qualities are due to the heavy soil, what to the lack of water, what to the inherent character of the roses growing there, what to the difference between grafted and non-grafted varieties. The Teas and Chinas on the Rose Road, planted at the beginning of 2005, are mostly 3'-5' high, but perfectly healthy and sturdy looking. The one year they grew significantly was the first year they were in the ground, when we had a decent amount of rain. The Gallicas are mostly unhappy roses, in very heavy clay and (unfortunately) full sun; they're grafted, unlike the Teas and Chinas, which may make a difference; and they've never had a good year of rainfall. The grafted Teas also are less thriving than the own-root Teas, though that may be due to other factors (drought and soil). I'm just going to have to see how the roses behave when we get another year of good rain, and heaven knows when that will be. Also, I'm forced to buy most of my roses grafted (on Laxa, I think), and have to propagate them from cuttings and grow the offspring to see what the difference is between grafted and ownroot rose behavior. Most of our roses planted 2002-beginning 2006 went into poor ground, while the last two years we plowed beds in moister and more fertile soil, which all the roses except the Teas and Chinas like better. I made large orders of once-blooming old roses last year and am looking forward to seeing how they do in the new beds. Possibly my most interesting discovery is how many old roses react to poor soil and drought: not with weakness and death, but by staying relatively small but healthy and floriferous. This is true not only of the Teas and Chinas, but also of 'Alberic Barbier' and of the Bourbons. The latter ('Variegata di Bologna', 'Zephirine Drouhin', 'Honorine de Brabant', 'Gros Choux de Hollande') are in a sunny, windy, dry area, and while they aren't large, they're sturdy and healthy. My impression is that they're just waiting for a wet year to get bigger. They're also more or less once-blooming in a dry year, though rain in August or September would probably induce a fall flowering. While I've said my roses are generally healthy, last year for the first time I had several roses suffer dieback from disease, and this may have been the result of drought-induced stress, as I hadn't seen it in earlier years. The traditional weather pattern here, unlike in the eastern U.S., is wet weather from mid-fall to mid-spring, with a period of dry cold in the middle of winter, and dry summers. Roses like this just fine. Two years ago (?) we got an unusual strong rain in June, and 'Golden Celebration' was just covered with blackspot, normally a problem I see on the DA roses only in later fall. Lately it has been too dry: four months without rain in 2007 and 'Safrano' actually lost some growth; but a couple of dry, hot, sunny months would, I think, be perfectly satisfactory to my roses. I have no problems with a period of rest. It becomes part of the natural cycle of the garden and it's pleasant in its own way to see the roses shut down and then come into flower again with the fall rains. But the last few years have been too dry. Melissa

Not that I know of. All in all, we were very fortunate, suffering through consecutive nights of 25F, 24F, 18F, 22F, 30F in Jan. Melocactus, Sansevieria, tender Mamms, and more than 190 Agaves all made it through. Other than tip-burn on some tender Sansevierias and Agaves, and a top we'll need to lop off a Pilocereus, we came through really well. Our latest worries about the recent freeze (31F, 29F) are about how wet it was, but it will take a while to be certain all the Mamms survived. In any case, it's over now; AFAIK, serious freeze threat ends in the middle of Feb, so we're free and clear!

leaves are tender .. cover if you can.. and hope for the best ... as that is really cold .. pips winter over.. so obviously they can take cold.. if they are still fully dormant ... the plant will releaf .. if damage.. just ignore it for a month.. then go clean it up ... they will not die ... oh.. and pray.. ken