sandyslopes, good luck with your frost protection measures. I know how you are feeling.

I got everything covered up last night and have awakened this morning to a dusting of snow. Hopefully temperatures will rise enough for it to melt quickly.

It looks as if we are going to get some sun today which means I will have to uncover them all or they will cook under the white fleece sheets.

More frost tonight and tomorrow then things start to improve after that.

Dave

Thanks Dave, good luck to you, too! I've been seeing all you're doing to protect all your pots. This gets to be a lot of work! I'm lucky if I manage to get things covered on my wet and slippery slopes in the first place, so I'm not uncovering even if we get some sun. I wish I could make some kind of framework like you've done to protect the bigger ones. I expect mine to get smashed.

Oh my - they are so big and pretty! I wish you luck with your covering.

So sorry for your terrible weather! The hosta in your pictures are wonderful. I do hope that your weather will improve and that you can find a way to protect those beauties. I have used my garbage cans in the past to cover my larger hosta. I guess if my garbage can didn't fit, I would put wrap an old bed sheet around the base of the hosta, cover the top of the hosta with one layer and use clothes pins or ground staples to secure. Good luck!

I also thought of hammering in a few short posts around the larger hostas which would provide a few inches of air between the covers. Alternative for that area would be taller posts all around, including inside the perimeter and covering the entire area with protective sheeting of your choice. Other than a non-breathable covering, this could stay in place for the duration of the freeze warnings?

I wrapped bubble wrap around the bigger ones and closed it with staples. That was like a bag and the wrap is transparent, so I kept them covered for 2 days. Did work for me. I had a roll of 100 m, cut it to pieces...and that material is not so expensive and available in different sizes.

Someone should invent an easy to use, not expensive device for such problems...

Cross my fingers for your beautiful hostas and must say that this slope garden is just wonderful!

Your hostas are beautiful and your slope is extra nice. My yard is flat and every picture with slopes makes me little envy, LOL. I wish good luck to frost fighting.

I'm hoping every hosta leaf survives intact! Bubble wrap sounds like a great idea Karin!

sherry

My local nursery said use a frost blanket. This what they use. It is supposed to be 25 degrees here in Aurora on Saturday. My SAGAE is 4 feet across an 2 feet high.

sandyslopes I am sending the warmest of wishes for your garden to be safe. I do hope the forecast changes. That hail just added insult to injury!

The weather here is improving this week but I have only tiny pips - nothing has unfurled. I am not at all sure that the nastiness is over for me either. We can all wish!

So you all got me thinking about what I could use to frame them. My only poles are 8 ft. tall for the vegetable garden trellis, but I do have tomato cages! I'll see if I can arrange some to hold the sheets up a little more over the bigger hostas.

It says a low of 38F (3.3C) which might not be so bad? It's confusing because it says "freezing temperatures in the normally colder spots" ...so what's the normally colder spots? ...in my particular garden? ...or in my City? The severe weather alerts says, "NO WARNINGS OR ADVISORIES IN EFFECT", but that seems to change only at the last minute.

My safest hostas are the two I just bought. They can come into the garage. I'm trying to cut down, but I couldn't resist Ivory Queen and Happy Dayz.

The people at the local nursery said just spread the frost blanket over the plants that need protecting. It's supposed to increase the temperatures by 6 to 8 degrees. They use this in their nursery.

That's the thing about frost---the weatherman scares you to death with the freeze warnings and then it doesn't happen! But we love our plants and will do the best we can. Sandy, the tomato cages may just do the trick!

I was going to make a circle out of chicken wire and stuff it with leaves around my Japanese maple had it leafed out before the hard frost. I'm getting a lot of good ideas from this thread. I hope your hostas come through in good shape. If the weatherman is right, you should be in good shape.

UPDATE: So when I wrote this it said 2 nights of freeze in the lower areas, and the next two said, "There will be a freeze." Sounds threatening to me! ....Then it changed. The "for sure" freezes went away, so I felt relieved and didn't cover, except for a few things the first night.

While I was lucky to avoid everything turning to mush, there was still some cold damage along with some hail. I wonder if those frost protection blankets ever go on sale?

Poor little Neptune

Victory

Liberty

Overall, we're having pretty good weather. I know some of you have had it worse this crazy spring.

Noooo! I just hate to see yours or anyone else's plants suffer the damage brought on by cold. Not fair at all!

Sunday night is supposed to be below freezing here. I don't have much to worry about since the deer chewed almost everything that was up. Nothing has unfurled, I just have pips. It was pouring rain so I could not spray. Sigh.

There will be two days of rain in DE, Last year my hostas suffered from frost damage so I know how demoralizing it can be. Those frost blankets sound ideal but pricey if you need more then one.

Laurie, I was surprised Neptune got hit. I just never know when or what to cover. Below freezing in May is not right! You've had to exercise a lot of patience this year, staying cold for so long and now the deer. Did you ever get another dog? Mine used to scare the deer off just by barking at them, but without him around the deer are more bold. ....It has to get better, and soon it will turn sunny and warm.

I hear ya, donna. I would like at least three of the large blankets for the big ones on the southwest hill, Sagae, Liberty, and Victory.

Oh dear, those pictures of damage are disheartening! We are supposed to dip down to near freezing early next week. I hope the forecast changes. Many of my hostas are out in full leaf too. Has anyone tried to successfully avoid frost damage on a cold morning by hosing down the hosta with water? Many of mine are too large to successfully cover.

Yes sandyslopes it is hard to predict which ones will be hardest hit. When we had freezing temps on May 23rd 2014 (a really rare occurrence, thankfully) Invincible was hardest hit but bounced right back. Sum and Subtle was pitiful, I had to remove 27 leaves later to make it look passable and it put out next to no new growth. Came back with no ill affects the next year. Blue Angel was somewhat protected from overhead branches and with its thicker leaves it surprised me that it sustained damage. I hope Neptune and others have those bounce back genes.

It might be cheaper to buy large Frost blankets from a Greenhouse supply and cut appropriately sized pieces. The ones at Home Depot seem quite small for someone like you with a large Garden. I googled Frost blanket price in Utah. Here is a link Frost Blanket

I have not got a new dog yet but clearly I need to. In the last month or so I had been just starting to think about it. Should have done it sooner.... Hope I don't end up with a sweet one that is useless on the deer issue.

I'm sorry for those that got hit so bad with frost. I had alot of early damage and I thought plantaginea was more mush than plant but I got lucky. Mine hadn't unfurled before the worst hit.

I hope the rest of the year goes better for all!

barb, I hope you get lucky and it won't get as cold as they're predicting. I know they hose down the citrus groves when a frost is predicted, so there must be something to it. But we had lots of rain before it got that cold, and there was still damage. OTOH, if they went into it dry, maybe it would have been worse.

Laurie, I'm all for having those "bounce back genes" :-) Also, you remind me that now that my hostas have some size to them, I can remove a few unsightly leaves. Thanks for the link. I do have row cover that I've doubled and tripled over on itself sometimes. That covers a bigger area at a time. ... Me neither when it comes to a new dog. It has to be the right time and not so easy when you've already had a really great dog(s). Good luck if you're going to start looking again!

steph, they do seem to withstand it better before they unfurl. ....Soon we'll all be complaining about the heat, lol.