I covered some emerging lilies in my backyard, some in the ground, some potted. The foliage looks 'okay'.
I brought a pot of emerging trumpet lilies into my basement. The foliage looks very good. I think I will leave the pot in my basement till weather conditions change. The pot will get flourescent light during AM hours. I covered most of my 8 ft vibirnum with a light weight bedspread. I broke several branches, but the foliage looks good.

There is nothing you can do for a 60 foot maple tree... guess I already knew that.

I don't think I can tell you what I've learned so far, except I doubt I'll enjoy my Miss Kim lilacs. The leaves on my Forrest Pansy Redbuds have wilted. Roses are being kept under sheets, but can't way what will happen when I uncover them. I'm guessing I'll prune off the damage. I've never experienced anything like this in my many years of gardening.

Hydrangeas, inspite of being covered are darkened on the outer leaves, but still see green leaves in the center, near the ground. New growth on butterfly buses are dead. I'm hoping they will recover. Astilbe is wilted and will loose the new spring growth. Coral bells are not looking good.

Crepe myrtle leaves are dead.

I'm hoping that someone that has experienced an extended freeze can give advice on what will come back and how to proceed.

I'm really depressed. I had spent so much time in the yard, fertilizing and pruning, only to have wasted my time.

:

Just too much too cover around here. I gave up, banana trees 6 or 7 foot tall, fig trees, everything is fried. Sure is a sad site around here. Even the Martins are wondering why the heck they are here. Oh well guess it's better than the storms down south. Maybe something will survive.
Old Cold Norm

Everyone around here is thinking I am nuts for putting everyone to bed here........I've done the overturned pots, covering the daylilies with blankets and the rest of the garden with shower curtains. I'm so windburned I thought I had layed out all day. I put garbage bags around my roses and hydranges. But i put to much time and trouble into my garden last year to have this kill everything....I have my fingers crossed and I have sent up my prayers....who cares if they think I'm nuts........I brought all of my 51 pots planted inside.....
Love Martha

Well with the temps in the 20's and teens I figured covering as you would for a frost was a waste of time when it's that cold. All I can do is hope that some things will make it through.

That thugs like honeysuckle can't be killed!
That native plants seem to be able to survive mother/father nature.
That I love epemidiums and hellabores.....they aren't touched by the frost.
That the burr oak in my front yard is very wise; it never blooms until after the last frost.
That I am indeed fortunate to have gardening friends with whom to share all of our surviving hostas.
and
That a certain amount of detachment is needed to be a gardener.

thanks for asking,
Gail

What I have learned come this morning........my rose of Sharon Jeff and Lavonne gave me is suffering, Blankets work better then anything else. overturned pots work good too. The plastic sheeting worked well too but have to take off during the day and then put back on at night. I covered my roses with plastic bags and that was the worst thing to do!!!!!!!! The roses I didn't cover were fine. The one's I covered look bad....I left several daylilies uncovered and they seem fine. My iris all look good despite not being covered. My hydranges look Ok depending on what I put over them. They hated the bag they did good under the pots. Most of my Hostas that I didn't cover looked better then the ones I did depending on size and type. My varigated took the cold better then my green and green and yellow.I plan on putting my 51 pots out tomorrow.
So this is what I have learned. Blankets work better if they touch the plant. Anything works better if it doesn't touch the plant. My lambs ear did well under plastic and if this ever happens again I really think I will cover with blankets and pray.
Martha

I have always did the bucket thing which works for individual plants. But, what touches the bucket gets burned. Plants close to the house go unharmed without cover for the most part. The technique I used this year to cover more space was blanket first then plastic. It worked much better than either one alone. Anything that touches bare plastic gets fried. I just could not cover and save everything. I have a weird obsession with saving the size of my banana trees. Gardening is an act of faith and things are not always perfect. There is always the hope of tommorrow. Rhonda

Well, I covered a few choice plants with pots or sheets, but by and large, I have too many plants to cover, plus I was hoping for the toughness of the natives (which I have a lot of) to pull them through. And, more importantly, this was mine and Chip's 6th wedding anniversary, so we were out of town, staying in a B&B in Kentucky (where they had an inch of snow on Friday night...) No time to pamper the babies.

