Ragna; what heat? We are Iced in .I have not had trouble with them still on especially in dark cold cloudy weather.

Mara, yeah ... I get it. Wondering how much heat would build up under black plastic pots in day time temps of 40 to 50 and partly cloudy? Dang. I've got stuff in the green house and the coverings in place, but I needed one more warm day to yank those agaves. High of 40 today with drizzling rain. Oh joy !!@!

I had to sand down the ramps and my bridge and my husband still almost fell . I had two frozen faucets. . I didn't think they would freeze but they did. They are not designed like most houses with a wall. They are crude and hang in air. No wall to attach foam thingy too. My shop is not designed with cold weather in mind. I need to go back out and do some work prepping.

Went out in a raincoat and 'yanked' A. 'blue glow' , 'blue glow' pups and A. 'ferdinand' that Mara gave me, also some Mangaves; put them in boxes in the green house. Will do some more yanking when the rain lets up. Makes me feel better even if my hands are freezing. Whoo hoo!

We have trees breaking in the woods. Still have not gone above freezing.

Oh my. Latest projection for the Austin area on Tuesday morning is 5F! This may be even rougher than we thought.

Latest projection for the Austin area on Tuesday morning is 5F!

Oh crud. Dang it. Seriously, are we supposed to plant nothing but zone 4-6??? :-O

145 people without power up Bell Springs road from me The power outage symbol on the outage map is right over our cow pasture but we still have power (obviously).. The lights were flickering and I did fill 10 gallon jugs of water. Trees are snapping all around us. 2 fell just by my house. Harvesting snow peas is like harvesting jewelry.

4º out by me. Crap. I just hope we have power because if we don't man are we screwed. we might be screwed anyway. One devoted Dame: no we just have to "refresh" our garden every 30 years. I was here in '89 when it got to 2º on the eve to Christmas Eve. I was having a party.

Oh, no. :-(

I was just gonna edit my post, asking how to best save my Confederate Jasmines, but with trees snapping and folks being in danger from falling branches -- and power outages -- it just doesn't seem that important.

Prayers! <3

Five degrees!!! Trees breaking! Power outages! Oh lawdy. The low predicted here is 11 degrees Tuesday AM.

I just came in from working for HOURS in "40 degrees feels like 27". I didn't do as good a job as Dan, but I did a LOT. I just hope it's enough.

This is the last year I'm doing this ... I swear! Well, it's the first year I've done this much ... sigh.

It's still only 42 on the south side of my house. We have until Saturday to prep.

I did already bring in two potted purple shamrock, parsley and oregano.

I have a ton of ferns in ground and 3 citrus and tons of other pots to bring in....ugh

The past several winters near Dripping Springs have each had a few days of low temps below 20°F, but the rest of the winters were decidedly zone 9. I was beginning to think this would be a definite zone 9 winter, but these next few days are a reminder of how wild Texas weather can be. Temps in the teens are bad enough but Monday's forecast is for single-digit low temps. Brrrr!

How's everyone doing this morning?

Last winters low where I was in Dripping Springs was 22º and that is zone 9 by my book. Barely . 20º - 15º is 8b. We haven't reached it yet this winter but I am waiting with baited breath. This is the coldest 25º....dramatic. trees limbs coming down but we still have power. Out to check the pipes...BRRRRRR.

With temps of 13 and 9 predicted for Sunday and Monday, I'm considering taking the covers off our own bed and throwing them over the golden barrel cactus (hardy to 14) and quadricolor agave (hardy to 15) ... just kidding!

But seriously I will have to use our 'good' sheets and towels if I do any more covering. But will it even do any good? Do y'all think a sheet or two would save the five mature barrel cactus?

Also am wondering how much it would cost to have sod installed to restore our small lawn. The alternative might be to scatter Bermuda grass seed to supplement the small amount of Bermuda that's already here.

These are interesting times we live in, eh?

The Lowes I was in yesterday still had lots of plastic tarps for sale. Though that was before the freeze got newsworthy. I don't think they have any that will cover a lawn though.

I would like to believe that while the foliage on St. Augustine will all die, the roots will survive and gradually, maybe over a few years, with appropriate water and fertilizer, fill everything back in. Is that true?

We are now predicted at 10º and 1º on Sunday and Monday. God I hope they are being weather drama queens. I am becoming scared into inaction. I am now more worried about my car home. I moved the car into the cow field and 30 minutes later a branch fell where my car had been.. I am thinking of putting a heat lamp under it on the cold nights.

About Floratam St Augustine; below is a paragraph from a post from March 2018. We had a sudden freeze in January when everything was green and growing. It was a shock to the Floratam! It looked dead. Then:

"Well, Floratam may have been knocked back, but did not stay down for the count! I've been out snooping around and found coarse, thick grass stolens with a PURPLISH TINT which indicates they are Floratam. I compared them with my neighbors Raleigh St. Augustine and they are definitely Floratam! Yay!"

It took almost all summer for it to cover again. I may not be so fortunate this time with the extreme (for us) low temps for so many days. But whatever happens we've done all we can and we will deal with it as it comes.

