G.M.,

Thanks for posting it here to remind everyone.

We were expecting it, but seeing it in black-and-white makes it seem so much more real.

My plans for the day include finishing the mulching I started yesterday, bringing in flats of plants, dragging large containers into the garage (20 of them!) and (late in the day) covering up the tomato plants. (sigh)

It would be more fun to be planting and doing other stuff, but the weather must be dealt with.

Talk to you later,

Dawn

Dawn
Yes I knew everyone has been talking about it...but when I saw the warning in my inbox this morning it really sunk in and made me really think about what all needs to be protected. And I was not thinking our temps were going to drop that low either.
So that is why I posted it. Sort of a reality check for anyone like me who basically knows it but tends to want to think it won't really happen....lol.
I don't have even close to all the work you will have to do to prepare but even I will have more than I want.....grrrr.
My iris are just now opening up....again this year! Last spring I had to pick them and put then in vases so I could get some enjoyment out of them.
It didn't used to be like this most years and I am not liking it at all. But I am trying to 'accept the things I cannot change' and just deal with it....lol....lol.
I will try to get DH to protect the small peaches. And I have some seedling of tomatoes, basil and a few other things out under a clear plastic cover (like a very small greenhouse) to bring in. They are too small to take those temps. All the plants I have on patio may need to be brought to garage as I am not sure if I should just leave them on the patio.
I have my new little Clematis I finally bought and planted early this week....but it is on the south side of my craft cottage against the building so perhaps it will do okay with cover. I also have annuals in all the beds. And of course the phlox we just planted last Saturday in the new area under the bushes. But I feel they will do okay even if frost burns off the blooms. The ones in front of my house have taken a lot of weather. Not sure what I would do with them anyway. Don't know if I have enough pots and buckets to cover everything.
I will have to tour the yard later today to see what all I need to do.
I do HOPE this is winter's LAST BLAST! Lord I am so sick and tired of WINTER weather! We can all keep HOPING this is the end of it all.
Well we all know what everyone will be doing at least part of the day today....ugh!
And YES it would be much more fun to plant or just watch things growing....lol.

G.M.

I can sympathize with everyone. I bought tons of plants at the Farmer's Market in Norman last week, a few from Home Depot, and more from Precure (they carry lots of butterfly plants).

I've really been tired of the cool weather this last 2 weeks. I don a sweater and venture outside nonetheless, to check on things that are coming up. I hope my Japanese Maple does okay. Sometimes the frost will get the leaves. I have so many things that are just coming up, too. I think the backyard will be fine because it is south facing, and kind of a microclimate. My azaleas are just starting to bloom - will they be okay?

My iris has not yet started to send up bloom stalks, so will they be okay?

I think your clematis will be okay - they can tolerate a lot of cold. Which cultivar did you get GM? I have 3 or 4 - C. 'Polish Spirit', 'Nelly Moser', 'Dr. Ruppel', Jackmanii, and Sweet Autumn. My Dr. Ruppel has buds on it, as well as Nelly Moser - they are the earliest to bloom. Hope they will be okay.

Susan

Susan
I believe your iris will be okay if they are not blooming. Mine just had some big blooms burst open today. I have other which are not opened yet....I don't know how those which are not opened yet will do...but I do know the opened blooms can't take the frost...too delicate with too much water content.

My clematis is a Dr. Ruppel.....the first one I have ever planted. It had buds on it when I got it....one or two may have actually opened by now...I have not checked in a day or so.
The varities you have are really gorgeous. I have researched them and saw photos of those. I will want many more of them if they perform well for me. I love vines and have plenty of places to allow vines to climb here.

Someone else will have to answer about your azaleas. I have planted them too many times in the past and they would never do well for me. I finally had to just give up entirely. I just never did come up with just the right touch for them even though I tried raised beds with good, thoroughly amended soil and everything.

Your Japanese Maple....ugh. I am not sure. If it is in a protected area it might do okay. But they are pretty sensitive. I used to have one and I loved it but it would frost or sun burn pretty easily on the leaf tips. The tree itself will be fine but you could get some frost burn on the leaf tips depending on how heavy it is up your way.

I too am just sick too death of these up and down temps and so ready for some consistently warm weather. I am cold natured anyway and I just freeze all winter. All I can think of in fall is "Oh no winter is coming" and after Christmas is over I start looking forward to spring. But the last two springs have not been the kind I was waiting for I will tell you. On the really warm days I am happy as I can be but then I know from the forecasts it won't last....haha.

