Hello.... I will be up all night worrying about my tropicals!! We set out fans drafting the warm water (60 degrees)off the pool onto the plants (fans are on timers, set from 2:00 am - 8:00am)also I will be getting up sometime tonight to lite an outside propane heater. All the plants that I could'nt move to a protected area are covered with either a blanket , tarp, or beach towels. If anyone has any other ideas or success tonight( and the following freezing nights)Please post your success in keeping any plants alive with this FREEZE warning upon us. Tomorrow I will break out the christmas lights (after I just took them down)if any of the above does not work.
Good night and cross your fingers!!!!

I purchased some frost cover fabric last year from Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply. It's called Agribon AG-50 and is described as providing protection down to 24 degrees. I bought a 83' x 50' piece for about $25.00 and cut it up in about 10' pieces for my two year old planted citrus trees. So far it has done a good job, but tonight will be the ultimate test. It's suppose to get 22 degrees here tonight. I've been putting on in the evening and removing it in the morning after the sun and temp comes up. I hope all five trees survive! Wish me luck! Elaine

Here is a link that might be useful: AG-50 Cover Fabric

My garden was hit bad. My brugs are toast, ferns burned, cactus are mush, nasturtiums wilted, fuchsias dead, even the winter clover wilted. I left a few plants in the back of my SUV for protection, the frost got them also.

With unusual 110 degree temps in the summer and below 20's in the winter, my garden has no hope *sigh*

Can someone please explain the physics of deep watering preventing freeze damage to me? It seems counter-intuitive - isn't water a better conductor of heat or cold than soil?

I guess I might end up being the test case as I've barely kept up with the watering in my perpetualy dry garden this Fall and Winter and haven't watered anything for days. I'll be sad if I lose all the CA poppy seedlings I finally got going in Nov.

Dicot,

I originally typed out a rather long-winded reply to your question until I found the following online book: Frost Protection:
fundamentals, practice, and economics. The chapter on frost protection methods will tell you more than you want to know.

Ryan

All the lettuce is dead, 30 plants. It's too soon to tell about anything else. The temp right now in the middle of LA is 29.5. Incredible. Will row cover fabric help for tonight? And should I pick the navel oranges? We covered the Washington navels and Meyer lemon last night, but didn't have anything big enough to cover them completely.

When a dry cold comes to an area, it sucks the water from the soil. The damp soil keeps your plants leaves hydrated which helps them through a bad frost. I have at times covered the roots of pots with bubble wrap - it not only holds the moisture in longer but acts as insulation for the roots. In 1990 the tops of bonsai didn't freeze - it was the roots that turned to mush.

Penny

For some of the young plants, ie lavenders etc I couldn't cover my husband moved our 18 solar lights around and put one by each of those and they put out apparently a small amt of heat, not much but enough that those plants aren't toast the last two nights.

The National Weather Service was right on target for a low this morning of 21º.

I'm in Downtown Sacramento. My thermometer went down to 23º

{{gwi:507864}}

I didn't have to put out the heater as I thought,but ran the fans from 2-8:00am, I did't even need them as the overnight temp only dropped to 39. Still a freeze warning for tonight so if my thermometer reads below 38-40 at midnight I will try the propane heater theory. Around town I did'nt see any obvious frost or burnt leaves so perhaps the orange county coastal valleys were spared !!

The winds last night mixed out the inversion in most of coastal SoCal, keeping the frost at bay. Wind sheltered locations like Santa Barbara got quite cold however (28 degrees at the airport). The winds are supposed to be lighter overnight so we're not out of the woods yet, but this isn't looking to be anything like '98, much less '90.

Ryan

Well, The Brugs are gone, but the Boggies seem to still be OK. The more tender Salvias have shot leaves, but spring will tell if the roots survived. So far the citrus are OK in their tubes. I forgot all about the Date Palms on the stairs, but they seem to still be OK... probably enough heat from the concrete surround. And, DH did have water this morning, so his covers on the well must have worked. There is a frozen crust on all standing water basins/buckets. Not too bad so far.

Hi Westelle, I'm glad your citrus are still ok after the last freeze and now this one. Good luck to you on this one also, sorry you're taking hits now. It's supposed to hit 20 tonight. Sure wish I had some established plants and shrubs that could shrug off this cold, only thing I know could are the ones I used to grow in the mountains used to snow, but I don't know what's worse having some years established on ones and the care and investment in those or just the recent investment on 100 some plants:( My Boggie is on the side of the house that I forgot the last two nights, it's the only plant there, oops, it's only half dead, not too bad.

The smallish brug i have in the ground is barely hanging in... I covered it with a towel...I don't know about tonight though...:o( I brought in some succulents that didn't seem to be helped much by towels... I hope they survive the shock.

