I am surprised at how much damage my garden has sustained.... hydrangea leaves that were well out are now black, as well as my variegated ornamental willow, another japanese ornamental whose name escapes me, plus a number of other shrubs look very sad and shrivelled. Personally, I am going to wait, not prune, until the warmer weather has settled in. I'm hoping that they will come back to some extent. Good luck with yours!

I'm suprised to hear that there was any cold damage in Tacoma. I can see no cold damage visible on any of my plants. I'm not expecting to see any this year, because it has been so mild. My lowest min. temp. for the season was -1.9 C. or 28.5 F. My large clump of Hedychium growing beside my Dicksonia is still perfectly green. Arundo donax and any of the perennials that are up were not fazed. If that was it for Winter, well we didn't have one. I have a 20 gallon Kentia palm that I left out all Winter up close to my house and it's also fine. I hope your plants recover. Cheers, Joe

Although I am also Zone 8 and not far from Banana Joe, my thermometer, under the porch and sheltered, registered -7 celsius for many nights, and some days did not rise above zero. I think the length of time it was freezing here (ground was frozen solid for a good 2 inches)did most of the damage. Some of my loveliest shrubs seem to be severely damaged.

There's no damage at all here in my Olympia garden. Except the crocus flowers are shot. We only went down to 20 degrees here, and everything was WELL hydrated, coming off of a record 35 days of rain. The ground was frozen the top couple inches and the bird baths did not thaw for a few days but still, 20 degrees is not unusual for here. Things were just starting to sprout too but they all appear to be undamaged.

If you did get freeze damage, you should wait til the plant shows new growth before cutting off any damaged parts. That way you know for sure where it's still alive and where not, and it should be warm enough by then to not freeze again.

I'm surprised that people are reporting freeze damage! maybe it's stuff that was in the full force of the wind? the wind that came with the cold was nasty, strong and dry, but still anything planted in the ground should have had enough soil moisture, after all the rain we had just before the freeze. I had some stuff in pots wilt, but they came right back, and nothing in the ground noticed anything unusual. Cold dry wind will do a number on hydrangea leaves, that's for sure.

My folks live in Duncan, B.C. by the River and they dropped down to -10 C. The coldest temp. I heard of that was recorded on our island during this past Winter season was -5 Celsius. At low temps. of -7 C. your Cordylines would be right on the edge. Last year all the Cordylines I saw froze in Duncan. Many of my Cordylines are trees here that I planted 13 years ago. They are only hardy to approx. -8 C. or 17.6 F. If you don't have a thermometer you can usually tell approx. how cold it got by looking at some of the marginal plant species. Escallonia shows leaf damage at 14-15 F. Dicksonia antarctica fronds are toast at temps. below 20 F. (-6.5 C.) Unprotected Musa basjoo canes will turn to mush at temps. of -4 C. I have 9'ft tall unprotected basjoo canes that look perfect. Anyway I recorded an absolute minimum temp. of -1.9 C. or 28.5 F. in my Stevenson Screen. I consider my weather recording instruments to be highly accurate. Ganges was down to -2.2 C. throughout this Winter season. Joe

Sounds like a misnomer for Dicksonia antarctica to be vulnerable at temps below 20 F! Thank you for posting all the hardiness info.

zz

Some of my perennials just sprouting from the ground shrivelled a little in the cold a few weeks ago. The columbines & lupines have perked right back up, but the rock cress still looks a little shrivelled, although it still has buds on it. The chrysanthemum sprouts haven't quite recovered yet, and the bleeding hearts & Jacob's ladder don't look quite as good as they did before. None of my bulbs seemed to have been affected by the cold, though. The crocuses are doing wonderfully, especially on sunny days. The asters, jasiones, and coreopsis never seemed to be bothered by it at all.

I did say only the fronds are hardy to temps. down to approx. 20 F. or -6.5 C., the trunk is much more cold tolerant. The most tender part of the tree fern is the inner crown where the fronds emerge. Most gardeners I know cut the fronds off each Winter so they can protect the trunk easier. Each Spring my large Dicksonia sends out 2 dozen 8'ft fronds all at once. The trunks of an established Dicksonia a. from good provenance should take temps. down to -10 C. I planted my tree fern in Spring 1994 and it has over 4'ft of thick trunk. My fronds never get cut off and they stay green year round at my location. Since I planted it there has been only one or two times that the temps. were low enough to fry the fronds. I believe it was Dec. 1996 freeze and the Dec. 1998 freeze when min. temps. here dropped to -7 Celsius. There are several species of hardy tree ferns that work well in good microclimates. Underneith my tree fern I grow Aspistra, Hedychium, Rhapis, Livistona and Chamaedorea. Each Winter I stuff the inner crown of my fern with burlap to keep the coldest temps. from bothering it. Joe

I have a heuchera in a pot that doesn't look so good; I just transplanted it into the ground yesterday and am hoping it will be OK. I also have a hebe "Great Orne" whose leaves look droopy and am not quite sure how to perk it up. Maybe a light pruning? Aside from that, everything else looks pretty good.

We got down to 14 F one night during all that... and it was windy to boot! I frantically covered everything I could with mulch... but I had horrible bronchitis at the time and could only do so much.

All my bleeding hearts, many of which were starting to bloom, froze down to the ground. Many of my roses that were leafing out have freeze damage to leaves. I think my last artichoke is toast. My strawberries died way back... they were lush and full before the cold. Some of my peonies died back as well. Luckily I got many things covered before the damage was too bad... but I have a lot of things that look a bit singed around the edges.

I have a Gunnera that I placed in a pile of shavings that had been throwing out new growth through the top... I think the plant is fine, but all the new growth is dead.

However... the good news is that our frogs are now awake and singing.... so I think we can say it is nearly spring for sure! Thank goodness. I've uncovered everything again... and I really don't want to have to shovel shavings over the whole garden AGAIN!

We live in south Bellingham. Our apple blossom escallonia hedge is 4 years old and appeared to be indestructible with the only problem being that it had to be pruned back twice per year. After the first cold snap (wet snow froze on branches) ALL the leaves fell off. Has anyone had this happen and then seen the excollonia revive?

Our escallonia are of a variety called "pink princess", rather then "apple blossom". Am I correct in thinking ours may be hardier? With all the leaves gone might the plants still survive? How long should we wait?

It's a bit early to tell on many things but I have a couple of Agaves that aren't lookin too good. A new one for me Agave ovatifolia was supposed to to do well in cool wet,(I have it planted in almost pure gravel with no umbrella over it!) Maybe after it get's established.... the other was totally a zone niner and I lucked out last year keeping it covered. I kept it under the clear umbrella this year too but I think it was the prolonged cold that did the real damage this year. A few Echeverias and a few other Agaves seem to be OK so far, still under their umbrellas! :-D

A lot of the hype about Agave ovatifolia seems to be based on its performance in the South. But, I think larger, established plants ought to grow well in our region's milder gardens. You're right... getting it established for a couple years is the key to success with Agaves. I think it's worth providing some protection from the rain for the first couple years, except for the very toughest species.