gosh, i thought i lost my crepes. two still look anemic.

and i didn't get one peach. all the blossoms got killed.

what did i learn? don't count your chickens....

I learned that container gardening is a GOOD THING. I simply carried in most of my tender plants -- my house was FULL of pots for a couple of days! I only lost one out of five Japanese maples -- and that one was killed because it was in the biggest pot, and I decided not to take it in. Lesson #2 -- take even the big pots inside when you need to!

I was fortunate in that I was too lazy to plant four or five crepe myrtles in late winter... so they stayed in pots.

Then - the cold snap - I was able to bring them in along with a number of other plants.

They are now four times as big as they were a few months ago. Amazing. (Natchez Crepes) I went back to "Stanley's" (garden center in Knoxville) to buy more, and their crepes were devastated. They were alive, but really beaten.

There are two threads on the Antique Rose Forum that are about the devastation to our roses and to other plants as well.
I don't know if it was the freeze or the drought, but some of our large and old trees have lost major limbs, not in wind storms but in quiet weather, just healthy looking limbs dropped off. (Not even rotted at the center of the trees limbs). Thistles were set back and are blooming very close to the ground.
I see a lot more dead trees on the steep slope on the the other side of the Holston river and as many dead trees on the cliff opposite the UT garden as I used to see back when I was in grad school. There are some trees that have leafed out, but not densely and they stand out at the tops of hills and along fencelines.
Our poison ivy, horse nettle, poke weed and johnson grass has never looked better.

Boy, *my* roses haven't been devastated. One of the benefits of living in the nice warm middle of town. :-)

The weather this year has really be devastating as has already been discussed. I am concerned about what the winter brings.

My 3 crepe myrtles lost some limbs but are now blooming.
Both of my rose bushes lost limbs. One is a yellow climber and it lost all but 2 limbs and I have had to cut it back drastically. It has had only 3 blooms. The other one I had to cut back to the ground but it has come back somewhat.

The drought is really hard on the veggie garden. Even with me watering 3-4 times a week I see distress. You can only water so much. It hasn't affected the zuchini though. I've had about 4 bushel off of 3 plants. It looks like it was fed steroids. :)

The only thing that seems to like the drought is my black eye susans. They are blooming profusely...

I drive Pellissippi Pkwy. every day and off in the distance you see quite a few of yellowed trees and the daffodils did not bloom along there this year as they have in the past.

Lets hope we get lots of slow rain soon.