Winter in Southcentral Texas
 

Not really complaining, since we seldom get
this kind of weather and it's usually gone
pretty quickly, but I'm hoping some of my
smaller, weaker roses survive the current
cold & icy conditions.

Both above-ground ponds were iced over
this morning and will probably be so tomorrow,
but not the in-ground pond. It never ices
over. I'm guessing the roses will do fine
since the ground will remain much warmer
than the air temperature. If the in-ground pond
water froze on top, then I'd be worried
about all the roses! They've not gone
dormant at all and seldom do.

Here's hoping all your roses survive winter
conditions!

Gail
near San Antonio TX Zone 8 USA

Winter in Southcentral Texas
 

I'm in So Cal, and we just had a freeze too! In the past, I've had
good luck - as a last ditch efffort - using compost to save plants. I
put a shovel or two of compost at the base of the plant (cover the
rootstock) so you have a small mound covering the bottom half of the
plant. The compost protects the bottom part from frost and keeps it
just slightly warmer. I'm sure this won't help if we have snow!
Aren't we supposed to cover roses with burlap if you're expecting snow?

If you have obvious frost damage on plants I would leave them alone for
now. The top half of all my succulent plants, especially the jades,
are all wilted and frozen. By leaving the damaged foliage you are
(hopefully) protecting the undamaged plant underneath. When it is warm
again, I'll have to go out and start cutting back the damage.

You can check to see if the wood is ok by scraping the bark off with
your nail. If it is still green you're ok. If not, I would still wait
until spring before I did any trimming. Good Luck, Laura

Winter in Southcentral Texas
 

When we lived in Ca. - now in Lufkin Tx - there was a spray that provided
a sort of chemical anti-freeze. It was pushed and used. I believe some
orchards went that way as well... Check with the local suppliers
and in El Paso we used burlap and sand bags that were dried out from the
summer flooding - 50's.

I hope to get some apples this year - been cold enough and long enough.
No grapes to gain now.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Endowment Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot"s Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


Laura from MomsRetro.com wrote:
I'm in So Cal, and we just had a freeze too! In the past, I've had
good luck - as a last ditch efffort - using compost to save plants. I
put a shovel or two of compost at the base of the plant (cover the
rootstock) so you have a small mound covering the bottom half of the
plant. The compost protects the bottom part from frost and keeps it
just slightly warmer. I'm sure this won't help if we have snow!
Aren't we supposed to cover roses with burlap if you're expecting snow?

If you have obvious frost damage on plants I would leave them alone for
now. The top half of all my succulent plants, especially the jades,
are all wilted and frozen. By leaving the damaged foliage you are
(hopefully) protecting the undamaged plant underneath. When it is warm
again, I'll have to go out and start cutting back the damage.

You can check to see if the wood is ok by scraping the bark off with
your nail. If it is still green you're ok. If not, I would still wait
until spring before I did any trimming. Good Luck, Laura


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