Watching the weather at 11pm tonight WFMY (Greensboro) they mentioned it.. they are predicting 17% as the low, but did say some models suggested zero . But I have found out by experience not to believe the 8 day forcasts by the weathermen. Let's HOPE not. 17 is low enought for my bones!!!LOL

I saw that too, but it's really too far out to tell for sure. One weather site that I looked at is only calling for overnight temperatures in the 20s next week, but some pretty cold days and possibly some snow by the end of the week. Snow would be nice.

If it does get down to 0 degrees, I can almost certainly say goodbye to hydrangea macrophylla blossoms for the summer. In addition, the last time it was that cold, my variegated Osmanthus 'Goshiki' got quite bit as well as some hollies. Oddly enough, most of my tender perennials were unaffected (probably because I don't cut them back till Spring).

I haven't cut back my tender perennials, ornamental grasses or buddleja yet. I do have three Osmanthus 'Goshiki' in the garden.

I may pile more mulch on top of the colocasia since I didn't lift those.

That's a good idea. Some of my cannas could probably use the same treatment (if the temps dip that low).

I have not heard about the cold yet. Our area has had very high winds, tress down and power outages so the weather reports have been concentrating on that.

I did check our local weather and it looks like we will be down to 19 degrees. We are on a ridge and are usually 5 to 10 degrees colder than our local airport's weather station just a few miles away. That will put us around 9 -14 degrees.

I hope it will not go that low. sigh......

I think the original intent of the WRAL broadcast was probably more on the order of *coldest temperatures ON THIS DATE since 1985*. I've lived here since 1993, and in that span of time, there have been a few nights where it's been 0-3 degrees F outside. According to Accuweather, looks like Thursday-Sunday next week could have lows in the 18-20 degree range.

I just saw that on Weather.com a little while ago. I definitely got to get off my butt and take care of my extra mulch and get everything ready tomorrow!!

So I should be mulching around my more tender plants? What about covering them?
Help? I don't want anything to die!

UGH. Now a check of accuweather (in Raleigh) says 20F Thursday, 11F Friday and 18F Saturday for lows....whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. That hurts my bones, in advance. I guess the hydrangeas need to be protected. What else? I might just let it be.

Does everyone remember the cold days/nights of 1985?
On Jan 21 & 22 of that year, I recorded lows of 12° below Zero (-12°F). Was busy for several days, cutting shrubs down to the ground and mulching, to save the roots . Most were saved, even the Gardenias and Southern Indica Azaleas.
Oddly enough, the following year (1986), we recorded a record high of 71°F on Jan 22!
Temperatures have already been in single digits (8°F) in my area this winter and the lowest that is being forecast for next two weeks is 17°F. Tropical weather! :Keep warm!
Rb

BTW, I am in the Piedmont, about 125 miles south of the NC state line.

Rb, I remember 1985 well, though we only hit -7 at my house. The forecasts I've seen for the next week or two just look seasonably cold to me (it is Jan after all) and relatively brief drops at that. This will be a lot easier on my garden than a late spring freeze -- everything blooming now is built to take it.

Karen, I agree. Late Spring freezes can do so much more damage than a seasonably low dip in overnight temps.

Can someone explain which forecast is most accurate?
Accuweather is stating 10 and 7 degrees for Thursday and Friday.
Weather .com is stating 18 and 20.
That 10 degrees difference is huge.

Accuweather and weather.gov are fairly far apart for my town, too. WRAL (local) is siding with weather.gov this time around in saying it'll be low teens, maybe down to 10 on thurs & fri night. But i've seen it happen the other way around before. I just consult several and try to plan for the worst, hoping for the best. They usually are closer though.

I have a new winter blooming virburnam that I have covered with a sheet...here's hoping. I am not too worried about things in the ground that are established, but I have about 100 pots of small things I grew via the winter sowing method. At a seminar Monday night, the presentor, who specializes in winter plants, said to make sure everything was well watered, so hubbie did that for me early today, and now we have covered all the pots with burlap. They already had lots of leaves on them for protection. I hope that helps. If not, I will not have any plants to share this coming season. Oh, does anyone else water their plants before extremely cold weather?

ncresue,
How does the watering help? How far in advance do I need to water?

Thanks

Watering is supposed to hydrate the plants since they can't take up water if the ground or potting mix they are in is frozen solid. This is more of an issue for those areas where it can get cold and the ground stays frozen for extended periods of time.

