I assume you mean lows below zero. Highs below zero are not fun.

Expect the fargesia to die back. It will be back.

-5 right now...it was 37 at midnight. The high tomorrow is 6. I too have Fargesia (which has struggled due to drought/high temps the last two years)...it may be the end. I have herbaceous perennials like lantana and crinums. I thoroughly expect them to be fine though. I may have dieback on my sabal palms.

Do you think protecting your plants with burlap would help?

It was 5 when I woke up. Currently it is 2 and dropping. I expect it to go negative before the day is done. While the official high may have occurred at 12:01 am, a daylight temp has more bearing on the matter.

The Fargesia bamboo has shown itself to be root and partially stem hardy in similar vicious weather in the past. I hate to lose the evergreen of it though. Covering everything in burlap might help by slowing transpiration, but it is a near impossible task for the size of some of the plants.

Now down to 1.

Good luck and hope most of the plants survive and advance into 2023. I’m in Boston MA where we are facing different challenges- warmer temps later into the year, drought, and no protective snowfall. Every year I wonder what will need replacing!

To funny Molly D. Maybe I could try that for some entertainment today.

Chiming in from PNW, WA & OR area. We are now in freezing rain conditions which started late yesterday causing inches of ice layer on ground in places. Airports in Portland & Seattle are closed for arrivals & departures & all schools, events etc. closed as well as non-essential business as most freeways are also shut down. Power outages in Portland @ 17k folks now, caused by tree limbs falling from weight of ice. My house in Vancouver is still warm but have to get through one more night. Current temps in my area 22 F / 1 F with wind chill. Might have high of 25 today. No snow cover in lowlands to protect ground - I’m at 100’ elevation - lots of frost heave in garden. Forecast is for mid 50’s rain by Monday. .

KW that is probably my New Year's weekend storm front making landfall.

Christopher I think you’re right! This is that cold front from Canada that extends over the middle of US & we are on the West edge of it but it seems to be headed further south your way. Our challenge plant wise is low precipitation - lack of our usual rain so nothing’s well hydrated to weather these freezes. We’re 2.5” below normal for the month & @ 6” below for YTD! The warming headed our way for late tomorrow is from CA & not normal either but at least it won’t be a prolonged freeze this time. I’m happy that my practice for fall / winter yard work is to do nothing except sweep off my patio. I leave all the tree & shrub leaf debris as well as perennial mush (hostas) just where it all falls. Hopefully, roots, frogs and good bugs are finding protection and shelter until spring. My 3 heated hummingbird feeders and 2 seed feeders are seeing very high traffic this morning!

Do you think protecting your plants with burlap would help?


==>> too late for that now.. but i presume you offer such a discussion premise ...


burlap will do absolutely nothing in regard temps ..


but is can reduce winter winds freeze drying tender tissue ...presuming of course.. the entire plant is swathed in said burlap ...


the problem is.. over the years the plants grow to the point of being too big to successfully protect.. and that when the usual 10 bad winter rolls through ... rarely fail to break your heat.. its usually the winter right after you say to yourself in mid summer... .. boy that specimen is gorgeous.. and i beat ma nature ...lol


ken

Don't feel alone Chris.

This cold is not only severe but earlier than normal and is pushing quite aways south and east.

Things have warmed a bit since earlier when I checked but are still making records for this time of year.

Checking in again from PNW zone 8. I just took my pup outside for a necessary break - she can’t visit her usual grass spot as the grass is frozen & feels like a bed of nails so she can’t walk on it. She’s only 4.4lbs - a small Papillion - the white dog in my icon. While she was skating over some brass buttons ground cover looking for a spot, I looked at these sad little conifers in large pots sitting in that ground cover. Both are Hinoki varieties. This is what every single plant in my yard looks like - big conifers, deciduous maples, cistus, acuba, Fatsia, Nandina, sunshine ligistrum, yews etc. Most of my inground plants have been around 5-8 years. It will be interesting come spring to see what survives this unusual arctic blast and whatever else Mother Nature delivers this winter!

