It rained here all through the night and even this morning when I got up it was still raining hard. Then the temps. dropped a bit and it changed to snow. It snowed here pretty much all day. We have a total of 3.25" inches on the ground. Thank goodness the snow stopped several hours ago. I was out shaking a few of my trees. A couple of my big Eucs. came crashing down because they couldn't handle the heavy wet snow load. Banana Joe

Woke up this morning to a world of white and no power. Fortunately it has come on again but it'still snowing!
I just measured the snow on top of the deck railing and it's 1 foot! Yesterday I had gone around and knocked the snow off shrubs but today it is hopeless. One young magnolia was very bent over. A few years ago the big euc broke off and crashed in a very wet snow. They are amazing though, it sprouted back and did fine - it actually improved the form. This snow is not supposed to happen here! We live near Mill Bay, by the way.

Yesterday when I left Poulsbo at about 4:00, five inches of snow had fallen. I think it is snowing there now, but I escaped... haha.

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It was chilly enough to snow at my little garden but there was not a flake to be found this morning, or on the bus ride to downtown Seattle either. It sounds like most of it went north and south of the City. Hopefully any damage will be minimal.

Great pics, Ian. Keep them, and the weather reports, coming. The forecast seems more mild for tonight and tomorrow night than it was last week.

Take care,
Grant

Here are some pics from today.... We got some snow this morning (not that much really, about an inch) but missed out on Seattle's evening commute snow-mess.

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New snow this morning

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Phyllostachys rubromarginata. I'm about ready to get rid of this; it is just in a bad spot and not doing what I want it to.

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Cordyline indivisa

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driveway with eucalypts

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Grevillea victoriae

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Phormium seed stalk. I picked the seed capsules off earlier.

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Eucalyptus lacrimans, weeping snowgum

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Grevilleas and Phormium

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Eucalyptus prostratus.

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Phyllostachys vivax and eucs. Most of these will probably stand themselves up and be fine, unless we have a really heavy dump of snow.

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Cactus garden... I'm not done planting things in it

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Araucaria bidwillii

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Acacia pravissima with flower buds developing.

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Eucalyptus dalrympleana leaning precariously over driveway. This one was already leaning from a snowfall several years ago. Today I chopped the lower one of those trunks off.

Great pics! Thanks for sending them in. My little garden did finally get an inch of snow last night during the commuter mess.

Did you plant your phormium seeds and did they sprout etc?

Thanks again for the eye candy, Ian. Your garden is great!
Be careful everyone,
Grant

I am very impressed by the pics also - what an amazing garden. Ian, do you have any tree ferns? I am wondering how much cold they can stand. I just got a Tamsmanian one and I am bringing it in from the cold, but thinking of putting it in the ground next year.

I'm glad you enjoyed the pics. I haven't planted the Phormium seeds yet, but in the past, I have had success sowing them outdoors in late winter so they receive some cold stratification - then they come up pretty quick.

I do have a tasmanian tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica). I have had it since 1997, and I have protected it as needed when the weather gets cold. It has no problem with cold temperatures down to about 20°F. Below about the upper teens, it's certain to die unless it is protected, even if it is mature. I've seen many gardeners expect this fern to survive a cold winter once it is large and established, after it has lived through many mild winters, but it doesn't work that way. That is why you don't see any large ones around here. You can protect it with straw, old blankets, or fiberglass insulation.

Here are a few more pictures from Poulsbo, where I recorded a low of 13°F this morning and 19°F the night before. That was colder than I expected, and a number of plants in the unheated greenhouse were damaged or killed, I am certain. However, those plants are still at an advantage compared to the ones left outdoors, since the temperature in the greenhouse rose well above freezing during the day when the sun came out. I took these pictures yesterday; today, the sun did not come out.

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Ian, it looks like you got more snow than I, here in Maple Valley, S.E. of Seattle.

This gold bamboo shown in the link will pop back up after the snow and ice melts. The timber bamboo goes down for good though. (It's not shown)

Here is a link that might be useful: A little snow

On Camano we had one forking eucalypt split in half and another snap off halfway up. The second one breaking across the trunk horizontally was kind of weird. The first one had forked after losing the tip to frost and turned out to have a bad union after it broke, a lack of connection between the two halves being apparent. The stained, soiled-looking tear is 18 inches or more long.

The many other, smaller gums I have planted there are mostly just leaning this way and that at the moment. One bamboo culm snapped, otherwise I expect most of these to bounce back. Some other things actually appear to have frozen, including a commonly planted nandina cultivar.