Oh my gosh Jasmin - that's sad - so glad no-one was hurt

Thank Valerie. It was disturbing. I didn't realize the wind was so strong.

Wow, the tree branch on the car is horrible. Lucky lady. We had some branches on the street in our neighborhood as well. I covered only one peony last night and it turned out it was not needed, but I though that I am going to loose 1/3 of my biggest HB bush because some stems were under extreme angle and the wind was ferocious.

Wow Jasmin! That is a huge branch. So thankful no one was hurt !

Good thing you covered, Val.

So sorry about your HB, Alex.

Another panic yesterday - we are back to freezing nights and although I thought this was just making them tougher it seems for some of them it's just becoming the proverbial 'last straw'; fortunately nothing permanent - they will rise again next year. However it does make me realize the advantage of growing late bloomers - here is one example;

Love the foliage of the above peony! What is the name of this peony? I like how the buds sit atop the stems with the foliage right underneath them.

Good point, Val. I hope the one on the right will still open some blooms.

Karen - the one on the right is Cherry Red but I find that as it gets to bloom time it is no longer tidy and needs support.

Thanks Valerie! Would love to see it when it blooms. There's no pic of it in the Carsten Peony Database. It's described as a dwarf plant though your plant looks tall.

It's a relative thing Karen - the just-emerging peony is very very short! I'm not sure how they measure the actual height of a mature peony clump because in its normal 'position' it is only 15" from the ground - see below

Val, Cherry Red is amazing!! Glad you shared that photo.

I just watched the news and a lot of the middle of the eastern US is having a frost warning. I am so sorry for you!

Vals_Garden said:It's a relative thing Karen - the just-emerging peony is very very short! I'm not sure how they measure the actual height of a mature peony clump because in its normal 'position' it is only 15" from the ground - see below

I can't stop laughing after seeing your post this morning. I am thinking maybe whoever made that description as a compact 15" bush was being sarcastic him/herself. Other than the floppy stems, the flowers are gorgeous! It looks quite tall as well. If standing erect, do you think the stems measure 40"?

Just pulled out some pictures taken on 21 of April...












Alexander Woollcott under snow

"If standing erect, do you think the stems measure 40"?" No Karen - I don't think it would be more than 30" Interestingly, today I noticed Cherry Red in a different bed and it is probably only 20" tall and at the same stage. I will try and remember to take a picture tomorrow

Well Karen - that was an eye opener (apart from the frost coating over the garden yet again ) I measured both Cherry Reds - original clump and the division of the same clump - orig. is only around 20" even before it flops and the smaller clump is between 10" and 12" Who would have guessed. This is the main clump:


This is the division:


A night of zero degrees promised - here we go again.

It appears so tall in the picture! Thanks for measuring. I guess the stems are not going to get any taller between now and bloom time. It certainly has lovely foliage and flowers in spite being a bit floppy.

No ice in AL but we did have a flash flood while we were there! Jeff's sister and her husband visited last Wednesday, it rained all day so they weren't able to see much of anything. We did manage to get out and have a nice BBQ lunch at a local favorite restaurant...went back to the cottage and it started raining a bit harder...and the winds picked up...had to move everyone and all of our chairs inside because the rain was pelting us and the wall—6ft in under a roof. Rain started coming down harder and harder, watched the streams go from running well (normally just a trickle) to raging rapids, then water start coming around the edges of the bridges and above the culverts but still under the bridges (the 2 with culverts are built 18" or so above functional roads with footers down into the rocks and pack around the culverts). The neighbor's dock disappeared under the lake then our boardwalk and dock and it STILL kept coming down and water was STILL rising...neighbor with the land that adjoins the spillway sent a video to Jeff showing the water actually cresting it and flowing over into the low area behind...and still it rained. Jeff's sister, Amy and her husband, Bill were getting very nervous which put us on edge so we decided to go out to dinner. Checked local FB groups and saw the main roads were perfectly passable so we went for it! Low areas of the road in our neighborhood and going out to the highway were under water but only by a few inches, luckily we both were in trucks with plenty of clearance...made it to a seafood house outside Birmingham with no real problems! Rain slowed to a trickle while we were eating but Amy and Bill practically begged us to check in to a hotel with them for the night, they were afraid our bridges would've washed away! We did make it back to the cottage with no problems, the water over the roads had stopped flowing between our 2 trips. Water was still gushing through the culverts but was no longer flowing around the bridges, figured that was a good sign.
The next morning we found out there was over 8" of rain in the 6 hours between lunch and us leaving for dinner. Examined the bridges and the only damage was some rock washed away and the tops of the footers were exposed on a few of the supports for the drive over bridge, a little more damage to the atv bridge as we had 3 footers with concrete floating in air where all of the fill—big boulders—was washed out into the lake! Our builder will be fixing the damage for us, couldn't believe it had washed away as much of the fill as it did. He was expecting the walk over bridge to be the only one with any damage but it was fine...
All of the neighbors we saw after the rain asked to be informed when we were coming back again. Guess the tornado last trip and the flash flood this one has them expecting an earthquake on our next visit!

