Monday, January 22, 2024

I'm still numb

I'm a member of a couple of PNW weather groups on Facebook. These people are positively giddy whenever there's a chance of snow or obscenely cold temperatures. They watch the weather models and discuss at length, talking about what "could be" long before the possibility solidifies into anything the weather media, or NOAA will publicly mention. That's how I knew something bad was brewing. Our unbelievably mild winter—I still had bougainvillea, Echium candicans 'Star of Madeira', and Brazilian tree fern looking great mid January—was coming to an ugly end.
pre-storm most of my hellebores were all budded up, about to open

The storm hit the afternoon of Friday the 12th, when strong wind through the Columbia River Gorge blew in along with arctic air from the north, temperatures quickly plunged. All told we were under 32F (freezing) for over 150 hours, with an ultimate low of 12—we didn't get above 20F at all on Saturday the 13th. Extreme cold, fierce wind, sleet, and ice all added up to horrible conditions not seen here since a storm back in 1990 (so I've read, we moved here in 2004). 

We didn't see 32F again until late on Wednesday the 17th, but that was brief because another round of freezing rain moved in that night and dropped the temperature (and more ice). As I write this on Saturday the 20th my garden is still coated in a thick, rock-hard layer of ice.
funny thing was, I'd swore I was done protecting plants after last winter's massacre

of course that resolve quickly melted when I saw just how cold it was going to be

the Pseudopanax ferox got mulch at the base, a wrap of frost cloth & a custom cover

many of my aspidistra & pyrrosia suffered cosmetic damage and in some cases death last
winter, thankfully most of them rebounded over the summertime & were looking good once
again—I took this photo as I was trying to decide what I could reasonably hope to protect

I covered a few pyrrosia, but ran out of time, materials & ideas for how to protect them all—it just wasn't possible

that's not snow, it's sleet—compact & hard—photo from before the freezing rain coated everything with an icy glaze

At one point over 200,000 people were without power in the Portland metropolitan area, several people died when they were crushed by falling trees, electrocuted, or hypothermia set in. Hundreds of trees fell all over town, on houses, fences, cars. Pipes froze and burst, A few friends who had their power stay on had unfortunate episodes where they lost power to their greenhouses. Andrew and I were very lucky and our power stayed on, and the trees surrounding us stayed upright. 
once again Andrew had been scheming on agave covers, they had to be strong enough to withstand an ice
load, which thankfully these did (photo taken pre-icing)—I never did get frost cloth over these
Agave ovatifolia though (yikes!)

the old igloos came into play again, these are so easy to secure with metal tent stakes

another new design, it keeps the frost cloth in place & keeps ice from building up on the cloth

not all the agaves got covers—again a shortage of time & materials

Of course I hauled all the containers I could into sheltered areas, and I wrapped and covered most of those I couldn't. Concerned friends shared well wishes for my tender plants, some social media acquaintances wondered if this might change the zone-pushing ways of those of us who are known for it. However when unprecedented cold settles in for days and the nasty east wind blows, it's not just the borderline hardy plants that suffer.
sarracenia are pretty darn hardy, these were left in place and should be okay

although these severe conditions are new me and these plants

iced up taboret—had I been in anything but survival mode I would have done something fun
with this, maybe ice candles

nature made pretty things though, like this pattern on the fertile fronds of Blechnum spicant

the ice needles of the NOID cholla won the prize for dangerous beauty

this is the second year in a row the buds of my edgeworthia (which were already starting to
open) were coated in ice, unfortunately this means when the flowers do open the fragrance
& vivid color will be missing, as well as the hummingbirds 

palm fronds coated in ice are very heavy

last year the weight broke the fronds at the base, resulting in sad looking palms for
several moths—it's  too early to tell if that will be the case this year


I finally started to remove plant covers on Friday the 19th, things had been undercover for more than a week. It's worth noting the only reason I was able to get out and work that day was because Andrew had a set of these spikes I was able to put on my boots, otherwise I'd have been stuck indoors. You may have heard the "socks over your shoes" for traction idea, in my experience that only works for a bit, then the ice builds up on the socks and you're in even worse shape.
friday afternoon the patio was still a solid sheet of ice, the chunks were bits I'd chipped
away to get at covered plants & the small pieces were off the ice-covered bamboo leaves

the brick (incased in a sheet of ice) was used to hold the tub in place during the windstorm,
before the ice fell & solidified everything

