I don't think you have to be worried until 32 degrees for tender new foilage.

hydrangeasnohio, I am so tired of this wildly fluctuating temperature here that I can't even be bothered to be worried anymore! LOL! I gather that there will be snow showers so that is good as we are less likely to get frost then. We will just let nature take its course.... :-)

I'm worried! lol
It's supposed to be around freezing tonight, tomorrow night and even Monday night! We were just in the 80's the other day! At what temp will the buds suffer? 32? or does it have to be colder like teens?

A hard freeze is what can really cause issues. Its not all about the temp though, wind and moisture can have an impact too.

Watch for a freeze warning and then you may want to cover delicate/sensitive plants...like some hydrandeas. Something like a lilac, dang thing will be fine if it hits 25 degrees.

We hit 33 last night and a freeze warning was not posted.

After tonight my forecast shows I'm in the clear for another week!

I'll tell ya it felt like winter last night after being in the low 80's just a couple days ago.

This has been a crazy, yet phenomonal spring this year. I just hope nature doesn't crush anyone with a hard freeze!

I'm hoping to get some rain soon, its been pretty dry the month of March and so far April.

So we survived last night, right!? LOL! My hydrangeas look OK this morning, thank goodness...

whaas is so right - it's the hard freeze that is the biggest threat, not just the temp. Even if the temp is above 32F, if there's a hard freeze, we are done... LOL

My Coralburst Crabapple is about to bloom, and it's about 3 weeks early. Oh well, if there's going to be a hard freeze, let it freeze after it's done blooming LOL!

Let's hope that tonight will be OK too. I guess it's going to be cloudy and above 32F here tonight so we should again be alright......

The morning NBC news just said to cover tender vegetation Sunday night. He was predicting a frost! I just checked weather.com and they said 36 degrees over night and no mention of frost?

You bet I'll be out there covering up especially Sunday night! I didn't go through all that work in fall to screw it up now lol. Just a couple more weeks until we are clear.

kentstar, I don't mean to be pessimistic, but you think that you are just a couple more weeks until we are clear? Hmm.... remember that we had a terrible frost AFTER Memorial Day last year!? LOL

All right, all right I know lol! Yeah, it can happen for quite some time. At what temp will it affect the buds? 32 or does it have to be lower?

No warnings where posted and it hit 31 degrees last night...definitely a frost. Everything is fine from what I can tell.

Oh dear! We will drop to 35F tonight and there may be "scattered frost"..... sigh! Maybe I will break down and go and cover up my ES..........

I can't believe it - we had a hard frost overnight here!!! There was no real warning, just a "scattered frost possible" message. Anyway, my ES are OK since I did cover them up. However, many perennials are looking very sad. The peonies are especially badly affected. They look wilted now. I am so mad at this crazy whether? Who said it's OK for mother nature to turn so warm so early and suddenly!? We will have a better assessment of the damages later today when I come home from work..... sigh.......

I felt like crying today. I covered up my hydrangea last night and went to take the overturned pot off this morning and broke off a stem while doing it! I am so depressed...
Then I thought, well, it's a Forever and ever that blooms on old and new so all is not completely lost yet.
How do I go about making sure the "wound" doesn't get infected or insects? I did prune that broken one off with a clean cut of my pruners, but now I'm worried that could leave the door open for problems later on.
I wonder how many of us gardeners get discouraged from time to time? I know I've been a few times!
I'm really discouraged for a few reasons, not just the hydrangea broken stem.
Planted a hybrid tea last year that now has Rose Mosaic, my gaillardia I had to toss because it got White Smut disease last season, my mini iris clump has that iris mosaic virus, and now my friggin' hydrangea got accidentally broken by me. Sometimes I wonder if my garden will EVER live up to my expectations! lol
OK, I feel better now, some lol...

It can take alot of patience sometines Ken. But your hard work will pay off just takes time. Sunday night got some of my hydrangeas. But only a few of my rebloomers, so not that big of a deal. In my experience you will be very happy with you Blue Heaven. I have 5 of them and all my FE hydrangeas do great. They seem like they really work good in our area. I had them all die to the ground last year and still did great!

Oh my goodness.... you guys should have seen me this morning. I was almost cussing out "ma nature" as dear Dita would have called her!!! LOL! Anyway, there was nothing that I could do, so I just left home and went to work. I came home after 7pm to inspect the damages. To my surprise, many plants bounced right back! Even the floppy peonies were upright again, as if nothing had touched them! My paniculatas were completely fine too. Some leaves looked a little sad on some perennials, but for the most part, the damage was much less than what I had expected. Oh well, I guess I do have to give "ma nature" the kudos now for making these plants tougher than I had given them credit for!!!

kentstar, don't worry - things will be OK. We all get discouraged from time to time! You will probably look back in future and did not even think that this was anything...

