I'm right there with you. I brought in everything in pots, and covered a window box and my fairy garden, but that was it. I haven't ventured outside yet this morning to assess the damage. My peonies are just starting to poke out of the ground, so I think they'll be ok. My iris and lilies are nowhere near budding either. I have allium that's trying to bloom, and columbine. I also failed to cover my recently planted bare roots, 2 grape vines and a raspberry bush. Will they be ok because the plants are likely dormant, or are they extra sensitive and that was a big mistake on my part?

Grapes and raspberries will be fine especially if they haven't leafed out yet.

The only thing I covered was my pea plants mostly because it was easy to do as they are in a cold frame.

I'm probably not the best one to comment but I'm getting rather focused right now on weather. Mostly, I'm thinking about protected growing heating and when I can get annuals out.

I've never noticed problems with iris. Can't imagine that my few raspberries are going to suffer and have never grown grapes.

Peonies, I've noticed frost damage but they recovered fine. They look awfully tender right now and I suppose severe freezing might really be hard on them. Lily foliage is sometimes badly damaged but able to go on and make nice blooms. Hostas can be rendered pretty darn ugly by frost.

I'm still imagining folks putting wool socks on iris ...

Steve

Steve, haha, wool socks that's a level of dedication I'm not going for. Let's get that on youtube ;-)

Faith, grapes/raspberries/allium are good to go! New columbine leaves could conceivably freeze, depending on how cold it gets--probably fine--but will grow back quickly if they do freeze. I'm only supposed to get down to 26º tonite--did not cover Iris which are in bud but not open yet--well, I have a dwarf that's almost done blooming with some open flowers--did not cover--will learn how cold open Iris flowers can take! Peonies, look to Liz for answers, but if they're small I think they should be ok.

I covered lilies, one of which was close to 3' already! They're close to the fence so I attached sheets to stakes and the fence to keep them off of the plants. Covered my hosta with BIG pots since they have full size leaves already, and are looking really nice so far. Covered my--almost done blooming--bleeding heart, that one needs covering at some point every year--I'll never understand why a plant that comes up so early freezes so easily! Covered it with a sheet--4 stakes around it and one attached diagonally over the top to keep the sheet from "collapsing" onto the plant--and then clothes pins on the stakes and small rocks on the bottom to keep it from blowing away! And covered my balloon flower--which is WAY early this year, with a pot.

I lost a lot of things a few years ago--including all my lilies--in a very sudden hot to VERY cold snap, and didn't have lilies at all that year, and have been waiting a couple years for them to come back fully, so just wanted to be sure and know I wouldn't need to go thru that again! What can take the cold really depends on how cold the cold gets! My theory is that if you're gonna lay in bed worrying about it--cover it.

Don't use plastic! If you're gonna use sheets/blankets, be sure they're "propped up" somehow so they don't smash your plants. Big/BIG pots or buckets are easy and quick--if you have them and can get them between or over other plants nearby. Cardboard boxes work well too--but need plastic to keep them dry if it's raining/snowing.

I covered mine when the sun was going away yesterday--knew I wouldn't go out there in the wet/cold today. If you plan to do it today I'd wait till the snow/rain stops--then you don't have to worry "too much" about "weight" on any sheets. And be SURE you take any covers off again by the time the sun is gonna be shining on them for more than a few minutes--ESPECIALLY black pots or buckets!

Skybird

Yeah! Socks!?! Sounds to me like Rob Proctor has apprentices with too much time on their hands! (Not to mention that you'd be pulling them on "backwards" over the buds and probably break half of them off! I wonder if they color coordinated their socks!!!

Yes, way too much time on their hands. They did not color coordinate! I tried to copy the photo here, but it was too many characters. The things we do for our plants!

The biggest problem I have found with iris buds and snow is that that flower stalk breaks under the weight. Socks will probably only help to collect even more heavy snow? I don't know.

What I do know is that this wont be the year you all will miss listening to my annual crying over spring snow. I will however assume you know the drill by now and won't go into details.

Yeah, I thought about that too, Zach! Nothing about that theory sounds like a good idea to me! Wool soaks up a LOT of water, and would be FAR more likely to pull the buds/stems down the the ground I'd think. And since the fabric would be tight against the buds/foliage it seems to me it would be far more likely to create Iris Bud Popsicles when all that water freezes overnite than if they were just left to fend for themselves--it's normally the AIR under the "protection" that protects, not the very fact of having "fabric" over them. I even worry that the foliage will freeze solid on mine wherever the sheets happen to be touching the foliage.

I'd really like to see a pic of those Iris buds AFTER they take the socks back off of them! Bet Rob won't be showing anybody that!

Skybird

Most peonies are going to make it through just fine with only some bent stems to show for the heavy coat of snow. If buds are well advanced and it's in the 20s for a while you might lose some but the plant will be okay. It's typically a bit colder out here, some of my more tender or bigger plants got covered earlier this week and probably won't come out until Monday.....

Zach, I'll be right there with you complaining about the spring weather! That's why we bought retirement property in Alabama....

Well, I have a grape vine, iris, hostas, clematis out there on their own. I will just trust them.

Wool socks - that IS funny! Boy - I'd be going broke buying enough to cover all the blooms I have on mine already this year! Let along the time to put them on. Yea, I don't think that sounds like it would work anyway!! I didn't bother covering any of my iris - they usually do ok in these late storms. A few branches get bent but not broken, and usually the buds and blooms do ok. I went out this morning and lightly brushed off some of the snow off of them, and they look ok right now.

I put some pots over my peonies since they were getting buds on them. Made some "legs" out of some 5 gall. buckets and laid a board across them to cover my bleeding heart and meadow rue. Then a small outdoor table placed over my Lenton Rose. All else had to fend for itself!

That picture is so funny! Just out of curiosity of the idea, I might just have to try it sometime on a couple of blooms just to see how it works - they look kind of cute ;) lol. Thanks for the tip that the socks aren't all wool. Clever of your mom to upcycle the broken umbrellas! So the shrub jackets hold up pretty well under the wet snow? Neat idea.

The shrub jacket works very well for a large plant. They are sort of waterproof on the outside. It's like a light-weight canvas almost. They are kind of pricey though so I only have one of the really large ones.

4 new peony beds are out there under all of that white! The only thing you can see of them are the little specs of brown, those are landscape pavers on top of 3 gallon pots, for some reason that 3rd bed from the left isn't covered quite as deep as the others. The red wagon is at the base of the first one, can't see the 2nd at all except for what looks to be a limb or something lying across it and the 4th just shows a bit of a few pavers near the top. Those things are 50' long and raised, buried today. They'll recover just fine, will probably lose a few buds but the plants will survive. Would've been much better if I'd just bent those pipes to do row covers!

The sock farm is priceless

Most of my peonies were too big to be covered. Some were covered in trash bags. One peony plants with two huge buds were badly bent. Others are bent but should straighten themselves in a day or two. I am hoping they will start blooming this week.

Everything survived remarkably well at my house! Lost the two marigolds that I planted too early, and several of my columbine flower stalks were bent , but that's about it. Except that I forgot to check on my bleeding heart, which I didn't even think about till you mentioned yours, Skybird, so I didn't do anything to protect it. But all I. All, it looks like spring all over again! Except that it will probably be a muddy mess for my Play Garden group tomorrow morning. Hopefully the toddlers won't destroy too much while it's so wet (walking through new beds, etc).

The leaves that were out on my hostas were damaged and the emerging leaves on my Paw Paw experiment (look like twigs with a few leaves after planting last spring).

Jerry

Lost a few buds but overall not too bad!