Hi Kathy,
I've just gotten inside from checking my freeze damage (I live about 30 mi. north of Chattanooga). Very depressing. And 2 more nights of this to go. I have several mophead hydrangeas that had new growth a foot tall that are just toast. The leaves on my crepe myrtles seem to be done in. The blooms on my large stand of native azaleas look like wet tissue. The list goes on and on. I have far too many shrubs and trees to cover... from flowering to fruiting....not to mention perreniels and roses. So I guess there is not much to be done about it, but to help everything recover once the cold has run it's course. I hope your viburnum holds up okay. I have several types and they are so hardy and such good growers. It didn't seem that they had much damage on them so far. What type is yours? I've been growing plants all my life but have never seen it so cold for 3 nights in a row after so much new growth has already been put out, so I don't know what kind of recovery to expect from everything. We live and learn and Mother Nature does what she's going to do I guess. Good luck.

This viburnum appears to be a hybrid, it was here when I bought the place. I obsessed over it last night because of the bloom potential. Its bloom looks very close to the mopheads on hydrangeas. Like you my crepe myrtles are a mess. They had small leaflets yesterday, but are huge, I could not do anything to protect them. I have one azalea which was not in great shape to begin with. This year may end it. I will cover things again tonight, hoping to salvage a bit of spring.

Hello,
It is bad here in Nashville, everywhere the crape myrtle is toast, as are azaleas. The local strawberry crop is very iffy....My japanese mapleas aren't looking too good either. But there is good news: native viburnum (rusty blackhaw) and witch hazel look great, the phlox pilosa and columbine are still blooming.
We have two more nights of frost...hope all goes well in your gardens for you both.
Gail

Hi Kathy,
I think your viburnum is probably a Snowball Viburnum. I'm even seeing major leaf damage on huge old oak and hickory trees today. My Snowball Viburnum seems to have suffered much less than my other Viburnums. The leaves are limp but not discolored. My Snowflake Viburnum has brown leaves just hanging limply. If you ever decide to plant another Viburnum, you should look for one of those. The blooms are not as huge as the Snowballs but they bloom heavy in spring then more lightly all summer long. They are my favorites. Good luck with yours. I hope it makes it thru okay for you. If it hasn't bloomed yet, you might lose your blooms for this year, but I think it will bounce back.

I had a maxmin thermometer in the coldest part of our gardens (at the bottom of our hill in a frost hollow) and last night it registered 18F and 20F Friday night.
The big hardwood trees fresh leaf colors aren't fresh anymore. And I felt sorry for some small hackberry weeds/tree-wannabes because their leaves are so damaged.

Wow - what happened there is akin to the same thing happening here in Ohio in mid-May!

My grandmother told me about a deep freeze that occurred in early May, 1966 - similar thing happened, it had been very warm, most trees leaves turned to mush after a night in the low 20s and THREE INCHES OF SNOW but things did recover.

As bad as the damage is to my perreniels and shrubs, I do think they will recover. They are all good at putting on new growth, whether it's new shoots from the ground or new branches on shrubs.
My big concern is the well-develped leaves on the big old trees like hickory and oak. I'm seeing the leaves hanging like dark tissue.
Thanks for the hope, hairmetal4ever. I can't figure out if the leaves are going to perk back up (seems very unlikely)or if the trees will push out new leaves (that seems unlikely too). Hopefully Mother Nature will take care of the damage somehow.