It looks like I will be getting a dusting of snow with temps in the low 40's through out the day so they should be fine right. Weds. morning right now the low might be 28 so I think that's the only night I will have to worry about right? Thanks everyone!

Just saw the revised forecast, going down to 25 on Wednesday night. That could be killer. I really can't do much except bring in any potted roses. Hoping for the best.

It's supposed to be in the high teens by Tuesday for a low here in St Louis after 6 weeks of warm temps - over 25 degrees below average. I've spent a small fortune on burlap, large bed sheets from Goodwill, stakes, etc but I have still only covered part of them. I'm scared too! It was supposed to get to 22 degrees last night but only went down to 31 - phew! But worse weather is on the way. Wish everyone the best with their garden through this time!

I found this page about rigging up a sort of smudge pot to put under row covers or sheets. I'm going to try it. I found candles in Target for about $1.50 and I'm going to get some freeze cloth and use old sheets, etch.

Redneck smudge pots

Buford, the smudge pot link didn't take.

From last time, I had thousands of buds. What I wish I had done was go out when the temp was about 30-28, with the hose with a misting sprayer, and I wish I had tried to encase some of the roses in ice.

Remember the ice supposedly stays at 32F, while the air drops temperatures. This did work the year we had -10F for two nights, with about sixteen inches of snow cover and everything died down to the snow line, but not below it. (Azaleas across this end of the state only bloomed on their lowest ten inches.)

This year, I don't have buds yet. But this isn't going to help me get woody two year old growth on my teas and chinas.

I'm so sorry for all of you in the South - it seems like your roses must have really gotten ahead of themselves. Mine here in zone 6 NJ have just started leafing out. Far as I can tell, the new growth is not showing any damage, and I don't think we are getting any temperatures colder than we have already had, so hopefully they'll be ok. In any event, there's nothing I can do - I have way too many roses, and too many big ones, to even think of covering. This weather is deeply troubling - my Prunus mume came into bloom, and of course all the flowers were destroyed, and the poor hellebores are drooping. Sadly, I think this is the new normal of climate change, and its just going to get worse! I remember last year we had a temperature plunge in May that destroyed every bud on my wisteria! And I feared for my roses, though they were ok. The thing is, I don't really know how to garden in these conditions! In years past, I'd be moving roses that need to be moved now - can't do that, because the ground is frozen! Should I have done it on the warm days in Feb? Well, but would the later plummeting temperatures have been hard on the newly moved plants? Its so, so troubling! I guess we all just have to hope for the best.

I can't protect them all. But I want to protect my Duchesse du Brabant that is covered with buds. I bought two 10x12 freeze blankets and I have old sheets and some burlap I can use. I have new basals on a few roses, I need to protect those. Many of my roses have green leaves, those might be ok. It's the new red growth I worry about. And my Japanese maples. One just has buds, but the other one has leaves emerging. Last time they really got zapped and I thought I might lose them. So they will get the smudge pots (I fixed the link). Basically you half bury a long burning candle and put a clay pot over it, then cover the plants with a blanket. It can add a few degrees under the blanket which should help.

I hope everyone and every garden is holding up on the eastern side of the US. What a spring storm! Carol

I just heard that DC may get temps down to24 which will destroy the cherry blossom buds. And that's how cold it will be in my yard. I've done what I could, I covered what I thought were the most vulnerable. The weather is NOT cooperating. We were supposed to get a lot of rain this am, we did not. Still, I think my plants are well hydrated. And the wind, why when we get these late freezes, is it always so windy so you can't really cover anything effectively? I really hate mother nature right now. Also, rose thorns suck. There, rant over.

Agreed Buford!

Five point seven inches of rain since last Wednesday. So our plants are supposed to be well hydrated going into freezes. ???? to make better ice crystals. We shall see.

Meanwhile, I don't think we have to worry about 'dead heading' our daffodils this spring so all the strength will go to the roots for next year's bloom. Poor Daffs look so crepe papery and it hasn't gotten in the low 20s yet.

We shall not speak of the wind. All four cats are inside, within ten feet of the woodstove. All four cats loathe the other three cats. All four cats voted to ignore their loathing of their competition.

