I'm in the Fraser Valley, BC. The 'frost is on the pumpkin' here too! Hopefully, I'll have everything mulched by next weekend.

35 degrees in Sequim, close call.

I brought my orchids inside yesterday -- also frost last night. I drenched and soaked and repotted...until I lost energy and initiative then just shoved the last of them into the house, dirt, bugs and all. Interestingly, in the springtime, I had repotted a bunch of overgrown cyms then ignored them for the summer. One of them I had just thrown into a pot,no media at all, no water all summer and it was growing quite happily. These guys are much tougher than everyone thinks! I'm glad someone else is as negligent as me.

I had brought the phals and the paphs in at the end of September, but I kept putting of taking in the rest. Cool nights help trigger bud set. Right?

We got frost in Marysville too, didn't seem to bother any of my tropicals though. The brugmansia, mandevilla, & ginger all look good. Guess it's time to drag everything in. My back hates this time year.

Yes, why do the tropicals have to wait so late in the season to put on a great show!

Definitely had frost in Index on the night of the 16th

There's two general groups of tropicals, lowland and upland. The ones from the mountains take, even need it much cooler. Lowland ("true") tropicals can be affected by temps in the 50s.

Index is way out there, in or on the edge of the mountain climate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sunset climate zones: Western Washington

I would sure love to hear about what tropicals some of you are growing here in the PNW.

Another light frost in the low laying parts of the garden.

No wonder it's laying low. I'd be trying to avoid getting frosted as well.

Still no frost here on a 750 ft. bluff near Maple Valley. Usually I get several frosts by now. Fall color doesn't seem as intense as previous years. Could it be because of all the rain we've been having lately?

Below is a link to my garden this Fall. I'm adding pictures as the trees turn color and not including those that didn't do well this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fall color in my garden 2010

No frost here yet either in Indianola. This will be my first winter in this location and I am waiting to see how much a moderating influence the close proximity to the Sound (I am on the beach) will be. Plus, this seems to be a somewhat protected area, tucked behind the big bluff that shields my beach from the worst of the winds. Very minimal frost occurred last winter at my previous location in Suquamish but I attribute that to the considerable shelter provided by the dense planting of big conifers at that site.

Personally, I'd rather have the openness and the sun of the beach and the possibility of more/harder frosts than the overwhelming but protective shade of my former "forest" :-)

Unless at the mouth of a ravine or canyon draining cold air off of a nearby upland probably turn out to be a Californian situation, with plants tender not too far inland persisting there. Heat being released at night by salt water has quite an effect on many beachfront sites along Puget Sound.

The new D. Hinkley and R. Jones garden is near Indianola. Up on a bluff, however.

We had a light frost yesterday morning, but it didn't really damage anything, so I guess it doesn't count.

Gardengal, it sounds like you've got a great spot for growing lots of cool stuff. You'll have to start collecting Acacias, Grevilleas, Banksias, Leucadendrons, Puyas, and such.

LOL!! While the setting is rather spectacular (at least in my opinion), actual gardening activity may be problematic. The topography is challenging, being a pretty steep transverse slope - hard enough to walk on upright, let alone garden easily. Right now, most of my gardening is limited to containers, although I do have one area earmarked for clearing and cultivation. And there is always the issue of height - can't/don't want to plant anything that will get tall enough to obscure the view of the water.

Ian, I definitely have a Grevillea on my list. And I have my little eucryphia I got from you, growing happily in a container. And I have expanded my collection of weird succulents, which are my current passion and seem rather suited to a steep seaside garden. The Hinkley/Jones compound is just up the hill from me but I haven't gotten up the nerve yet to go knock on the door and introduce myself as a new neighbor :-)

Their property is fenced and gated, with the house set back. There are some interesting plants. I've been there once, by invitation. When an opportunity presents itself you will probably find it worthwhile to have made use of it.

Slopes are ideal for displaying pendent flowers such as those borne by Grevillea victoriae.

And cold air moves off of them.

"a" Grevillea.... that's it?!?!

How's the soil at your place? What's growing there now? A steep slope sounds like an ideal setting for starting with small plants.

We'll see how all those grevilleas etc. around now look after this coming "vicious" winter. Hopefully it will just turn out to be a little on the chilly side.

In the meantime I would definitely not do a lot of planting of marginally hardy stuff. Not a good time of year to do that anyway.

Not that I don't have a few possibly suspect items still waiting to go in the ground.

But I know what I am dealing with and will not get my shorts in a bunch if something burns up.

Nobody has told me they were "perfectly hardy".

A good indication is when new growth is still being made this late in the year, as though the plant has no programming for northern conditions.

Hence the tender tips on some of my evergreen viburnums, and the well-established Arctostaphylos pajaroensis (?)* at Emery's Garden (a nursery near Lynnwood, WA) that is sprinkled with red new leaves.

In November.

I hope it makes it, it's a pretty nice specimen.

*He's not completely certain of the identification and neither am I. Plants sold under the name by Colvos Creek nursery some years ago were different; similar plants on the local market recently I believe have been offered under other names. One I have in a pot here, waiting to be planted may perhaps be the same as the Emery's shrub

Hey, there's not much arable space here, plus it is not my property - I'm only renting (although have been given a green light to plant whatever by my landlords)!! The soil doesn't look wonderful.....not much in the way of OM and somewhat clayish and heavy, but it appears to drain well. What's here now is mostly lawn as a good portion of the flattest area is occupied by a septic field. The lawn guy is a bit of a mountain goat with the weedeater on the rest of it - no way he could maneuver a mower on these slopes.

