Oh no! That's horrible! I've got my fingers crossed that all your plants will be fine. It only got down to -.3 last night and the night before, so we didn't get it quite as bad as Winnipeg. Plants are pretty tough, they may surprise you yet ;^)

Laurie

Well I forgot to go out the front door and had a look, but most of it's fine. Snaps, dianthus, foxgloves, chives, and columbine are all ok and the salvia looks pretty PO'ed at me but might pull through. I have a zillion more of them anyway. I'm surprised the tulips fared so badly, they are splattered all over the ground.

I'm surprised by the tulips too. I'm sure they'll get back up, as they are spring bloomers and should be tolerant of the odd frost. Maybe that's their defense mechanism, to play dead?!LOL

Good to hear most of everything else is ok.

We had -5 on Wednesday night. I have no annuals planted out yet, but I did leave all of my plants outside. Most of them in my little 4 shelf greenhouses. I did cover my greenhouses with blankets. Even my peppers were fine. I put my potted blooming lilies right beside the house and they were fine also. My tulips were flattened also, but by last night they were looking good. All the rest of my perennials and roses look like nothing happened.

Glad to hear for the most part everything is okay. That is odd about the tulips, I wouldn't of thought they would be bothered by frost. All I can see are leaves on my tulips so I can't tell you how mine are faring with frost every night.

Syreeta

It got down to -6C here on Wed night, and the only perennials I can see damage on are the hostas that were up about 4 or 5 inches. I had even covered them. I guess it's good that they're usually last to come up. They can't take heavy frosts. Now I'm glad the rest of them aren't up.
The pulsatilla vulgaris was splatted to the ground, but has recovered nicely.

Shucks!!!

That's the chance you take for planing early type tulips or anything early in our climate.

Do any of you remember that hard frost a couple of years ago when in dipped down to -5C on June 18th? That was unexpected, lost alot of tender annuals that year!

But life will go on, those hardy perennials will recover once again.

Sharon

Oooooooohhhhh I remember that well Sharon. It did wipe out a lot of things....and the nurserys were scrambling to supply enough plants for replacement plants. We were away at the time and I covered a lot of stuff with garden blankets, that did some protecting.....but still did lose some things.

Hey Gil, on a happier note....I still have phlox popping up. ;-)

Sierra

That's really lousy.

Here's hoping things warm up enough today and things can recover.

Ang

Well I got home from work and examined the damage in detail - the salvias are dead as doornails and so are the tomatoes despite the tent. But I have more of both. I might have to buy a few supplementary tomatoes - oh well. Most of the tulips are recovering, some of them were almost done anyway.

Everything else is fine! :0)

Sierra, I told you that phlox would show! Maybe you were dancing too slow? The phlox dance is a fast dance. Thank goodness I hadn't planted any of those out yet! I woulda been pulling my hair out!!

Gosh I wish this weather would settle down. On the weekends I'm chomping at the bit wanting to plant since its 70-75F but then I wake up to THIS Tuesday!

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At least that happens when I have to work but I know I don't dare try what I'm itching to do- even though it's back over 70 again today! Oh well, I can prep and plant more beds! Any more of this and I won't have any lawn left LOL

Vrie, that's what it looked like here on Thursday morning. My friend has an interesting theory, though. She thinks that the s*** and cold will kill the mosquito larvae! Now, THAT would be great!

I triple-covered the cold frame and double-covered the sprouted winter sowing containers. I've been gone since yesterday afternoon, and when i got home tonight, i only had time for a glance inside the cold frame and everything looks fine, thank goodness. The weather predictions don't have any frost in them now, so i'm going to start hardening things off, and maybe by the end of the week will be able to leave things outside in the mini-greenhouse.

Re Thursday morning's hard frost: That morning quite a few of my tulip flowers were arched over. It was most unusual. By the time I got home from work, the flowers had picked themselves back up. The petals on some of them didn't look as nice after that, however, but there are still a few that are only beginning to bloom.

The leaves on the apple tree, aspen, maples (partially open) seemed fine. I guess it's hard to tell if conifers get damaged, I do recall last year after a cold spell seeing a few whitish dry ends on some of the branches but nothing major.

