Difficult to access damage now, but soil is frozen much worse than last winter due to lack of appreciable snow cover. This Feb was colder than last (last Feb was quite cold). Waiting on the Hagerstown weather-observer to see how this Feb ranks w/the coldest. Rather surprising, but the lowest temp here was only -2F (a couple days ago). That said, the number of near zero mornings and the very few days above freezing in Feb was distressing. Only "good" thing is the lack of prolonged strong winds in Dec - Feb, but that always revs up in March thru April.

Looks like some mild weather should temporarily occur in mid-March. Most Marches have at least one warm day (60F - 70F & often some thunder) in early March, but not this yr.

OK, went & did the math for the Hagerstown, MD observer. As you can see, this Feb was the 4th coldest since records began in 1898.

COLDEST FEBRUARYS

21.7 1905

22.0 1934

22.5 1979

23.2 2015

23.3 1936

23.5 1978

23.9 1899 1904

24.5 1907

25.4 2007

26.0 1901 1963

26.4 1908

Avg Feb temp is 33.5, so Feb 2015 was 10.3 F below avg.

I saw that many areas of the upper northeast had the coldest Feb on record but with record snowfall.

Things don't look too bad here. Though things decline rapidly in March when the sun's intensity increases and soil remains frozen. My golds are starting to burn quite a bit now.

Can't make any assessments beyond that until end of March.

Milwaukee had the 6th coldest Feb on record @ 14.3 degrees. I can see the grass in many parts of SE WI which won't bode well for some zone 5 plants.

NW of MKE I had 13 sub zero days in Feb, much colder than last year.

Up until that point it averaged out as average with a very cold Nov, very warm Dec and average Jan. -15, -13, -13, -11, -10 are the double digit sub zero temps.

We've gotten into the single digits twice this year. But the most damaging weather was the wet 3-9" of snow received in the area last week. Southern Mags, Loblolly's and other conifers or evergreen broadleafs sustained the most damage.

Well damn, i can't post pics from photobucket :(

Loblolly's leaning

Leyland's Leaning

I should have mentioned if you want to wait, that's perfectly understandable, plants in much of the northeast are still under heavy snow. I'll probably bump this thread in late March when certain things are a little more clear like whether any camellias can bloom or not. Though I broadly observed last year that a couple days after a thaw, most of the damage becomes as apparent as it's going to be.
I forgot to mention that Osmanthus X fortunei really surprised me last winter by having no visible damage. This year, the leaf edges are browned but my current thinking is that it will be ok.
Just this morning, I see that we had terrible icing. I had not gone out last night so I didn't realize how bad it was. Most plants look like they will be ok. I'm surprised the Baltimore stations were only reporting a couple thousand outages last night.

"Milwaukee had the 6th coldest Feb on record @ 14.3 degrees."

Thanks whaas, I had not realized it was that cold so far west.

Oddly, things seem fine on the tree front. This February has had a ridiculous amount of snow, but I haven't noticed nearly as much tree damage as during Nemo in 2013 or Hurricane Irene in 2011. One medium sized branch fell well before the first major snowstorm. My parents have a lot of old trees on their last legs, so they are always losing limbs...none seem to have been knocked down by the blizzards. Maybe it was the lack of wind, or maybe Nemo knocked down everything that was vulnerable.

I planted a lot of small trees last summer, so the real test will be how they survived...can't tell until the snow melts and trees bud.

Of course, the subway system near me broke, and A LOT of houses have ice dams. Very few power outages, strangely.

I lost track of the number of sub-zero mornings quite some time ago. Surely it has been more than 20 with the lowest for me at -12. Portland 11 degrees, Bangor 6 degrees and Caribou 2 degrees set new all time average temperature records for one month during February. The frigid temperatures have pretty consistently been accompanied by high winds and bright sun. Burst water mains under streets that have been plowed bare all winter have become increasingly common. That means frost to a depth of at least 4 feet. The saving grace - let us hope - has been deep snow cover for the worst of the cold and wind. Due to the cold, the snow has been consistently dry and fluffy, making it an ideal insulator. It has remained at a depth of at least 3.5 feet with much deeper drifts so I am hoping that this protection will result in minimal damage to anything beneath the snow line.

