What is surviving the best in this cold in your garden?

14 years ago

This morning I took a good look at what is still alive (green or greenish) in my garden in San Antonio and here's a list of some that were most interesting to me:

Salvia - Indigo Spires and Greggii

Turks Cap

Blackfoot Daisy

White skullcap

Brazilian Rock Rose

One Rosemary is blooming now.

Almost all these were planted within the past year and did well in the summer heat. Of course we have some colder weather coming this week, so I'll keep checking.

What is still going in your garden?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (25)

roselee z8b S.W. Texas
14 years ago
Good topic Shirley! It's been so long since we had a 'real' winter I've forgotten what gets nipped.

Here the four nerve daisy is blooming nicely as well as the rosemary, but that's it for blooms. Roses aren't blooming, but their leaves can take an amazing amount of cold so they are looking okay.

Mexican oregano and culinary sage are looking very fresh. Chinese fringe, Golden wonder senna and thyralis are holding on to their leaves.

I'm surprised that First Lady Phlox (the fuschia pink one) is still green, Fanicks phlox is green but some leaves are yellowing. Chiampas sage (a pink one from Schumachers) is still green. Grapefruit mint and Holly fern are still looking greeat. Coral honeysuckle and Blue crown passion vine are still green.

Plus the things we expect to stay green like Artemis castle Lirope, Winter honeysuckle, etc. are hanging in there. Fire cracker fern is still green too.

Confederate jasmine took a hit along the top, but it is an older variety. I notice a more recently planted one at my neighbor's place is still nice and shiny green. A new variety came on the market several years ago that takes more cold. It's called Birmingham, or something named after a city. I was looking for it when a nursery man told me most of the growers are propagating it now even if it is not labeled as such.

Larkspurs are growing like crazy with the rains we had. Soap aloes got nipped on the tips, but the agaves are stoic as ever.

It's time to plant the tulips Georgeanne gave me after getting a hundred of them for Christmas as a gift. I've had them chilling in the fridge.

How is everybody elses yard holding up?
castro_gardener
14 years ago
Howdy Neighbor ! I have one bed with all newly planted things from the last swap. Not frozen are dwarf barbados cherry, two sorts of fern, oxalis, spider lilies, and most surprising, catnip. But I'm protecting them for the 18 degrees we expect later. My rose bushes are also staying green, for the most part.

I will go look at my skullcap and rock rose. I didn't think either of them would still be green. How interesting !