We just got back yesterday and I'm still assessing the damage. My tiger lily, which was a foot high and covered with a sheet, has some damage, but the plant overall seems okay. It may not get many blooms this year, but at least it's alive and not mush. Most of my other lilies, well, those that were out in the open anyway, are mush and will probably not survive. If they can't manage to put out new stalks to support the bulb this year, they will probably die completely and I'll have to replace them. Luckily, I had just bought some new lily bulbs and they were safe in the house, so I will have something to plant this spring that might possibly produce blooms.

My bush sages had some damage-- I did cover one of those that was trying to bloom! -- but I think they will be okay with a bit of a trim. The Agastaches, yarrows, sedums and the smaller sages almost looked unaffected -- tough plant those -- with only here and there a wilted leaf. And of course all the fleshy leaved plants -- hostas, big daylilies, mums, cannas -- are all toast and we'll just have to hope their natural resiliance and exuberance will allow them to releaf and pull through. One surprise loss here was a lavender planted last year, but it had just put out a lot of new growth. I hope it will bounce back; it's bigger siblings seemed unfazed. And another surprise was my Russian sage -- it is definitely nipped back.

The thing that worries me most is the damage to the trees and shrubs. The Caryopteris looks very sad, with a lot of damage, so I'm just going to have to hope the shrub is tough enough to muster up additional foliage. Ditto with the crepe myrtles which are just terrible to look at, as others have reported. Two of my three azaleas are in a sheltered area on the south side of the house, so only one of those got badly nipped. But my butterfly bush died back to the ground again (unfortunately, I had just trimmed it back for the spring because it had had SO much new growth), and my new Confederate Rose and the chaste tree (which were both covered) all have blackened leaves. (Normally, the Chaste tree at least knows better....but I guess even a wise plant can be fooled now and again...) Oddly, one hibiscus (I had covered it with a bee skeep) seems fine, but I think maybe a nearby wall also helped to shelter it.

Anyway, all things considered, I guess the damage could have been worse, but what we did have is still very disheartening. I am very thankful I had actually gotten behind in the garden and had not trimmed back a few things -- many of the roses are still waiting for their spring pruning-- and I had also decided I was not planting anything new before the frost date no matter HOW hot it got. Roses are tough anyway, but I think not having pruned most of them probably helped -- I only had a little dieback on them and some even have blooms on them even now.

Anyway, now to rebuilding. Does anyone know, for the trees and shrubs, should I just go ahead and trim off the dead foliage or wait until I see new growth?

I have native woods around my house. Although the damage to my perreniels and shrubs (which were pretty far advanced in growth) is really sad, I think everything like that will come back on. Of course, things like native azaleas that were in bloom had their moments of glory cut short for this year.
What I am concerned about as was addressed earlier, are the huge old oaks, hickories, etc. The leaves were good sized on them and they are hanign like dark damp tissue. Has anyone seen this happen when the growth is so far along in the past? The leaves are so burned, I just can't imagine them just perking back up again. Maybe they will continue to grow and just remain burned on the growth that is already present? If they don't perk up, will they be replaced at this point? That's hard to imagine. And I'm hearing it's going to be a hot dry summer. This can't be a good situation for the trees.
I have crepe myrtles also. Can anyone tell us if those burned leaves will be replaced by new? They usually leaf out so late that a cold snap in April is not a problem. Not this year, everything seems to have thought it was summer so they had better hurry up and get ahead of themselves.
I think I will call our county extension, although the guy there is younger than I am so I doubt he's seen this happen before.

I do know that any of the leaves that are black or watery looking (the ones that look like "damp tissue") will not come back. That tissue is dead, because the water that was contained in the cells of the leaves froze and burst the cells (sorry I don't recall the official names for the leaf parts and I'm too lazy to look it up right now). Just like burst water pipes, they will no longer work and must now be replaced.

