Damage from Last November's Cold! (flowers, growing, Hedges, 2014)

[denverian]

So gardening here in Denver is no walk in the park on a normal year. But last Fall, it was unusually warm into early November and no hard freezes up until November 11, when that crazy Arctic front came through and dropped the temperature down to something like -15. At that point, there were still lots of hedges, plants and trees that were still green.

Now that things have leafed out, the damage caused by that are becoming obvious. I have a huge Cottoneaster hedge that is dead back to the ground. It's going to take a chainsaw to get rid of it. I've seen huge Euonymous hedges that had to be decades old that are dead. Surprisingly, my very long Boxwood hedge is fine, along with different types of Holly. All our rose bushes were killed to the ground, but are growing back.

Has anyone else in Denver or other areas affected by last November's cold had to deal with this?

[Pitt Chick]

I am not in Denver... but many of us here in western PA have lost trees and/or shrubs due to the extremely cold winter (not November as in your area).

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Pitt Chick

I am not in Denver... but many of us here in western PA have lost trees and/or shrubs due to the extremely cold winter (not November as in your area).

The freak winter weather is definitely not good for the garden!

[Lost Roses]

Originally Posted by denverian

So gardening here in Denver is no walk in the park on a normal year. But last Fall, it was unusually warm into early November and no hard freezes up until November 11, when that crazy Arctic front came through and dropped the temperature down to something like -15. At that point, there were still lots of hedges, plants and trees that were still green.

Now that things have leafed out, the damage caused by that are becoming obvious. I have a huge Cottoneaster hedge that is dead back to the ground. It's going to take a chainsaw to get rid of it. I've seen huge Euonymous hedges that had to be decades old that are dead. Surprisingly, my very long Boxwood hedge is fine, along with different types of Holly. All our rose bushes were killed to the ground, but are growing back.

Has anyone else in Denver or other areas affected by last November's cold had to deal with this?

Oh yeah. My boxwoods are history and I'm already contemplating what to replace them with. All rose bushes were killed to the ground, very unusual. My climbing rose on an arbor will have to start over, there is no green whatsoever on the long canes as there always has been in previous years. One of the English roses that I've had for 20 years is completely dead. That flash freeze last November really was a killer. But of course, hope springs eternal when it comes to the garden!

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Lost Roses

Oh yeah. My boxwoods are history and I'm already contemplating what to replace them with. All rose bushes were killed to the ground, very unusual. My climbing rose on an arbor will have to start over, there is no green whatsoever on the long canes as there always has been in previous years. One of the English roses that I've had for 20 years is completely dead. That flash freeze last November really was a killer. But of course, hope springs eternal when it comes to the garden!

I have a Boxwood hedge that's about 2' tall by 2' wide and 25' long... and it did fine. It remained green all winter, very minimal burn tips, and now it's putting out new growth like crazy. I would have expected that to die before the other deciduous hedge that actually died. The only thing I can figure is that the Boxwood hedges is on the north side of my fence and in the "winter shadow", so it must have already hardened off when that flash freeze hit.

I also have a clumping bamboo plant that appears to be dead, or very near dead.

[Isleofpalms85]

There was definitely some damage to the foliage of the two bracken's brown beauty southern magnolias near a restaurant on the north side of Indianapolis and there was also quite a bit of leaf burn on a Nellie Stevens Holly(It was killed all the way down to the ground in the brutal winter of 2013-2014 but it revived itself through basal colony regrowth during the 2014 growing season), and as of May 7th, the Southern Magnolias and the Nellie Stevens Holly(The Sprouts survived this past winter apparently) were all showing signs of life again as of May 7th; I am in Texas now, but when I last saw the Nellie Stevens Holly it was producing quite a lot of fresh new leaves, as well as what looked like holly flowers, both where the old evergreen leaves remain and where the sprouts had defoliated and the Magnolias had quite a lot of buds swelling, some of those buds appear to be flower buds and some appeared to be forming embryonic leaves already as of May 7th. Also a quick note; it appears that the Southern Magnolias did not lose nearly as many leaves this year as they had last season around this time, perhaps the southern magnolias will have a denser canopy of leaves by this fall