Stay warm !
patty
Related Discussions
Have your roses survived this COLD winter?
Q
Comments (47)
Well here we are at the end of May and now I think I can safely report that I lost 60 roses out of 137. All but 5 of the ones I lost were planted in pots. In the past it was the potted ones that survived better than the ones in the ground. I don't know quite why this year took it's toll on the pots instead of the ones in the ground either. They were wrapped and packed in leaves just as well as always. Whereas NONE of the ones in the ground were protected at all and most of them survived, albeit cut nearly to the ground, but growing nicely now just the same. So I'm not sure protection made any difference. And I wouldn't put all my money on own root plants either. The 5 in the ground that I lost were 4 own root minis and a Knock Out. And my biggest losses in the pots were all of my own root mini and miniflora show roses. The only mini that survived was X-Rated. Which is weird because it's NEVER been a very vigorous grower for me. And then there are my seedlings. I lost all but 9 out of 78. And all of those are own root of course because they're from seed. So it wasn't protection or whether they were grafted or own root that made a difference as far as I can tell. Just the fickle finger of fate I think.
...See More
What was your best garden experience...
Q
Comments (23)
I have made so many mistakes, and have so many many questions that it's really nice to have an enty in this category. I have a tree that is going to eat the neighborhood! It is an Acacia Saligna - planted where the Salicina had it's demise. I made sure to water properly and apparently the roots have taken hold as it has held it's own in the latest winds. It is 2 years old, and I can't get it to stop growing! About 15 feet tall and wide (at least). I know that you are only supposed to prune 1/4 of the growth annually, but I have had to do that 4 times this summer. Are you are all thinking that I am probably watering too much? The truth is, it gets water only about every 3-4 weeks for 4 - 5 hours on the drip. It has shaded my porch from the afternoon sun, so now maybe I can plant something there and it won't get cooked.
...See More
How does your garden grow? survive!
Q
Comments (10)
Betty, Did you take the broken rose branch and root it? Might as well make lemonade when life gives you lemons. The wind here is ridiculous today. It is a wonder the row covers haven't blown away but I do have them pinned down pretty firmly. I have tried to keep the peppers warm by having them in the greenhouse during the day, and bringing them inside the house if I think the greenhouse will drop below 40 degrees or so. My poor pepper plants barely know what real sunlight is because they haven't seen it in so long. I want to plant all the rest of my hot-season stuff, but have been waiting for some consistency in the forecast too. Since I couldn't direct-sow anything today (I would have had to remove the row covers), I started a lot of warm-season herbs and flowers in flats, and a few veggies like cukes, melons, watermelons, Armenian cukes, etc. I hope to pop them out of the six-packs and into the ground the minute the first tiny bit of green pops up out of the soil-less mix. I intend to put bean seeds in the ground tomorrow. They raised tomorrow night's forecast low from 44 to 48, so I feel like it will be warm enough. Our 3-day average soil temp dropped from the low 70s to the mid or upper 60s with with this last cold front, but the soil in the raised beds is still pretty warm. Likely the row covers have helped them stay warmer by holding in the heat. Carol, I am concerned about the weather too. I am hoping that the cold spells haven't lasted long enough to cause bolting. If they do, they do....there's nothing we can do about it. The reason I have covered my onion bed's hoops with the 10-degree row cover for every cold spell is not because I thought the onions might freeze but because I hoped it would keep them warm enough that they'd be less likely to bolt. I guess we'll know in the next couple of weeks if they are going to bolt, and I am hoping they won't because they are so lovely right now and will make a great crop if they don't bolt and if hail doesn't get them. Our Sugar Snaps are producing faster than we can pick them and eat them. I guess it makes up for the early heat wrecking the crop the last two years. Either we need to start eating them at every meal, or I need to freeze some. I planted mine in paper cups in February and then got them into the ground as early as I could, but I planted a certain percentage of them every week for 3 or 4 weeks, trying to spread out the risk of a late freezing getting them. I also staggered the potato plantings quite a lot. The first two beds that I planted are the tallest, and the third bed is not far behind. They are getting too tall to cover so we're in trouble if we get another cold front, which I hope doesn't happen of course. I was looking at the first two beds a few minutes before sunset, and the plants look like they've grown 6-8 inches since Tim covered up those beds on Wed.evening. You can see the plants pushing and straining at the row cover. I think it keeps them so warm that they grow faster while it is on them. I haven't planted a single bean yet, but hope to rectify that tomorrow. We have a lot of rain chances in our forecast for next week, and since lately our rain has come only in little bits....a few hundredths of an inch here, a tenth of an inch there, we really need that