So what has to happen now is, those plants must totally make new leaves to replace those that were destroyed. The old ones should drop off if you don't prune them off. Of course, weak or stressed plants may have a hard time doing that, as it requires a lot of energy to create all new leaves. But many (most?) plants should be able to pull it off, it just may mean they will not bloom as well (or at all) since energy that might have gone to blooming/seed production will now go to making new leaves. The plants that bloom later in the summer or fall should be least affected, but those that bloom in Spring may not bloom at all this year.

I *think* maybe that the best thing we can do is gardeners is give the plants extra TLC once they start to put on new leaves. Give them an extra dose of mild fertilizer (high in nitrogen to promote regrowth) and water them well, as much as we can if there are drought conditions early. I'm not sure what we can do in the short term to encourage the new growth after this cold snap is past though.

Anyway, that's the extent of my knowledge on the subject. I am just not sure if it is better to prune off the dead leaves now or wait and let the plant try to put out some new growth first. I have quite a few that will fall into this category...

Well I took a look at the projected temps, took off the additional 5 degrees that our house usually has on the TV stations and decided there wasn't much I could do. With temps around 22 degrees for a few hours frost is not the problem. The couple of thins we tried to cover froze just as well as the uncovered stuff.

Hostas, amarcrinums, even daylilies look pretty bad. So does the star magnolia and the chaste trees. The patio peach fared a little better.

While I personally can't remember quite this bad a cold snap this time of year, I'm sure it has happened before. Nature will take care of most things. Particularly those that are native or at least rated for this zone.

I think April's advice is sound. Give the survivors some extra TLC and don't expect too much from the early bloomers this year.

I learned that I shouldn't "worship" flowers!

I luckily had not put anything new out, especially annuals. I didn't cover anything since it would have taken too many hours/sheets to do so. Most everything that didn't get killed or damaged on Friday night bit the dust on Saturday.

My heart broke when I saw all the iris buds frozen -- I've never seen that, but I wasn't born and raised in this area.

My peony buds are wilting but don't look quite dead, so maybe there's hope? And I'm avoiding checking the roses, since it's too late to worry now!

Ironically, the Dogwood blooms in the woods out back wilted but remained white, while their leaves are the only ones not black or dying.

I just received this from our extension agent...thought I'd pass it on

Here is some information from two of our Specialists regarding the care of trees and ornamentals.

Trees-Dr. David Mercker

With temps dipping down to sub-zero for three nights in a row, leaves of several trees have been damaged. Where the leaves appear blackened (or purple), they are most likely dead. In such cases, ice crystals have punctured cell membranes in the leaves, causing loss of turgidity (stiffness), and recovery of individual leaves is not likely. These trees will be stressed, particularly because as they attempt to re-flush new foliage, they will have to draw upon already depleted starch reserves. Any additional stress during this growing season such as drought, insects, diseases could cause mortality. Trees having indeterminate growth (such as poplar and gum) will re-flush with new foliage quicker, than trees such as oaks and hickories that have determinate growth. Expect sparse crown with the latter group.

Other trees have leaves that are not blackened, but are experiencing "epinasty." This is a rolled or drooping appearance to the leaves due to temporary relocation of water. These trees should recover fine.

Regardless of which of the above two symptoms are observed, the best remedy is water. Water, coupled with a gradual increase in temperature, will help the tree recover without scorching. Ideally homeowners should kill the grass directly below the tree crown, then mulch. DO NOT fertilize until near the end of next winter (Jan/Feb).

Water, water, water, but not to the point of continual saturation. A deep soaking twice weekly should be sufficient. Trees must produce the majority of their carbohydrates (food) during only 1,000 hours of the year - enough to sustain the tree for 8,760 hours in a year. Hence, the next few months are critical. First, the survival issue is often unanswerable. It just depends on the species, what stage of growth, how cold it got in that site, how long it stayed cold, how well established the plant was...and so on...

Ornamentals-Carole Reese

A wait-and-see stance is advisable. After a few days have passed, it will be easier to tell if there is any living tissue. Just now, dead tissue can still be green and sappy. Some plants may be killed back to larger stems, or even to the roots, but still make a comeback. I echo Mercker's admonition NOT to fertilize. The last thing these stressed plants need is fertilizer.

