Tree peonies suffered irreversible damages from past freezes.






Not sure if these will make it. These had growths less than 3" when the freeze hit (temps in the teens for 5 nights plus the snowstorm)







This TP looks like it maybe ok.

No damages are seen on my herbaceous peonies.

Coral Charm


Carina


Alexander Woollcott

So sorry to see this damage, Karen. I sure hope some of the smaller buds will open.

I am very sorry, Karen. If the damaged peonies don't flower this year all their energy accumulated during this season will go to next year blooms!

Anya, that's a good way to think about it.

Mieko2 said:Anya, that's a good way to think about it.

THanks, LG and Anya. I hope the small buds will make it to bloom too, LG. We hope for a spectacular show next year.

I feel your pain, Karen. So frustrating to see new growth then lose it to weather. Hoping more than you think will recover. It'd be interesting to compare which types fare better than others once all of our crazy weather is over.

Unfortunately, like Yan's, this is the worst that I have seen of damages on TP's but I have grown TP only for a short time so I can't say if this is the worst for everyone. Someone on the rose forum mentioned that they experienced Easter Freeze that was so bad that half of their roses were killed. I hope we won't get anymore freezes esp. in April. That will be just too cruel! At least, this freeze happened early enough that only TP were affected. Herbaceous and itohs are still ok.

I have to mulch my tree peony, Yaezakura, every year, right up to the growing tips in order to ever see a bloom. If I don't mulch, it does not flower. I guess our winters are just too long and too cold for it. I have probably had it 20 years, it survives, but doesn't thrive. The other one I have, which is Shimadaijin, doesn't need to be mulched and always blooms.
Karen,
I hope the damage on yours is not too bad.

Karen, so sorry to see the damages to your tree peonies! I'm thankful that my tree peonies survived the freezing temps, I had more damage on my herbaceous peonies.

Today, we hit 81 degrees, then this evening we had severe thunderstorms with straight line winds and hail. There's no telling what disaster we'll find in the garden tomorrow.

We also lost electricity almost 2 hours ago. I'm thankful my phone and iPad were charged so that at least I can do some posting.

Thanks, Valerie! I hope so too. Anytime there are growths and buds and temps fall in the teens, I am going to protect the TP from base to tip. I think that is the way going forward. I will get chicken wire and put it around the shrub and fill it with leaves. That should protect it without subjecting it to heat should the days heat up. .

Oh no, Annette! I hope that your electricity will return soon. 81F, WOW, that is very warm.

I agree it's too warm! These extremes in weather are driving me nuts.

kousa said:Thanks, Valerie! I hope so too. Anytime there are growths and buds and temps fall in the teens, I am going to protect the TP from base to tip. I think that is the way going forward. I will get chicken wire and put it around the shrub and fill it with leaves. That should protect it without subjecting it to heat should the days heat up. .

That is what I do. I surround the plant with chicken wire, then I mulch with a good compost up about 4 to 6 inches, then mound up to the top with a mixture of leaves and shredded mulch. It has worked. I do tend to put some compost around the very base of the plant here, up about four to six inches or so, because I do the roses that way, so I just do this tree peony at the same time. I don't do the cage with the added leaves and mulch on the roses, because the roses don't need that treatment. I end up pruning the roses pretty severely in the spring, but they come back well.

I covered my tree peony & it seems to have come through freezes ok. I thought it had actually died last summer, & it doesn't look great this spring, but it has a couple of buds so I guess it will come through. I moved it to a better spot last fall, it was getting a lot of shade in its previous location. I didn't cover my other tree peony that I grew from seed, but the freeze didn't seem to bother it at all & it is in a very open situation. A couple of my herbaceous peonies got burnt a bit, but I'm hoping they will still bloom some. I covered up my new ones & one still got hit a bit. I hope we don't have another round of this really cold weather, temps after today are supposed to be 60s & 70s. Hope everyone's peonies do well!

alilyfan,
Same situation here, one tree peony needs to be covered for the winter and the other doesn't. One thrives and the other hasn't, so you just never know.
I hope the weather cooperates for you!

The mild Feb was actually wonderful for me as I am not a fan of cold. Though it really wreaked havoc on the poor plants that got fooled into thinking that winter was over. I must say my hellebores held up pretty well to the temps in the teens followed by being buried in 16" of snow. Not so with my early daffs and early tulips. The blooms flopped over and got damaged from freezing.

I am in the same boat as you Kousa. Everything got frozen that was coming up and blooming or
putting out new growth. I am wondering how it is going to affect the trees that were also putting out new growth.

kousa said:The mild Feb was actually wonderful for me as I am not a fan of cold. Though it really wreaked havoc on the poor plants that got fooled into thinking that winter was over. I must say my hellebores held up pretty well to the temps in the teens followed by being buried in 16" of snow. Not so with my early daffs and early tulips. The blooms flopped over and got damaged from freezing.

I hope your early daffs and tulips have enough good foliage to feed the bulb. One year, I believe it was 2000, the same thing happened to me. We had unusual warmth, and my bulbs started to grow, then were hit by an extended hard freeze. I lost some daffodils and my little iris reticulata. I hope yours fare better, and they probably will, because your low temperatures were probably not as drastic as mine.

makap said:I am in the same boat as you Kousa. Everything got frozen that was coming up and blooming or
putting out new growth. I am wondering how it is going to affect the trees that were also putting out new growth.

If the new growth on the trees was damaged and frozen, they will put out a second flush of leaves. This happens on occasion here, and they do recover. Fruit trees can be the worst affected because of damage to the flower buds and blooms, and you will have a reduced crop that year.