So far, so good here. Granted, the brugs are now totally defoliated and even the more cold hardy B. sanguinea suffered last night. It looks very sad.
Everything I expected to be toast, is. I think they'll all come back though.

I found my Hellebore (Ivory Prince) all budded up and looking prime. That was nice to see after looking at black foliage. It seemed to be actually smiling, kind of smug, proud to have it's time to be the shining star of the garden. LOL

My salvias caved to the cold too, with the exception of Indigo spires (does it ever quit???) ,gesneriflora 'Tequila' and guaranitica has only light, spotty burn and is still blooming. S. madrense, confertiflora, and Anthony Parker are all pretty droopy.

I did cover the Aeonium 'Swartzkopf' last night, so it came through ok.

We should start a thread about what plants are thriving during this arctic blast.

wanda

Yeah, my indigo spires isn't even noticing the cold! Blooming away! :o) The chiapensis is suffering, though I have it against the house so it's not going to die.
sigh

It was 29 degrees at 10:15 p.m. on Saturday and is 25 degrees now at 12:05 a.m. Sunday. It's gonna be really baaaaaaaaaad by 6:30 a.m. in Agoura Hills. No wind at all!

Heathen, if that chiapensis dies, I will mourn with you! :)

Compared to some of your areas, ours stayed balmy at 24 yesterday morning (:D), but it's 24 right now at 4:20am. All of my Salvias look sad, and some look downright bad. Wait, the 'Allen Chickering' looks fabulous! :) For whatever doesn't eventually make it, I REALLY need to get my hands on more natives. So much easier on the ulcer.

As bad as it is up here, I feel terrible for you down south.

Brenda

The temperature here got to 28 this morning. Some wind kicked up recently and the temperature is now up to 31 degrees. I don't anticipate any losses, though I wonder how the Eucalyptus citriodora came through. A mature specimen would be unfazed, but this is only a seedling about 30 inches tall.

I think it hit 20 here last night and at 9am it's 23. I moved from the mtns back to the valley thinking I'd left this cold behind:) Yesterday walking the dog I dug out all my cold weather gear!

I think I'm loosing one of my Autstralina Tree Ferns, I thought the location sheltered stuck in between the fence and the house and the neighbors house and fence is right there also would have helped. It's in it's own little micro climate there, it frosts heavily on the other side of the yard and the other side of the street. I have it covered and a light on it, but think that it was not enough. This was growing great even through the heat of summer we had, the plant is only 6 months old now. Well, spring will tell. My azaleas are all under frost cloths that say to leave on and they'll act as green houses during the day, all 3 are up against the front of the house which doesn't frost and I'm hoping they'll come through.

Wanda, I'd be very interested in a thread about which plants and shrubs survive this. This is the second time this year and it'll happen again at some time in the future and there will always be dips in temps. I thought except for the hibiscus I had plants that were hardy down to the 30's and they were, just didn't count on extended 20's. I'm going to have a pretty bare back yard come spring, I believe a few are going to come back but alot were flowering when the first freeze hit and I don't think that forced dormancy, I think that killed them.
Leslie

Don't give up yet, Leslie. The Tree fern should come back and the azaleas will be fine. It's questionable whether they (azaleas) even need protection. They're pretty hardy.

They say 2 more days of this.....my thermals are sure getting a workout!

wanda

whiiiiiiiiiiiiiine! I want my California back! Whiiiiiiiine! I am afraid this means, along with the drought we are experiencing in Sacramento, an excessively hot summer.... whiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. :o)

DO you think the tree ferns will come back???
I know the hibiscus' ,helaconia,and the lilies will.My yard is all BLACK .........This is sooooooooo depressing

According to weather.com, the low temperature last night here in Venice was 39° (the coldest I can remember), but the forecast was for 34°. When I got up at 7:00 this morning, it was 41°, and I didn't notice any damage, even to the orchids I left outside. The forecast for tonight is 38°, after which it will warm up again. This reminds me of winter in San Francisco. A friend in Torrance called me today and told me that she had frost in her yard this morning, and she's not that far from me, and so I guess a few miles can make quite a difference. My basil is still doing fine outside.

Lars

I like your idea Wanda about what survives and is thriving. I have an area to re-design this spring and sure don't want to put in anything that isn't frost tolerant. The Western Gardening Book and nursery tags don't always say.
My area can get to 35 any year.

That's no fun! What would I do about my tropical addiction? Sheez, if all my plants were low maintenance, how boring! I'd rather be in zonal denial. :o) So, I sweat it once every 10 years... and hey, with global warming, that may be less frequent! :o)

or more frequent, heathen. The north is experiencing warmer/less severe winters and here we are in a deep freeze. Or worse, we could be underwater if the ocean rises 20'.
Watch Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". It's truly riveting and scary!