Once the dead areas are brown and crisp, they may be trimmed back to living green tissue, but this is not necessary, only an aesthetic issue.

Blooms may be lost on plants that formed buds on last season's growth, especially bigleaf hydrangeas, but plants that bloom on new growth, such as crapemyrtle, will be fine. Most perennials, will rebound from the roots, though may bloom later than usual.

Jan

Cool, good to know. So NO fertilizer, lots of water and hopefully most things WILL bounce back.

I am assuming, however, that compost might be okay...?

After a quick walk-through Monday afternoon....

Covering blueberries with trashcans is probably a good idea if you take them off every morning, otherwise you bake them. So, blueberry with no cover has happy leaves. Blueberry under trashcan for 3 days has brown leaves falling off ( I can hear the duh's from here)
Sheets draped around bigger blueberries may have saved some blooms - will have to wait and see.

I can't see any damage on rose buds yet.

My most hopeful item, the kiwi with 5 blooms seemed to have been protected by the mattress pad and tarp. Thank goodness I was able to lay it on the ground. It is the only thing that will be covered tonight.

Strawberries plants all look fine. Those under floating row cover or a sheet or cardboard with plastic on top seem to have kept their blooms and berries.

Swiss chard under sheet is fine, neighbor that didn't fit under sheet is a bit fried but will releaf from center.

Was shocked to see leaves melted on tulip poplar.

Hostas were interesting. LemonLime melted while Halcyon, a few feet away is absolutely fine. Neither was covered.

Nothing that was under 4" of weeds & leaves was hurt.

I think that a couple sheets with a tarp over them would protect most things from the temps we got. I also would cover my hostas with newspapers and cardboard boxes if I had to do it over.

On the bright side, 70% of the yard shows no sign of freeze. I overheard walking by the lenten rose "freeze, what freeze?"

I don't think I lost any plants permanantly. Some will just have to releaf, rebloom, or won't fruit this year.

I was just coming here to ask about my poor frozen mature trees and found this thread. My Chestnut trees look like they are going to lose all the leaves. (unfortunately they just came out a few weeks ago so i guess they were extra tender)

My hostas were hit and miss, some made it and some didn't. My daylily foilage looks rough, but I think it will be ok. I keep reminding myself that daylilies are the toughest of tough!

Jan,
Thanks for posting the info from your county extension. Although it did confirm my worst fear for the mature native trees. I can't imagine how these enormous old trees are going to put out new leaves when the ones they had were already half grown. I guess we have to trust Mother Nature but it's kind of scary since I think we (as in, we the world, not we the plant lovers) have offended her quite a bit in recent years!

As for my shrubs and pereniels in my yard, they give me so much beauty every year, I think it's not a big sacrifice to coddle them along thru this spring and summer and do without some of the flowers they usually give so generously. I'll be more than happy to baby them if they will just stay alive to bloom next year!

:-(

I had to rush out of state early Friday to attend to my mother who entered the hospital. My husband really didn't do much other than try to use a few overturned pots on some annuals I had planted (and I told myself not to plant anything yet...to wait until after the 15th!! I should've listened to myself.)

Had I been home, I'd probably have used every blanket, box, etc. in desperation to try and save my "favorites".

I came home yesterday morning and was very very saddened by what my garden looks like.

Wilted and/or burned, melted, etc and too numerous to mention but these bother me the most:
--Amaryllis flower heads that were gigantic
--"Batik" iris flower heads--at least 15 getting ready to open
--Possibly the Sumatra lilies that were new to my garden last year will be totally destroyed...new little shoots were pushing up
--3 tall new canes on my black bamboo in the container (yes...could have dragged it into garage--guess my husband "forgot")
--Japanese ferns fried
Etc., etc., etc

I am keeping my fingers crossed that my beloved Japanese Tree Peony's 6 large flower buds were not internally damaged....the outside of the buds looks good...but again, I do not know what to expect when they finally open up.

