Well, I have a tough Meyer lemon that I'm sure was neglected for many years but this has been a hard winter on it, lost the flowers and young growth, leaves look curly, but fruit is still good. Watering the Meyer has helped a lot. I threw bedsheets over it. I planted 2 new young ones ( a grapefruit and a mandarin) that were the frost hardiest I could find, boy do they look yellow and cold. I don't know how much longer this can last.

I feel so sorry for all. I know that we can have lots of things that are worse, but to a gardener, death of a long awaited bloom hurts! So far, my Iris don't seem to be damaged. I know I lost some blooms but others look ok. My 600 or so daylilies seem to be ok, too. I've waited 3 years for some of them to bloom. Last year I lost about 75% of my Iris blooms to a hail storm on the exact same day, April the 7th. We, too had the last 2 weeks of March in the high 80s with a few of the nights staying in the mid 60's. I have severe damage to my Crepe Myrtles, does anyone know if they will put out leaves again?? My red buds have about 80% leaf freeze. Viburnums were blooming, now all the blooms are dead. My hydrangeas were about a foot tall with new growth and 90% of that's dead. I had one Crinum lily blooming, which has never happened before. Now, all of them are frozen down about 75% to the ground. Weeping mulberry tree has lost all it's leaves. I even have a Jap Maple that will loose all it's leaves. Does anyone know if the Crepes will put out again? Any facts on the rest of these? We broke records with high temps about 10 times in March and now we broke records with lows in April. Talk about strange weather. I hope that all will get some Iris blooms. To me, Iris have the most beautiful blooms I've ever seen. Even better than my daylilies and that's saying alot. I just love Iris, so I feel your pain to losing so many blooms. I pray that tonight will be milder and that all the damage is done for one year. Blessing to all, Mona

I too have been thinking of the possible loss of lilac and peony buds/blooms this season, as well as viburnums. I have some new varieties of all 3 that are budded this season for the first time. As far as the peonies, I plan to cover those that have buds with 5 gallon buckets, weighted down with a cement slab. I may try wrapping a few of the lilac buds (in cloth) individually. A lot of damage is caused by frost being on the plant and then it being hit by the sun, so that will keep the frost off the buds anyway. I may try some small plastic tarps over some of the new short lilacs or viburnums. It may be for naught, but it would be hard to just 'do nothing' and give up all hope of getting to see and enjoy the flowers this season. It is predicted to be 29 here tonight. I think I will gather a bouquet today, that I can enjoy them at least briefly inside in case all the other buds perish. I have some recently opened lilacs and viburnums, that smell so heavenly. Sue

Thanks all, for the different posts on cold Peony shoots. Mine are coming along, some sprouted quite well. They got cold last weekend, but were just showing on top of the dirt, so I fluffed the leaves up and left them alone. Snowed and cold for 5 days, very windy, with temps down to 20F at night. Daffodils were quite pitiful, laying down with snow on them. Then temps got a bit warmer, up to 50F+ this week, SUNNY, so the shoots are GROWING. With snow and cold at 30F predicted, I went out and put old plastic pots over all the shoots that were up. I used big pots over the new Tree Peonies, some had buds showing! I may go put some sheets over cages on the largest Tree Peonies, too big for pot covers. I am hoping the pots prevent wind burn, snow sitting on the foliage to freeze and break the cells. I did find one Peony with a very wilted leaf turning black. I am not sure if it is a herbacous leaf or a new Tree sprout. All the others look pretty well for being snow covered and out in the bitter cold. Not much we can do to change the weather, but I hope that covering the new growth with pots, gives me enough protection to get some flowers this year. Glad I hadn't tossed all those old plastic pots!