Alittle actual liquid rain here, and it pools on the flat ground -- can't get into the frozen soil.

Another cold air mass, then jet-stream finally relaxes for a few days and actually get some "average" temperatures.

In Kingston, Ontario (5b - NE end of Lake Ontario), we've been down to -15F several times and haven't had a day above freezing for ~6 weeks.

• Mahonia aquifolium, Ilex x meserveae, Ilex opaca - In winter shade, no damage. In sun, leaf scorch.
• Cedrus deodara 'Karl Fuchs' - No damage
• Cedrus libani var. stenocoma - 30% needle burn

All the other evergreens are either 'no brainers' or under 2-3' of snow.

We haven't had much tree damage in this area, but we'll see. Everything is still covered by lots of snow. Also, the big snowstorms we had this year were all accompanied by extreme cold and wind, so the snow was light and fluffy, and blew off the trees.

" Very few power outages, strangely." I think the reason this seems to
be becoming less and less of a problem in the northeast is the string of
storms going back to Irene in 2011 took out the vulnerable trees.

Here in eastern Mass./central New England we had a severe ice storm in December 2008, and a "Snowtober" snow storm in October 2011 that both caused major tree damage, resulting in some towns losing power for a week or more.

My town did not lose power (maybe a few minutes), because we have a municipal light company who diligently maintains the trees. Other towns, and their utilities "came to Jesus" and implemented much more diligent tree trimming. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I'll report when Spring comes (if ever).

smivies, any thoughts on why your Cedrus deodara 'Karl Fuchs' doesn't have damage given the temps in Feb? I looked at your weather records and they are brutal.

Those temps would smoke that plant to death here.

The only thing I can think of is the moisture content coming off the lakes with the NW winds. Whereas we'd typically have dry winter winds.

The records are what they are...but they are also significantly colder than anything we've seen in the past 17 years. We will reliably hit -15F every winter but haven't gone below -20F since I moved here 17 years ago. Factors helping me...I live 1 mile from the big lake which moderates my early winter temperatures (until mid-January), winter humidity is high, it's cloudy until mid-February, and big temperature swings are moderated in spring & fall. I wouldn't be so optimistic even 10 miles further north from the lake.

As for the extreme lows, I think both stenocoma & Karl Fuchs are even hardier than many claim (which are already miles ahead of other Cedrus). Also, extreme lows of -25F have been seen in many other much more southern places over the years and they have a diversity of mature species that I don't have a hope to grow here.

I'm a bit worried to find out what the voles have been up to under all the snow. We've lost a number of small trees to voles. It's hard to try to protect them because they climb up, but also when the snow is so high, they might chew 2' up in the tree. I'm hoping the snow has been so high they're working on branches up in the Japanese maples, and not around the trunks. I lost a nice, smaller Japanese maple last year. Between the voles and the feet of snow still left to melt I suspect we'll have lots if damage to them. I'm going to remain optimistic though! Here's to hoping!

thyme, I have several times seen what I believe to be fox tracks in the planted part of my garden (after it snowed), and I can only hope they are hunting for voles. I've luckily only had one plant in many years that I suspect they killed. Not the best soil for them here, fortunately.

Dave - I agree. When I started this thread, I really thought we were out of the woods for temps in the 20s and 7" of snow.

-5 F this morning -- coldest of the winter, perhaps a near-record March low. At least I'm used to it.

Beng, I got up at some point in the night as I unfortunately tend to do, and checked temps at wunderground. My eyes started falling out of my sockets when I looked out west. I could understand below 0F temps in the mountains, but a thin swath of temps around 0F and falling was forming from western York Co. PA, up and down along the "front of the ranges" from Virginia to Central PA. Looking on mesonet now to see minimum temps, I see a cold pocket outside Winchester, VA, at only 600 ft of elevation, hit -12F. -12F!!!!!!!!!!! in March!!!!!!!