An ice storm in zone 8. That has to be unnerving. Pretty too I bet. I would worry about the Acuba and the Fatsia getting mangled. Ice is a good insulator though and as long as the low temps stay in your zone things should be ok.

It managed to get up to 7 degrees today. Currently it is -3 with a good breeze. This is the garden at 2 degrees in the short amount of direct sun I get this time of year. Not bad for a winter garden view when you are stuck inside.

Good luck, hope everyone's power holds!

I'm also expecting my fargesia to go deciduous but beyond that I'm just glad to be in a warm house and if the cold is too much for things I'm already considering new goodies to try out.

It's 3F right now but this afternoon the ground was mostly a still a spongy swamp from all the rain, so I'm sure that's changed.

I hear we are supposed to have a warmer than normal January here in the NE. That will be fun and something else to look forward to when things start growing early...

Christopher - you gave me a ray of hope! Thanks! I didn’t think of ice being an insulator. We are supposed to see warming & melting tomorrow afternoon & it’s already warming on the coast. I agree that all the ice is pretty in the bright light of day and as long as we don’t have an emergency drive in it! We are certainly not equipped for this kind of weather. Both my Acuba & Fatsia have already survived some bad times so I have high hopes for them. They may be smaller come spring but they are so established that hopefully they will rebound in spring recovering from any damage with vigor! It’s my Japanese maples & dwarf conifers I fret about. So katob, we need to make it through one more night before we (I) can breathe a sigh of relief about no power loss due to ice weight on limbs. Most of that damage is just south of me. Fierce east winds come down the Gorge of the great Columbia River & cause this damage with ice on limbs. I’m a few miles north of that so minimal wind with this storm. Portland, just across the Columbia River, has so many hills that the area suffers more than Vancouver which is much flatter within city limits elevation wise. Seattle, couple hours North of me, has same issue with all the hills & elevations. The PNW is a very interesting place with all of the micro climates.

No worries here regarding plants. The snow is piling up and it is cold, but nothing extreme. My only worry is the unusual length of time the trees have carried the weight of the wet, heavy snow from a week or so ago. Wet snow (i.e. snowman snow) is not unusual for us, but how long it has stayed on the trees is. The branches are carrying a lot of weight, and we’ve already experienced power outages when they collapse. Hopefully the worst is over and the warmer (much warmer) temps next week will melt some of it off.

Well I got out this morning and I expect total topkill of the sabals and the bamboo (which is white). Temps won't get above freezing till Monday, but the apparent damage even now, the writing is pretty much on the wall.

It was -8 with a roaring wind last night. It won't get above freezing here until Wednesday. I have gone to the edge of my zone 6a.

I'm not willing to go outside just yet. The Fargesia bamboo and hollies still look green from a distance. It takes a while for the Chamaecyparis and Taxus to turn brown. Time will tell.

"I'm not willing to go outside just yet."

Go out and get some fresh air! I had to laugh when I read that, because it's exactly how my spouse reacts to these events. When we get a cold snap, it's not unusual for her to stay in the house for days on end. The dreaded cabin fever will come soon enough, why hasten it? As long as you're dressed properly, it's really not that bad.

Except for the wind. The wind is evil.

@maackia You would’ve liked my dad - winters that we were foolish enough to visit my SW MT childhood home, mile high Anaconda, my dad would say of the -10 degree sunshining day while urging me to walk outside with him ”But it’s a dry cold”. To me that only meant my nose would have severe frostbite long before I would be aware of it.

@Christopher CNC It’s still a skating rink here & everything still encased in ice but at 6 a.m. it was high 20’s & we’re looking for low 40’s by mid-day. At 9 a.m. now, it has begun to rain which means more ice untl we get above freezing. No wind - so no dreaded wind chill factor - boy that makes all the difference in what the cold feels like, doesn’t it? I’m with you - Wednesday isn’t that far off - stay inside!