We had a couple of nights in the teens, and now it looks like low 20s for the rest of the week. I think most of my roses should be fine. Only a few seem to have broken dormancy during the warm spell. I'm upset about the hydrangeas. I'm betting most will be dead to the ground. The blizzard turned out to be just a wash out on Long Island. I'm grateful for the water, but a couple of feet of snow would have been good protection.

-Chris

9:00pm, sky is clearing, 29F, dropping like a rock in a well...

I lit my little smudge pots. I am hoping that between that and the covers, some roses will be fine. One rose also has one of the pathway halogen lights near it so that might help. Right now it's 33 in the front yard and 35 in the back yard.

Good luck all with this cold wave. I do have some damage on tender roses from 22 degrees after it had been warmer but it could have been worse.

All of my roses have broken dormancy - some have completely leafed out. I wish I would have had the time to get some lights under my plants or do smudge pots as you did, Buford, but I barely had time to get everything covered. I am grateful for that though. It's supposed to get down to 18 degrees tonight. It dropped down to 25 last night - cooler than expected. Two more nights to go...

(((HUGS))) To you all. I enjoy teasing my family when they are super cold and it is on the warm side here but I find no joy in that now. Having "friends" online, knowing you all are going through a tough time, makes me sad. I hope all of your roses and other flowers make it through, especially your best and favorites.

I'm dreading going outside. The weather station a a few miles away has 26.9 but the thermometer on my deck says 24.

Up to a balmy 28F at 11am. Way too many hours below 28 and more to come tonight.

Maybe this is the year to use the newer camera to record how damaged the roses look. The 60s later this week and accompanying warm rains should be really good for any fungal damage to the roses.

One more perky weather woman on local TV and I think I'll scream.

I hope everybody's roses are doing OK!

I asked this question on another thread also. All of my blooms were just frozen. If I had it to do over again, would the proper thing have been to cut the blooms right before the freeze, right after, or do nothing and deadhead as usual?

Lavender - I would have just left them on the plant as you did. No cutting right now.

stillann - good idea on how to document this. I will be taking notes, definitely, on whether covering made any difference and what varieties seemed to fair this multi-day freeze better. That's funny what you said about the local TV woman. I don't feel down very often but this week has been hard. Happy days ahead, though!

Wish the best to everyone as well!

Thanks Dave! We've had record-setting cold and heat in the same winter so my roses are very confused. Like their caretaker, LOL!

I did some short examinations. Any existing leaves are fried a few crumbled right in my hand. I haven't seen any drooping, but sometimes that takes a couple of days. I haven't checked the roses I covered yet, I did not want to disturb them.

A bit more to think about.

What may be tolerable -temperature wise- in fall going into winter freezes may be totally different in spring freezes.

Stems that hardened off- whatever that really means- as exposures to cold temperatures become more extended and colder probably won't apply to spring when the affected growth is 'tender'.

Something else to watch for is plants with severe Rose Mosaic Virus (sensu lato) Back when I was keeping max min thermometers IN the rose gardens, next to the roses, I had a Secret that was shorter than the other HTs in its bed. That Secret also had the most startling pattern of RMV of almost all my roses. And that Secret in spring showed Damages six inches down from the buds when temps dipped to 28F (The max min was right next to the Secret buds) when the HTs next to it (whose leaves weren't showing RMV associated patterns ) were undamaged and which bloomed later and warmer. The Secret buds were doomed by that relatively warm cold weather.

Low of 22F this morning. Plus, we had high winds and bigger gusts early this morning, about 8-9:00am, and some of my covers were in disarray when I checked...not quite blown off, but rendered useless. It MAY have been above 28F when they were disturbed, but it's 12:30 and still not above freezing. I'm afraid to look...

Thankfully the cover is still on my camellia, which is in full bloom. It's my "winter rose".

Our low last night was 15. It's 30 now but the wind continues to howl. I hate the wind!!!! I'm so glad my roses didn't seem to get the email about spring and so have not broken dormancy yet. I already know I lost the blooms on my hellebores, crocus and snow drops but the other bulbs have only just broken the soil so they should be OK. I did manage to get to see one of my dwarf Siberian Irises.