I do hope all your plants and everything will make it through okay. Surely it will stay warm soon????

G.M.

I carried in flats and containers and covered up all I could and mulched and mulched and mulched. I am so tired.

I'm not nearly as worried about tonight's temps as I am tomorrow's. For Marietta, tonight (actually early tomorrow a.m.) is supposed to be 42. Sunday night (actually early Monday morning) is supposed to be 36. I suspect we'll be colder than that here both nights.

I hope this is the last freezing cold weather we have to worry about this spring.

Dawn

Hey Susan,
Good to see you back online! Haven't seen you on here in a long time.

I drug all my potted plants back into the greenhouse today. I am so glad that for once, I followed my instincts and didn't plant anything yet. I've got some cannas, pineapple lilies, less hardy crinums up, and a few things like that that I will cover up tomorrow evening. I think my hostas will be okay. They always seem to take low 30's with no problems. After this cold spell I am pulling my banana plants out of the cellar and putting them in the ground!! :)
Dawna

Tomorrow (Sunday) I have to drag all my tropicals back into the greenhouse (ugh). Hope tonight's temps don't get them.
I may make a floating cover with sheets to put over my broccoli beds, just to make sure they don't get bit. Hope it doesn't ruin my sweet peas. I have amended my soil really well the past year and finally got them to grow. Looks like I can figure on not getting any apples, plums, peaches or cherries again this year. My cherry trees are just white with blossoms, and the plum trees have hundreds of tiny plums starting to form. Bummer!

Between the rains and cooler weather in the past weeks, I hadn't yet planted my veggie garden. So I am hoping after this weekend I can. I will have to cover some other plants, like my dahlias, million bells, and geraniums. My peonies are up and have large unopened buds. Will those need to be covered as well? Oh, I will also have to cover my Astilbes too. I know I am going to forget something. I will just have to walk the yard tonight. Good luck to all.

It's gonna get cold here tonight if everything on WU is fairly accurate. Predicting clear skies and no wind after midnight. Probably be in the mid 20's by dawn. Will know better by dark tonight though, but it doesn't look good.

Last fall I wasn't interested in carrying in all my tropicals on the back porch yet even though I knew we would have a freeze that night. Knew there would be another week of nice weather after that before I really needed to roll them in.

I took 3 large, rather tall plants and made a triangle. Then I slide all the smaller things in around them with a opening on one side to slide a small electric heater into the middle. I then took 3 old sheets and covered the whole enchilada and set the heater at it's lowest setting. Plants did just fine.

Tomorrow all my tropicals start their spring rotation outdoors. Have a few butterfly friendly weeds to get into the ground too.

I won't have a garden per say this year. Until the yard cleanup is finished I can't. Will put out a few plants, but no garden. Kind of a bummer.

randy

NOAA now has me at 32 with frost, WU has me down to 31. I usually always get colder than predicted where I am. I mulched alot yesterday and will do one last walk around tonight to make sure I didn't forget something. I guess the fruit is doomed.

Lynn

Lynn

Here is something you might try. After the wind lays down tonight wet your trees down. 3 generations of my family have done that with very good results. I told my dad it was silly when I was a teenager when told to go wet down the cherry and peach trees one evening.

Silly or not, I was reprimanded, given consequences for disrespectful behavior, and immediately went and did as I was told. :-)

While doing the silly job I decided to prove my dad wrong and wet down one side of our neighbor's fruit tree just across the fence. All were in bloom.

A few weeks later there was proving done, but not to my side of thinking. We had fruit that year and the tree across the fence only had fruit where the hose wet down the tree.

Supposedly the water only goes to 32 degrees and keeps what it has covered insulated for short periods of time.

If it works on blooms, maybe it works on small fruit.

Seems I heard that years ago being used in orange orchards in different places.

randy

Randy and Lynn,

Commercial growers do it all the time. I think they will turn on their sprinklers in the orchards when the temps are slightly above freezing and leave them on all night long until the air temp goes back up to 33 degrees. Even if the water droplets freeze on the fruit, they insulate it from the cold air.

With luck, fruit that has sprinklers on it can withstand below freezing temps for a few hours, certainly for a longer period than dry fruit.

I have set an alarm to wake me up in the middle of the night so I could go out and turn on the sprinklers, and saved the small fruit on a night that the low went below freezing for about 3 hours.

Dawn

I had heard that, too, about watering everything before the freeze, and that it protects them from the frost.