The only plants damaged by the frost were my kiwi vine (leafed out and ready to bloom) and porcelain vine. It's actually quite interesting. One kiwi against the fence at the far end of the yard: the foliage totally frost bitten. The kiwi planted against the house foundation: the foliage fine. I had another kiwi by the back gate and I covered it with a garbage can (yeah I guess I played favorites, lol). It lost part of it's leaves (I think where ever the branches were touching the outside wall of the garbage can.) Anyways, a bit sad but hopefully they will make a comeback. Oh, and my delphinium foliage seemed a bit droppy and odd looking, but still alive.

Glen

Everything came through fine - alive and well and ready to roll. :) Plants are tougher than we think!

Glen, my delph foliage looked funny too...almost transparent...but yesterday it looked fine.
I hope the warm weather comes back soon!

Frost in the spring is a normal for us where I live..it is probably more of a shock to all the plants when we get a night without it..lol..savona

I forgot last night to bring in all my tenders. I've been hardening off all my pelagoniums, tender roses and fuchsias on the deck during the day and just forgot about them and went to bed last night. One of the dogs wanted out at 4am for a pee and that was when I saw them sitting there shivering. I think it went down to -4 last night. I brought them all in but they don't look good. I think all my pelagoniums are dead, the fuchsias don't look that good either and the roses aren't bad but they usually show damage a little later. Fortunately I had left one cutting indoors of my favourite scented pelagonium that smells like citrus. I wonder how many cuttings I can get from it?

Syreeta

Oh nooooooooo Syreeta, thats to bad. :-( Maybe wait a few days and see what happens. Plants can be pretty tough....maybe some new leaves will appear. Keeping fingers crossed for you.

This is the very reason, I don't leave my plants out in the greenhouse overnight. I can't get the temps to stop dropping in there even with a heater.

Sierra

I haven't even started hardening anything off, yet. Oh, except I have put out my two tubs of alstromeria. They seem to be able to take the spring frosts (light) with no problem. I wouldn't want to be leaving them out in a -4 or -5, tho. Last year, I got a bit too excited and left a lot of plants out overnight after a week of hardening off. We got a light frost of -1 or -2 and I lost all of my coleus and a few other things. I'm just not hurrying things too much this year. Even with this warm April, we seem to be now back to a "normal" cold May. At this rate, I won't be putting in much until June.

Shauna

Syreeta, ahhh dang, that's too bad. Maybe it was'nt that bad afterall, wait a few days, hopefully just the tips got nipped.

I've learned my lessons too Shauna from past experiences ;) I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER no matter how nice it's outside harden off my tenders like Geraniums, Coleus, Toms, Amaranthus closer to the end of May and I NEVER plant them out till after June. But then again, that doesn't mean frost doesn't happen in June ;)

Sharon

That is too bad Syreeta..been there done that..now I am even suspious of the weather the first week of June ..Except for a night or two where I took out an electric heater to the greenhouse the woodstove gets started everynight..I don't rely on the weather man either..lol..Hopefully you will find some of your plants reviving in the next few days..savona

Hey, wow about half of my dead tomatoes are growing back from the base! Will they catch up? Who knows? But they have a good root system and are growing fast so here's hoping...

Well, frost again, though not as severe as earlier this month. It was about -1.

Luckily, the only annuals I had planted were in pots, so I just put them under the bench and covered with a tarp. I did throw towels over my kiwi vines, however, as they lost all their foliage the last time we had frost and are starting to resprout. I figured another frost might not be good for them.

It's funny how inventive one can be. I even used an old housecoat to cover a new cedar that I bought. It worked great, I used the 'tie' part and closed it up. I just wasn't sure how much frost an actively growing "shipped in from a warmer zone" shrub could take.

I was worried about some of the shrubs because they are in full leaf so I woke up at 6 a.m. and sprayed with water. Kept doing so every 15 minutes or so until the temperature went above freezing. Any water spray that hit the deck did form ice and it was slippery, but fortunately it wasn't quite cold enough for the spray of water to freeze on the tree leaves. One time last fall I recall that happening.

I measured almost -2C in the centre of the yard, -1 near the fence and deck, but about +0.5C right against the house.

