Sorry to read about all the damage, Lorn! I hope you don't have too many losses as a result.

Calling for more frost possibly on Wednesday. Really? Over halfway through May

Well, I hope so, too, Josh. One thing for sure, my hybridizing schedule for this year has been completely shut down because my lily parents from my work garden have all frozen. But the problem is more far reaching than what most people might realize. My seedling garden where I grow and evaluate my hybrids contains conservatively about 2000+ plants. These plants are grouped as to age: 1 Yr, 2Yr, 3 Yr, 4Yr, and 5 Yrs. old made up of approximately 400 plants each year from about 40 different crosses each year. These have all been frozen as well. From this garden, the 5 Yr old plants get culled down to a select few for keeping. This, of course, will have to be put off for another year. Everything gets pushed back another year all the way down the line. When it comes to losses, the biggest concern is with the 1Yr and 2Yr olds and whether or not the bulbs are large enough and contain enough reserve to withstand the ordeal. Oh, I'll miss not seeing the first time bloomers this year too. Something us hybridizers always look forward to.

Wow, that is really disappointing, Lorn.

Sorry Lorn. Suppose it seems like a bunch of wasted work. If i was in your shoes, i don't know if i would be mad, and pissed off, or crying. Lol so do you have anything that will be viable this year?

Summer without hybridising and seeing new blooms isn't summer. I wish we could do something.

A couple hundred feet can make all the difference in the world sometimes. The first two pictures are typical of my work gardens in the back today.






Now, fast forward to a mixed annual/preannual garden in the front that's facing Lake Michigan but in wide open unprotected space from sun up to sun down. It's like steeping into a different world. There are about 75 to 100 lily plants in here of Asiatic, Trumpet, Oriental, Oriental/Trumpet, Longiflorum/Oriental, and Trumpet/Asiatic. Not a single plant was touched by frost. The pictures are typical of all the lilies in there.










In this last picture, you'll my black Jeep in the upper hand corner. My work gardens are about 200 feet to the left of the black Jeep

Man Lorn, I dont even know what to say. Sorry buddy. Hope the bulbs can hold up for next season

Wow, Lorn. That must be quite hard to deal with the potential damage to 2000+ plants, not to mention the disappointment of needing to wait another year to see what you've managed to create with your younger hybrids. I really hope they pull through.

The devastation is (sadly) amazing, Lorn, and the variation remarkable. I would imagine your cold temp reading of 26-27°F is only ball park for all your gardens.

Predictions for my area was only light frost, and I had 9 mph wind. The only damage was on a Aralia coradata var. sachalinensis at the upper right.


Trumpets were fine. These pics taken days after:


Contrast the damage you had on trumpets and aurelian lilies at circa 26° with "damage" to a martagon section lily at 24° (2015):

And by the end of the day, they had perked right up. Not even any flower bud loss on these later in the season. (Although in a different garden, I did lose some flower production.)


Martagons can laugh at 30°!


Some cold hardy perennials physically remove water out of of their above ground parts in response to cold, and temporarily move that water into underground structures. This increases their ability to withstand colder temps by concentrating the antifreeze chemicals in the leaves and stem. (Less water means less dilution of those chemicals.) This is what is happening when plants droop excessively in the cold and perk up as if nothing happened when it warms. Contrast that with cold damage, when return to normalcy doesn't occur.

Do you think temps paired with air humidity could make a difference. Lots of trumpets here have recovered nicely after temps in those ranges. I've been baffled since you posted those pics, trying to figure out what could be the difference. Or is it somewhat determined by the point of growth.

Rick, the 26 and 27'F readings were from two inexpensive remote Springfield units hanging on a string in the corner of two backyard gardens where the damage occurred. I don't have a thermometer in the front mixed garden where there was no damage but it had to be warmer there. The garden in the front receives radiant heat from the relatively warmer lake water while my gardens in the back are shadowed from that heat source by the house and trees. By experience of living here for over 40 years a temperature difference of 1.5 to 2.0 degrees from the front (facing Lake Michigan) of the house to back porch is typical when the air over land here is cooler than the water. The temperatures in the area were quite variable, too. My neighbor's weather station a short distance from here recorded a low of 29.5. (see Picture). Cliick to enlarge. I had 32'F on a roofed over patio/porch where I had about 70 pots of seedlings.

So sorry about the extensive frost damage, Lorn.
The weather can give us some nasty surprises sometimes and it must be particularly hard to see those lilies you are most interested in getting the worst damage.

To answers Dave's original question, one solution to frost damage of large plants would be to use frost irrigation. Mist plants with water throughout the night/morning hours. There is energy released when ice forms on the plants. The ice needs to remain wet at all times for this to work. Too little water could do more harm than good, so this is something one need to be aware of. Could be problematic to do at home for various reasons and of course with lilies too much water could be very bad on heavy soils, but perhaps something to try in a desperate situation.

Tracey, low humidity, dry air cools at much faster rate than humid air. You've problem heard people say ' when the sun went down, the bottom dropped out' and temperatures really fell.. That's because the air was really dry or low humidity. Conversely, dry air warms faster allowing for fast warm ups after a cold morning, for instance. So, then, a freeze condition is more likely to occur with dry or low humidity air.

When temperature and humidity are combined in another expression called the 'dew point', the role that humidity plays with frost or freeze becomes very apparent. If we consider a hypothetical example using 45'F as a constant, then varying the % humidity by 10'F increments yields a different result expressed in degrees F. At 30% RH the low is 18'F, At 40% it's 22, At 50%, it's 28, At 60%, it's 32, At 70% it's 36, At 80%, it 39, At 90%, it's 42 and at 100%, it's 45. So, if your humidity is running 60% or higher in this example, it will not freeze, but lower, it will. Here's a handy little site that you can move the slider bars up and down to better understand the relationship. Dew points are often used by TV weather people to predict low temperatures for their area. http://www.dpcalc.org/

Low humidity, then, is at least part of the reason why hot deserts can get so cold at night.

And so hot during the day.

that is problem here too Lorn
hot during the day and very cold at night
I could not possibly cover all my lilies here and sorry to hear of all your damage there......
some of mine might have gotten a touch of frost and hoping some of them will all come back some
I heard from the lily breeder if they are not in bud they might recover?? any thoughts on that Lorn

Pat, there are no cut and dried rules of thumb when it comes to frost damage. There are too many variables. Some are hurt more easily than others. Once you have frost damage, it becomes a game of 'wait and see' what happens. Some will continue to grow up through the damage, some won't. Here's a tip for you since I know you like regales a lot. They are very susceptible to frost damage and one of the first to suffer should there be the slightest of frost. Part of that is because their leaves are so narrow. So, if frost is predicted, those would be the first ones to get covered.

What your lily breeder friend told you is basically correct, but if the damage is severe enough you may see some buds abort and drop off when they reach bud stage..

I might have has a touch of frost damage on a couple lilies. I noticed today that some leaves were a little mutated looking. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow to see if it was frost damage or something else.

Another question though. I noticed some of the bottom leaves have turned yellow. Frost related or something else?

Lorn or Rick, would this be from frost damage or something else? I know it's hard to talk in pictures, but the leaves are a little contorted