Yes, I remember that, but that freeze was pretty mild by comparison. Of course, no one talks about St. Augustine in single digits because, eh, it never gets to single digits where you grow it!

I have covered my half-dozen yards of radishes and chard with 1 mil drop cloth (pretty cheap stuff) and I'm saving my 5 mil tarps (more pricey) for my onions and beets. These plants are all fine down to 15-20F, but life gets more difficult as the temperature drops lower.

With these forecast in my are; I find that my tactic is changing. I am now digging up and putting in shop. I can't cover with my frost cloth. They have frozen into large clumps of ice blobs of cloth.I just yanked a slew of aloes; agaves of all sorts and even erics ground bromeliad.

Yes, also busy adapting with the forecast. Seems there are better options for protecting things from the brief bounces to extreme low temps initially expected than the extraordinarily long freeze eventually predicted. The Dallas record is 295 hours below freezing in Dec 1983. Doesn't look like we're going to surpass that, but very well could be on our way to a new second place - we're 60+ hours in at this point.

Doubt our cloth coverings alone can mitigate a hard freeze that long and am not going to shuttle jugs of warm water or wire incandescent lamps to save fairly common plants. Have adapted Dan H's plastic pot/can coverings for some harder- to-find plants that were added in 2020. Also mounded mulch around and over things already expected to be lost above ground, but hoping the roots can survive - used a small tomato cage filled with mulch over the Mexican Honeysuckle trying to keep a larger mound in place around the lower stems and roots.

We're predicted to get 3 to 5 inches of snow just before the drop to single digits, so hoping that does happen to insulate things better for the second (and worst) half of the long freeze.

Mara, thanks again for suggesting 'yanking'. I just yanked more things including a bunch of thorny dyckias, but I dunno' how you managed to yank Eric's big ground bromiliad!!!!

The five mature barrel cactus (one of them is flowering) have been covered with four king size sheets layered on, but with the predicted low of 5 degrees Monday I doubt if it is enough.

I just came in and told Bob to take off his shirt, I needed it to cover a plant. He looked at me kinda' funny, but I think he actually thought I was serious! Hahahaha!

My yard looks like an abandoned movie set all covered with sheets, boxes, and upside down pots ... oh well. Onward and upward, somebody said.

I think I will cut all my bamboo muhly and let the snow do the rest same with the Mexican oregano. I had forgotten about the insulation value of snow. I just yanked 20 Agave bracteosa. Not chancing it. I am a yanking fool.

LOL. about demanding the shirt on his back.

Eric's bromeliad came up fairly easily. The roots were shallow. Mine was much smaller than yours since we are cooler here.

Agave bracteosa are hardy to 10-15 degrees. Never thought I'd have to worry about them. Guess I need to go yank some. Thanks again Mara for the reminder.

Me neither!!!!!The good thing about yanking is the ground prep has already been done. I was wandering out there inspecting downed limbs and I saw them. I came back with the wheel barrow. I hope my clients don't come for a surprise visit. I have many more here since this picture was taken.I will probably have to debug the workshop.I think it will be called Yankville.

I don’t how I thought I was through yesterday. Just came in from yanking a bunch more stuff. This is the garage.

...

The green house is full of boxes and pots of yanked stuff ...

...

Big messes left, but I can deal with that later...

...

Better than having to buy again and Bob said he will help me replant.

Here’s the barrel cactus covered with four layers of sheets ...

...

it will be interesting to see what survives!

Just a reminder, what REALLY COUNTS in wrapping your plants to keep them warm is the area of ground that is included in the wrapping. If you have a tiny plant, with a wrapping that includes a square yard of ground around it, that plant will be a lot warmer than a tiny plant with a wrapping that includes just the ground under the plant. The heat is coming from the ground, not the plant. As I said, wrapping the plant without including any ground in the wrapping does no good at all. The plant temperature will be the air temperature.

So in that sense, a tent over a plant will be warmer than if the plant itself is just wrapped.

I'm keeping my plants warm with large tarps or drop cloths tied down over them.

Wrapping a person makes them warm because people make heat, and the wrapping keeps the heat in. Plants don't make any heat.

Pardon my insistence on this, but I know people who try to protect their fruit trees from winter frosts by putting wrapping around the leaves and branches. Ball of wrapping sitting on a trunk. That does NOTHING. The temperature inside that wrapping will be exactly the temperature outside the wrapping.

Well, we got 4-5 inches of snow. I'm delighted about that because for hard-freeze vulnerable plants that were protected with cover (as in, tarps and the like) they now have extra insulation on top. Did you know that snow has an R-value of about one per inch? That's about the same as wood. We hit our low temp of 5F this morning with all that snow on top.

We got about 5-6" and 7º here in the Hamilton pool area. I was not able to cover much . I was more focused on saving pipes and water heaters. I hope that the snow does its trick. I am in a state of fatalistic acceptance. In myhous; I am without hot water but have cold. Was able to get my bath draining ( by a day underneath wrapping heat tape on exposed P traps and covering them with some pipe wrap) but my shower in my husband's shop does not drain but it has hot and cold. Right now I can not see my plants so I am taking a walk out in the beauty and reading book. Internet was out since last night but Thank God our power was fine.