Like the rest of us lamenting what happened the past few nights....I will hope that many of my perennials will send out new leaves to replace the mush I am looking at....and also that the freeze did not kill off flowers that emerge & bloom later in the year.

Claudia
P.S. Yes...my mother is thankfully OK. That is a good thing.

From Extension Office, UT Gardens, Knoxville (Courtesy of FOG mailing list)
Our plants were too far advanced for this time of year and were not in a
physiological state to tolerate the freezing temperatures we received. The
duration of the low temperatures over three nights coupled with 20 to 25
mph winds delivered damage that we could not provide adequate protection
for. No one remembers this sort of thing.

For the new spring growth to be killed is one thing. New growth will
replace that in a few weeks. While more than cosmetic, healthy plants in
the fields and landscape more than a year should be able to recover and
grow more new foliage. Growth for the year will be reduced. Do not attempt
to regain with more fertilizer. A reduced rate of fertilizer should be
applied to cold damaged plants.

It is too early to determine if there will be twig dieback or how much.
Dieback will vary with the plant genus, elevation, stage of growth, etc.
Warmer temperatures will allow dieback to become more evident. A caramel or
light brown color under the bark will indicate cold injury and the tissue
will be weak or possibly die.

I fear we might see dieback continue throughout the summer on some plants.
We may not have any, but busted bark on holly, crapemyrtle, boxwood, etc.
should be obvious soon. Tiny seedlings and first year buds will be damaged
or killed. Seed crops may be damaged on the trees, such as redbud, tulip
poplar, maple and dogwood.

Make notes to yourself for the future about the low temperatures you
experienced, the plants damaged or killed, what survived and protection you
tried.

James Newburn
Curator - University of Tennessee Gardens
Plant Sciences Department

More from Extension service. Looks bad for fruit and nut crops.
The following might answer some additional questions members may have and was
sent out by David Lockwood the Plant Sciences Extension Specialist for Tree
Fruit and Nuts. His advice can also be applied to ornamentals as well -
especially the part about avoiding fertilization and pruning being aware of
watering in our drought situation.
Hope this info is helpful,
James

Severe damage to the 2007 fruit and nut crop occurred as a result of a
combination of above average temperatures in March followed by severe cold
temperatures over several recent nights. What is the status of the crop
and what needs to be done now?

In most cases the fruit crop is gone and the nut crop has received serious
damage. However, plasticulture strawberry growers who utilized a
combination of row covers and overhead irrigation may have salvaged a
partial crop. I was in a field yesterday where, although damage was
present as evidenced by dead blooms and fruit and damaged foliage, there
were many live blooms and fruit including a lot of ripe berries in one
variety (Sweet Charllie).

Some apple varieties in higher elevations may come through with some fruit.
Varieties like Rome and Golden Delicious that bloom late may have a partial
crop on lateral blooms. In Johnson Co. last week, the king bloom of the
blossom cluster was in the pink stage. I expect them to have been lost,
however, lateral blooms may set a crop.

Some grape varieties may come back with a partial crop on secondary blooms.
Again, this will be more prevalent in higher elevations where crop
development was not as advanced as in other sites. The tendency to crop on
secondary buds varies with the type of grapes being grown. French-American
hybrids tend to be more fruitful on secondary buds than American bunch
types.

With nut crops, new shoot growth and the catkins, male portion of the bloom
where the pollen is located, has been killed. The potential for the crop
has been greatly reduced. Plant stress may result in fewer female flowers
and, of course, the lack of viable pollen.

What should be done now? It is too early to accurately assess damage so
the best reponse is to wait for a while. There is no doubt about the
status of the fruit crop loss with the exceptions mentioned above.
However, it is premature to assess plant damage. Dieback of shoots and
branches and in some cases, the entire aboveground portion of plants may
have also occurred. For plants such as fig and oriental persimmons,
dieback may extend to ground level. These plants will regrow from root
suckers. However, since most oriental persimmons are grafted onto American
persimmon, you will no longer have an Oriental persimmon. For adventurous
people, regrafting the plant is an option. For others, if you do not want
an American persimmon (some of them are very good), the rootstock needs to
be dug up.