And then of course it snowed the next day.

Just found this picture from April 2007. This is how I saved most of my potted roses. Thanks to the help from my sister, who was up from KY for Easter, and my brother.

My brother emptied the shed and even put his beloved lawn tractor outside for the duration so I could get all my pots inside the shed.

I just got home from work and checked. I don't see any severe damage, even my hydrangeas look ok, a bit frost bit, but not completely wilted and black. Tonight it's supposed to go down to 26, we will see what happens.

Yikes! The weather station near me has 22 degrees. Still dark out so I can't see what is going on.

It "only" got to 24F here this morning. Which is "slightly" better than the 22 they predicted, lol. I've been checking the climbers that are too big to cover. The wichurianas seem to be ok; on the hybrid musks the leaves look a little bruised; the climbing teas...not so good :( At this point I'm just hoping not to have severe die back on the climbing teas.

I still haven't uncovered the smaller roses (my yard looks like a linen/bedding factory exploded), but I'm hoping the covers mitigated the damage.

Oh, yeah...my 4 mature Japanese maples are mush, my 18' tall loropetalum looks like a blow torch was used on it, and the crab apple blooms are history.

I'm seeing similar. Definitely worse than yesterday. I haven't uncovered the ones that I covered, but the ones that were uncovered look bad. I don't know if it will be just the leaves that are lost or if I will have to cut back. Too early to tell. My hydrangea leaves were still green, but stiff. I covered one of my Japanese Maples because it was leafed out and it was damaged badly in 2007. I hope it's ok.

I'm seeing similar. Definitely worse than yesterday. I haven't uncovered the ones that I covered, but the ones that were uncovered look bad. I don't know if it will be just the leaves that are lost or if I will have to cut back. Too early to tell. My hydrangea leaves were still green, but stiff. I covered one of my Japanese Maples because it was leafed out and it was damaged badly in 2007. I hope it's ok.

22 here according to weatherunderground for a nearby weather station.

I may have apples this year as my garden is at least a week behind Knoxville.
I haven't had the heart to look at the roses yet. I'll wait until after tonight's 25.

I think we had more hours below 28 this week than we did in January. Those 60s and 70s last month did us no favors.

Tonight is the last of three cold nights in a row here. I'm not sure we've ever had that many hard freezes in a row at this time of year, so it concerns me but I'm not going to get distressed yet. The depressing thing is that in my garden cold damage has shown up a couple of years afterwards. I had plants go downhill slowly after the very cold winters a couple of years ago. But many did fine including some tender ones.

I brought many of my small potted plants under my house and in my house, but left a fair amount outside, and left out most of my gallon and larger potted plants. Usually they do fine unprotected even in the hard winters down to 5 degrees. I hurt my back putting plants under my house in January and pretty much swore off doing that again except till a couple of days ago.

I'm glad my Japanese maple is not leafed out and am sorry yours is mush, Fig. My hydrangeas were badly damaged a couple of years ago but had made a nice comeback and were leafing out..so I'm afraid they will be set back. There are still things blooming out there that look ok...candytuft, forsythia, creeping phlox, hyacinths, but the crabapple blooms look beige. The new growth on the roses still looks pretty but I can tell by the way some of it feels that it is toast. I didn't bother to cover anything because of the wind and just wasn't inclined to do it. I think my house is located in a warm pocket anyway. Good luck to all.

It was 20 degrees this morning here when I got up to take the girls to school, weather didn't say it was getting down that low, but that's what my car said it was, tonight/tomoorow morning is supposed to be 27, I covered some, but am hoping for the best, I couldn't cover everything, so I hope everything does ok. Best wishes to all.

I was just out checking. Some of the leaves that looked and felt frozen this morning have seeming perked up. I am sure some will drop off, but it doesn't look that bad. Hydrangeas are likely toast, but they were not fully leafed out yet. Not sure about my Japanese Maple or my hollyhocks. The one in the back looks a bit wilted. The one in the front I covered and I don't want to take the cover off yet. The ground temps were 50 I think so maybe that helped.

