Cold Death!

[foxd]

Temperatures were about 28F this morning, but quickly climbing. It is already 33F.

A lot of the plants and trees are not looking very happy with life. *sigh*

A couple of the Sasa veitchii leaves looked curled and sage colored, though most look fine. I will check the other bamboo this evening.

[BruceLofland]

My yellow groove and Ph. rubromaginata had put up some shoots. Those that had grown to the point that the culm was exposed were killed by the frost. They simply flopped over. The shoots that were entirely covered by their sheaths look fine though.

[weretable]

I covered my shoots with leaves, straw, sheets, buckets, tarps and everything else I could find. The tallest ten or fifteen are dead, the rest appear to be okay so far. However every azalea, at least most of the trees, roses, perennials... well pretty much everything else looks horrible. I also went to a great deal of trouble to cover many of my azaleas and some of my more expensive or tender shrubs and perennials and it seems like this only helped one or two of the plants I covered, the rest were bitten anyway.

It dropped to around 20F for several nights and 17F one night, which set a new all-time record low here for the month of April. My Japanese maples had already put out a lot of new growth and of course that and all of the leaves were killed. There is so much mushy dead vegetation in my yard that the air is starting to have a rotten stench in the areas with the most plants. Some of the azaleas and other evergreens appear to have had their old leaves killed so I would not be surprised to lose some shrubs and perhaps even a tree or two entirely. It was just too bitterly cold after things were so far along. Fortunately it looks like it is over for us now, unless another cold snap decides to show up.

[foxd]

Despite the local paper's websites weather predictions to the contrary, the temperatures once again dipped below freezing. However, daytime temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 50's today.

So far none of the bamboos appear harmed by the cold snap and the Phyllostachys nigra has leaves coming out and doesn't appear to have any top kill. Neat!

[foxd]

I just found something good about the cold weather! It seems to have totally top killed the Japanese Knotweed next door.

Aside from a couple of crisped leaves on the Sasa veitchii and some of the shoots from the "Yellow Groove", which were coming up where I didn't want them, everything seems to have survived.

And the inside bamboos have three more shoots today: the Pseudosasa viridula, the largest Moso seedling and the A.g. "Paperweight" all have shoots! The "Paperweight" also appears to have a rhizome breaking surface.

[Iowaboo]

Still don't got any knotweed. Sometime I'll get the giant form. But anyways, a couple freezes won't hurt it much.

[foxd]

Still don't got any knotweed. Sometime I'll get the giant form. But anyways, a couple freezes won't hurt it much.

Considering how much it had grown before the freeze, it was pleasant seeing it all dead looking for a bit.

[Eastlandia]

So....
All of my Bissetii, PYG'Alata' and 'Shiroshima' shoots have all died in the past few weeks cold.

I've moved my 200 or so buckets back and forth from the greenhouse several times....since all of them are doing fine I think it will be worth the sore fingers and back!

[Iowaboo]

I probably should have done that with all my pots, but I didn't have such options. We'll see how it all turns out.

[Thuja]

Brian, we can compete for the smallest Bisset. Fortunately, my handicap is that it was cold enough here that no bamboo has shot yet. Daffodils and other early perennials had bloomed and were damaged. Daffodils are tough. I was surprised to see them frozen.

[Brian_K]

Sorry to hear about the shoot death... Almost none of my bamboo shot, except for rufa, nuda, and Pl. viridistriatus. Those shoots were undamaged and are growing (slowly). Lets hope that the last freeze date has already passed.

[foxd]

Brian_K, interesting that rufa shoots so early. Last year my F. nitida waited until June to shoot, so I sort of expected rufa to do the same.

I'm going to predict that my Pseudosasa japonica, I. tessellatus and S.y.'Kimmei' will start shooting sometime this week.

I feel like Spring is in a holding pattern.

[Eastlandia]

Here we go again...
Low tonight is projected to be 31*F

[foxd]

Here we go again...
Low tonight is projected to be 31*F

WHAT!!! WHERE'D THAT COME FROM!!!

Stupid blankety blank blank weather page...grumble...grumble.

And I just discovered the first Pseudosasa japonica shoots of the year. *sigh*

[Eastlandia]

Yah, the SOB cold weather is evidently not over yet

After tonight, low temps begin to be in the 40s again.