Don't fertilize or prune at this time. New growth in spring utilizes
stored carbohydrates from last year (you may have heard someone say that
all early growth of the plant and the crop is directly related to the
health of the plant as it entered dormancy the previous fall). A portion
of these stored food reserves have been utilized in the growth and crop
development that was destroyed by the cold. Therefore, the plant is under
stress. Regrowth will be related to the amount of stored reserves in the
roots of plants. Fertilizing at this time will further increase the stress
on plants. Damaged shoots and branches will, in most cases, have viable
foliage. This leaf area is important to the plant in overcoming the stress
that currently exists. Pruning would remove the valuable contribution that
these leaves can make to the plant. Pruning should be done next winter
unless branaches and shoots have been killed, in which case their removal
should be done now.

If there is a partial crop, a decision needs to be made regarding care.
Assess the crop level over the next couple of weeks. If fruit is to be
left on the plant, the level of pest control needs to be the same as for a
full crop. Failure to control pests may result in a buildup of pests that
will need to be overcome in future years. If some fruit remains on plants,
realize that they are quite likely to have been damaged from the cold.
This damage may range from surface scarring in which case the fruit may
develop normally to injury that will result in the fruit dropping off the
plant over the next few days or weeks. It may be better to defruit plants
to avoid problems mentioned above if the level of cropping is not high
enough to give a decent return. Pest control applications aimed at
protecting the plant will still be needed. Control for trunk borers in
stone fruit crops will be essential. Lesser borers in stone fruits will be
a threat to branches above the level where trunk borers hit so some
insecticide applications to the entire tree may be warranted. Japanese
beetles need to be controlled as the leaf loss they can cause will further
weaken already stressed plants. This is especially valid with young trees
and vines.

Most areas of the state are already experiencing water deficits so
supplemental watering is important, especially with young trees and vines
where the root system may not be extensive.

Over the years that I have been in Tennessee, I have never seen a situation
that exactly parallels what we are currently experiencing. Your
observations and experiences will be valuable in anticipating courses of
action if we should have this situation again in future years. Please let
me know how growers in your area have fared.

Dave Lockwood

The blueberries under cover (canvas tarp 5 feet above ground level) didn't get much leaf damage. They were in full bloom, however, don't know how the blooms will take the cold. If this happens again, I'll try a low-wattage light bulb under the tarp too.
Painted daises were blasted along with the daylilies. The hardy begonias turned black instantly. Can't say I mind it too much since they're an invasive pest.
I was surprised by the early iris. They were blooming and I didn't put much cover on them but they're still blooming.
I was surprised that the new growth on the nandinas froze. They are such tough plants I didn't bother to cover them (they're too big anyway).
Camellias under chicken wire and quilts seem perfectly happy but i guess it might take them a while to show damage. They were about done blooming anyway.
The baptisia that weren't covered are done for. I thought they might be OK since they are natives. Oops!
The columbines (another rampant plant) didn't care one way or another - they're still blooming.

I was surprised at the damage to tough evergreen plants like boxwoods, hollies, and nandinas. I know these plants will be fine in the long term, but it is said to see all that lush new growth dead.

I was also surprised at my roses, which I think of as been rather tender. I did nothing to them and they apparently didn't get the memo that it was cold; they look great!

My azaleas were so beautiful that I couldn't bear to lose their blooms. So I wrapped Christmas lights around each one and left them on all night (the neighbors thought I was crazy) then covered them with a sheet. This worked like a charm; they are still beautiful.

My crepe myrtles, redbuds, and hydrangeas lost all their leaves. My Kwanzan cherry did pretty well, though; it even still has some of it's blooms.

This morning I noticed how untouched some thugs were. I have three burning bush plants that were forming blooms. They are intact. Also, there are chinese privets growing in the nearby woods. From a distance they look untouched by the freeze.

Conversely, I am fond of poke weed and allow several plants to grow in my yard. They really got toasted by the freeze. Also, a very weedy box elder maple that grows in my yard is loosing its leaves.