Also, on Oklahoma Gardening the other day, they said that as long as freezing temp of 32 only lasts 4 hours, things will be fine. Over 4 hours, you have to worry.

Hardin, your astilbes should be fine - they are cool weather perennials. They are hardy way up north of us, so they should tolerate one night of freezing temps and be just fine.

Tropicals, potted plants, and plants located on elevated surfaces will suffer the most, plus the fruit trees and veggies.

Have we had a freeze this late in the year in the last few years? I don't recall.

Susan

Susan,

Only once that I can remember in the last 4 or 5 years here. It went to 32 degrees for several hours last year on April 15th. Everything, including the fruit, survived, but I did have it all very well-covered.

Dawn

29 degrees and frosty this morning....
In my last walkaround last night I saw empty buckets and budding plants so I also covered Peonies, an Iris, and one Sage.

It hit 29 here a little before daylight. Went out @ 3:00am and it was 30 then.

randy

I am in Johnston Co. I was also up at 3 checking on things, my temp outside said it was around 30.
At 7 AM when I went outside we have a heavy frost here. and temp at 30.

much worse then they expected

I do feel I have to remind everyone that Oklahoma weather can change on a dime, and our last freeze date is April 15th.
This year has been like weather we use to get in Oklahoma, the past 7-9 years, we have been affected by El Nino, that is been on a more norther track, pushing the jet stream more up north.
This year it has been moving the jet stream more south, then past years.
El Nino is good for us, as we once again receive the spring rains we have been lacking for the last few years. But we also have to plant it smart.

As we have started to become accustom to the warmer weather here in the past few years.

Just remember to plant your tenders at the end of April or the First of May.

needless to say, I have also been buying plants for the year, some can handle the cold weather, so I have planted them. and they are find this AM.
My others are in the house with me this AM.

Please remember end of April or First of May.

getting the plants in the ground early I find does NOT do any good, as they will just sit there, and could even rot
the soil is just too cold to allow any growth.

I am glad that you know what is affecting our weather so much. It doesn't seem at all like the weather we used to have in spring about oh say 12 to 15 years ago...but I thought I was just more miserable now due to being older and having health issues which make me cold natured. lol And being more anxious to get out and get my hands dirty planting things. :)

We covered most things in our yard and hope the rest made it through. I don't actually know how cold it was in our actual yard. The temp on my patio was close to 40 but it is sheltered of course and does not reflect the temps in the yard which is actually slightly elevated from the house anyway. I could see some frost on the rooftops.

At our previous home I used to get my garden in most years on Good Friday. That was just what someone older had told me to do so I did it with great results. I can only recall having to cover plants one time in all those years of gardening.

Whatever is effecting the temps...I wish it would just go away myself. I am ready for some constant mid to upper 70's or even some nice 80's would be great to me. And temps no lower than upper 50's at night.
But that is just me....lol. Many may actually LIKE this cool weather. But I can't relate....lol.

BTW how did your Clematis come through? Looks like no one saw your post last night in time to answer. Mine was just newly planted so I covered it.

Hope everything in your yard did well. And I HOPE this is the last of this!

G.M.

The clematis where fine, I just uncovered them. they are upset only a little because of the sheet.. my wondering jew & rose moss where on the porch in pots, I had towels over them. they are upset because of the towels, but also fine.
I also have another patch of clematis which are just starting to put on bud but are not in bloom yet, they are also find this morning, without cover.

according to the weather, we should have one more cold morning, then nights will be in the 50s.

If we don't receive any more rain, I might be able to finish mowing and tiller up the garden late next week.
If we get winds, it might be earler. right now I still have places underwater. (standing water)

Winds? In Oklahoma, You're yankin' my chain. :-)

We are going to get them big time tomorrow, tomorrow night, and Wednesday. You better anchor and hunker down. :-) After all, it is spring.

randy

It was very cold here and we had a very hard frost....the kind that looks like white snow on the grass.

It was 34 degrees here at 2:00 a.m., and I didn't check the temperatures any more after that because I knew it was going to be worse than expected.....and, at that point, the only issue was how much worse than expected. (G.M., When I saw our temps. at 2 a.m., I checked Carter County's on the internet and y'all were showing 38 degrees at that point, so I'm betting y'all ultimately went down to at least 34 to 36.)

