It seems a bit strange (though rather enjoyable) to have the leaves still remaining on the trees, many still very green. Indeed a wet snow would bring the branches crashing down and much damage would be done. I hope the next while the leaves being shed themselves.

Looks like a bit of a warm up and maybe a chance to get those fall bulbs in!

Terry

I still have several containers to bring into the house yet. Two 18" pots which had a "Double Delight" hybrid tea rose in each and a couple of long containers with begonias and pansies. I don't know if the begonia bulbs are still o.k. however I'm sure the roses are alright. Still have not dug up the Canna lilies so that has to be done not to mention the leaves and the clean up of the annuals. Hope this week end stays nice. Stan

Most of the trees in my yard still had green leaves when this sudden deep freeze happened. The leaves are now freeze dried on the trees. I don't know how it will affect them. One thing for sure, it won't be good for fall colour.

But I noticed a strange phenomenon up town. Some of the green ash trees which were all still green suddenly just dropped all their leaves overnight. It was odd to see bare trees with a deep pile of green leaves under them.

I think I may have waited too long to dig up the cannas and dahlias. The stems are mush. I've brought them in and will see what happens.

We still have all our leaves too in most places, but as Marie mentions, i've noticed some dropping their yellow-green leaves pretty quickly. In other years, the leaves have done the freeze-dry thing. Some fall off during the winter (could have raked them across the snow! LOL) and the rest fell in the spring when the new leaves came on.

I still have some containers under a tarp - begonias and impatiens, and when i peeked in on the weekend, they were still blooming away in there. I forgot about the callas on the deck, but i'm hoping the bulbs will still be okay. It hasn't been colder than -5°.

This has definitely been a strange year.

I'm really tired of the chilly snap. We've got over 3" of snow on the ground this morning, and still coming down, and it's warmed up to -3 overnight, so the roads are extremely slippery. The forecast is for +18 by Saturday, so sloppy and wet. I got my dahlias and 4-o'clocks out, but the glads weren't ready. I hope they can stand some frost. We brought the fish in from the pond on Monday, and the boys had to break up ice that was almost 2 inches thick to get at them. I've just got parsnips out in the garden, but I wanted to move a bunch of tulips and daffodils - maybe it will thaw out enough. Plus, of course, none of the fall stuff is done. I'm really hoping for a nice November. Hard to believe that we were in record highs of 30 and over a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, the wind chill in Sundre was -22! If you can't tell, I really hate the end of gardening season, especially when it comes so fast!

Connie

I'm a visitor to this forum-
I like to read about snow.

Mushy canna stems don't mean your cannas are goners.
Here, we cut them back after the first hard frost, after the stems & leaves have turned to slimy mush;
the rhizomes are still fine.

(& our trees, although losing some leaves due to shorter days, are still green as can be.)

Well sylviatexas, I hope you're right about the cannas and dahlias. The trouble is the cannas were all in pots and they froze almost right through. It was more than a frost, IMO. It wasn't pleasant digging them up in the snow either, but I didn't dare leave them any longer.

It's supposed to be a bit better on the weekend, so maybe I'll manage to get some bulbs planted then.

Connie, I usually enjoy the end of gardening season and getting the garden tucked in for the winter, but this isn't enjoyable at all. I have to psych myself up just to go out there. I need lots of warm clothes. It's cloudy, cold and windy. Okay, I'll stop procrastinating and go now.

here in west central alberta most of the trees also still have leaves,probably less than half had turned colour even.. and i'm talking about native trees...
today i thought i saw more yellow, but it had to be my imagination--they couldnt have changed colour while frozen?

i still have a whack of pots that need to be sunk in the soil, hoping this cold week hasnt hurt anything-- lowest temps were presumably somewhere around -20C.. including a geranium sp root cutting i just got from europe--i doubt it was ready for that cold, and i'm sure it froze all the way through in a 6" pot...

some potatoes i didnt get dug--i'll be surprised if it didtn freeze that deep yet..

supposed to get up to around 18C on the weekend--hopefully the ground is thawed enough to get all those pots in!

Wow, Connie, +18 by the weekend?! And here i thought that a heatwave was coming because they're predicting +9 on Sunday! LOL

It sure has not been an enjoyable fall - the weather was great but the mosquitoes were horrendous, and then it came to a crashing halt overnight.

ironically, we had some of our warmest weather of the year in late august and through september--we set heat records late in september...lol

at least today it started to melt, though its just barely around freezing...

Cohan, where are you at in Alberta? Your weather sounds just like my weather - maybe we're not too far apart. I'm near Torrington - about 1/2 hour east of Olds.

Connie

i guess we should often be similar; probably i'm a bit wetter on average, though it seems the south has had more moisture the last couple of years than farther north of here..

i'm about 45mins straight west of red deer, between sylvan lake and rocky mtn house..

Nice to have you here, cohan. It's good to have another chinook belt gardener around. Marcia, they've dropped our temp. for Saturday to +14, now. Still, a lot better than what we've had. Hopefully the white stuff will disappear.
I'm going to go outside as soon as breakfast is done, and I don't intend to come back in until suppertime. I'm really counting on a decent day.

Connie

we'll have to compare notes, will be interested to see what you are growing..

our places has a lot of trees all around-not bad for sun in summer when its high, but when its lower we can be pretty shady, so snow tends to be slow to go :(
hoping still this stretch of warm days will be enough...

I don't remember a fall like this with such a very long and early period of this cold snap.
This made the green leaves stay green,.... feels like we have been robbed of colourful fall.

Konrad

Konrad, I do recall an October that was really bad, around Oct 10th it had snowed about 6 inches, this melted slowly, but it again snowed later in the month and we never recovered till into December when we were able to get back into the frozen fields and finish the harvest.

It seems funny to have the leaves still on the trees, I think they're freeze dried on. When I look at all the leaves, some still very green, my mind thinks it's still September!

Today is nice and warm ... I've got lots of yard work to do and fall bulbs to plant, but it's too wet from the melted snowfall.

Terry

According to Donna Balzer this weather could be very bad for your plants.

I think the last time time it snowed this early here was about 94-95ish, when it started to snow in September and didn't let up unto spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: The End of Summer?

Well, that was a depressing read! :( I don't care about the trees in the bush because they've survived this kind of thing before, but now i'm worried about my little catalpa, and the Centre-glow Ninebark, the hydrangea, and Persian rose that were planted this year. Sigh...

The weather was so nice in sept. that I was still doing garden jobs for people and managed to finish 3 contracts off and do a "plant rescue" at another job of 50-60 plants that I potted up. I guess I stopped to smell the roses a few too many times as I was caught off guard with the chilly snap.
I've been scrambling to finish the transfer of plants from our place .I transplanted to pots about 2000 plants from size 3 gal to 6'' the last 2 months and as our beds aren't going to be ready on the new property till next year----OR?, I've had to heel in them at friends veggie gardens and such. I still have about 30 trees,shrubs in large gal pots to put in when my hd can do a trench with the hoe for me. I SWEAR THIS IS THE LAST MOVE AND THANK GOD IT'S A NEW PROPERTY CLOSE BY!!!!!!
There still will be hundreds of plants in the gardens for new owners.-I guess I stopped smelling the roses a week or two ago altho they're still blooming bless them
Today is so-so so I'm back out to work with more gardens- I wonder if those in warm climates ever wish for a break in gardening I know I'll be happy for one this year!
Take care Lois