I agree, Ann. I think I'm farther south by just a little bit and that sometimes makes a difference. But the next weather system sounds concerning for me, too. My poor plants are still trying to recover from the Dec. '22 temp drop where it fell from 50 to below 0 in a few hours. At least this time around they are dormant.

Good luck in this polar vortex. I guess I'll have to move my small potted plants under my house. The hot water heater and furnace are under there and it is cold but not freezing so it works to protect plants. I don't like going under my house though. Have seen a bat under there, a snake, spiders, and a rat. But they stay out of my way.

Rick,

While wandering through old newspapers, I found temperatures in one year in the 1890's were so cold that the fresh water at the north end of Mobile (Alabama) Bay froze solid. Then in the 1980s Knoxville Tennessee had three days when the temperature didn't get up to 0Fahrenheit.

I wonder if the phrase "Sieve event" exists? These wretched cold spells are sieves that cull out the less strong (for that environment ) plants.

Where I live now the wild muscadines have not come back on the slopes of our property above the river and there are no mistletoe along the river although they are back four miles away near town.

Thank you for what you wrote and that does put cold air from the Canadian north into perspective.

Sounds like it's a rough ride for folks through much of the U.S. and parts of Canada. Good luck to you all. Ann, I'm a fan of snow in cold weather, too. We get far less snow than we used to, which I consider not a good thing. But all the times in the past that we've had really hard freezes here, by chance there's been abundant snow--say, a foot--on the ground, and it has been a lifesaver. Rick, a second hard freeze in a period of a few years could be awfully hard on your 'Goldfinch', I'm guessing, but have no personal experience. Back in 2018 I did have a Lady Banks rose die to the ground when the temperature dropped below 10°F--only time it's gotten that cold since I moved to Italy--but it came back and is now flourishing once more.

We are getting down to 5 degrees tomorrow night and again later this week, the snow amounts keep fluctuating but I’m hoping for some to help the plants and just because I love snow. I did bring in some potted roses that are a bit more temperature sensitive and some camellias. I am thankful this time during a big freeze that its already been rather consistently cold here so everything is fully dormant, last December’s freeze was really wicked because the temperature here hadn‘t really been that cold and then it just plummeted to below zero so it severely damaged and killed a lot.

All the potted roses I left outside are in quite large pots and hardy to zone 4 according to their tags, so they should be okay but an insulation of snow would be welcome.

Good luck to all of our beautiful gardens!

We got 1’ of snow last night. Be careful what you wish for. LOL I wished for snow for the coldest week, now both snow blowers are broken, the 24” one won’t start, the 21” one belt went after only done 1/2 of the job. Ordered belts online, won’t be here until Thur, ordered another snow blower online , it also won’t be available for pick up in store until Thur. I have to hunt for a snow blower belt tomorrow, don’t want to shovel 1/2 of the driveway, it’‘s not a short one.

Life is so different in the New World. A few years ago at Christmas we got two feet of snow in three days. We spent days digging out paths with a snow shovel. I must admit, we don't have the driveway problem: our farmer neighbors clear most of the road with a tractor (except for the last few feet! that we must dig!)

It’s not about the new world, it’s about my back. 😂 My back can’t handle shoveling a big driveway. We went to previous home yesterday to shovel out a small driveway that can park 6 cars in front of a 2 car garage. The snow is heavy not light. Our current driveway is extra long, it could possibly park 30 cars, maybe even more. The snow blower almost finished the circular part before the belt went , we shoveled some, but still have a L shaped driveway after the loop to clear out. We do have a compact Kubota tractor with a bucket in the front, that could remove the snow, but it might damage the driveway, it’s safer to use snow blowers on asphalt. We both work full time, we use snow blowers to save time and our backs, we just need a backup for a backup. lol We have good backups on lawn mowers after a few years of country living. Now it’s time to get one more snow blower as a backup. This is the 1st time both snow blowers broken at the same time. We should be ready for the next storm. May be you could try one, I like 21” smaller ones that I could operate it easily. I have to have enough machines that I could work with for just in case. A while ago DH’s back went, and I couldn’t operate on any of the manual riding lawn mowers he bought, and the grass grew fast, I couldn’t mow the 5 acres at one place and 2 acres at the other. After that we added on 2 zero turns and 1 riding lawn mower that are all automatic. In the spring I need to learn how to drive the tractor. Everything has to be prepared to have a plan b. That has been in every chapter of my journey once I reached the top of the hill- the magic 50.

Welp, the Weather Underground forecast is *currently* calling for 1F here tomorrow night, just southwest of Knoxville, TN. That's actually an improvement over the -3F they were calling for as of last night. If it actually gets there, it will be the coldest temp we've had here in a decade or more. It's ironic that we've just been moved from zone 7a to 7b, and here we are closing in on zone 6 temps.

At least there's snow.

John, that’s super cold! You need to get a coyote coat with a matching hat! I hope your fig trees and water pipes are Ok. It sounded like we switched zones. I am in zone 6b now ( from 6a), we have 3 single digit nights next week: tonight : 7 F, Wed :6F, Sat : 8F.

I just covered the 12 rose trees with snow. They should be fine in the frozen air. Will have to move potted snowball into the garage in a few mins. They are heavy pots, I need a couple chocolates first. Hope everyone’s garden and water pipes are Ok!