Anyways, hopefully we can put this behind us and get on with summer. It's suppose to warm up by tomorrow.

Glen

We got a touch of it last night too, Glen. My stuff is all under wraps as well. I'm picturing your cedar wearing a housecoat - too funny! You should have taken a picture!

LOL Marcia, it sort of goes along with that time you did the photos of your roses wearing cowboy hats.

The frost surprised me because usually this time of year they forecast it, we run around and cover things up, and it doesn't happen. Anyways, just for general interest I was doing an internet search on frost protection methods and some sight mentioned that even parts of Britain can get frost in May. I don't feel so bad, since they have such milder winters.

Glen

Well I don't think it froze after all last night, but I didn't get the hard frost like you the night before Glen. I'm close to the river and it seems to keep the frost away a little more than out by the airport. I laughed at your cedar too, I was imagining it with slippers and a pipe like a playboy cedar :0)

My tomatoes are definitely growing back! And some of the salvias too. I have almost all of my annuals planted out now and I did throw blankets over everything the night before last.

That's so encouraging that your tomatoes are coming back, Northspruce!

We froze last night and that's been the first for awhile now. We've been getting more rain this past week and really warm nights (all the perennials are lovin' it)but it cleared off yesterday and froze. About -2 C or so. I haven't been out, but I don't think it would've hurt any of my perennials.

Thanks to having to do a million other things lately, I'm still hardening off my seedlings from inside and haven't made it in to town for any annuals! I guess all's well that ends well...but I bet a lot of folks got caught, it being Victoria Day weekend!

Toots

Was the cowboy hats to save the roses from frost or just for fun!! Very ingenious.
I can picture silk leopard slippers on that cedar, Northspruce! Too funny!

The cowboy hats were a bit of a joke. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Henry and friends

Experience has taught me to be very paranoid when it comes to frost. Up on our hill, we often miss the early fall frosts, but seem to get late spring ones. I keep my tomatoes and cucumbers under garden blankets until around July 10th - I've lost them too many times in early July. I don't really care that much about the beans - the latest I've replanted them was June 20th, and they did fine. Half the time the cucumbers are starting to flower when I finally uncover them. Last year I tried putting my tomatoes out a little earlier, just after the May long weekend, under their blanket, and they froze off blanket and all. It's been so warm lately I'm having a hard time controlling the urge to plant, but I'm trying. There are some +5 nights forecast for later this week, and it might get a bit frosty up here.
Connie

I saw a light frost on the neighborÂs roofs this morning.
The min/max thermometer in the carport says that the minimum was 3C.

I have no concerns about the stuff that has been outside all along.
ItÂs the stuff I have hardening off that I was worried about.

I picked up a shipment of plants from Dominion Seed from the post office yesterday.
In the shipment was

Spirea x bumalda "Sparkling Carpet"
Hemerocallis "Navajo Princess"
Asiatic lily "Landini"
Tricyrtis hirta mixed hybrids
Trillium grandiflorum
Datura "Ballerina White"

I had the Datura on the deck and it was about 10C last evening when I brought them in.
One of them looks fine but two of them are in shock and I am trying to nurse them back to health in the house.

Dominion SeedÂs packing slip claims that I am in zone 2 and that therefore there is no guarantee.
The Weather Network website has Smithers in zone 3!
There was a thread on the subject a while back. Here the climate zones get compressed and elevation is also a big factor.

I also had some Canna and Calla hardening off on the deck but they look fine. I brought them in last night as well. This is the first year I am trying them. They came from VeseyÂs about several weeks ago.
I had thought that summer here was not warm enough for them but I saw some Calla on a garden tour and decided to give them a go. I donÂt expect too much from them this year but maybe next year if I start them in the house. Boy the Cannas get big roots!
Ian

Ian, when i got my Peach Stellas (hemerocallis) from Dominion, they had a disclaimer on the invoice saying that they weren't hardy in my zone (supposedly 2). I emailed them and told them that i consider myself to be zone 3 and that i have several daylilies that are quite content in my gardens. They replied that they would guarantee the daylilies for me. Now wouldn't you know it? I ordered three, they sent four, and one looks like it has died. Figures, eh? :)

Oh no! I waited until the weekend AFTER Memorial Day weekend to plant out, and then all this week, we've have chilly, windy nights. Then ... night before last ... temps in Anchorage were predicted in the "upper 30s" ... and when I went out to check the plants yesterday, all the begonias and caladiums that weren't in protected spots were soft and collapsed. I can't stand it ...

