I was in Florida for about a week and family back here said it was in the 70's and 80's here. I came back and the trees (some )had leaves and the grass wasa foot and a half tall and thick, I had a hard time in the lower yard it was so thick and green. Well, the other night ( Monday?) ruined the leaves on a bunch of Quercus Rubra and one Q Shumardii The Q Nuttallii came close but are holding back their leaves enough to avoid this crap. The white oak family oaks were conservative and weren't fooled. The 2 chestnut oaks are getting restless and are close to leafing out, though. The Willow oaks I have look really bad. The 2 ft tall one has blackened leaves. It looked good before the cold snap. After seeing them in Florida and how the leaves ( not form) look like live oak, I want at least 2 in my yard. My Quercus fusiformis looks totally great after this winter. My Q Virginiana are bare now, but I think they are okay, this winter was no test for them anyway. Long story short I hope my oaks that had their first set of leaves ruined bounce back, the same for others trees.

Am I the only one with a serious frost last night? But the hostas seem to know and are still furled so no damage that I can see. I keep an amateur weather station at the house and it showed below freezing temps from about midnight till just after 6 AM with a low close to 26F or -3C. Now the forecast calls for warmer weather and the hostas can unfurl ... all are now up though I appear to have lost one. Camelot was planted as a small plant last August and it did not reappear. Even the liner that I planted just to see if it would grow has reappeared. Doug

Yep, comforter weather last night. I even shut the bedroom window which I hardly ever do. Woke up this morning to a soppy mess outside, but I didn't hear it rain at all. I'm glad I got all the yard mowed yesterday. Winter is when we tend to lose power the most, ice bringing down the lines,ect. Not fun when it's nine days or more. All those affected by the storms and floods are in my thoughts.

I'm west of Chicago in Iowa, but we had a freeze warning the night before last. I didn't cover any hosta because those that have popped up are just barely above the mulch and I've left some dry leaves down for insulation. The ones that are starting to unfurl are pretty hardy and I knew they'd be fine - those are the plantaginea and lancifolia. (Truth: I consider those "throwaways" so if they were damaged, I wouldn't care really). The only things I did cover were the bleeding hearts that are well above ground and starting to develop their gorgeous little heart buds. I'm really hoping that was our last freeze warning! After yesterday, I can see things are really starting to pop up everywhere. :)