Although the leaves of my crab apple looked good as of yesterday, today some of them are falling with the rain.

Mainly, I learned that I need row covers, and ordered 10' x 200' from Berry Hill on Monday. I worked for 3 hours on Friday night and still didn't get everything covered. It breaks my heart that I didn't make one more trip around the house to round up bathrobes, pajamas, tshirts, sweatshirts, etc. to cover the lone daylilies, the irises, perovskia, foxgloves, a few more ferns and other things that are so forlorn now. But I was exhausted, it was dark, snowing and windy, and I quit. The tender things I made a concerted effort to protect survived 20 degrees and wind, with heavy cloth items (towels, rugs, throws, flannel pillowcases, polarplus jackets, etc.) right above the plant and a flannel sheet, comforter, duvet cover or cotton sheets with clothes pins over groups of individually covered plants. With row covers, I'd cover really tender plants (hostas, lilies, azaleas, hydrangeas, etc.) with the heavy layer then cover entire beds around them with the row cover, down to the ground. That would have protected everything. I could have covered the star magnolia, the doublefile viburnum, even the clematis montana up on my eaves, with lengths of heayweight row cover. And I could have left them covered for five days.

Things that made it or did OK: sweet autumn clematis, hybrid honeysuckle, 8' oakleaf hydrangea in a protected location, lavender Provence, blue fescue, artemesia, wild geranium, daffodil leaves (I picked the flowers before), columbine, yarrow, siberian iris, early small iris, new hellebore foliage, sedum, Korean spice viburnum (not the blooms), Virginia blue bells, multiflora rose (figures), chokecherries seem OK

Things that made it with a single thin sheet held up on hoop supports (and presumably a row cover would): regular clematis, variegated solomon's seal, cinnamon fern, german iris, rue anemone, variegated yellow sage, phlox maculata, dwarf laurel/kalmia seems fine - we'll see about blooms

or buried in leaves/wood shavings: peony shoots, baptisia shoots, salvia, Huskers Red penstemon, echinacia, Bergens Blue veronica, verbascum, germander, lavender Munstead

Things that weren't covered and look sad: liriope, some daylilies, lamb's ears, Japanese anemone, oak leaf hydrangea, service berry, cimicifuga, native dwarf crested iris, german iris, foxgloves, lilac, holly shoots

Things with new growth that weren't covered and are melted or sizzled: perovskia, baptisia, 18" high emerging miscanthus (on the south side, between a stone house and paved driveway!), Joe Pie weed, carolina allspice, star magnolia, doublefile viburnum, some daylilies, Nippon daisy, schizophragma vine, clematis montana, deciduous native azaleas, butterfly bush, rosa rugosa Alba, privet new leaves(yeah!), bittersweet vine (ditto), crape myrtle, spirea, sourwood, sassafras, maple, alder, box elder, white oak shoots, dogwood blooms and leaves, poplar (totally out after 80 degrees for weeks in March and black now), wisteria, big birch trees

Young birches in the woods weren't leafed out, nor pin oaks

What I learned was: To be glad I got lazy and did not get the roots planted in the yard. The fussing from hubs was worth not losing the boxes of plants.
Also to just cry,scream and pitch fits.Then get back behind that shovel and fix what has to be done.

Don't worry too much about the native trees.

I am a full time farmer who moved down here from Ontario, Canada and I can tell you a thing or two about unseasonable frosts and freezes. Native maples, oaks, black cherry etc, may lose their leaves but they will refoliate, if thinly. Many of the oaks keep a spare set of buds for just such an emergency. Don't worry about the box-elder, either. I have never, ever seen any kind of cold snap that would hurt one. The only way they ever died was by blowing over in a strong wind as they were/are weak rooted and weak wooded.

We had a parallel situation in Ontario several years ago. Extremely warm weather the whole month of May followed by four nights of temperatures in the low to mid 20's in early June. Literally 90 one day and frost the next morning, so I know from whence I speak.