KW, your Dad sounds brilliant, but at -10 and going for a walk, it might have been best to have a scarf. It does take some effort to dress for cold weather. ;)

And...my poorly insulated laundry room burst a pipe in the wall yesterday. That's probably worse than winter killed foliage. I was lucky to get a plumber in short order, though they're lucky that their hour (or less) gained them $340.

From what the plumber said, the whole city has busted pipes. I also see the same for friends in central Oklahoma...pretty widespread I guess.

I walked up to the mailbox yesterday and did not like it. The wind is evil. I may have been a few layers short. Today was better, but it still seemed like too much effort to get properly dressed. The wind was still blowing, if gently. I wouldn't be out there long. How was the Fargesia bamboo? It's up there above the big yellow pots.

I think we have achieved winter burn. The quality of defoliation will tell. I went back inside. Tomorrow will be a better day. There is nothing wrong with hibernating.

This may also be the year that I cut the hellebore hybrids foliage off...they took quite a bit (if not totally?) of wind burn too. I've never had to do that before.

My cold hardy camellia had a very scary and sickly color to the leaves. The thing is frozen solid so I will have to wait for it to thaw out to know if it got freeze fried.

Joe Bastardi says the winter will be a roller coaster w/periods of below normal and above. I always watch his Saturday Summary public videos.

http://www.weatherbell.com/premium

Oh no, I just remembered that I missed the camellia when I was out placing chicken wire fences. Hopefully without snow cover the rabbits will finish off the parsley and cabbages before they start searching out all the evergreens I'd prefer to keep.

Yes, the camellias take on a blackishly dead look in the extreme cold, hopefully they're hardier than you suspect!

On a positive note spring hellebore cleanup is much less 'bulky' when the foliage is entirely browned and freezer burned.

Out here our ice is gone at lower elevations & the very heavy rain forecast has arrived. We might’ve hit low 40’s - I know - that sounds heavenly to some of you folks right now! Looks like my non-deciduous plants that were flattened from weight of ice on their leaves have pretty much returned to their full upright positions! Will have to wait til spring to see any real damage to my dwarf conifers. This picture is off topic but have to share - as I was gazing out through the pouring rain, the Raccoon which frequently visits the chickens on property behind us, was checking my yard for items of interest.

For the first time in my gardening life, every single pot in the (unheated) greenhouse froze solid for 5 days. Amazingly, most of the minuscule seedlings simply...endured. Even a few tender californian annuals such as escholtzia caespitosa have not all totally died. It remains to be seen how my scented leaf pelargoniums survive - I fear for some of the species but less so for tuberous ones such as p.sidoides and p.ardens (although all topgrowth is sadly limp and deathly). The evergreen agapanthus and abutilons look outrageous. Death is also an opportunity...at least in my overstuffed plots...and even so, it is always the dry summers where the greatest attrition occurs - maintaining too many immature perennials and trees in pots always results in miserable fails. Unless we had some nuclear cataclysm, life seems very resilient and tenacious - I look upon weather crises as extreme field testing - the survivors may well have their moment of glory but, for a devotee of annuals and ephemerals, death, dieback and disaster hold less terrors than the loss of slow growing trees and shrubs...but even there - a generation of lovingly tended box can vanish in one season of blight.

My only solution - sow more seeds - and accept the risks of pushing the zone envelope because you might get lucky and you definitely get smarter.

Hibernating is always good. In medieval europe, almost everyone took to their beds and chaise longues in an effort to remain as torpid and still as possible, conserving precious calories and warmth. I have a small and cold house and thoroughly approve of this method of winter survival. A book is a perfect companion...and as I spent Christmas eve on a tour of every second-hand bookshop in my town, I am fully prepared.

Oh yeah, my bloody oven door exploded on Xmas day so we are living on ham, soup and crackers.