I haven't planted anything out yet so what plants I have in pots I will move to the porch and throw something over them. Whatever is coming up in the yard will have to fend for itself. Winter sown containers are on their own too and should be fine.

Penny

I'm not concerned about any of my perennials in the ground that have started to grow. But my winter sown containers will get covered just to stay on the safe side.

Tracy

Well the four flats of babies in the mini greenhouse on my porch were covered up but pretty much on their own...just now room to bring them inside as they had gotten too big and many had been repotted into larger containers. I used the cusions from my wicker to surround the little greenhouse with a blanket over the top. The plants I overwintered inside were brought back in and a couple of saplings in containers went into the garage. The two cannas that overwintered in ground and are now 3-4 inches hight I covered with flower pots. Everything else is on their own for the next two nights as well. After Friday we are hopefully home free.

Will assess any damage after it warms up in the morning. It is 29 degrees here right now at 5 a.m.

Penny

Boy was it cold this morning! I had a thick layer of frost on my car that took forever to scrape off.

I put the caps back on some of my winter sown containers Monday night- mostly the annuals. I was going to leave them open but just couldn't risk losing them after all of this work. I'll be glad when the week is over and the warmer temps get here.

Penny- You leave your cannas in the ground over the winter? I thought they couldn't take frozen soil. Or perhaps you have a different, more hardy, variety?

Tracy

Tracy no the cannas are not hardy but some of the rhizomes got so big last summer I couldn't dig them up so I had to leave them in the ground. The few that were left did turn to mush and I was going to turn them and chop them up for compost in the bed last week end when I noticed that a ouple of them had survived the winter and were coming up. They are the ones that are on the two front corners of that particular bed. It was a freak think b/c they shouldn't have survived the winter. I lost very hardy plants this winter.

Penny

Wow, how strange Penny. I'm not sure if I lost anything yet but so far think my viola, campanula, and platycodon might be goners. They haven't sprouted yet.

Tracy

I think 18 containers of salvia are all gonners but the canna babies and fuchia babies so far are fine go figure. The one plant I was trialing bites the dust. I brought them inside and put them in a shady spot to see if they will reover but I have my doubts.

Penny

Disregard my last post. I may lose a couple but the rest look like they are recovering.

Penny

It sure was cold out in the country here last night. I had the heat on low in my greenhouse and this morning my peppers and tomatoes looked sick, they were ok later in the day but some of my ws annuals did not fair to good. I should have covered them...

All salvias survived and are in great shape. I also finally went out a while ago and checked on my wintersown containers. One WS canna that had sprouted survived the 29 dregree temps also the night before last and it was uncovered because the cover had blown off. Doesn't look affected at all.

I sure hope we are over the hurdle now.

Penny

Well I too hope we are all done with the possible sub 32 temps.......I didnt do anything this time to prepare for the cold.....but looks as if everything is just fine! Now I just gotta find room for all these plants! Penny I would like to come and see how your plants are doin sometime. Maybe we can swap some before the swap!!!

Sounds good to me Wayne.

Penny

My apple tree is just starting to show some bud color. I do not trust that we will not have another freeze until it is done blooming. There always seems to be one last frost before it is done blooming. This year has been odd and maybe we won't get another, but I'm not putting money on it, lol.
Tracy,
Platycodon is a very late riser, don't give up on it yet: )
Remy

Remy,
I wouldn't be surprised to see a frost here in June this year as weird as the weather has been. In March the weather was beautiful now at the end of April we are having March winds and freezing temps. I finally checked my WS containers yesterday. I still have spotty germination but I have to tell you that I put one container out there that had the canna seeds that I sowed inside. There was a canna sprout in that pot. It had survived the freeze in a tiny pot of almost dry soil with almost no protection. It is about 2 inche tall. Needless to say I was shocked.

Penny

Hello all -
This week was extremly disappointing as the flowers on my Magnolia X 'Butterflies' began opening then the freeze came and froze the yellow flowers - now they are a sick brown.
It had over 75 flowers...
My Yellowood had new growth that was also frozen...
My perennials are OK - such is the life of a WNY gardener!
Adios,
Gerry

Gerry: So sorry to hear about your magnolia.

Remy: Yes, I forgot that it's usually up late. Hopefully it will show some signs of growth in the next month. We'll see.

My sprouts fared well during the past few cold nights. I only lost one- a grandpa otts morning glory that I forgot to cover. It turned into brown mush.

Tracy

I lost my nasturtium that I thought were supposed to be hardy :(

Julie
Nasturtioums are tender annuals. I haven't even sown mine yet.

Penny

I've since found out that some are frost hardy and some aren't. I don't know how you're supposed to know for sure which are which. I had the black velvet and it says they're hardy. The weird thing was, the ones in the backyard died, and those in the front survived.

Here is a link that might be useful: nasturtiums - who knows

i have always grown them as tender annuals and sown them as one of the last seeds to be sown.

Penny

That @#$%$#^ frost killed some of my beautiful lilies that had gotten a head start with the nice weather! They are all mushy and I am very disappointed! It also killed several seedlings that had sprouted and the new growth on a few shrubs. I'm really bummed. It wasn't the frost so much as the long period of nice weather earlier. Sigh . . . such is gardening here in WNY.

I worried about frost for nothing the other night. Got up and my kids fairy garden was completely gone. @#$!&* bunnies!