Once again severe cold is forecast for tonight. These Camelot lilies are spending this cold night under the cover of a plastic pail. This protection has been necessary all too often lately but so far these plants have escaped frost or freeze injury. We will see just what tomorrow brings.
This cluster of Cardinal Flower plants have also been protected with a plastic tub. Their placement on the north side of a stone wall provides some stored warmth from the wall. This native plant gets more help from us than any other plant. Nineteen plants have been potted up and are spending yet another cold night in the basement. Some of those plants are already growing stems while these left outside are just holding on.
There are not enough covers for all of the plants and this Cardinal Flower has been repeatedly exposed to freezing temperatures and frost. It is only almost totally dead now but tonight will hit it hard again.
Another native plant, Jack In The Pulpit, has no frost tolerance. Without a protective cover, its growth tips would be black mush by now. When that happened here before, the plant survived but with almost no above ground growth. Flowers and seeds need not form every year for the plant to survive but we do want to see flowers as often as is possible so we cover.
Becky secretly took this picture of me sitting on a wall that I built to protect the arbutus transplants from lane traffic. My back is painful nearly constantly but two simple things really help ease the discomfort. First, constant good posture is a must. My head should be back over the shoulders more but I am looking down at the plants. Walking while maintaining an upright stance also helps greatly. These are free medications with only positive side effects. The sweet scent of the arbutus flowers only added to the moment.
There are included here no pictures of our daylilies. We cannot cover them and they have been hit hard by repeated severe cold. Some are more hardy than others and should survive with flowers this year. Others may simply be gone. If they cannot endure our temperamental weather, they will not be replaced. We need more plants that can survive here on their own.
1 comment:
Oh gosh, this sounds so familiar. I had some tropical potted plants outside already, and had to bring them in. The perennials are on their own now. Frosts and freezes aren't in the forecast anymore, but chilly weather day and night is making it close. I hope you won't have anymore frost damage.
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