And yes, I think the tree ferns can come back. Don't cut them back yet, though. The top burned fronds can still protect newly forming fronds in the "trunk". Same with all the blackened plants.....let it protect whatever's underneath and try not to look at it.

Okay.....off to start a survival thread
wanda

Oh yeah Wanda I saw the movie. And I believe it even before I saw it.
My poor beloved polar bears and other animals! It just makes me cry!

I have good friends in Fresno and they inform me that they have never experienced such cold. Amazingly, with the first two weeks of January over, the mean temperature for the month here in my part of SE coastal Massachusetts (our local "banana" belt) is actually higher than that of Fresno! Of course, this trend will reverse itself very soon as that arctic air finally moves into the eastern USA. And we have our own worries. It has been so warm this winter that many of our plants have not totally hardened off. So it will be interesting to see what happens when the temperature here drops to +10F by Wednesday morning (with wind). So, we all share you anxiety. Good Luck.

My pool finally froze over... it has helped keep some of the yard warmer, I think... I thought that the cold snap was ending, but the news says it's continuing... I think the ones that are hanging on will go if it doesn't give up soon.

I'm 30 minutes south of Fresno, it got to 21 last night and it's supposed to only be 24 tonight, only... I covered the azaleas because once we dipped below 32 several nights, one of them started turning a little dark and all 3 had leaves dying. These are the most expensive of all the plants/shrubs I bought last summer. Most of the fronds on both tree ferns are dead, I had one new tender one unfurling up the center on one of them. I am hoping the dead fronds are protecting the live part and come spring.... These weren't cheap either. Heck nothing I planted was cheap, I was so busy planting everywhere that I never even got to bedding plants and buying those enmass those aren't cheap either when you add it up. Wonder if Lowe's would replace all these dead plants?? I have most of the receipts. LOL

This does seems unending and I also wonder what kind of summer we'll have if we don't get a more usual winter with rain and snowfall.

That's amazing that your pool froze Heathen, is it just the shallow end? Will that damage your tile or what it's made with as it freezes and melts?

Fresno is 100 miles north of me. Here in Bakersfield we are experiencing a major cold that has not been seen by me before. Look at my pond which is now 28 degrees. My plants are gone but I am hoping they come back.
{{gwi:182286}}

Here is a link that might be useful: My pond

I saw your photos in an earlier thread, your backyard is/was beautiful. You had alot of tropicals too, I hope they do come back in the spring. You had a lot invested in that landscaping is probably a huge understatement. Wow, I'm sorry.

les... only the shallow ends froze over... it didn't freeze all the way and then the pool filter came on, stirred it up and the sun is on it melting, so I don't think there'll be any damage, not like if it froze solid.
Not that it looks like it will happen soon, but what happens if it would rain on seriously frost damaged plants? Would they rot worse if they weren't trimmed?

That's good news on your pool, guess it was one day too many of cold for the water and daytime temps aren't helping much.

After the last freeze we finally got rain and none of the plants that were damaged by that frost rotted or anything. I'm leaving them all alone until spring. I figure that what's left on the bushes and plants is protecting it but that may be wrong, alot of it may be all that's left is in it's roots for the plants. I'm just trying to save what I've got left. I also forgot to cover a spiderwort and up in the mountains it died back every year and it came back in the spring, I sure hope it does here, I just planted that one a couple of months ago, I had to special order it and pay for shipping, that one is another oops.

I think rain would help warm up the ground and the plants. I was told on my roses that each morning to go out there and pour tepid water over the plants to warm them up before the sun hits them so the sun doesn't cook the frost on them. I have too many roses to do that so when I found this freeze was going to be worse than the last one I bought the freeze cloth and covered them all and during the day it acts as a greenhouse. So, answer, I think rain wouldn't hurt the plants. Someone else may step in and answer differently. I know that when it did rain it did benefit the plants that survived the first freeze, they were all starting to look better until this one.

How bad are your plants and shrubs looking now? I bet the water from your pool does help because the cold is dry.

I met a guy sitting in the shade on a brick retaining wall walking the dog a little while ago and asked why he wasn't sitting on the other side at least in the sun. He was going door to door sales. He said he was from Chicago and this was balmy to him and that actually Chicago was warmer than it is here right now.

Oh, poor my plants! I left Walnut Creek on Wednesday evening, not knowing about the upcoming freeze and couldn't ask my daughter to cover the plants I had planted there! I wonder what has happened so far to them... oh my poor plants! Hope they're ok where they are. Can someone advice what's the weather like today, Jan 15? Thanks.

Xuan

Xuan, I don't know about your area but mine is suppose to hit 36F or so tonight. Here's a picture of my yard after the first two nights.
{{gwi:507868}}
I had damage to almost everything I expect most to recover, a few to die off, and had some that really surprised me.

