It IS a bummer but I think everything will be fine.

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA, also with a few inches of snow on EVERYTHING.

Its still been in the 20's at night and 30's during the days. I think things like the mayapples will die, but the leaves on the trees and other things seem to be hanging in there. I won't know for awhile though.
Its amazing how some things don't seem to have suffered.
I like to think Mother Nature knows best. Who knows......maybe frozen leaves/flowers, etc., actually serve a purpose that we humans can't see.

Catherinet, one of the things that these low temperatures may do is change the amount of food for various types of wildlife. If an animal/bird etc does not have food in one area if it is strong enough it will move to an area where there is food. It will be interesting to watch the migration of birds this year and next.

Probably most will have an increased deer damage.

I tried covering up some of my shrubs like (tree peony) tiny maple, and some emerging Dicentra spectabalis with garden guard (a thin covering for frost). It doesn't seem to have made any diffence with the ones that were not covered. I think the real damage was done when we had the warm January and December and then that terrible freeze in February. My thinking is that if it warms above freezing in the day most things will be fine. That Feb. freeze which lasted all month I lost all my early daffodils which were in full bloom and Hellebore blossoms also. i won't see them now until 2008. I have heard that there will be less or no fruit for the wildlife because of this one however...I hate this weather!

My daffodils didn't get hit bad, just made them fall over, which doesn't make them too noticeable. My hyacinths stopped growing temporarily, but seemed to have been unscathed by the temps. I covered my daylilies, lilies, peonies, astilbe & clematis with leftover sterilized nursery & flower pots that I covered over with old towels & rocks, to hold them down from the wind. The peonies LOVED the protection. They doubled or tripled in size during that week of being covered. The one that looks the worst this time is the one plant that looked great even after the hard Feb. freeze & that was my Shasta daisy. I'm sure it will be fine since the leaves were pretty small.