We've currently got 8+ inches of snow, and it's still coming down. That's the biggest single day accumulation we've had in probably 15 years. We've been in somewhat of a snow drought during that time though. When I was a child, up to the 1980's, it was not unusual to have snow on the ground for several weeks in Jan-Feb. Since the 80's, we've had a few big snows, like the blizzard of '93, but the total winter amounts have been dwindling. I recently read a report that said we get 30% less snow now than 40 years ago. This storm is trying to make up for lost time, lol.

They also keep revising the predicted low for Tues night downward...not what I was hoping for. The newest forecast calls for -1F, (un-)comfortably in zone 6 territory.

Ugh.

That makes sense, summer. I do hate the sound of snow blowers, though.

So far this year we've had no snow, and none in the forecast.

Ann, I hope you got your snow wish by now.

Melissa, I agree snow blowers are loud. I think lawn mowers are even louder. I thought I moved to a far suburb/country area, it would be quieter. Nope, people have bigger and louder lawn mowers, I hear symphony of the mowers all summer long, and snow blower duet through out the winter. I don't know all my neighbors names, but I do know what (machines) toys they have behind their closed garage doors. :-)

It's 12 F now, another snow storm is coming with high wind tomorrow (Wed & Thur), 1' to 3'of snow this time.

Summer, I think there might be an economic niche in your area for herds of sheep for cutting grass (not goats: they eat EVERYTHING). This isn't totally a fantasy: the last time I was in Florida, some years ago, I stopped to watch a goat flock, with its human and dog herders, being unloaded from a truck and let loose in a patch of woodland in Tallahassee, to eat the kudzu that had overwhelmed the trees. I've also watched with interest the little self-guiding machines that cut lawns, though they may be only suited to smaller expanses of grass.

Stay warm and safe in the coming weather! Our own weather is dreary, but at least it's not life-threatening.

We got snow (about 12 inches) and then last night Mother Nature decided to show us that we are, in fact, a part of the Canadian Shield, weatherwise. We went below 0 F around 2 am and just now got up to zero. (9:45 am.)

Knoxville is ten degrees warmer according to one TV station. From the look of the trees in the sunlight, we had freezing frost on everything overnight.

BUT we still have water running and our well is working. DH did a lot of things to protect pipes where they have frozen in the past. Yep, even though we thought we were doing a good job before, we'd almost every time discover a hitch.

The snow cover has hidden the flower beds and I can't tell where the road is. Four vehicles went by yesterday.

I can only imagine how much colder some of the newly constructed houses are ....that are on the tops of taller hills.

Stay warm, y'all. Tonight's supposed to be warmer and then Saturday night a replay of last night.

That's awful cold. We were at 14 this morning and that's cold enough. No snow. I got almost all my small potted plants moved under my house or in my house. Indoors is not ideal as the warmth may be too much for them and they might break dormancy but the prolonged cold is probably worse. IMO the duration of the cold matters more than how cold it gets, up to a point.

It's a lot colder around Knoxville than it is here. My daughter is in Alaska...I keep tabs of the weather up there and for the last week or so it has at times been 10+ degrees warmer up there. Looking forward to next week when temps here will be in the 60's one day.

That's good you still have your water. I worry about TX having a repeat of the winter when it was so cold and they lost power.

I am making some chili for dinner. Can't believe we're going to have some ice cream for dessert. My husband bought a Ninja Creami machine for Christmas and we've had fun making stuff with it. Made a pumpkin ice cream yesterday ..it's in the freezer ready to put in the Ninja machine. I think it'll be good with some toasted pecans. But a hot piece of pie seems more appropriate to this weather. You all probably don't want to hear about ice cream...yikes..12" of snow or several feet of snow!

Ann, I'm SOUTH of you, and at 5:30am my thermometer read -3F. The local Weather Underground station was reporting -5. But I had the wood stove cranked, and left all the taps running, and didn't have anything inside freeze. However, I have a freestanding outdoor water tap, unattached to the house; it remains to be seen if it was damaged. I've wrapped/insulated it, but there's only so much you can do to a metal pipe sticking three feet out of the ground, lol. We'll see, probably several days from now, when either I have a new fountain spewing...or not.

The official low for *Knoxville* last night was 0F, recorded at McGhee Tyson Airport. That's the lowest temp in almost a decade, and only the second time it has reached that low since 2000, according to the local news on the NBC affiliate.

It was definitely colder than that here, and no doubt it was the coldest since 2000 or so.

Once upon a time, someone asked our next door neighbor, "What do you folks do for entertainment?" He replied, "We sit around and watch bumpers rust."

Today at our 1100' elevation, "We sit around and watch ice cycles grow."

Ann, are you in MA?

John, you could try to wrap a few towels around freestanding outdoor water tap and then cover it with a large garbage can.

From Tennessee, where to the south I see the Smoky Mountains, as fog rises from the Holston River to our immediate east (then it goes around a meander) and passes a tenth of a mile to our south. I've had about 25 years of growing roses here and my fun was destroyed by Rose Rosette Disease.

Thanks Ann. Your place sounds beautiful! What a nice view you have there! Sorry to hear RRD destroyed your garden after 25 years. That must be heartbroken. You'd think after all these years a RRD treatment would be discovered. Maybe 2024 is the year!