rain. Maybe if I get the beans in the ground and then it rains, they'll sprout quickly to make up for going into the ground so late. You still might get more parsley volunteers. Just this past week, volunteers started popping up like mad. I imagine when we rototilled all the soil repeatedly while rebuilding the beds this spring, we exposed a lot of buried seeds to sunlight. While weeding on Wed. right before putting on the row covers, I saw volunteer seedlings of all kinds---okra, watermelon, ornamental purple-leaved peppers, flowers of several kinds, tomatoes, etc. I even saw basil and corn volunteers. The basil can stay but I'll yank out the corn since it is in the middle of a row of garlic. I know you don't like cilantro and won't try to change your mind about it, but I grow it near potatoes and I do believe it helps keep the potato bugs away. I planted about 30 lbs. of seed potatoes so we have row after row of potato plants and I haven't seen a single CPB yet. Grasshoppers, however, have arrived in full force. Dawn
...See More
Cold zone rose gardeners who don't winterize. Are grafted roses best?
Q
Comments (16)
I really have mixed feedback on this issue. I totally agree that the robust growers in cold zones do fine on their own roots and you don't have to worry about suckers from the graft. Too robust growers (like gallicas) can be better grafted so that you can plant the graft ABOVE the soil (only) for those super-hardy roses and avoid the gallica taking over the garden bed. I also agree that grafted roses of the wimpier varieties of HTs and floris are more robust in their first year or two and tend to grow bushy faster than own root versions of those plants. However, I've recently started to experience the down side of grafted HTs in a cold climate. First of all, virtually all of the grafted HTs and floris that I've planted with the graft properly buried have gone own root over time if they've survived. For instance, I bought In the Mood grafted from a local nursery and it was fabulous and bushy in its first year. The second year and for every year after that, it was a knee high one-cane wonder until it finally gave up the ghost and died after about 6 years. The same process has been happening more gradually with my grafted Savoy Hotel. It was lush (maybe 4.5' by 4.5') and incredible in its first year or two, ranking in my top 20 of roses. Every year since then it has declined and come back from the winter more slowly. By August this year, my plant in optimum sun and soil conditions has just now reached almost 3 feet with 3 canes on it and a couple of blooms here and there for the first time all season (nothing at all in June). Here's a contrast picture to show that effect - this is 2013 in June for Savoy Hotel at its full 4.5'x4.5' glory. Savoy Hotel is at the bottom right corner keeping up with Madame Isaac Periere in the back of it with no trouble. Granted, this was a particularly good rose year, but you can see the relative sizes. Now just one year later in 2014, here's Savoy Hotel in front of MIP (bottom center) also in June, and this was an average rose year for me. It's too late for MIP on the shepherd's hook to be blooming, but you can see MIP's height by the purple clematis. Notice that she's now in 2014 only 3' high and has about 4 blooms every couple of weeks. She has declined from that since, even though she's still a very nice rose. I don't have any more recent bush pictures for her since I only get the scattered blooms any more, and only late in the season to boot. One other effect I'm seeing in my older grafted roses this spring in particular is graft failure for a lot of my well-established roses with the graft well buried. Even under the soil, it seems like a grafted rose starts running out of places to grow new basal shoots after a while. For instance, this spring I lost an 8 year old Dream Come True (the tall rose at the left of the first picture) for no good reason that I could see, and it was a mild winter. Sure, you see pictures of 50 year old grafted HTs in warm climates, but those are warm climates. I suspect that if we have a 50 year old HT rose in cold climates that started out grafted and is still alive, it has gone own root in that time and is a robust rose on its own roots. My reluctant conclusions are that if a rose is going to be a wimp, it will reach that state on its own whether own root or grafted. If I get an own root HT rose through its first winter it will increase in size to its sustainable height and vigor and more or less stay there for the duration. If I get a grafted HT rose through its first winter, it will decrease in size to its sustainable height and vigor and stay there till the graft fails or it goes completely own root. There are only a few roses where I think the graft did give the rose a little boost in survival over that first winter, Memorial Day and Oklahoma come to mind, but for the most part I don't think it buys me anything in either survivability or vigor after the first year. That's why I tend to grow my HTs and floris on their own roots. I want to know the long-term height it's really going to be in its early years, I get reliable winter survival of the original rose from own roots if they get to a good size in their first year, and I don't have to dig up a massive root system when it dies or deal with suckers. Just my two cents Cynthia
...See More
jolanaweb
14 years ago
Hi Shirley, Roselee and Patty
Here is the back yard, I would have to venture out front to get more, lol and I hate cold wind and cedar pollen, lol

