Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
maifleur01

Freeze damage information wanted

maifleur01
16 years ago

The Heartland Peony Society is requesting that people report how their peonies are after the current freeze.

The url to copy and paste is

http://peonies.org/freezereport2007.html

Comments (5)

  • ebster
    16 years ago

    I love to hear how other peonies, especially tree peonies
    do after the long freeze.

    My herbaceous ones show no visible damage.

    With my tree peonies, the ones that leaves out have the
    most damage. The ones that are just starting show no
    damage.

    After the second cold day, one of my tree peony that
    leaves out completely looked bad. The leaves drooped
    and looked frozen even after the sun's out. I went
    and cover all of my tps.
    Some I covered w/ new mulch, some I cover w/ big container w/ holes (like the recycling
    bins). I took the plastics off during the
    day but left the mulch on. After several days,
    I noticed that the plastic coverings didn't seem to
    make any difference in protecting the leaves of the tps.
    Some just seem hardier than others. I figure since
    they have holes, the temp got really cold anyways, the plants
    just didn't suffer from the strong wind that we
    have had here. I removed all the mulch yesterday as the weather
    was warming up and found 3 of them that leaved out and
    mulched seem completely gone. As of today, the ones that
    looked damaged but not mulches seem to be looking better.

    My tps are all very young. If they don't flower this
    year, I wouldn't know whether age or weather was the factor.
    My primary goal was to protect the plants so they survive,
    flowers are secondary.

    In conclusion, if I had to do it again, I would not
    cover the plants w/ mulch. I probably would just
    provide some wind protection and let nature take its
    course. My protection seem not to make any difference,
    in the best case :(

  • maifleur01
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Cover plants with mulch but not plastic. Plastic will keep moisture in which can then freeze.

  • ebster
    16 years ago

    maifleur, by plastic, I mean plastic containers w/
    holes so the plants can breath. I used the recycling
    bins and large plastic pots. The ones that
    looked really bad were the ones that leaved out and
    that I covered w/ mulch. I planted them last spring.
    Do you think it was the right thing to do? The ones
    that I covered w/ plastic containers didn't look as
    bad.

  • birdinthepalm
    16 years ago

    I'd be curious what those "cold" temperatures were for actual readings and having many days barely above freezing and lots of nights in the twenties, I see mine have continued growing despite the cold weather and have absolutely no damage. I was guessing twenties for lows once leaves are more advanced in growth would cause considerably more damage however. BTW, I'm in roughly the same zone in Michigan and I doubt the weather there has been much colder than ours has been!

  • maifleur01
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    16F at my house Kansas City North others ranged from 14-21F But this was a continuing freeze starting at about 26 and going lower every day. The real problem at least for my area was that this was preceeded by weeks of 70's and 80's and one day maybe in the low 90's. The daytime temperatures during most of this chill time was in the 40's and low 50's.

    By the way zones really are only a measure of the temperatures not growing conditions. Too many people rely on them for plant purchases. My friends in the west live in zone 7-8 but can not raise some of the plants designated for that zone because they have strong salt breezes.

Sponsored
Grow Landscapes
Average rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars8 Reviews
Planning Your Outdoor Space in Loundon County?