Welcome to the New Weather. I hope the cold passes soon and doesn't come back.
Melissa

Sorry to hear this, Josh! Mother Nature does like to get the last word in though, lol.

We are at 26 degrees right now. I just bought a pop up canopy at Walmart to protect my huge gorgeous wisteria when it comes into full bloom, plan to hang tarps on the sides and put clamp on heat lamps. Freeze got it last year after 2 days in bloom, just ruined it and the divine smell it emits. Really made me mad......am determined it will not happen this year. All my baby bands from Vintage are in the greenhouse with heater on. Taking no chances. Josh, hope your plants are all OK. Don't know how people who live in the north do it. I keep thinking we have seen the last of freezing weather......and hope THIS is the last of it!
Judith

It was 81 here Saturday. Got too hot to spread fertilizer on the peaches & plums--which are blooming.

Still warm & drizzly Sunday morning, then the front came in while we were in church. It's 23 now.

$%*#! weather! And no measurable rain since Dec--a lousy .75-1" that month. BoooHooo.

I was just admiring the sweet new growth peeping up from all of my clematis....Hope the overturned buckets protect them. My poor hydrangeas! Thankful I just put out a nice layer of mulch.
I do find it amazing how, as quickly as the ice comes and goes, the green returns and rebounds.

s****ty, hateful d****ed weather! Man, the wind was just howling last night & our early morning wind chill temp was 7. S-E-V-E-N!

I just planted marigolds (I know, I know, it's ALWAYS too early--wait until after Easter). I always start too early--I'm starved for some flowers.

And I guess this will be the SECOND bad year for the peach crop. Had a late freeze last year, too, that burned off most of the blossoms.

Waaah, I don't expect any sympathy from the east, where it's been frozen, like, forever, this year--but fellow Texians can sympathize.

Its nearly noon and still 26 degrees......whats up with this weather???

Waaaaaaaa I can concur. I planted marigolds and blue scabiosa as well. Waaaaaaa. Have not been able to prune my roses as yet either between my work schedule and this infernal cold.

I don't know how you Texans can stand it; your weather is just like a yo-yo, no transition, just really warm and then it's freezing weather. I was hoping that the rain we had in California would get to you too since it traveled far to the east. You must be too far south to have benefited from it. So sorry for everyone who has to put up with so much to have a garden.

Ingrid

Yer so sweet, Ingrid. We do have a chance early this week for the wet stuff (uhm, what's it called? I forget..)

The good part about our winters is that, normally, we get a few mild days between cold fronts & most cold fronts bring rain. The long, cold, set-in dry winter this year is unusual.

I am over here wailing and gnashing my teeth as well. We got down to 0 degrees with the wind chill. ZERO. Far below our projected zone temps. The Damasks, HPs and Gallicas were hardly phased, but my poor Chinas and Teas are looking pretty awful.

What makes me even more peeved is that the bands and babies I moved inside to protect from the cold are now under full assault from aphids. The warm temps inside caused the aphid eggs to hatch and I woke up this morning to find my Vintage bands in full wilt from hundreds of aphids. There were so many aphids that they were literally crawling around the edges of their pots. 'Milkmaid' is teetering precariously on the edge of death between the temperatures and aphids, and 'Frederic II de Prusse' has given up all attempts to put out new growth.

What I hate the most is that I live in Tornado Alley. So come April, when we finally emerge from this hateful, awful winter, the roses will still have to contend with gale force winds and tornados. I'm about to turn into a barbarian and make sacrifices to the weather gods on behalf of my roses. Nothing modern has worked so far to protect them and desperation is about to drive me to the brink of no return. Lol.

To top it all off, I found out today that my family might be moving to Virginia in late July since my dad works for the DoD.

Seems I just can't win. And what's to become of the cemetery if we move! It's enough to make one throw their hands up in frustration and call it quits. I suppose the roses and I shall soldier on though.

Josh

Waaaaaaaah!, I mean,

GeeWhiz, Josh! Sorry to hear about the potential move--maybe, like the old saying about a dozen potential troubles coming at you, this one will fall in the ditch & never reach you.

Meanwhile, since you don't want to go outside anyway, maybe put 3-4 bands in a bucket in the sink, spray them off well with the sink sprayer &/or squirt them with a few drops of soap mixed in a hand-held sprayer to get the aphids.

It's supposed to warm right back up over the next 48 hrs., you know. Already pretty here though the wind is sharp.

I hope everything pulls through somehow, or at very least that everyone only loses plants they didn't much like anyway ;)

If anyone loses anything that I have cuttings of, please contact me for some free ones (shipping only). I even grow a few rare roses, so I please be my guest. I'm cafeaulait on HMF. I'm terribly worried about my last Vintage order, because I have no idea how to replace them if they are gone (not teas, but climbing HTs and looking scary).

Here we have snow after ice this afternoon, after a lovely couple of days that had everything pushing out new growth, yep. But instead of the twenties they predicted for tonight, it's supposed to hit 14! Another night below 15 is depressing this time of year, but why after the warm spell darnit?

I have a little young orchard that is mainly just still growing this year, but I guess I'll find out which buds are killed in the teens and which aren't! And some cane fruits get killed below 10 degrees, apparently, so who knows what I have after this crazy winter :(

Poor Abe Darby...he catches the run off from the roof. He was pretty, full, and covered with dark green new growth:(

Awww, poor Abe. my marigolds melted--what was I thinking?

Thank you for your kind offer, Meredith. Fourteen? brrrr.
I don't think I have anything so very unusual--maybe some old HTs & floribundas that only Vintage was still propagating. When they grow off big enough to let me take cuttings I'll list on HMF to make what I've got available.

I'm with you, Josh. Who shall we sacrifice?

I cut forsythia and Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn' branches a few weeks ago. It usually brings Spring in the house before it arrives outside. Not this year. The forsythia is totally fried, no blooms, no leaves. The viburnum is at least forming small leaves. The forsythia will not bloom outside this year across the area (except just above the ground if the branch was covered with snow). This degree of damage hasn't happened for a very long time - maybe since the early eighties. I hope the roses have fared better.

Cath

Josh, Make a deal with your dad that you get to fly back a few times to take care of the roses. Round trip is only $225 +/-

Josh, I'm sorry for your troubles. The move would be the worst though after all your work. Life does bounce around sometimes like the weather.

Well Josh, sounds like you may be living closer to my neck of the woods near DC. Although we get cold winters and snow, it usually doesn't swing so wildly so the plants stay dormant until spring and aren't so badly damaged.

Anyway, Virginia is one of the prettiest states I've seen, green and lush with nearby mountains and gorgeous fall foliage. I'm sorry you're not happy about it but hopefully you'll learn to love the new countryside and start a new garden that you'll love even more.