(cf: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?&zoom=12&center=39.46879995920132,-76.18812561035156&basemap=OpenStreetMap&boundaries=true,false&hazard=true&hazard_type=hi-all&hazard_opacity=60&obs=true&obs_type=weather&elements=temp,wind,gust&obs_popup=false&obs_density=10)

Incredible that at this point most of the state of Maryland has had temps below 0F. I'd say, most locations on the eastern shore did, if you were not right on the open water. Ocean City Airport got to -6F! This was because of the big radiational freeze after the snow storm. All of the mountain ridges and valley have probably been below 0F. The cold pockets of the high Piedmont have been. Just this morning there's a -5 outside Westminster. The only places that escaped it were the middle to lower Piedmont as long as you were not in a cold pocket, and the immediate coastal areas near unfrozen water.

It would be interesting to map the whole mid-Atlantic for temps below 0F this winter. We are probably close to 1994 levels in terms of overall coverage, because I think back then a lot of eastern shore escaped going below 0F. However, we are nowhere near 1985 levels, when I'm pretty sure no point in the state escaped < 0F temps, and even the entire Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads area went below 0F.

Last night was all about cold air sinking under relatively calm conditions. In northern Harford Co. near Norrisville, there's a 5F reading at 740 ft. of elevation, and very nearby, a -2F at 660 ft. in a valley.

VERY COLD February here, much worse than January (December was mild). Minimum was 1.0 F above (so did not go below a Zone 7a temp.). But the number of frigid, cold minimums was ridiculous for February. Right now, it's the deep snow cover keeping much of the East cold (though it probably helped plant roots.)

Winds blowing out of the southwest to my NJ yard (from Kentucky), will not be so warming when areas of that state recently received two feet of snow. This Winter, we were at the southernmost limit of the great Northeast blizzards (of Massachusetts. etc.), and the northernmost limit for the more recent southern storms. Now we can all dread Spring flooding potential! So done with Winter!!

P.S., I have read that the last Winter similar to this one was back in the 30's and heralded in a record hot and dry growing season (otherwise known as, "The Dust Bowl").

I'm a sucker for weather-related threads. Davidrt28, those are nice detail you've made and I'm a bit jealous. That's the level of detail I can only admire. When I go out outside, it is with a sense of purpose...and making notes on plants quickly loses its luster. Our low (I think) was -22F, which tends to focus one's mind. Drawing breaths can be a challenge when it gets that cold. I will say that I'm seeing some winter burn on the few Alberta Spruce I've got, but I'm sure that's not a big surprise to anyone.

Our nasty cold months were November (depressing) and February (cold and sunny with minimal snow). December was unusually warm with multiple rain falls, which is just weird. January was very uneventful. We've only got about 4" of snow on the ground, and it should be gone by end of week, which is expected to be quite warm and sunny. Ye ha!

March is coming in like a lamb and I hope it goes out like one as well. We've had heavy, wet snows the past two springs (May 2013!), which did significant damage to numerous White Pines. It would be nice to avoid a repeat of that.

David, yeah, the cold had alot to do w/completely clear skies, zero winds & freshly laid snow. That's one reason I hadn't had any excessively low temps previously -- the conditions hadn't promoted the frost-hollow effect, which my spot has. I looked at nearby Wunderground sites too & most showed 0 to 7 F, which was close to the predicted values. The Hagerstown regional airport, which is a bit higher than surrounding land, had 2 F.

Northern Chesapeake Bay frozen over a bit, eh? There's even ocean ice off Delmarva Peninsula.

"Northern Chesapeake Bay frozen"
Not just Northern...a couple weeks ago, they had to air-lift supplies to Tangier Island because there was too much ice for the ferry service to get there!

Here's a screenshot of temps last night, dramatically showing the difference between elevated and nearby lower areas:

This is more common in the Pacific-influenced West coast and intermountain West where it is of course called an inversion. I myself have experienced dramatic ones while out there in eastern WA state, but I digress.