Pretty much everything in the garden survived and most were not damaged. I have two tomato plants that probably won't make it, but that's not bad considering I had 58 in the ground. There's about another 10 that show some damage. I probably could leave them alone and they'd bounce back, but I might replace them anyway. I have back-up plants to replace them with, so it isn't a big deal. The damage to the tomatoes was hit or miss, and might have been worse on those whose flower pot/bucket was smaller or more lightweight than those on the other plants. Everything else tender was in the house, the garage or the screened-in back porch so they all are fine.

All the perennials are fine. The roses that were blooming look fine. The iris flowers look kind of pitiful. The water lilies are unharmed.

Depending on how cold it actually got, and how long it stayed there, the fruit on the fruit trees may not survive.

We have one more cold night tonight here in southern OK, with "patchy frost" expected.

If you believe the data from the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, the "average" last frost in Love County occurs in the March 22 thru March 31st timeframe. However, we ALWAYS have at least one freezing night significantly later than that, and usually more than one.

Here's the last frost date for the years we've lived here:

2007: 32 degrees on 4-15-07
2006: 23 degrees on 4-23-06
2005: 32 degrees on 4-24-05
2004: 32 degrees on 3-31-04
2003: 28 degrees on 4-10-03
2002: 27 degrees on 4-05-02
2001: 32 degrees on 4-24-01
2000: 31 degrees on 4-17-00
1999: 31 degrees on 4-18-99

So, the OCS data doesn't seem reliable for us, but it is based on 30-year averages, and we've only been here and watching the weather here for 9 years.

One frustrating thing about the "late" freezes is that, even though they predictably occur in mid- to late-April, they often follow anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks where we've had really nice warm weather and only a couple of cold nights.

Randy,

I think your wind will be worse than ours. We're only expecting winds of 15 to 25, which seems mild compared to the last few days. It is relatively wind-free here today, and that is nice.

Kirts,

I hope your ground dries up soon so you can rototill and prepare to plant. We have another round of rain forecast beginning around Thursday. I hope to get the rest of the veggie garden planted this week, except for the real heat lovers like okra and melons.

My soil is still pretty wet just a couple of inches below the soil surface, but it is getting better every day.

Dawn

We were supposed to go to 28 last night, but I didn't have my min-max therometer out so I don't know the actual temp. When I went out to uncover plants this AM, I picked up a watering can that had collected some rain water last week and heard the ice clanking around in it. My azalea had buds and my peony was already up so they got covered with pots and buckets and look OK. The few veggies that I had out look OK as well.

Most of my iris have not bloomed yet, but I had some dark purple ones on the south side of the house that had already bloomed. They look pretty dark and limp this morning. The plant looks fine but I think the blooms are done for. They were a bit odd anyway since they bloomed on a VERY short stem. They are near some daylillies and have just about been taken over by the spreading plants so that may be the reason they are so small. It was nice to have the early blooms though. I probably would have covered the real lillies if I had thought of it, but it didn't matter and they are fine. Their location is not so sheltered, but they made it OK anyway.

I brought as many things inside the house as I could get under lights (or the fringes of light in some cases) and the rest went into the bunkhouse. My tomato seedings are looking puny anyway and just not growing much. The ones that have been in the house for a week or so look good and so do the four that I already had potted into larger pots, but the "cupped" ones don't. I hope a week of warm weather will improve the looks of the others. I accidently dropped one a couple of days ago when I was moving them and the root system looks great, but the foliage doesn't look like much on some of them.

Looks like I have one more night to deal with, so I left four big pots on my wagon so they can just be pulled back inside for protection. I am looking forward to Tuesday and that week of promised warmer temperatures. It is pretty and sunny here today but still a bit nippy.

Frosted heavy this am. Had to get the ice scraper out before heading to work, hopefully for the last time. All the plants I had made it thru the night. I had covered them up with everything I could find, be it trash bags, Walmart bags, cardboard boxes and terra cotta pots. Well, back to work. I am home on lunch. Have a good day all.

My outside thermometer only read down to 38 this morning at 6:00. It was 42 at midnight and 40 at 2:00. I was feeling really good because it is usually very accurate, but when I went out to uncover everything I found the thermometer had fallen to the concrete on the covered patio. It usually sits on the brick ledge under a window just at an exposed corner that is blocked slightly from the sun. I don't know how the reading would change from the 3-ft high ledge to the concrete below, but I think it was still close.

Anyway, it did not get to 32 here and I have no dead plants that I noticed other than one small previously hail-damaged, potted plant that I left out as a test plant. Everything that was exposed did have frost on it until the sun hit it this morning.

