They should all be "born" hardy at this stage. In my experience, -10 might cause you to lose the tops of some shoots, but they will fill in behind. I have had tulips get frozen hard in the past and they flopped over but the blooms weren't compromised otherwise.

If anything I *might* loosely cover the delphs if it's not much extra work. Everything else will be fine.

Thanks, I think I will cover the delphinium then. I'm holding out hope that it won't get that cold out. We deserve it after last year.

Watch out..........the bad weather may be coming your way =:(

How did it go, NAF? We're supposed to be cold on Monday and Tuesday - lows of minus 7 and daytime highs of minus 2... brrr! Spoiled, not used to this ill treatment!

We're supposed to be in the minuses at night most of next week too. Supposed to get better after that. I guess maybe i should be raking leaves back on the beds!

Well, if you can believe, it snowed overnight. I took your advice and didn't cover anything, as the one little delphinium was quite protected by dried up leftover iris stalks from last year anyway.

However, I think the problem will be in a few days. The snow is melting so there'll be no insulation and then it's going to be cold. Maybe as low as -10 for a few days. I'll probably cover the alliums, etc., in the front bed by the entrance and leave the rest. I suppose any visible damage can be hidden with annuals anyway. I'm going to be terribly disappointed though, as some of the things I planted last year were new to me. Some I've never even seen before in anyone's garden.

Will you leave your plants to fend for themselves in the -7?

Yup, mine are on their own. It sounds like your garden is further along than mine though. I only have 1" of tulip growth, no alliums or daffs up yet, and just nubbins of delphs and columbines. The roses haven't leafed out. Even if I wanted to cover stuff up, it's blowing a gale anyway so nothing's going to stay put!

Uh oh. Watch out Gillian!

That's what we got days ago, and look what happened =:(

Marcia, the wind might come as far as you, too. It seems to be sweeping the country. Your leaves may end up on the East coast, LOL !

Please let us have spring after this......

Lynn

It was pretty windy here today too, but sounds as if maybe Gil is sending us a hurricane! But it doesn't seem too bad out there now - still light enough to see that the trees aren't swaying, anyway.

I've got crocuses blooming, tulips up 3-4", daffs poking out, alliums, scilla, muscari, chiondoxa, and one lone iris reticulata. :) Maybe i should cover it because it's so cute!

We had that hurricane with a ton of snow after the freezing rain crusted everything first - snapped a BIG branch off the old manitoba maple out front.

Allium will be fine as long as the flower buds aren't showing - that comes up as a little ball out of the centre of the plant. Buds will freeze.

We were away on vacation so I haven't had a chance to clean off the beds yet, just one border and I noticed the allium up in there. Lots of mulch on the backyard beds so I doubt anything is popping up there yet.