Like George Washington I cannot tell a lie, or at least have to admit something: I see from looking at my plants there is going to be additional damage, and I wish I hadn't started this thread yet. But the reason why is noteworthy at least: I'm noticing now that a fresh March snow fall with very low temps is proving to be _incredibly_ damaging to foliar tissue because of the light reflected by snow. The March sun is much stronger than the January sun....look at how fast driveways are melting even if they have a little bit of ice left on top. I have a little Cistus that had practically no damage last weekend. The snowstorm of a couple days ago was very blowing, and even though this Mediterranean subshrub was under my wide roof awning (a curious feature of my house) and normally protected from winter precip., it was surrounded and covered in snow. Well, a mere 2 days of that snow + strong sunlight - and western mind you, not eastern - has totally incinerated the leaves. I'm terrified to venture out to see what has happened to my more exposed camellias - and I'm almost certain my Sequoias are now going to show at least as much damage as last winter, if not more. I'm also sure they will survive, but this last minute snowstorm really sucks. W/o it I might have said this winter - for ME - was no worse than last winter. Now, it definitely was worse. My large collection of seedling Euphorbias now looks not a litte more damaged than last winter, but a lot more damaged. I suspect some of them will only be able to return from the roots.

EDIT: just had a walk around. It's definitely worse than last year now. Details later, but I don't think anything was killed outright. Or at least nothing I was really worried about. The snow did a lot of radiative damage near the snow line, as I'd talked about.

The most incredible "inversion" I remember was the cold wave in early Feb 1996. An arctic "core" of air moved southeast over extreme southwest VA w/no winds, producing lows like -24F to -27F near Cleveland, VA. In Blacksburg my temp was a mere -9F, but on top of the mountain along Rt 64 near Charlottesville, VA, the temp was 32F!

This March cold spell was very damaging to any Camellias that got a bit of morning sun.

I have all my camellias protected from morning sun in winter but one. That is 'Korean Fire'. And it basically looks ok. I might as well post now, this depressing picture:

Mahonia X intermedia F2 was hardly damaged last winter, this winter it's about 40-50% burned, the inner shaded foliage is OK.

Danae racemosa was mostly pushed down into the snow but even the bits that weren't are OK. They are apparently pretty hardy if they are in shade, which it is.

All Sequoias are now more damaged that last winter, but tip shoots still appear green and healthy, so I think they will survive. As with last year, branches of 'Soquel' that were near the snow line were incinerated by the reflected light. I'm even seeing that on some Cryptomeria foliage that was right near the snow line.

Cunninghamia is notably bronzed, the whole plant. But still definitely alive. I really didn't see much bronzing last winter. The pattern emerging is that having the cold come later this year was actually more damaging because we had really bright sunlight the morning after the big snow. (9" here) In the March freeze of last year (coldest March day ever recorded in Baltimore), the day following was cloudier.

Ummmm let's see, what else to mention. Thank goodness I had the forethought to cover some tender things with snow using my FEL. The snow mounds have now melted around my Phormiums and they are fine, still very green and alive. I am worried I might have lost some rare forbs like Kniphofia thomsonii. I'm not seeing the little green pips just at the soil level that are there year-round.

The big Abies pindrow is just fine. Maybe a couple of slightly tan needles here and there. The little one is maybe 25% burnt but the buds are already swelling...it's on a very warm south slope where the snow has been melted for a few days now. I think that's more a problem of establishment.

Of my 3 Abies delavayi seedlings, one has unambiguous cold damage. Not life threatening probably. The good thing is the late to bud in spring clone was OK. That will be more a problem with that species here than absolute hardiness. All my other Abies seedlings are fine of course. For some Abies albas in central Europe, this winter would have been a walk in the park! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Moritz#Climate)

Podocarpus 'Red Tips' is absolutely fine, even the parts above snow were not bronzed. (and are slightly red, as the name implies)

Thuja 'De Groot's Spire' is normally green after a winter here. It is completely bronzed. Same with Juniperus rigida.

Leycesteria stems are usually green after a normal winter here; they are brown and obviously dead now. Plant will have to return from the roots.

Lonicera X purpusii buds are swelling, it should bloom next week.

Prunus mume buds are swelling, it should bloom in 2 weeks if we keep warming reasonably well. Some years it has bloomed around Feb 20th!

Callistemon 'Clemson Hardy' - well, we'll see about that!

My Glaucium patch died last year because it didn't like being covered in wet snow for weeks. We had less snow this year, and I started over in a snow sheltered spot. It's fine this year.

Did I already mention Michelia/Magnolia skinneriana? It had barely recovered from last year. If it manages to resprout, I will feel *extremely* lucky.

