How to protect or at least try during the hard freeze we are expecting? I have got so much growth in just about everything. My Arnold's Red and Honeyrose bush honeysuckle is bringing blooms on. All of my buddleia varieties have major growth. My bleeding heart is about to bloom at only 9 inches high, I can bring it in though. My phlox, hardy geraniums, echinaceas, penstemon, aquilegia, and crocosmia have between 2 to 5 inches of green popping out of the mulch.

I am using fleece blankets and pots. Covering some with one or the other and some both. Any other ideas?

Thanks!




Paula
nw PA/zone 5
heat zone 4


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Paula,
I have too many things to cover so I am going to focus on my red buckeye. I bought a non woven row cover yesterday to cover my tree. The stuff that overwintered in the ground will probably have to fend for itself but If I have some pots or containers big enough to put over some of the smaller stuff I will cover those with pots. I still have some leaf mulch on some stuff. Anything that is still in pots was brought back inside this afternoon. My butterfly bushes are on their own as the are too big to cover. What survives the next two nights hopefully will be ok.


Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6a
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

You shouldn't have much of a problem, almost all the plants you mentioned are pretty tough. I guess you might want to protect your almost blooming bleeding heart, everything else is used to these kinds of temperature changes. Even if they are damaged they will have plenty of time to recover. The general rule is to worry only about plants that aren't hardened off, tender and semi-tender ones that were recently in the house or in a greenhouse somewhere.

Penny;

Congrats on your drb coming into bloom. How awesome! I hope these last cold spells are kind to it. Mine is in its 2nd yr here and about 3 ft tall. I have a few of what looks like small rhod closed buds on it, nothing near coming into bloom. I didn't get it from Avant, but am thinking I may get another one from them in case mine does dud out on me.

This evening I went and piled on the mulch to what things I could completely cover, added some freeze cloth around my clethras, and brought in my bleeding heart thats in a pot and honeysuckle vines waiting to be planted. Tomorrow evening I will also add planting pots on top of my outside perennials. I think there is supposed to be a week before our next cold spell. Do you think it would be safe to put the honeysuckle in after Tuesday before the next cold spell next week, I could cover around it with freeze/frost cloth if need be. Or would you err on the side of caution and keep them in their small pots for a while longer and bring them in. They will be going in the new trellis arbor my husband just built for me.

Paula




Paula
nw PA/zone 5
heat zone 4


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Ward; Didn't see your reply until I sent my reply to Penny in, I was busy typing it. Well hopefully then all will go well for my perennials because they got a covering this evening.

Paula




Paula
nw PA/zone 5
heat zone 4


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Paula
I am a little gun shy about planting stuff this time of the year. I remember when I ordered my honeysuckle I just repotted it and kept it in the house until the weather became a little more stable. It is a pretty tough plant but since it has probably been in a greenhouse if it was me I wait just a bit longer before planting it out.

Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6a
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Last season I was lucky and found some plain black pots at lowes 2gal and 4gal which were about $2 each and I picked up several of each so I can cover quite a few small plants that are well leafed at this time. I also agree that some may have to fend for themselves but some of the more tender guys will get covered.

Hello,

I am just beside myself because of the frost/freeze predicted tonight, but since it is going to happen and has happened just about every spring when things are growing I guess I will live with it .
I use boxes, buckets, feed sacks or whatever I can find to put over my plants, I have even used light weight sheets over them and baskets, but don't put them out where someone would take them.

We use to raise tobacco several years ago and used a light weight fabric for cover on our seed beds and I use that, but not much left of it.

If you use boxes make sure to put a rock on top to keep them from blowing away. I have used newspaper to cover my vines, like clematis, I just use clothes pins to clip it on the trellis. My clematis is really growing and has tons of buds. I have also used empty totes, I know they are plastic but as long as they don't touch the plants it should be ok. When you are really wanting to save your plants you will be amazed what ideas you come up with.



I wish everyone good luck in protecting your plants tonight.

Jodi

This may be to late for last nights freeze in certain areas but another way to protect plants from frost damage is to water, very early before the sun comes up. No need to drench the plants just a nice gental spray to knock off any frost and change the temp of the surface areas.
A lot of frost damage is caused by the suns rays after a frost, to direct and fast of a change in the temp for them to survive. Sometimes if the frost/freeze isn't real hard this watering is enough to save plants that would otherwise die or be severely damaged.
It always seems that the sun comes up with little cloud cover after late fall and early spring freezing.
I grew up in far northern Wisconsin, we had 3 acres of asparagus that we tended. It was all in a lowland area, sometimes it could freeze throughout the summer months and we had hoses set up to spray before the sun came up and we never lost any plants doing this.
Hopefully no one will have to use this method for the remainder of this spring, but in the future it might help.

Pete

Yes I have heard of this before although I have never done it usually not up before the sun is. It sounds like a good method to try.

Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

Thanks Pete for explaining the misting method. I know they use it in Florida a lot for the citrus trees.

I just came in from putting the plastic cover over the arbor that I put in place yesterday to shield my buckeye tree. I sure hope it works. I waited until the sun was no longer shining to do it so I didn't trap any excess moisture in there then I can remove it early in the morning.

I was doing some errands today and all the magnolias and red bud trees have exploded with bloom in the past couple of days. I can just imagine how they will look tomorrow. The apple crops may be damaged too since those trees are all in flower now too. They are calling for temps down to 22 degrees in some areas tonight

Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6a
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

http://graphical.weather.gov/#




Cheers,Bob
F47 - USA

I should add that we used this method for everything around our garden area near the asparagus. We had cabbage, lettuce, collard (yup, my Father was from South Carolina). We covered what we could, we had stakes set up for rolling out fabric but there was so much that it was easier and it worked to just mist everything down before the sun came up.
The asparagus, being a very dense veggie when bought in a store might not seem like a good plant to show that misting/spraying would work being that they wouldn't be as susceptible to freezing. The thing with asparagus is that as they come out of the ground they are very tender with little coloring (green) and are packed with water, making them even more prone to freezing than a leafy plant.
They would burn badly, brown to black in a matter of 1/2 hour after the sun rise without misting.
It won't help with a hard freeze below say 26 but it will help with temps above that.

Thanks everyone for the additional responses to my thread and Pete for suggesting and explaining the mist method. I am keeping my fingers crossed I had all covered up well enough, but if necessary will use it.




Paula
nw PA/zone 5
heat zone 4


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