I hope this snow is enough to protect our zone eight plants from the zone seven temps.

...

Even our wild mountain Laurel is endangered. It was 1º here last night.I did not get my Sedum palmeri pot in last night. Shame on me. It says it is hardy to 0º but it is in a pot covered in snow. fingers crossed. only one of the many oversights that I have made. MY I'll do it tomorrow attitude does not work in weather like this. I did not get my frost cloth on and then it was this immovable iced blob. I probably ripped it to shreds trying to move it. I grabbed a pot that was next to it and it was frozen to it and ripped when I tore the black pot away. and since it was in my very crowded garden; I walked all over it.

well just about everything in my greenhouse is mush. 🙁 The few baby roses in 1 gallon pots in gh "seem" ok. but rose cuttings and strawberries look pretty good in the frost blanketed water trough. 🤞

I haven't even peeked into my greenhouse. Have a small electric heater and two trouble lights for heat, but we've had two stretches of 15 hours without electricity and many small outages in between. Our zip code has had more outages than any other in San Antonio. Have no idea why. I'm hoping maybe the bare ground in there emits enough heat to keep our small green house above freezing temps.

The trouble with five inches of snow on tarps is that things underneath get pretty smashed down, but I'm hopeful they will recover. Looking forward to enjoying flat plants this spring. No electrical outages here, so far, so I think I managed to keep my freeze-intolerant plants happy with light bulbs under boxes.

We are peaking above freezing and trees are breaking all around us every couple of minutes. We are without toilet with a sewage blockage. I have a broken branch on my bridge.All that snow held the freezing rain.

So sorry wantonamara. I sure hope you can get out of this soon! It's going to be so weird (and probably stinky) when our gardens finally defrost.

We have power at the moment but no water. Here in far NW Austin the ice that covered the trees on the 11th is still solid and even thicker after more moisture. I think the deciduous trees may recover but even 15ft evergreens are bent in half and frozen into hoop shapes.

Had a flock of mixed Robins and Cedar waxwings here today around noon, frantically eating all the yaupon berries. The waxwings look decorative in the icy crepe myrtle but the snow underneath is all reddish brown blotches from the birds!

It looks like a hurricane came through up here. Broken trees everywhere. I do not know how or why I have power. All my neighbors are without.

I have started the trimming. Some to thin what remains to save it from more ice and snow. The wind last night brought more down. But I can't tell if we got wore ice.

The branches off to the left are goners too.

I have a 15' Madrone tree under this mess. It is snapped to pieces under these large oak branches. Ahh the life of an understory tree.

I clean up everywhere I look ahead of me. WE lost every limb on a large live oak. God; it is so sad.I wanted to moan with the wind last night. I just looked on the radar and I see another mass headed our way. I hope it is snow.

My large 6' agave porto americana is puckering.

Mara, what a mess of broken trees! I am so sorry! But am thankful you have power! My daughter, who lives just a couple of miles from me, has been without power or water for four days. She just got power back this AM and plumber is coming tomorrow. My son, who lives less than a mile from me, has never lost power. Go figure!

It's snowing again! :-(

OH Purple shamrock that was not brought in is bleeding purple up through the snow.

I almost envy those who have no power or water because they tell me they are hunkered under blankets taking it easy. Me I am bouncing from one disaster to another. The toilet regurgitated all over the floor because of ice heaving. Last night the faucet in the shop BLEW. It BLEW for awhile before we found it. WE had water all over half of a huge shop. Thank god for 2 wet dry vacs. Vacuuming water at 24º with my husband is what I love to do. I have been on my feet trimming tree outside; vacuming water; Moving propane heaters and heat lamps to protect plumbing in a huge below freezing shop. These are the luxury problems because I have things to protect.

Mara, Wow... so much damage amid such beauty. Glad you're safe and managing the extraordinary mess. Does seem amazing you've kept power with so many ice/snow loaded trees in your area on top of the sporadic intentional outages. Hoping you do get some time to resign under layers of warm blankets as things begin to improve.

I have done some reading today and fed some birds. They had eaten all 3 of their feeders worth of seed. The feeders are glued by their ropes to the trees so Ican't get them down to fill so I just put seed on the ground.

I almost envy those who have no power or water because they tell me they are hunkered under blankets taking it easy.

Ohmygosh, I freakin' WISH.

On Day 3 of harvesting ice/snow & melting it so we can flush toilets for 11 people (3 of whom aren't potty trained yet, so I guess only 8). Power only out for 2 days.

Just got internet back a couple hours ago. See y'all in a few days. No idea what has survived of mine, although I did manage to see a fully-ice-encased white rose in full bloom.

I think I may have lost 25-30 Formosa Azaleas that are about 40 years old,,,

My two 5-6' rose bushes are laying on the ground. Not sure they'll come back when this is all over.

I would think that your rose would send out new canes after a hard freeze. I am NOT a big rose grower but that would be my belief. Ask at the rose forum. I bet there are some northern rose growers that do this every year.