My tomatoes in the ground were covered with plastic with a 500 watt worklight in the middle of each 16' row cover along with a timer to turn them on at 1:00 and off at about 7:00. It seemed to work, but there was still a little bit of ice in the droplets on a few of the plants when I uncovered them at 7:30. I don't know if this formed after the lights went out or formed in spite of the lights being on. I was afraid to have the lights on after 7:00 because a slight wind could bring down the cover enough to touch the light. Next year I will have to get a real row cover and not just use the plastic sheeting that I had available. It is almost worthless.

Down here in Bowlegs about all I can say is thank God for the principal of moving thermal mass and a favorable microclimate. (location, location, location)

I'm sure it got much colder down in the bottom land, but the lowest temp we had here was 38. This morning, all the Iris are standing tall, not even the tender buds and blooms or new growth on the roses show any damage. OTOH, my neighbor about a half mile from me to the west (with a big barn and a small, scenic rolling hill to the south that traps the cold air around his house) has severe freeze damage to his crepe myrtle - all the buds have turned black, and all the tender growth on his newly planted fruit trees and rose bush have some curling at the tips.

Our farm sits about 2/3 of the way down on the south side of a substantial little hill, and the land continues to stair step on down to the south another mile or so to Little River. There are thick woods to our west, and a nice tree line on the east running north/south that acts like a funnel. IOW, cold air just rolls by, and the only time I've lost plants is if they happen to be on the north side of something big enough to trap the cold, creating a frost pocket. I keep big rocks handy to put around anything that might be planted in an iffy position, and the radiated warmth from the stone works to keep the plant safe. Other than that, I'll bring in the few houseplants that I've set out to brave the spring sunshine, and I did tote one flat of tomatoes back inside, but I don't cover plants that have been in the ground since fall; they just have to tough it out. I even kept a pot ghetto of shrubs, roses and perennials out front all winter. Considering the complete lack of fuss on my part, surprisingly few plants throw in the trowel to join the dearly depotted.

But then, as J.C. Raulston said: "If you are not killing plants, you are not really stretching yourself as a gardener."

Here's hoping spring will finally, finally, settle down all soft and warm; we've done the lion, now we're ready for the lamb. ;^)

Well, we ended up at 29 degrees, which I think is a record low for Marietta for this date.

My tomato plants looked half decent this a.m., but some have substantial damage, and I may replace them with the back-up plants that I specifically raise to have on hand in case the weather does this.

Here in the Red River Valley tonight, the forecast for higher elevations is around 41-45 but is 34 for lower elevations like ours. And, last night's forecast was 34 and we had 29, so I'll be covering everything up again.
Hopefully this is the last time I'll have to cover up plants this spring.

Dawn

WU is predicting 41 for a low here with clear skies, but a nice SE breeze blowing all night long. If that holds true, we might have a light frost, but should stay above freezing.

randy

Everything looked absolutely great here in the city! Iris still blooming. My babies made it fine with a sheet over them - even the peppers!

What a wonderful day - but I was running my arse off. Had to take my granddaughter a "favorite book" at 8:00 a.m., run to Walmart, run to Homeland, and then home for about 30 minutes, then to the dental college w/daughter for a tooth extraction (got to watch a couple of Monarchs flirting with each other), sat outside on a bench and just enjoyed the warmth of the sun; then home again, then to doctor's office to p/u prescription for daughter, back to Homeland to fill it, then downtown to her apartment, then to granddaughter's school to pick her up. We came home and she played in her tree (the contorted mulberry) and served me "pretend" dinner from the deck. She's spending the night while momma is taking a nite off cuz she's under the weather a tad.

Now, she's in the bathtub and I am worn slick. Never did get my snaps potted up like I intended, but tomorrow's another day. Whew!

I'm looking forward to a little relaxed gardening tomorrow. This is the Week of the Child at school, so Kenna has something going every day. Today was dressup and take a favorite book; tomorrow is pajama day and take a sleeping bag and favorite movie; Wednesday is kite day; Thursday is dress up day; and Friday is "free dress" (any way you want) plus bring a sundae topping.

I'm so glad I have a granddaughter! I couldn't keep up with everything anymore!

Susan

After last night, my potatoes look really bad. The leaves have a very dark green color and they're drooping. Please tell me if they will be alright. Thank you.

Margo

Margo,

They should be fine. Potatoes can take quite a lot of cold without suffering permanent damage. If the leaves are dead, cut them off and new ones should appear within a few days.

Dawn