Forecast for next week - 3 days with snow and freezing night or two. I honestly do not know how some of my plants are going to survive - some peonies are 20 cm tall with buds, daffodils are opening, tulip buds not showing colors, but close enough and lilacs buds are showing as well... May be a good idea to order Rozella after all.

AlexUnder said:Forecast for next week - 3 days with snow and freezing night or two. I honestly do not know how some of my plants are going to survive - some peonies are 20 cm tall with buds, daffodils are opening, tulip buds not showing colors, but close enough and lilacs buds are showing as well... May be a good idea to order Rozella after all.

Toronto East-End forecast: only Wednesday night temperature may go down to zero. I don't worry too much, because the ground is already warm; unless something changes in the next day or two.

Oh Alex, it is so disheartening. I remember last year when I had freezes on April 25. So much got ruined. I hope things will go better for you and Jasmin.

Here in Niagara its going down to -1 this is what it looks like today

Looks so nice, Oscar. Hopefully we will be fine, but I will cover with pots some of my peonies for sure.

Beautiful hellebores!

Oscar, your garden is beautiful at this time of the year (and always). Love the black Hellebore.
Let's hope the temperature won't go below -1.

ol434445 said:Here in Niagara its going down to -1 this is what it looks like today

Wow, you have a wonderful collection of hellebores, Oscar! I love all of them. What are their names?

Karen this is the only one that has a name

ol434445 said:


Karen this is the only one that has a name

Is this the black one in the last picture?

Uh-oh, the weather forecast is looking a bit worse for Toronto East-End than yesterday. Now we are going down to zero on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. It's even worse for the North neighborhoods of Toronto. We will need some luck.

So sorry to hear about this cold freeze coming your way. Hope you can cover those that may need it to prevent damage.

Now we have snow in our forecast for right after midnight Wednesday.

This is so unusual!! I have have to cover some of the peonies.

LG, I hope it is only snow without freezing.

Jasmin, should I cover TP buds if they are still purple or they will be fine?

AlexUnder said:LG, I hope it is only snow without freezing.

Jasmin, should I cover TP buds if they are still purple or they will be fine?

I've just checked our hourly forecast; Wednesday night will be colder; zero or -1 all night. Still, it does not look too bad. I had the Snow Lotus (Rockii) buds damaged only once. That was when the temperature drops down to -5C (23F) and we got more than 5 inches of snow. Let's experiment; I am not covering TPs unless I see that the weather is really turning bad. There are some oak leaves around my herbaceous peonies; I will put more leaves around them. That would be all. I would suggest that you cover yours to be on the safe side. Let's experiment with my TPs only.

I worry more about the weeping redbud, and of course, the chrysanthemums in the pots. Fortunately, I saved spruce branches (from Christmas trees) and Clematis brush to use to cover other plants. Got some yuta fabric too, but I could not find my horticultural blankets. I will use all I have. I still do not expect any major damages.

I will cover some herbaceous but not all of them, will make my mind on Tue evening about TPs.

Karen it's the one on the left in the second picture

Jasmin and Alex - I'm surprised you will be covering some of your peonies. We have had several below zero nights lately and with three exceptions that suffered last year (out of 350+) I haven't regretted not covering anything - but of course who would I choose to cover anyway . Several tree peonies are half leafed out and many buds are coloured already but so far they have toughed it out We shall see.

Valerie, I don't expect any damages if the temperature goes one or two degrees below zero. However, Rockii Snow Lotus got her buds damaged when the temperature dropped down to -5C. Probably the worst part was that the snow and ice stayed on the buds for a couple of days. I believe this was when we had an ice storm in May. Black Dragon was very small then, so I still don't know how sensitive are his buds.

Valerie, if possible, please take a picture of your TPs. I am curious how far they are in your temperature zone. Do you have any Rockii cultivar that we can compare? Thanks.

Well, it's gone up to zero now (noon!) so I took my camera out to see what damage there was after yet another sub-zero night after tons of rain; turns out they are either frozen upright/to the spot still or still toughing it out.
Here are pics of - a young Rockii (no mature ones here)


Kamata -fuji (typical of the early ones here and like Yaezakura etc)


Tranquil Dove that has colour in the buds and is one of the most tender here, possibly because of its location


and this is Little Red Gem - in the coldest location and always a good doer