I learned that sometimes it doesn't matter how much you do to protect plants that are either already outside (in containers or in the ground) or emerging from their slumber from the year before, when just the right conditions (such as temperatures in the 80s plummeting to 21F, especially when combined with any amount of rain) are met, because almost everything can be killed off.

I had my understanding of how cacti and succulents are damaged the most by freezing, reinforced when seeing non-cacti/non-succulent plants that were equally full of moisture with their new Spring growth and then experiencing such low temperatures.

They, around here, call it a Blackberry Winter... It was a sad thing. Last week I toured a fair bit of the residential landscapes in a city further south than I am... so many "hardy" plants that looked absolutely horrid. I've never seen Privet take such damage before, just for starters.

In the midst of it all though I had a Flaming Blaze lonicera/honeysuckle that the damage was minimal (I haven't noted any damage but haven't inspected CLOSELY) and the bugger bloomed throughout all of it! Go figure. Hyssop was also a contender.

There probably won't be any blueberries here this year unless some bushes go on to bloom that hadn't already, but that might not happen... a killer spring to be sure.

We have a holly bush that had so much new growth on it that is now black...and it stinks...like fermented beer...(I guess that is what it is...I am not familiar with beer) you can hardly stand to walk past it, it is so strong.

I have one iris that is blooming this morning...so not all is lost.

Jan

hermitonthehill - This was the Redbud winter since they were in bloom. Next is Dogwood then Blackberry Winters. It always goes by the blooms of the plant

bvt2007... umm where are you located at? For us, by those definitions, "Blackberry Winter" would be appropriate - they were beginning or in bloom (depending on the various patches)... the Dogwoods bloomed here on my property and surrounding "locale" ahead of the Redbuds by at least a week and a half, probably closer to two weeks, then the Redbuds came on (right along with the forsythia) even as the Dogwood blooms persisted. Normally, for right here on the hill, the Dogwoods and Redbuds wouldn't have bloomed until mid-April, but they were kicking it in late February and all through March respectively. April had the Dogwood flowers persisting even while the Redbuds were transitioning to the next phase of growth. Those of us on the hill were concerned then about it, fearing what losses would be because we would inevitably get a cold snap. I don't think any of us expected temps as low as they were for the three days that most others also experienced.

From what I'm reading on this thread, there seems to be a fair amount of variation from one garden/property to another as to what weathered through without a hitch and what got hit hard. All of my Oaks... the old Oaks... it looks like late Fall/early Winter again. I hope they have the reserves to leaf out again. The leaves, unlike some others I read about here, still had a lot of growing to do - MAYBE at 1/5th their full size, less in most cases. I worry especially for those that were already compromised but have continued to leaf out each year even when I expected they would just die - this might have been Mother Nature's "purging" for those, as if to tell them it was okay to go to sleep forever.

While blueberry blossoms were struck - I think that might be a blessing in disguise. The bushes on the property here have given me bumper crops year after year instead of the "normal" pattern of high yield year, low yield year, high yield year, low yield year, and so on. I kept waiting to see when they would finally take a break. MAYBE with the cold snap coinciding with blossoming for some of them, they will have a break from production this year. Of course I assume that bumper crop production has taxed them too much, though they might be so healthy that that is why they could "afford" to do what they did for all these years. They were in need of pruning and suckers taken up, etc. though so maybe when they recover and I can see where there's new growth, I will actually get that trimming and maintenance done for them this year.

I'm sure glad that most of my Brugmansia were still indoors, if nothing else. Don't think I could bear having to start over with those AGAIN...

IrisAddict - Thank You so much for starting this thread. That freeze, was precisely what put me totally in the dumps on whether or not to even bother going to the swap in May and now that I know I was far from alone in the losses I feel.. well, not so alone. (Misery loves company?) I won't have as many ready-to-go started plants to offer, but I'll surely have at least some seedlings (resowing in cups) and if not already rooted, at least cuttings of some things to bring - and for other things I'll probably bring seeds so that folks can opt to sow for themselves. And it looks like the Fall swap might be even better since so many of us had the losses we did this Spring. So I'm already planning to attend that one as well. :) Trying to see a silver lining...
Hermit