There is one major planting bed that is now filled with an assortment of ho-hum perennials and raspberries that I will be changing out but 75% of my future gardening will be limited to containers. They are just so much easier to deal with.

Yes, you probably don't want to do too much on rental property anyway.

I am laughing at the comment... why do they wait so long to bloom! Because this is not the tropics! LOL

Many of the plants that I brought from Northern CA bloom for 12 minutes in my Shoreline garden - if they bloom at all. Gave up on the cannas - most of them rotted but the ones planted in Freeland WA only grow about 18-24 inches with sparse ugly blooms. I lost the Billbergias, some ferns and I am still waiting for my Green Goddess, Calla aethiopica to bloom. Zonal denial can be fun... but I don't consider Seattle the tropics! LOL We managed to harvest about 3 cups of tomatoes from 6 plants and one was full of green cherry tomatoes when we bought it!

Don't get me wrong, I love my Northwest garden with hundreds of ferns, hostas with leaves that could serve as umbrellas and hydrangeas that are still in color. It is a glorious place to live and garden - but it ain't the tropics!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Biblical Gardens Web Site

Of course it's not the tropics, that's why it's so fun to grow those plants here, hard as it may be. I've seen conifer-type gardens in tropical climates that imitate our northern look. Whatever they tell you that you can't have seems exotic & rare.

Btw, I've had 4 or 5 light frosts here on the hill in Marysville, and still have mandevilla in full bloom on my deck. It loves these 70 degree days! Also still have outside a 7' ensente banana, 2 kinds of bird of paradise, several brugmansia, and some citrus. Not many days left... :)

It's difficult for me to think of containers as needing less maintenance. I guess if you don't have a couple thousand of them then perhaps it could be true. But once you put something drought tolerant in the ground it really doesn't need any care after that... the only real hassle (unless it's larger shrubs/trees) is weeding.

As far as tropicals... to me a lot of the lush and leafy stuff is a waste of time, espcially things like Cannas and bananas. They seem to demand a lot of water and fertilizer and even then sometimes fail to perform well in cooler summers. It's the drought tolerant exotic plants - not really tropicals - that I continue to appreciate and grow.

I'm not quite done with this - it needs a little revision - but here's how my old garden looks after 12 degrees last winter.
http://www.desertnorthwest.com/articles/freeze_08_10.html

Getting back to the weather, I thought I'd pass along this splendid bit of information...

Public Information Statement

Statement as of 4:00 am PDT on November 4, 2010

... Record for all time warmest November day in Seattle tied on
Wednesday...

The high temperature of 74 degrees on Wednesday tied for the warmest
all time November day on record in Seattle. The other November 74
degree day was on November 4th 1949. Wednesday was only the fifth
day ... including records at the federal building which go back to
1891... where the high reached into the 70s in November. The
following is a summary of 70 degree days in November in Seattle.

1. 74 degrees 11/3/2010
2. 74 degrees 11/4/1949
3. 72 degrees 11/2/1970 federal building high was 72
4. 71 degrees 11/4/1980
5. 70 degrees 11/3/1970 federal building high was 73

When the federal building was the official weather record site for
Seattle... 1891 to 1944... there was never a day in November with a
high in the 70s.

This past Summer... June 21st to September 21st... the high
temperature at Seattle-Tacoma Airport was less than 74 degrees on 60
out of the 93 days... so almost two thirds of the days this Summer
were not as warm as Wednesday.

Out of the four years where a 70 degree day has occurred in Seattle
in November three of the years... 2010... 1970 and 1949 are La Nina
years. 1980 was a neutral year.

It is interesting to note that the previous 74 degree day in 1949
was during a moderate to strong La Nina event. A moderate to strong
La Nina event is predicted for this winter season. The 74 degree day
in November 1949 was followed over two months later by the coldest
month on record in Seattle... January 1950 where the average monthly
temperature was 24.9 degrees ( 16 degrees below the current normal
of 40.9 degrees ) and when the all time record low temperature was
recorded ( January 31 1950 0 degrees ).

Hence the comparisons to 1955 I've heard. Cold growing season, warm fall, "vicious" winter. The shift from balmy to bitter occurred overnight. Tender plants still sitting out this late may be at risk. House plants should have gone in before nights got into the 40s.

Some houseplants are hardier than most people think. I keep my florists' cyclamen, amaryllis, and Epiphytes out on the front porch all winter, only bringing them in if it's going to go below thirty. The flowers last longer in the cooler temperatures.

Yesterday was amazing!! I worked outside in my shirtsleeves all afternoon, rearranging and settling my movable garden and repotting some. All the hardy fuchsias are still in full bloom, as is the autumn sage. Finally got around to hanging the hummingbird feeder and they were there almost instantly. Those little guys obviously possess some very strong nectar radar!

One thing I have noticed in my few weeks here is that beachside condensation overnight tends to be a lot heavier than that experienced inland - every morning my deck looks like its been rained on. Very heavy dew!

I gardened a lot with containers in my old Shoreline garden - the large enclosed patio was the sunniest area of the garden and most of my collection of dwarf conifers and Japanese maples were containerized. Other than the occasional need for repotting and attention to watering in summer, containers offer minimal maintenance requirements in our climate. Of course that may be different if one was responsible for hundreds of small ones but if its only a few dozen larger containers, not such a big deal.