Even some rhodies are showing foliar stress which wasn't the case last year. I generally don't plant tender ones. 'Van Nes Sensation' was recovering from a botched planting job on my part, it looks like the foliage was burnt by the snow. 'Cinquero' and 'Sky King' seem stressed, too. 'Britton Hill' has burnt leaf edges but will be fine; Herr Greer notes that this plant survived the devastating 1970s Willamette Valley freeze.

Arbutus unedo, 'Elfin King' IIRC. Severely damaged, worst than last winter, but I suspect it will pull through. Also has notable snow burn.

General observation: wall-o-waters are very useful, even if they freeze solid. A R. cinnabarinum, which I'm protecting because I want to cross with it, was surrounded by a wall-o-water. A branch sticking out above looks close to dead. The branches inside are still slightly green but look more likely to pull through. Same with the Schizophragma integrifolium var. faurei. The part sticking out was so obviously dead I just cut it off. The part inside the wall-o-water stayed green.

Camellias will be ok, worse damage was on 'Destiny' which is my only non-hardiness selected japonica.

Oh one more notable thing - unlike the 2 other Sequoia cultivars, the Asian Pseudostuga was *not* further damaged by the March cold wave. Why? It's hidden from the sun, behind a holly. Further proof the real culprit - in my garden at least - was the sun combined with the cold. As I said above, 'Soquel' had looked close to undamaged on the last day of February.

That's all that comes to mind for now. If any other bad news emerges, like Edgeworthia being unable to leaf out...I'll update as needed. Also will update if there's bits of good news. My Gresham Magnolia had finally made flower buds last year. It will be interesting to know whether they were killed off or not.

I've noticed some rather severe leaf burn on BLEs just in the past week, especially hollies. Far worse than last year.

The ground was still mostly frozen even a few days ago, but we had sunshine and 55-65 temps a couple days.

Thanks, David -- interesting as always.

Still too early to say much, but doesn't look bad here yet. None of my zone-challenged pines look damaged -- pond, longleaf, loblolly and Himalayan white. Tiny firs that had their little root-zones frozen solid for many weeks look OK -- Manchurian & Nordmann. Can't tell much yet about Amer fringe trees that died to the ground last season. But my once-big butterfly-bushes might be done in completely.

Little cranberry viburnums planted last spring look like buds are already expanding alittle?! Furry "pussy willows" on dwarf willow appearing.

I think my Leyland Cypress experiment in z6b MA is over. Survived last years record cold relatively unscathed, but this year was too much...everything above the snowline is toast.

Buxus semperviriens 'Fastigiata' looks like the trunk just exploded despite being fully submerged in snow for the past month.Cornus kousa 'Satomi' - several damaged branches.

Still waiting for the last 1.5ft to melt to assess the final damage...not a good winter

oh gee, I haven't even been able to get to the back where all the young trees were planted a few years ago. Add that to the list of things to worry about.

Looks like I spoke too soon. I visited my parents in Southeast Mass and much of the snow had melted...plus they got A LOT of wind. A small tree or large branch was broken. The yew that were buried under snow banks were severely mangled. Oddly, I saw some nodding onions growing happily in the melted snow.

Yes even here it's still an evolving situation. For example, I would now rank the damage on Ilex 'Scepter' as being more severe than that on 'Sand Pond'. Once again proving how a 100% American X American hybrid is more resistant to our capricious weather than an Asian X European one...as you'd expect. Because the leaves of 'Sand Pond' are obviously reviving themselves, but those of 'Scepter' continue to dessicate and turn papery brown. I wish I had a male I. integra, it would be cool to make a 'Sand Pond' X integra cross. (I should clarify versus what I said on Feb 23rd: some 'Scepter' leaves were still undamaged at that point. All 'Sand Pond' leaves had minor damage. Now, ALL 'Scepter' leaves are basically dead and some are already falling off. Most 'Sand Pond' leaves still have damage but the green bits are getting greener, it seems. The March 5 freeze was by far the most damaging of the winter)

There's some rather odd damage now becoming apparent even on Abies ernestii...sometimes rated as hardy as 5b and I've seen a huge, beautiful one near Rochester, NY. (part of the reason I bought one) The leaves have little yellowish spots...I might post to the conifer forum to see if someone has seen anything like it. They are so subtle they might be impossible to photograph. It's like a very subtle variegation. Certainly not serious, but fascinating.

