What's dead so far? *Early/Mid winter update*

[Paul Ont]

In traditional fashion I'll go through the plants that look bad already. Low has been around -20C.
Agave parryi from California based nursery (not sure of source) feels mushy already. Not a very hardy form. I can't say it's dead since it needs to warm up still to confirm. 10% chance. FYI my A. parryi couesii still looks 100%. 50% chance!
Agave palmeri: Long dead. 0% chance
Agave touymena: Looks OK, 50% chance.
Agave chrysantha: Mush. 0%
Agave parryi (high form, Arizona/New Mexico): All of the 'hardy' forms may still be alive, the ones with moisture protection look fine. 50% chance.
Agave neomexicana (a couple different sources): Those in wet areas are DEAD. 5% chance that one or two will survive. Those with moisture protection look good. 50% chance.

Yuccas: The following look like they will be fine (90% chance)- glauca, filamentosa, elata, arkansana, nana, neomexicana, harrimaniae (some tip burn, as with every winter.) I might be missing some that are also fine.
Yucca baccata (larger plant, new): Unprotected. Looks good so far but these have a tendency to rot out in late winter. 45% chance.

yucca recurv. x filata: All 3 plants look good so far. No idea what to expect. 50% chance.

Yucca thompsoniana sucker: Not sure what to say about this. The main plant rotted last winter and has sent up 2 off shoot that both look 100% so far... Maybe I should baby them??? 50% chance.

Yucca rostrata: Moisture protected. No a sign of stress. 75% chance.

Cacti, too many to list, I'll only note the ones that look bad. Unfortunately all of my attempted crosses failed
Opuntia macrocentra: Looks mostly dead. 5% chance.
Opuntia sp. 'large' (engelmanii form?): Mostly dead, the base is still green, 5%
C. kleinae: New form. Looks alive, which beats the one I tried 2 years ago. 50%.

Sabal minor vs. Sabal minor 'Mccurtain': So far both a completely green with a leaf pile enclosure covering most of their foliage. Hopefully I'll be able to draw some conclusion on these come spring.

Bamboo (P. aureosulcata (3 forms), P. angusta, P. nuda, P. bissetti) all bent to the ground and mulched are fine. Hopefully the snow will insulate the roots enough!

Magnolia virginiana 'Henry Hicks': Looks good so far. The foliage is perhaps 10% burned. Second winter.

Acubua (2 forms). Leaves on both burned before I warpped them. Stems are still green.

Basjoo: Leaf pile enclosure, trunks wrapped in lights. The tops had frozen down about 5" or so. I cut this off during a mild spell and redid the protection. Hopefulyl I'll be able to get the P-Stems through, I want to see a flower next summer!

Rhodo's: All look 100%. Breeding with tender large leaf types begins this summer or next. Should be an interesting experiment!

My palm house enclosing the late planted Sabal minor and R. hystrix has hit -15C. I think the cables might have shorted out, and/or the wind tore through the insulation.. In prepartion for the upcoming cold blast I've added a tarp and some blankets to help insulate.

I think that's all for now.

[mutnaum]

I dont have much stuff yet but I was just outside adding more protection for the arctic blast coming and I took a quick peek inside my enclosures to see how everythings doing. Sofar my sabal, trachy, and butia look like they have sustained no damage thus far. My robusta has sustained some damage do the top of its crown near the edge of the enclousure where some cold air probably leaked in. We have only seen 3F this winter so thats not to bad but they are saying we may go down to -10F with this arctic blast coming, so I'm going to head out tomorrow and get some heating tape to put in the ground around the plants to keep the ground from freezing. Hopefully the cold wont last to long.

[DesertZone]

Every thing here looks good, but the real test will be in April. That is when the rot starts to show.

[Alchris]

So far I can't tell what happened with all of the outside plants as they are buried in the snow.

I did lose a Musa violaecea (sp) that I had in the front window during the xmas freeze. We had covered over the vent with stuff when the xmas tree was put up.

Allen

[lucky1]

Paul, your summary seems to show moisture protection is the most important factor.
At least so far.
Are there outdoor and indoor rated cables?

mutnaum, welcome aboard.

Allen, an indoor Musa should/could come back, hopefully, with warming soil in spring.

Aaron, a dry late winter might help get them through.
Barb

[Paul Ont]

Barb, for the desert plants winter moisture is basically the ONLY factor. Obviously temperature plays a role, but plants will perish at much warmer temps if they are exposed to winter moisture, especially rain followed by a freeze...
These cables are 'outdoor' rated, but I am not using them in the normal manner... I have them wrapped around water jugs to heat the enclosure. For this cold outbreak I've added holiday lights which I'll keep on the whole time. I really want to ensure that those palms stay above -15C! I should have opted for better insulation...
FYI We here in Toronto are having 'zone defining' cold (i.e. 5b for the GTA, zone 6a for downtown); my place in Sydenham will hit -27C (-16f) or colder in the coming days (I say colder) which falls right on my 5a zone rating...

[lucky1]

Paul,
Someone else here had heating cable failure.
I can't imagine why wrapping them around water jugs would be any different than wrapping water pipes.
Good that you added lights for heat as extra protection.

"zone defining cold".
Hoping it's only a brief outbreak for you folks.
Barb

[Alchris]

The problem with heating cables is that they cannot get wet, lay on the ground or contact themselves. They are designed to be taped to grounded, rigid copper pipe and can short out quite easily.

Allen

[hardyjim]

The only plant I have lost so far that was trully cold hardy is a T.wag that suffered damage in Nov it died almost immediately,but was never very healthy,so far everythung else is O.K. as far as I can tell.