Are you guys ready for another round of frost tonight!? GOOD GRIEF!!!!!

Good grief is right! Enough is enough already! These ups and downs are taking a toll on our plants and us! I think this is the last night for the week that we'll get down this low.

Thanks for the encouraging words! Maybe that's why they all say a garden is never really finished lol.

Hi All - I never take Ma Nature for granted ... she teased us quite a bit the last 2 Springs ... 2010 - not only did she gifted us this glorious one, 6 weeks ahead but she figured we bore the past 2 w/o begrudging her but sent 'Sol Invictus' to get everyone up & party! ... Even our farmers are happy!!! Â;)

I went ahead & got several flats of annuals in the ground & a few seeds soaked overnight for sowing around!!! Took all the burlaps away from around the Divas' feet ... not to be too confident, tho - we've seen snow in May!!!

Ken, I know only too well how you feel ... consider the accidental breakage as pruning your H will be stronger & fuller. I had to put 4 of my Undulata hostas to the 'gas chamber' due to HVX & a KO rose bush got completely skeletonize by pesky sawflies almost overnight. I was like a nutty Cuckoo running around w/ my spray bottle of *Cornell Univ Formula* ... (remember, Ostrich?) Oh & what Ma Nature did to all but 1 of my Clems!!! Â:(

Let's grin & bear those happenstances ... The blossoms have a way of easing our heartbreaks even those of our own faux pas, right?!!!

Don't mean to butt in but I was just lurking around and reading this because we (North Texas) had pretty cold weather this weekend too. And I read kentstar's comment about being discouraged and I just had to share this story.

The very first flowers I planted on my apartment patio were two pink gerber daisies that I loving picked out, having had my heart set on them months in advance. I took them home, put them in their little planter, and they looked so cute! I loved them and nurtured them. And then almost all at once every single one of the five total blooms completely shriveled up, turned brown, and died. I was SO devastated, and pretty mad frankly, so I turned my attention to my new Hydrangea which is my baby. And then one of the clusters up and died the day after I brought that home! I will tell you, I literally cried. I remember wailing to my husband, "I HAVE A BLACK THUMB! I'LL NEVER GARDEN AGAIN!" I couldn't understand how I could pour so much love into something only to have it inexplicably die.

Then almost on the same day, something wonderful happened! I was looking at my flower-less daisies, looking more like heads of lettuce than anything and LO AND BEHOLD there were new, beautiful looking leaves growing! And the next day, BUDS! Not to mention there's a whole new shoot coming out of my hydrangeas! Now the buds on the daisies are growing stems, the green hydrangeas are blooming a beautiful pink, and here is the miracle of all miracles: after trying twice to sprout strawberries unsucessfully, I was just about to give up when I went to mist the little guys and BAM. The tiniest little sprout you will ever see. And then another! I was elated.

SO I guess what I'm trying to say is yes, other gardeners get discouraged. Very much so. To the point of tears! But I think the rewards are well worth the risks :)

I ran around last night at almost 11pm to cover up everything again with sheets. I didn't see any frost in the morning so I think it was all for nothing. Better safe than sorry I guess!

Hi ditas and itutton, it's so great for you guys to chime in! Thank you!!! Yes, we do have a lot to be thankful for, so we will remain positve! :-)

hydrangeasohio, can you believe it? WE did get the frost here last night again! And I am closer to the lake! Go figure.... anyway, I did cover up my babies last night. My neighbors must have thought that it's that crazy man putting out white sheets all over the yard at night again... what a nutter! LOL!

First plants I ever got where some pretty hanging basket kinds. I don't even remember what they were lol. I took them home, hung them all in my front window of my living room (mistake #1), watered them to death with love (mistake # 2), and they preceeded to die on my within days lol! I thought too, I have a black thumb and I guess I'll never be a gardener. Well, here I am years later still trying to get my thumb to turn green lol! But it looks a little greener.
My first actual plant in the ground was a white lilac bush I bought at Lowes several years ago. I planted in a totally wrong place, where the ground was not prepared, not the right sunlight, and hard as a rock. I loved it to death within a few weeks.
I guess you have to be not only patient to be a gardener, you have to be, crazy and stubborn too lol! But I love it anyway. :)

Is everyone covering these plants since macs are more sensitive to a frost?

Sun night hit 30 degrees which is approaching a hard freeze and not a single plant had an issue in my area...3 straight nights for frost. I don't have any macs...or least any that have leaves on them!lol!