It was amazing to see bright green again. However I know better than to assume success. Only time will tell.
a unique pyrrosia from the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden, it was treated well


this one got the wrap treatment with frost cloth & reflective insulation 
(the same material I made the Pseudopanax cover with)

a large stock tank planted with several treasures including special pyrrosia, there
were layers of burlap, frost cloth & that same insulation—seeing frost on the leaves when
I unwrapped it gave me a scare, but the color has remained healthy (fingers crossed)

Pyrrosia sheareri in that same tank

both stock tanks and the fern table were wrapped

Last winter was so demoralizing, there was so much plant death. Several evergreens dropped all their leaves and looked dead, but finally flushed out with new growth late in the spring. Slow growers like aspidistra (cast iron plant) and pyrrosia lost so many of their leaves their impact in the garden was greatly reduced, I fear it will be worse this year.
Aspidistra elatior, not covered and already showing signs of damage

for a moment I was confused, where did this ice agave leaf come from? then I realized it
was from the aspidistra—ha!

burnt Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress' foliage 

goth Grevillea rivularis (the foliage is usually green, not black), will it rebound? I doubt it

the life has been blown out of this Eryngium proteiflorum, it may come back from the roots?

two versions of Feijoa sellowiana (pineapple guava) foliage damage—this one died back to the
ground last year & resprouted, only to be hit again 

this one has always been the tougher of the two, that brown burnt foliage is already dropping

burnt Mahonia gracilipes foliage

As I said in the title of this post, I'm still numb—and not just from the cold. It's exhausting to be on edge for six days (what's the temperature now? did they change the forecast? the lights just flickered, will the power stay on? keep the devices charged in case! don't let the kitchen pipes freeze! is the heater in the greenhouse still working? I was up several times through the night, every night, checking on that last one), our region has been rocked hard. The severity of this storm, and it's overall length is like nothing my garden has experienced. Fingers crossed there will be more happy surprises than bad.
Aristaloe aristata, after I removed the covers—they're still green and solid!

To receive alerts of new danger garden posts by email, subscribe here. Please note; these are sent from a third party, you’ll want to click thru to read the post here on the blog to avoid their annoying ads. 

All material © 2009-2024 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

34 comments:

  1. This was a long one. The snow finally melted here yesterday. I had forgotten what bare ground looked like. We did not have the wind that you did but of course it was cold. I did not cover the mahonia 'Soft Caress' or the pineapple guava. I'm not sure what the outcome is. I have not ventured out to look yet. I hope your plants are okay. It looks like you protected them well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it shocking to see green after all that white? I know it's always freakishly bright to my eyes. I hope you have minimal damage!

      Delete
  2. Many of these photos have a terrifying beauty about them. I've never been through anything even remotely this bad, but, being a worrier by nature, I can imagine how horrible it must have been. Heck, even I checked the Portland weather forecasts obsessively.

    My heart goes out to you and all my other Portland friends. I'm fervently hoping that, when all is said and done, the damage won't be as demoralizing as it looks to be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Every storm is different and there's always the chance things don't take a turn. Finger crossed that is the case!

      Delete
  3. How exhausting. All of it. The damned east wind! You guys are especially impacted, I'm so sorry. Some good protection ideas in this post, thank you for that, Loree. Especially deflating after the storms of last winter that were so heartbreaking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed! Last winter was horrid, and now this. When we move (someday) I am definitely getting away from this wind.

      Delete
  4. I'm so sorry, Loree. I knew from some of the IG posts coming from you and others in the Portland area that things were bad but I didn't realize they were bad even in terms of the area's historical experience. The reports of lives lost really drove the message home and I know that, even as your melt begins, there will be pain associated with the discoveries of just how much your plants can (or can't) take. All I can do is hope for the best for you and your garden. Thank goodness you and Andrew are so creative about providing protection wherever possible too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kris, I appreciate that. I know there will be moments that hurt my heart, as I remove dead and damaged plants, but there will be plenty that make me happy too.

