That does sound like a major shift for one day. I have been reading of the storms on the prowl, we have missed them so far in the midwest. The majority of my Hosta are barely standing, orange..dried up...skeletons of plants.except for a Guacamole,and a couple other survivors..

My Undulata Mediopicta was still pretty darn perfect, as were the Blue Cadets. The little Cracker Crumbs looked nice and green, too. The First Mate, Maui Buttercups and Little Treasure had had it. I suppose ALL will look like garbage as of tomorrow. I will really miss my darling Little Treasure and Cracker Crumbs, they were my favorites this year. I also had a bunch of mini snapdragons blooming their little heads off in a cloud of pastel beauty and some gorgeous geraniums. Glad I took cuttings of all my geraniums, especially this big new golden-leaved one I bought this year. Hopefully I can keep them going during the winter.

Current night time temps here are running into the 50's. My hostas have another month of yellowing leaves. I lived thru those snowstorms/frosts/freezes back East and you folks can have them. BUT, sometimes I wish that my hostas would all just be done for the year now, rather than drag it out. The bugs (mealy and other) like those decaying leaves and I have to go out every few days to remove them.

-Babka

Esther, I am 2 zones worse up the Hudson north of Albany. Forecast first was up to 8 inches, people jammed stores buying supplies. We only got 1 inch and the night was 33 degrees, but tonight forecast is 22, that will level the last hostas. Driveway and road are all clear. Actually I lucked out having the latest first frost only on October 28, and no raking leaves and mowing this weekend :)

But what a combination, a warm fall with very late first frost, then the earliest snow storm. Now I will enjoy it getting the yard and garden ready for winter, making plans for spring.
Bernd

The snow was beautiful sitting here in IL watching the weather channel. I hope none of you in the New England states and commonwealths have had damage from downed trees.

Here in north-central IL I haven't had a killing frost yet but the drought-like pattern continues. I have had less than 3/10th inches of precip in October.

My hosta this year had a dual season going from beautiful to pitifull. Then I finally got some rain and they perked up nicely. Then it went dry again and everything stopped growing. The same true for my bell peppers, tomatoes and summer squash. My acorn and butternut squash stopped setting fruit in May and never restarted.

Tap water loaded with chloromine which indiscriminately kills beneficial bacteria in garden soil as well as bad bacteria just cannot competer with rain - or snow. Your hosta next spring should show the benefits of the snow.
Les

When I happened to go out in the yard briefly today, I saw that the snapdragons didn't actually look too bad, their blooms were intact. I didn't get a chance to go to look at the hostas. The geraniums also didn't look too bad. I have a feeling that damage was done and will show up in a few days.

2 nights below freezing,but no snow. Hostas are down for the count,until next spring! See ya! Phil

Just got power back this morning after 2 and 1/2 days without. A foot of heavy wet snow fell on fully leafed out trees. Lots of limbs down from the Oaks but nothing near the house. A few Hostas got squished, but they'll be back next year. The big JM out front lost a half dozen limbs, but it will grow back. Two large black cherries on the periphery of our property are in the road. That will affect the amount of shade on the White Garden, but what is worse is my 15 foot Rose of Sharon is lying flat in the snow as if someone parted it with a comb. I don't know if it will come back or not. All in all, we made out OK. It could have been a lot worse. Lot's of cleanup to do. Time to get to it.

Here's the ROS flattened.

The Japanese Maple during the storm. A study in Red and White.

Cathedral Windows under a foot of snow.
{{gwi:1098963}}

Steve

Steve, the Rose of Sharon seems to be bent over only. I used to cut them back every year and they became big a few weeks later in spring. Sorry to see everything else squashed and trees in the road. We had an ice storm 2 or 3 years ago with white pines shedding branches, is called 'nature's pruning'. That was a good reason to buy a new chainsaw then. Good luck!
Bernd

Steve: My thoughts are with you. I agree with Bernd re; ROS. I used to have many and would cut back half and leave the others alone. My greatest problem was with root suckers coming up all over. They are one of the more resilient shruby trees I feel.

On one of our news shows they linked a picture of a house where what appears to have been a whole tree entered one end of the house through the roof trunk first and exited it through a wall at the opposite end of the house.

Les

Ouch, Steve. I imagine those hit the worst may not have the ability to report in here, as was in your case. As mentioned, the ROS will recover. That JM looks like a very nice specimen, hopefully the "half dozen limbs" it lost were insignificant and inconspicuous.

tj

You know, of all the storms i have been thru... I don't think I have ever had a heavy snow on trees still full of leaves. I imagine the added surface area really does magnify the weight when the snow stacks on...

I hope things turn out the best they possibly can.

Here in upstate NY we had an early snow or ice storm in 1987, I just remember. That's when I moved here and bought a battery driven backup sump pump. We then had a 16 hours power outage. Literally when I just got ready to drive to a store to buy a generator, power came on!
Bernd

Don't think we were hit the worst, but it was bad enough. It was around 1 or 2 pm today, Thursday, that we got power back.It had been off since last Thursday I THINK. Until last night we had a generator keeping the heating system going, and the water pump and fridge, and we had DH's daughter and her family over. Then they got power back last night, and our generator died a horrible death. Trees were down everywhere. One kept bowing down until it laid across my car and then across the 100 foot width of the back yard, the neighbor's locust trees snapped and dropped huge limbs. Not a soul showed up until Monday some time to drive around looking. Then they only worked until 4pm and no overtime. There is a lot of mad folks in New England this week. And I cannot wait to get south. On this trip north, it was a hurricane and a nor-easter my cup runneth over!!!

No one I know was hurt, but some really tired folks out cleaning up their yards.

Living in Pittsburgh area I can take some snow. The deer are really eatting all my hostas. I don't mind this time of the year but this being the first they came so far into my yard to eat, I am afraid they may come back in spring. Never had deer porblems befor. I live on a busy street with lots of noise. They must be real hungry to be so brave. Any one else have porblems.
Stush

Stush, deer come here as well, also wild turkey and coyotes. We don't have anything but raccoons and possums and snakes and turtles and rabbits in my Mobile AL garden though. A deer showing up would get shot and dressed out in a heartbeat with some of our local population liking venison.

But here is a picture of our yard, taken just after it dropped the 8 inches or more of snow and was in process of devastating the trees still mostly leafed out.

and in the back yard.

I am very lucky here this time. Sorry for the complant while you guys are suffering so much. Hope we get a mild rest of the year.
Stush

Stush, I meant no criticism, hope you did not feel that. And it is all luck of the draw. Actually, I got to spend more time with our three granddaughters than ever before, which is a good thing.

Tree limbs are still coming down, from trees in the neighboring yards falling as the wind blows. No sign of snow remains in our yard, just in parking lots where plows piled it up off to the sides. I'm sure this winter, which Farmers' Almanac says will be a very snowy one, will have enough winter weather to go around. It has not snowed in Mobile since Christmas 1997, but we might get some THIS winter. It will be good for the new hosta, if I can keep them dormant for at least six weeks.