LizinElizabeth said:No ice in AL but we did have a flash flood while we were there! Jeff's sister and her husband visited last Wednesday, it rained all day so they weren't able to see much of anything. We did manage to get out and have a nice BBQ lunch at a local favorite restaurant...went back to the cottage and it started raining a bit harder...and the winds picked up...had to move everyone and all of our chairs inside because the rain was pelting us and the wall—6ft in under a roof. Rain started coming down harder and harder, watched the streams go from running well (normally just a trickle) to raging rapids, then water start coming around the edges of the bridges and above the culverts but still under the bridges (the 2 with culverts are built 18" or so above functional roads with footers down into the rocks and pack around the culverts). The neighbor's dock disappeared under the lake then our boardwalk and dock and it STILL kept coming down and water was STILL rising...neighbor with the land that adjoins the spillway sent a video to Jeff showing the water actually cresting it and flowing over into the low area behind...and still it rained. Jeff's sister, Amy and her husband, Bill were getting very nervous which put us on edge so we decided to go out to dinner. Checked local FB groups and saw the main roads were perfectly passable so we went for it! Low areas of the road in our neighborhood and going out to the highway were under water but only by a few inches, luckily we both were in trucks with plenty of clearance...made it to a seafood house outside Birmingham with no real problems! Rain slowed to a trickle while we were eating but Amy and Bill practically begged us to check in to a hotel with them for the night, they were afraid our bridges would've washed away! We did make it back to the cottage with no problems, the water over the roads had stopped flowing between our 2 trips. Water was still gushing through the culverts but was no longer flowing around the bridges, figured that was a good sign.
The next morning we found out there was over 8" of rain in the 6 hours between lunch and us leaving for dinner. Examined the bridges and the only damage was some rock washed away and the tops of the footers were exposed on a few of the supports for the drive over bridge, a little more damage to the atv bridge as we had 3 footers with concrete floating in air where all of the fill—big boulders—was washed out into the lake! Our builder will be fixing the damage for us, couldn't believe it had washed away as much of the fill as it did. He was expecting the walk over bridge to be the only one with any damage but it was fine...
All of the neighbors we saw after the rain asked to be informed when we were coming back again. Guess the tornado last trip and the flash flood this one has them expecting an earthquake on our next visit!

That sounds so terrifying! I am glad your property suffered only mild damage and you and your family are safe. SOunds like you also had a nice time at the Restaurant while all this was going in on. Can't imagine what 8" of rain in 6 hours is like but now I kind of have an idea.

I'll get Jeff to send the pics and video so I can share it. I don't think we would've left at all that night if Bill and Amy weren't there although we probably would've moved a vehicle over the bridge, just in case.
Best part of the whole thing that I didn't even mention—there wasn't even a PUDDLE in my newest peony beds! They drained PERFECTLY!!!!! WHOOHOO!

Oh sitting there watching rising water is so scary. The last big storm here I stayed at a motel in town and will do that from now on.

I'm so glad the peonies were fine and nothing got washed away.

The comment about the neighbors expecting disaster accompanying your visits is a hoot.

Just be careful after the floods. Many years ago after a big flood I had a timber rattlesnake in the flowerbed at my front porch.