I don't know about potted plants but for ones in the ground, watering helps keep the ground temps higher than dry ground would be. Water holds onto heat longer than air. But you are supposed to water well before the temps drop, to give the water/soil time to gather up the sun's heat before sunset and the air cools.

O.K. Lets say the temps get down to 9- 10 degrees.
Will this severely affect Windmill palms and Live Oak Virgiana?

I no longer put down mulch because of the voles. Any suggestions? I will water and then cover with sheets?

I need suggestions

In times like these I bury everything in as deep a layer of dry leaves as possible. I have some mounds up to 4 feet deep. I don't uncover until all danger is past. Another trick is to spread a massive plastic sheet or tarp over a broad area of ground, just kinda drape up and over everything. It will collect the heat emitted from the ground and keep things a little bit warmer. Wrapping and covering work to lessen the damage of hard frosts but without heat coming into the mass of mulch or whatever there is little that will protect them from temps this low. The truth is there is very little you can do except dig precious things up and haul them inside for a weekend. Unless they are completely dormant and winter hardy. I protected everything with flower buds, but I don't expect all of them to survive this torture.

Thankfully some thin high clouds are showing up and the predicted low of 11 (central SC) has just been raised to 15. My Juanita tangerine should take that OK. 11? A bit lower than the reported tolerance.

"9- 10 degrees.
Will this severely affect Windmill palms and Live Oak Virgiana?"

Shouldn't bother them at all. The Chinese fan palms they have been selling lately won't like it. They should stay right on the coast.

Thanks gonebananas,
I did wrap my windmill palms in lights and burlap just for good measure.
The Live Oaks did O.K.
We got down to 10 degrees last night.BBBRRRRRRRRR!

Got to 16.3 here just south of Charlotte. Tried to mummy wrap as many plants as I could but large windmills, needles, and sabals were on their own. Will wait till this cold passes before I take a look at anything. Olive tree in front sailed through cold no problem but provided supplemental heat with the help of a charcoal grill and kerosine heater. If it get's to 10 tonight I may not have such a favorable outcome in the AM. Time will tell.

I don't think it can possibly get cold enough here to harm a needle palm. But I remember when it went to -1 in Columbia SC and seeing substantial frost damage on jelly palm leaves. I personally don't recall windmill or sabal palms having a problem but a friend said that he saw it back then on one of them (forget which). Those temperatures give real trouble to the marginal plants: loquat, fig, jasmine, redtip, and others I forget. There is a big European fan palm near here that obviously went through it though, but possibly it was damaged then.

Well, at least this should kill out some of the bad buggies!

I piled shredded leaves over some dormant tender plants, like Canna 'Pink Sunburst' (I've lost it before when it dipped really cold). The only other plant I was worried about was a 6" start of Gardenia 'Daruma' that I received from the JC Raulston Arboretum distribution. I made a makeshift cloche for it from a glass vase. It looks like it did just fine.

Planted a pomegranate for fun in the fall...I'll wait and watch, but despite a heavy mulching I bet it's toast. Oh well....what doesn't kill them, makes them stronger! What does kill them, gives us another place to plant again. =)

I said jasmine, but I meant gardenia. And, as mentioned, these temperatures are getting close to what pomegranate will tolerate.

I am loving this weather. Maybe all those nasty exotic bugs, and invasive plants will wither away and die this season!!

I mulched all my tender stuff, elephant ears, banana, palm, before the cold spell hit. However I found it very unusual, my roses had sprouted some new growth. I did mulch them well as well, hoping to correct any weather gone bad here. They are microclimated in a nice bed next to the house and on the very sunny side. My little temporary greenhouse is cooking at about 60 degrees so I'm hoping all makes it thru this cold snap well. My mind is turning toward seeds for spring sprouting right now!! :-) Yes, I agree with John, I hope this does away with some of the nasties!!!

Oddly enough, mulching a palm (certainly) and many woody bushes or trees can be counter productive here in the south where winter still has bright sunshine. The exceptions are (1) grafted plants that you can mulch to way above the graft line so that if the top is killed the lower grafted trunk may resprout, and (2) small plants (bushes or young trees) that you can practically bury with mulch. With larger plants, the mulch prevents the mineral soil from giving off heat at night, just as it prevents that soil from gaining heat from sunshine in the day. It is counterintuitive, I know.

The mulching is perfect for all plants that can resprout from below the soil line or right near it, the bananas, bulbs, etc.

For projected extreme cold you would be making a guess as to whether it is best to bury say a fig trunk as high as you can with mulch, to save some to resprout, or whether to rake all mulch away and allow soil heat to rise at night in trying to save the whole framework of the bush or small tree.