Rosemary is blooming here
Plants still green, lol
Bottlebrush
African Iris
some daylilies
butterfly vine
Gaillardia - Kobold, blooming and on north side exposed
All of the sedum
bouncing bet - soapwort
society garlic
sweet william
La iris
sages
bulbine
guara
coneflowers

Hardy Pink Ice Plant - Delosperma cooperi
rock_oak_deer
Original Author
14 years ago
Great lists to save for the future. It's a lot more fun to focus on what looks good than what may be toast.

John Fanick Phlox and Muhly grass still look green too.

Going to have to cover a lot more plants Friday.
roselee z8b S.W. Texas
14 years ago
I went out and checked and pink skullcap is still green here, as is rock rose. Both regular and dwarf Barbados cherries lost their leaves, but the stems are green. I used a thick blanket to cover the new larger fruited Barbados cherry that Jolana got for me, but it still lost leaves. How did yours fare, Jolana?

BTW, I left out a word and a comma in my message above. I should have said "Artimis 'Powis Castle', and lirope" are still green as expected -- sorry to disappoint you ;-) but Artimis castle lirope is not a new variety ... LOL!

The freeze last week was especially hard on the plants since they were actively growing because of the rain and warm weather. I have a feeling this weekend is not going to be as hard on what is left. What do y'all think?

But it is going to be harder on the water pipes so wrap any that are exposed and let the faucets drip a little.
PKponder TX Z7B
14 years ago
Most of my outdoor plants are already dormant and nothing is blooming. We are supposed to get down to 14 on Thursday and Friday evening.
Still holding their green:
Passiflora Caerulea
Texas Gold Columbine
Ajuga Reptans looks amazingly nice
Autumn Fern
Rose
Culinary Sage
Hot Lips Salvia
Parsley, Cilantro and onions
Most of the cactus (natives)
Agave
Red Yucca
Daylilies (butterscotch ruffles)
Red Spider Lilies
Carolina Jessamine
liriope

Making this list was therapeutic, I have lots of green!

Pam
carrie751
14 years ago
That was a prediction for the city, Pam, but I think those of us in the country will go lower. My inground plants are well watered and as ready as they can get ... so guess I will just wait until next Spring to see what survived as the "COLD" weather has not arrived as yet.
jolanaweb
14 years ago
Roselee, the first freeze, it was fine and it stayed at 27 for about 9 hours but the second freeze lasted for 2 days and half of the leaves dropped, the next one, all gone, lol
carrie751
14 years ago
22 degrees and dropping at my house....guess I won't be planting petunias today.
castro_gardener
14 years ago
EEEK ! Carrie.....where are you ?

patty
PKponder TX Z7B
14 years ago
Brrrr, it was dropping here, but now it's a balmy 24 north of Fort Worth :-) The cats don't seem to want any fresh air this morning.

Pam
carrie751
14 years ago
I am in Copper Canyon, Patty, but it warmed up to 28 degrees this afternoon.
rock_oak_deer
Original Author
14 years ago
One bright spot...

My Asiatic lily bulbs must be very happy as they need at least 400 hours of cold. Last year they bloomed, but the warm winter didn't help them. Should have planted more bulbs, but then I have to hope it's cold which is not good either.

Looks like most stuff is doing okay out there. Two more nights of this.
spishack01
14 years ago
dirt
roselee z8b S.W. Texas
14 years ago
I had no idea Four nerve daisy would so valiantly bloom in cold weather. And I didn't cover it.

I just came inside from taking this picture of one of several clumps, all blooming:

Even snapdragons and pansies shut down when it gets this cold.
eyesofthewolf
14 years ago
two rose bushes two cauliflowers one snow pea two brussel sprouts thats it, everything is either dorment or dead :o( I feel so sorry for my koi and goldfish they just hang in the water looking like frozen fish in a big ice cube. I know that we get these deep cold fronts every few years but 2008 & 2009 were the first years I put so much effort and money into the yard. I made bad choices oh well spring is around the corner I`ll make better choices for cold hardy plants. Bundle up and stay warm. :o) Deanna
rock_oak_deer
Original Author
14 years ago
Four nerve daisy really looks good.

Deanna, only a couple more days to go and then we start to thaw out. Hope some of your plants will come back in spring.

-Shirley
linda_tx8
14 years ago
I had a couple Four-Nerve Daisy blooming at the front of the property. The blooms don't look as good now...hopefully the plants are okay. It got to 12.7Â° in the wee hours here. I hope it wasn't that low for long. In any case, whatever survived made it, whatever didn't, didn't. The winter of 2010 will be remembered for quite a while, I suspect. I feel bad for the butterflies...it will affect the number we see here in the next year. I have some Gulf Fritillaries...brought the caterpillars in earlier to keep them alive. Now there's butterflies in the containers and I don't see a bright future for them when I let them go. Oh well! I had a little heater going in the shed where I put some of my potted plants and it did get below freezing inside there anyway...I had a container of water that had ice in it. Other pots I covered outside. Hoping for better weather for the rest of the month.
lou_spicewood_tx
14 years ago
So far, my 'Nanjing Beauty' bald cypress is still half green. Roses and abelias are still green. Nandina too. Wax myrtle. Yaupon Holly.