Well, I left the covers on last night. They were predicting 28F. But it only got down to 30F here, so I could have uncovered yesterday had I known. Now all the covers are damp, since it rained this morning, which they also didn't predict, lol.

Hopefully the worst is over for a while, but our last frost date is April 21...

I had to take the covers off this morning since it will be in the 60s (with overnight lows in the 50s!). I have to say that the plants I covered got more damage from being covered than the uncovered ones got from the freeze. I guess because I didn't have a lot of new growth, just new leaves, it wasn't that bad.

I know, Buford, that's why I don't like covers. I tried it several times early on and always ended up damaging the roses. Either they got wet and heavy and broke things or they tore things off when I tried to remove them. They may work fine for shrubs, I don't know, but for roses with thorns I think they can be more harmful than helpful.

I don't allow the covers to actually rest directly on the roses. I keep a supply of old tobacco stakes (I bought around 200 on craigslist for next to nothing) and heavy bamboo poles (1.5" diameter, 6' tall, from Walmart) that I drive around/among the roses, then drape the cloth/sheets/bedspreads over those. In general, anywhere the cloth actually touches a plant will get frost burnt any way (unless you're using several layers), so you don't want the material resting directly on the rose. Also, don't even bother to cover if it's going to rain. Wet cloth has zero insulating qualities.

I'm amazed, but even with three nights in the low 20's, nothing I covered has any damage (yay!)...other than the camellia blooms, which fried :(

Things are looking good here too, except for hydrangeas.

Watching the weather and happy to see improvement and read some reports of garden survival!

I have been thinking of building simple shelters for my potted driveway plants. I know someone who lives in the ever changeable climate of North TX who constructed collapsible frames from PVC. I think he built flat panels and then drilled holes for wire "hinges" of sorts so he could unfold them and lock them open with tree tie supports, the kind with open loops for sliding the ends through and locking with a twist. (Sorry about vocabulary loss. I know those ties have a name.) Then, like John, he drapes and ties old textiles over the frames. Every time we get a weird cold spell, I swear I'm going to make a set of "freezer frames". Carol

I just have two hydrangeas in pots that I rooted last year, and even though I covered them they look so terrible. I guess they come back next year? or will they come back this year?

Alana, depending on the variety, you may or may not get bloom this year, but I wouldn't worry about losing the plant unless it was fully leafed out and very small. The re-blooming types will still give you blooms, just later than usual. If they are once-blooming, then you'll lose this year's flowers.

Most hydrangeas are stem hardy to z6, most are root hardy to zone 5. If your plants are very small and the roots froze, that might kill them. But I'm betting that though you might miss this year's blooms, the plants will probably be fine. DON'T fertilize until they have put out a full set of new leaves, as that will just stress the plant more.

I didn't get to survey the damage until yesterday. My 2 SdlM and 1 Mystic Beauty have died to the ground and 1 lost about 1/3 of the canes on Happy Child. The new growth on my hydrangeas were nipped a bit but I think will be okay since they were covered. I think I would still protect the newest roses and hydrangeas but don't think I'll try and do it again with my large shrubs and climbers - so much work and did damage some new growth.

Temps are supposed to get up near 80 in a day or two. That'll probably reveal any damage on roses.

Yes and I'll probably be seeing more damage, we had another frost this morning when I woke up, the weather said nothing about it last night, but I thought it was kinda cold last night. I was so busy yesterday, but had I'd known I would have covered what I could. Just ridiculous weather we are having this year.

We also had a very light, but patchy frost this morning, mostly in low lying areas. I didn't see much in my yard, but the field below my house was white. I'm hoping there was no additional damage, because like you, Alana, I didn't cover because they didn't predict frost. It was only supposed to be 36 or so, and the dew point was supposed to be below that. Ha!

Our weatherman just informed us that even though they say the low is 36, that is not a ground level temperature and that the ground level plants could easily be freezing.

I wish that he would have shared this bit of information at the START of the winter, LOL!

We're having ridiculous swings also with freezes and 90F in the same week.

That's exactly how it happened with me fig_insanity, also I just checked, I lost some blooms on CDR, and almost all of my blooms on my small fortuniana, which was loaded