You are about 4 degrees colder in Oregon City than here in Albany (I just checked). Guess I'm in the banana belt.

I think it is taking longer for the ice to melt here because we keep getting cold winds. Today was pretty calm. Our temps are increasing daily.

We've been much warmer today. It hit 55F two days ago, and we even had a spot of rain. The temps are going to start plummeting again, though.

The up and down temperatures are what are hard on semps.
I looked out this morning and all the ice is finally gone from the beds. When there is enough light out there I will see how they did through all of this. We have a number of days coming up that are rainy. It is 51 degrees this morning. Wow, that is warm. No wonder the ice is gone.

I went out, once there was enough light, and took an updated photo of bed #1.
The before and after of thawing.

Lynn, TWO snakes?

They only scares the birds away if I move them every couple of days.

Most things here did ok with the ice. Some of my seedlings from last year don't look too good but most seem fine.

I was mainly worried about my echeverias I have planted in the ground. I have 2 that survived 19 degrees unprotected last winter, but this was colder and I had added some new ones last year. I covered them with frost blanket and they did great. No damage and all survived.

Wow Curtis! That is amazing that your echeverias made it. Good thing you covered them with the frost blanket. We got down to a low of 12 degrees here at our house.
So far all of my two year old seedlings are looking great. Some of the 4 month old 'Rifka' seedlings did not make it, but about half of them are look okay. They are so tiny, so keeping my fingers crossed.
Checked the beds this afternoon, I have maybe 4 or 5 cultivars that are not looking good. Those will be removed from my collection.

I saw 13 degrees on our thermometer.

The echeverias have been an experiment the last couple years. I just get some cheaper ones from the garden center at Fred Meyers and plant them on a slope under some cedar trees where it's difficult to grow things. I lost a couple last winter and one or two earlier this fall/winter but the survivors seem fairly tough otherwise.

My two year old seedlings seem to be mostly ok. I need to give them all more room in the spring and start making some selections. The seedlings from last year were the hardest hit.

Now we have to see how we come through all this rain. We are double the amount of normal rain for the month of January, and the month isn't even over. I am so ready for some warm sunshine.

I just stumbled across this picture of my initial sempervivum patch. Could it be any bigger I wondered.

Wow! That is certainly a blast from the past. They look pretty happy Tim.

This isn't sempervivum related, but you can look at pictures of some of my aeoniums that really have some color. I'm impressed how they look as I have been growing them inside under artificial light. I couple since some elongation going on, but when spring gets here, I'll chop them down.

https://garden.org/plants/brow...

Wow!! Nathaniel, they are impressive.

@valleylynn, I thought I should take pictures of something that has some color. Im still waiting for this plant to get added, but it's currently my favorite Aeonium. Its name is phantom.



All of my semps are red or green currently. Though I have noticed my sedums are starting to come up already. Hopefully winter doesn't return.

Nathaniel, that one sure is colorful.
We are now having sunshine and warmer temps into the high 50's. This won't last long. Next week temps are cooling down. The plants are so confused right now.
I am not feeling very motivated right now. Way to wet to work the beds, other than pulling the occasional weed. However, it is a good time to evaluate my semps on how tough they are for unseasonal weather changes. I do have some nice color starting to show.

Nathaniel,
I notice that you are growing variegated forms of A. 'Voodoo' - those should be spectacular plants when fully grown! I grow 'Voodoo' here in the greenhouse, and it is 5 feet tall and nearly 2 feet in diameter (it is still in a pot).

Mine will never get that big. They get moved outside in the spring where they will go. Then come fall, I grab a cutting or two and get rid of the rest of the plant. I don't have enough space to keep huge plants.

I took the squirrel guard off the semps today and took a lot of pictures. Of all of them I think Borscht is the toughest largest brightly colored one. I lost a few last summer, and a couple of these went into winter small and still are, but they are alive.










I'll sort out who's who when I get them to a more manageable height, they are still low for cold wind protection.