All in all as they say, it still could have been worse. It also makes me feel good about my choice years ago not to invest in trying a big, expensive Trachycarpus palm. Because I thought north of about St. Michael's, MD or maybe Cape May, NJ - and even those locations are really really pushing it- they have no chance of being truly long term plants w/o protection. I knew another winter like 1994 would happen, and it did. What I did not know is we would have 2 in a row!

I reiterate that 'Soquel' is my best looking Sequoia...granted it is my oldest but the bigger 'Swarthmore Hardy'/'Chapel Hill' has been in the ground a while, too, and arguably in a better spot. (better soil) Not that it is an appropriate rating, but I'm reminded of Dr. Dirr's former SEO website that rated 'Soquel' as zn 6 hardy. Not true but he apparently had some information about it surviving cold temperatures well, which it does. If you need to try one in the DC area, I'd now recommend that over any of the others. I want to try to see the huge tree in Silver Spring MD this spring, to see how it weathered things, and the 2 that are almost as big in NoVA.

BTW - given that exposed Leylands were damaged even last winter in the outer suburbs of Baltimore, I definitely think most of New England would be stretching it for them.

Yes, I agree. I bought them 5 years ago before I knew anything about trees. Big box stores in new england sell Leyland regularly. Mine actually are pretty wind sheltered, so that has helped. Like I said, last year that had very little damage and it was incredible cold...so they are pretty hardy. I think as mentioned above, it is more damaging to have a cold February than January due to the the angle of the sun/intensity. They will be ripped out and replaced with Green Giant this year.

Quick update on winter damage, particularly following on to this thread: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1641653/quick-damage-report-on-udel-arboretum
But it makes more sense to stick it here than bump an older thread.

I was over there again to run an errand and decided to swing by the arboretum. Memo to self: never drive into a college town the day before spring break. The traffic was terrible. Anyhow, damage overall is about the same as last winter, if anything it's bit worse. For example this year, there are no very early camellias either blooming or looking like they are about to bloom. Their live oak actually looks slightly better, but their Quercus myrsinifolia has minor burning here and there which I didn't see last year. You'd kind of expect that: the Asian plant was happier with an overall pattern of sustained, mid-winter cold, while the American plant was a little better at weathering a more capricious, "sneak-attack" pattern of later season cold. Good bit of news is that again, the Osmanthus X fortunei is fine. Mine had surprisingly almost no burn in 2013-2014, and got moderate snow burn this winter from the March storm.

But this picture of their Magnolia/Michelia figo shows the consequences of 2 back to back bad winters:

Update to what I wrote above: indeed as plants thaw, more damage is becoming evident. The Ilex attenuata 'Longwood Gold' that I said had leaves that looked a bit odd? The odd parts now have developed into full fledged burns. Even 'James G Esson' actually has some minor burning on it, so I take back saying it was unaffected.

Pictured here is Camellia japonica 'Variety Z' from the Nat'l Arboretum's Asian Valley. I came through the record cold with flying colors. This is a venerable specimen with a long history here. It is usually blooming now but this year's Spring is easily two weeks late.

Sam, thanks for the picture. I think I vaguely remember seeing that camellia about a decade ago if it's where I think it is. This is off the parking lot, to the left of the Asian Valley if you're looking into the Asian Valley, right? It's been too long, I've got to go back there.

Anyhow it's good to know it is holding up. My 'Korean Fire' gets winter morning sun but is only minimally affected.

Sam, great news on 'Variety Z'.

I should have purchased that plant at Green Springs Garden Sale! Maybe it will be available again??

Our mags got zapped by the mid twenties we received last night.

That usually happens 2 out of 5 years up here with the stellatas and the soulangeanas.

Just be glad it was only the flowers. In 2007 a late freeze killed a large private collection of Asian Magnolias in South Carolina, IIRC. Whole plants, 25' or more killed completely to the graft union after weeks in the 70s were followed by a night in the 20s.

Yup, I gu in Japan the cold is moderated by the oceans so they aren't zapped so often. The ones in the DC area are quite large and beautiful, how awful that they experience the same fate.