This particular air mass seems to be staying north of the US Canadian border this far east, but we often get weather down into the twenties through much of May. Most things here have yet to really open buds.

Have you considered tarps or sheets flung over the maples if they are small? Especially if you set a couple of jugs of hot water near the plant, or some folks use string holiday lights, you may be able to get just enough extra warmth to prevent damage. I often do this with tender vegetables in the fall to get a few more weeks of fresh veggies.

I'm a bit stressed about it Rouge. We will do some protecting as Babs mentioned, and we keep a decent amount of burlap handy. My irrigation isn't set-up for the year yet, so I can't run sprinklers for frost. I also have a decent supply of empty nursery pots that we turn upside down over the smaller stuff, but the sheer quantity of plants to protect that have put out growth is daunting.

Yup Babs. I moved into the garage those maples in pots and draped burlap and the like over the smaller ones but there are several too large for me to help. And with these below 30F overnight temps forecast even into next week it is disconcerting.

Yeah, this week and into next is not looking good... Sunday was so nice for working outdoors, but it's too chilly for me to be out there yesterday and going forward.... :-( I've been hoping for a good flower show from the wisterias this spring. Now I'm worried about frost killing any buds that survived the winter :-( Time will tell....

On the good news front, I got an e-mail yesterday evening from the garden service we started using to help us a year or so ago saying they are now allowed to be back in business. We had been slowly working through the spring clean-up chores, but had left the south alley - where we need to dig out shrubs and move clematises - to the last in hopes that the garden helpers would be back so we could use their younger, stronger backs to do the digging! Now I just need to hear back from them with a date and time to come do the work.

Good luck with your Japanese maples.

We have a forecast low of 33F for several nights later this week. I wouldn't consider 28 to be unseasonable for here in early May, since we have had frosts in June. Most things can handle temperatures in the high 20's without trouble. Several years ago, we had low in the low 20s in mid-May. The Japanese maples didn't like that, but there was remarkably little damage aside from that.

Northern Virginia here and we have the heat on still which is unheard of in May! It is supposed to be in the 40s (F) here every night. I am so bummed. Almost constant rain, too, for the past few and future week.

It was at least 50 years old and looked perfectly healthy last year...

And yet you gotta figure it would have encountered the same or likely even more harsh weather conditions in its previous years...weird how that works eh?

And continuing into next week with the overnight low in my area on Monday May 11 forecast to be -4C/25F....cant get anything going in the garden.

I think, to some degree, we all suffer from short-term memory failure :-) These cold temperatures feel abnormal, and they are to some degree, but - here at least - cool springs are not uncommon. 'cooler by the Lake' is desirable in the heat of the summer, but it's also a factor here in spring as it takes the Lake a long time to warm up. 1997 is fixed in my memory as a very cool spring - I stopped working the Friday before the May long weekend back in 1997. I spent a lot of the first week working in the garden at our previous house - wearing a ski-jacket because it was so cold! So, while I don't like cold springs, I have come to realize that it is always cold in May until (a) the jet-stream retreats north of Hudson's Bay and stays there and (b) there's been enough sunny days to warm the Lake up a bit!

What has me worried this spring is that it has been very dry.... I have rain records going back to 2003 in the garden here. This April we had only 45mm. (1.77") of rain. That is close to the lowest April rain records I have for here. The average is 85mm, (3.3") We could use a good all-day rain here! I hope it doesn't mean we're in for a dry summer....

Whoa! I just got back from Home Depot with burlap for my hydrangeas. I didn’t know I had to protect the newly planted Japanese maple, too. So can I just drape burlap over the tree? Is one layer enough? It’s pouring rain now, but they are calling for 32 degrees. Winds will be 10-12 mph. tonight. I would use a sheet, but I’m afraid if it’s soaked, it will be too heavy and might break a branch. Ai yi yi.

cool springs are not uncommon.

Yup. I just don't expect cool to mean celcius lows like -2, -3, -4.

(This is now into the second week of May and by this time we should be regularly be seeing day time temps over 15 C and lows consistently above 5C.)

What has me worried this spring is that it has been very dry...

I sometimes wonder if winter rains and snow pack help offset the lack of rain during a spring month such as May.

Last night was -3C (a record for this day in my location). Several of our perennials will not be flowering this year. :(

Tonight is expected to be -2C and then all positive temps for the foreseeable future.

(knock on wood!) We've been lucky - the lowest temperatures we've had here were on Friday and Saturday nights (-0.3C and -0.9C) and, so far at least, I haven't seen obvious damage to plants - the wisteria buds have not started to extend yet so I've got my fingers firmly crossed that they are not dead, just continuing to stay dormant.... The heat-sink effect of Lake Ontario being nearby keeps our springs fairly cool, but helps to push late frosts further north. We did get a very short snow squall on Saturday morning when we were walking Cole. None of us were impressed! But it didn't last long and there was no accumulation.

It looks like rain and more normal temperatures coming for later this week and the weekend. We need rain but I hope it doesn't stop us from doing work that needs doing in the garden....!

I hope your plants (and those of everyone else experiencing the unusual cold conditions....) survive better than you fear.

I hope your plants (and those of everyone else experiencing the unusual cold conditions....) survive better than you fear.

In these times our family's garden takes on even more importance for us than usual. And with the growing season as short as it is I am more disappointed than might otherwise be the case when I see some of the tender perennials 'cut down' by that -5C /23F temps from a few days ago. (But definitely a "first world" problem).