[no kudzu]

Even here in N.C. we had bitter cold and I lost 3 azaleas (one 13 years old), 1 confederate jasmine, numerous perennials, and only now are my perennial lantana showing up again. I had given up on them and was about ready to yank up a "weed" when I realized what it was.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by no kudzu

Even here in N.C. we had bitter cold and I lost 3 azaleas (one 13 years old), 1 confederate jasmine, numerous perennials, and only now are my perennial lantana showing up again. I had given up on them and was about ready to yank up a "weed" when I realized what it was.

There are dead trees all over Denver. Even pine trees were killed here and there by the freak November Arctic cold. But most of what I see dead is shrubs. All different types.

I have a neighbor who planted a small (about 3' tall) Southern Magnolia about a year ago and didn't protect it at all. I saw one green leaf survived, but now it's budding all over. What died and what lived seems to make no sense.

[NickMan7]

Denverian, I've been commenting on this to neighbors and friends for a few weeks. It's SHOCKING how many trees were killed by that horrible hard freeze. Our lilac made it fine, but our Newport Plums appear to have been severely affected. They have budded, but are having a very hard time leafing out and appear to be struggling to do so. Most ornamental plums only average 10-15 years (ours are 10 years old this summer), so we're kind of right on target for natural death anyway. It's still sad to see them not doing well when they've set amazing flowers and foliage since the first year they were planted. I'm also a huge fan of their tidy growth habits. Two leafy bushes (don't know what type) in the back corner of our yard were also killed and will need to be removed sometime this summer. All of our junipers are copper-colored, as are most anywhere I look in our area, but I think given a little time and attention they will survive.

Sporadic dead trees line all of the streets in our neighborhood and all of my neighbors have at least one dead tree/shrub on their property. While it sucks to have to deal with it, I'm kind of looking forward to shopping for new trees. I'll cut the existing dead ones to just below ground level and cover them over. They'll slowly decay over time and add nutrients to the soil. In the mean time, I'll plant something new and exciting.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by NickMan7

Denverian, I've been commenting on this to neighbors and friends for a few weeks. It's SHOCKING how many trees were killed by that horrible hard freeze. Our lilac made it fine, but our Newport Plums appear to have been severely affected. They have budded, but are having a very hard time leafing out and appear to be struggling to do so. Most ornamental plums only average 10-15 years (ours are 10 years old this summer), so we're kind of right on target for natural death anyway. It's still sad to see them not doing well when they've set amazing flowers and foliage since the first year they were planted. I'm also a huge fan of their tidy growth habits. Two leafy bushes (don't know what type) in the back corner of our yard were also killed and will need to be removed sometime this summer. All of our junipers are copper-colored, as are most anywhere I look in our area, but I think given a little time and attention they will survive.

Sporadic dead trees line all of the streets in our neighborhood and all of my neighbors have at least one dead tree/shrub on their property. While it sucks to have to deal with it, I'm kind of looking forward to shopping for new trees. I'll cut the existing dead ones to just below ground level and cover them over. They'll slowly decay over time and add nutrients to the soil. In the mean time, I'll plant something new and exciting.

Yes, as everything alive leafs out, it's becoming sadly obvious what was killed. In a park near our house, there are some fairly tall trees (I have no idea what they are, but they grew fast in 10 years) that looked beautiful and shaded the playground. About half of them are dead, while the other half are full and green.

I've been making a mental note of what died so I don't buy those plants to replace what's dead. I've noticed the cherry trees are struggling and have a lot of dead branches too. The one next door was still green in early November, so it must not have hardened off. When such mature trees and plants are suddenly killed really shows how much our weather is "off" these days.