We have had frost the last 2 mornings..yesterday we had frost at 4 am and I was out there quickly covering up my nasturiums and other tenders with news paper..by 6 am the ice had melted off the windshield of the car..this morning it was worse but I didnt trust the weather last night and covered up things before bed, DH had to scape the ice off his windshield of his car this morning before going to work. savona

Now it's our turn for frost warnings. The radio kept saying +1 with a risk of frost. The Weather Network website says +7 and the Environment Canada website says +5. Who can we believe? We're just like boy scouts here, though - got everything covered this evening! If it does freeze tonight, i'll be out watering all the annuals that i've been planting this week. :/

Ohhh yes! I was up in the wee hours and the thermometer read -0.3 C and in the morning about 6am it read -0.5c, but it was enough to frost the windshield. I watered down a couple annual containers I thought might be sensitive and everything else seemed to take it in stride. Pheww! I think I'll be pulling those containers under the eaves as of now. Nice of Mother Nature to give me just a gentle reminder of where I live though!
It felt like snow with cold winds and wintery looking clouds from the north all afternoon yesterday. Actually had my toque on for a bit. Gross! Hope its balmy and breezy elsewhere!

Toots

Ouch. It's a bit cooler here, but no sign of the "F" word. :)

Back in May, i said "My friend has an interesting theory, though. She thinks that the s*** and cold will kill the mosquito larvae! Now, THAT would be great!" We actually haven't had a lot of mosquitoes this summer, so maybe her theory was right!

We had frost here as well Toots. I would imagine the whole region got it since you did in Ft. St. John and I did in Mackenzie. I wonder if Sierra got any as well. She's only a couple more hours south of me.

No damage to anything which was good. I guess I'll have to start covering up the tomatoes at night though. Not fun, I hate having to cover things.

Syreeta

Ya, now we'll go til September with no more frost, but still be covering things up! Oh well. Glad it wasn't too bad at your place Syreeta.

We haven't had much for mosquito's either, Marcia. I'm giving the extreme dryness credit. Well worth the extra watering time if it keeps the mosquitos at bay!
Toots :^)

Yep, theres been frost here for a couple mornings....not impressed at all. And on top of that....a heavy down pour flattened everything. I had to cut a lot of stuff back.

Sierra :-(

Can't imagine how much covering each night you would have to do in your yard, Sierra. The perennials would mostly be fine wouldn't they? But what about your vegetables?

Brenda

You poor things! I'm trying to figure out if that's a late last frost, or an early first frost...

Hope everything's ok!

Brenda I don't cover things. There would just be to much. The plants usually survive these mid summer frosts...and if they don't ohhhhh well. I have a few micro climates in my yard, and I think the new fence this year has helped that even more.

The tender veggies are in the greenhouse....the doors have been mostly closed to keep it warm in there.

The veggies in the outside garden are pretty tough...with the exception of the beans.....they don't look to happy....but we'll see in a few days I guess.

I wonder how Ian's garden and Jean's garden faired.

Sierra

What a difference from last month, eh, here we were all dying from the heat and now I've got my furnace on today.
No "F", but cool and wet.

Sharon

For the past couple of years, we've had "it" on the first morning i start back at work, so expect me to be moaning and crying on August 21st (i'll probably be moaning and crying about going back to work anyway!).

Well sometime within the last 2 weeks we must have gotten frost because I have a few rose buds that look none too healthy and a salvia top that was crispy brown when I looked closely at it tonight. Must have happened earlier in the week, I had to put the furnace on Tuesday morning at the trailer when we were camping...
Seems like it was only the tall stuff that got it.

I found that I can access the internet from my supervisor's computer at work.
I think that the lowest temperatures I have seen lately have been 5C.
The canna lilies don't look happy, they are an experiment anyway.
For the rest- the hot dry spell probably did more damage than anything.
Ian