I'm also in KC and posted the same to another thread. The plants were doing fine until last night. Tonight is suposed to be even colder. It's heartbreaking to see the plants get smacked for being fooled by the too-early warmth.

I'm in KC and also just posted in the other thread. The J-Maples concern me, especially my Sango Kaku, which I made a protective cage for last night.

I don't have tree peonies, but the regular peonies are ok thus far. Can the tree peonies be protected with a box? It's impossible for me to cover my entire garden, so I cover certain plants with 3 or 5 gallon plastic nursery pots.

You know it's cold when plant thugs like the Gooseneck Loosestrife look sad.

Hopefully it's just this week that we have to worry about this cold.

I covered one plant (a young Carolina Allspice that I grew from seed last year) with a pot and a blanket...it didn't help...the freeze was just too intense for too long.

Really bummed...

Webcat - I dug up a young Carolina Allspice and moved it to another spot last year in full sun. It couldn't handle the heat I guess and died but now there's a couple sprouts coming up from where it used to be and it sure looks like Carolina Allspice. If so, it must be a pretty tough plant. It tends to sucker.
My Japanese Maple is a wilted mess. It was too big to cover but I doubt that would've helped anyway.
It's interesting how some trees turned black and others didn't. My sassafras and tulip tree are both mush but those are native so surely they won't die. They should be adapted to late frosts and freezes. I expect everything to leaf out again but I think we'll lose a lot of blooms this year. My tulip tree already had buds and my Shasta viburnums and v. trilobums were loaded with buds and would've been sooo pretty. Won't the birds have trouble finding food later?