That's about it. I'm more worried about my st augustine lawn. Last thing I want is bermuda taking over dead st augustine lawn then taking over my plant beds.

Hope that's the worst of it for the reminder of the year. Remember that sudden drop from 90s to 10s in December of 2005? I thought it was gonna be a long winter but it turned out to be very mild winter. Lets hope that's the case this winter...
armymomma
14 years ago
In my garden, a few things that survived this past week were:
parsley, but its very bitter!!!

spinach from last fall that never grew, although it just won't die ;)

onion tops, they are looking sad

Oddly enough, I pulled a large broccoli plant and left it by the side of the garden, fully intending to chop it up and put it in the compost pile. It's still alive and I think it's trying to reroot itself.
element321
14 years ago
Well most of my plants die back in the winter. I covered 5 year orange tree and bunch of pepper plants cold frame tent around the plants. I lost all of the pepper plants the orange dropped its leaves but looks like it will survive. I scratched the bark and its still alive. As for the plants on my porch. I lost several plants and few that might come back. My plastic lining was torn and shredded after one the nights that we had a lot of wind and low of 15. I'm pretty sure I lost all the tropical plants that were against that wall.Once the plastic fell away. But that was the only night that porch went under 35. I have two heat lamps and heavy duty space heater running on the coldest nights and when the plastic is working it never gets lower than 40. I wont through any of the plants out until summer. I will put them in the corner of the garden and water them. If they show no signs of coming back they get composting. Sadly they wont be replaced. I am having to downsize.
tobydmv
14 years ago
Mexican Oregano is alive and doing well. Mexican bush sage is dead to the ground! Texas Pistache, Tx Mt Laurel, and Wax Myrtle are still evergreen. The Mt Laurel does not look happy though.
Denton, TX
dstartz
14 years ago
I have 5 butterfly bush that haven't missed a lick thru all of this; my 'Honeycomb' (Buddleja x weyeriana) is actually blooming, as are several of my miniature roses and we got down to 25 a couple of nights.

My Texas sage, aloe vera, blue agave, pink Texas skullcap and Texas mountain laurel all appear unfazed, as well.
rock_oak_deer
Original Author
14 years ago
Today I went out and looked at the plants that were covered for about a week and found a couple of them are blooming.

Salvia Coral Nymph, which is supposed to be an annual
Ruellia, tall pink
Miniature rose

White lantana is either still blooming or holding on to its blooms. It is in the cold part of the yard and was not covered. The other lantanas died back.
bjb817
14 years ago
Here's what hasn't appeared fazed by the cold:

Med. Fan Palm
Pindo Palm
Pineapple Guava
Sweet Olive
Cherry Sage
Cenizo
Red Tips
Nandina
Cast Iron Plan
Holly Fern
Dwarf Myrtle
Holly Fern
CA Fan Palm

Things that should be green but aren't:
Queen Palm
Mex Fan Palm
African Iris
Yellow Bulbine
Chindo Viburnum
Oleander
Bottlebrush (dwarf and standard)
Society Garlic
Agapanthus

It'll be interesting to see what happens this spring for sure!

What is surviving the best in this cold in your garden?

Comments (25)

roselee z8b S.W. Texas

castro_gardener

Related Discussions

jolanaweb

rock_oak_deer
Original Author

roselee z8b S.W. Texas

PKponder TX Z7B

carrie751

jolanaweb

carrie751

castro_gardener

PKponder TX Z7B

carrie751

rock_oak_deer
Original Author

spishack01

roselee z8b S.W. Texas

eyesofthewolf

rock_oak_deer
Original Author

linda_tx8

lou_spicewood_tx

armymomma

element321

tobydmv

dstartz

rock_oak_deer
Original Author

bjb817

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

What is surviving the best in this cold in your garden?

Comments (25)

Related Discussions

rock_oak_deerOriginal Author

rock_oak_deerOriginal Author

rock_oak_deerOriginal Author

rock_oak_deerOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

rock_oak_deer
Original Author

rock_oak_deer
Original Author

rock_oak_deer
Original Author

rock_oak_deer
Original Author