Some of you may recall a cold spell 25-30 years ago when many eucalypti (?) froze in the Berkely hills. Fearing the "dead" trees would be a major fire hazard, the authorities hastily let out contracts for the trees to be removed. By the time the removal was under way, the trees were sending out new shoots, but the contractors insisted on removing them anyway. I don't know how many survived the chainsaws.

I am hoping that everyone posting on this thread is taking pictures of the damage as it occurs because I think it would be interesting in the spring to see what comes back and what doesn't. I know that most plants are a lot tougher than we might think and I for one am hoping.......

Here is a link that might be useful: My pond

Xuan, I dont know what you have planted there, and how sensitive it is. But Walnut Creek is a warmer area usually, and I think the coastal Bay areas were spared from the worst of this.

Xuan, Walnut Creek had a high of 52 yesterday and a low of 27. That's for Jan. 15th. Today, the 16th high is 52 and low will be 32. Good luck for your plants. You can check your weather easily at weather.com and some other places.

I hit 21 again last night but I tried something different with the plants I couldn't cover, I water the bases of all the plants really heavy and they all look good this morning, no further damage. The spiderwort actually perked up a little and it had died back pretty much to the ground as crispy.

I noticed on the north side of the house as I recovered bushes for the night that the grass never has thawed out there, it has so much frost in it that it almost looks like snow. I'm really glad that I went ahead and put frost blankets over the mini rose bed there then. Apparently it's not warming in that area at all.

Hi. I'm new to this website. Luckily, didn't lose many plants. I find the USDA and Sunset zones to be somewhat misleading in that we are actually a zone colder here than is indicated. So, the bones of my garden are planted for zone 8a, hardy down to 10 F just to be prepared for these things. Needless to say, if I did believe in global warming a tad bit, I certainly don't now. Although I think we have to do our best to take care and recycle, save water and not pollute as best we can, Mother Earth has the final word. HOpe all of you recover quickly from this Global Freezing.

This freeze no more proves global cooling than it proves global warming (as I've pointed out elsewhere, a theory that can be bolstered by any conceivable occurrence isn't much of a theory). The earth could well be warming, but I'm hardly sold on anthropogenic causes. That smacks of collectivized self-importance.

Ryan

I put all my smaller potted plants in my compost piles, they seem to be doing fine as my piles are still cooking. I've also put some in my big bags of dried leaves I've collected during the fall. The bigger pots are covered and in my detached garage, but I have left them in there in the dark since Sunday night, cuz in the morning it is still too cold to bring them out, and I have to go to work by 8AM. Does anyone know how long I can leave them in there without sunlight? Getting worried.

Al Gore is self important? Hee!!!!

Well... Some people don't feel comfortable about change... the idea that carbon dioxide produced by cars contributes to global warming would mean that people would have to actually disrupt their lives to do something about it... always much easier to be in denial. Al Gore may be self important, and DEFINITELY Arnold Schwarzenegger is! And he's pushing to put pollution restricting laws in place. I've seen extreme denial on smaller things, so denial about global warming is just the way it is, part ignorance and part fear. I have noticed in my medium long life that people feel it's best to deny, then when it's over, blame SOMEONE for not making them see the problem. Just par for the course.... oh well, it's happening and those who can't adapt will go by the wayside, it might be better that way.

Peebee, you don't have a light you can leave on in your garage? I would think lack of light would be better than frost bitten and melted. I would think they'd be ok for several days as long as you left them watered. That was pretty creative with the compost pile and the leaves.

Thank you, CA friends, for the weather info. I've now learnt to check it in the internet... but still your words are more accurate, I believe.
I have planted a few azaleas in the ground and some other plants in container. We also have two mature citrus trees in container. I have never experienced frost in my home country so I have no clue how to protect plants from it, your photos have been very helpful.
I've checked with my daughter and she said "everything still looks green". I don't really know if she was only trying to make me feel happy or that she is so naive about plants she could not tell!
I'm glad now that the weather is warming up and hope that all your plants will come back to life. Wish I could send you all some warmth from my corner of the world :-)

Xuan (a worry mom!)

To telemarks' point about the eucalyptus removal in Berkeley, there was a very good reason.

The 1991 Oakland hills firestorm ultimately killed 25 people and injured 150 others. The 1,520 acres destroyed included 2,449 single-family dwellings and 437 apartment and condominium units. The economic loss was estimated at $1.5 billion.

This followed the freeze of 1990 which killed a number of eucalyptus trees and allowed the fire to swiftly move into the crowns of the volatile dead trees and send burning embers traveling for miles. Never allow a stand of dead eucs by your house unless you have excelllent fire insurance and don't mind replacing everytrhing.

> Posted by napapen
> "the dead stuff.... protects the roots"

Do you mean that roots are shielded by canopy of dead stuff?
Dead stuff is not always in a spread formation.

If any other process is involved in protection by dead stuff,
then please tell.