      Delete
  5. What a brutal stretch this was. Agree with Gerhard about your icy pictures being simultaneously beautiful and tragic. Curious about which plant among the endangered is the one you most want back. Seems like zone 8b plants and even 8a are stricken from the wind, sleet, and ice. I mostly gave up on cloches and just put out pots upside down with bricks on top of a few borderline plants. I hope you get many happy surprises in spring and summer.
    Jim N Tabor

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh gosh, that's a hard question! I can't think of an answer. I am seriously considering getting rid of the pineapple guava, both of them. I'm just so tired of the ugly that results with the foliage damage from the wind. What about you, what is your most feared loss?

      Delete
    2. Woodwardia fimbriata or Nolina La Siberica. Both were covered, and the Nolina grows at 8,000 feet in northern Mexico, so I’m hopeful. It’s just a little one from Secret Garden Growers. I’m also thinking of doing away with my pineapple guava.

      Delete
    3. Oh gosh. I was looking at my largest/oldest Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica'
      this afternoon and the foliage is all pock-marked. I think the plant will live, but it's foliage is all messed up.

      Delete
  6. Oh gosh, I'm so sorry Loree. Ice is truly the worst. At least with snow, it provides a little gentle insulation. I hope most of your plants will survive after thawing out of the deep freeze. We are having a very strange winter of extremes, too, but not nearly as challenging (for our zone) as yours. As you say, pushing zones works...until these crazy events happen. I'll be thinking about you as the winter continues.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure I've said that, but indeed crazy events do point out the week spots in the garden. The plants I'm seeing damage on are actually not zone pushing plants, they're all solidly in our zone or even colder ones.

      Delete
  7. I cringed when the news announced an ice storm for the Portland area--knew it was going to bad. People electrocuted or killed by trees or hypothermia--awful, and gardens besides. Hopefully you and many other PNW gardeners will be able to celebrate some surprisingly wonderful survivors from all that dreadful ice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The ice was just the final part of the storm, the cold and wind of the 12th was the most damaging to the garden.

      Delete
  8. It had been such a mild and mellow winter... up until it wasn't. Although Seattle got as low as 14°F one night, (and stayed below freezing for multiple days), it was nowhere near the horrific weather you had experienced. I can imaging your anxiety only because for a couple of days the hummingbird feeder needed to come in and thaw every couple of hours. I was worried sick about those tiny flyers.
    Andrew comes up with the most ingenuous ideas for plant protection. The goth Grevillea is sad but gorgeous!
    Chavli

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously! If that goth grevillea could live and be that color people would be all over it. The mildness of the winter leading up to this storm was so lovely, I'd actually started to think maybe *just maybe* we were going to escape winter all together. Ha.

      Delete
  9. Down here in Dallas the low was 14.9F with plenty of sleet & then ice, but the second round of ice that you experienced near the Gorge, didn't happen here, and I feel sick for you. I didn't think it was possible in our climate for the temperature to stay below freezing for that many hours, but as I've become fond of saying, when it comes to the climate, all bets are off. All of my BLE's were bent into huge croquet hoops, fortunately most of them were not broken. The exceptions were Magnolia Majestic Beauty, which lost its top half, Arbutus Marina which completely collapsed at ground level (I will try to save it) and Magnolia Inspiration, which lost one branch and has cracked trunk. Damage from the cold is slowly becoming apparent, on Mahonia Soft Caress, Drimys lanceolata, Sarcococca, Daphne odora and Cordyline. Surprisingly Feijoa (aka Acca) and Aspidistra look pretty good, time will tell though.

    A have planted a ridiculous number of rhodies here, and I was starting regret it, but not so much after this as they really are super-tough, and have tolerated the cold and ice like champs...at least so far.
    -artinnature

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All bets are off, that's for sure. My rhododendrons are looking good too, thankfully. I hate the waiting game, the fact damage can take so long to show up. Sorry about your magnolias, they seem so prone to breakage.

      Delete
  10. I've been waiting for your first post-storm post, and I have to say, it sounds worse even than I'd been reading about in the news. Every time I read a weather report about Portland, I got flashbacks to the Austin Snowpocalypse/deep freeze of 2021. Portlanders will no doubt use this storm as their new benchmark. Such is the world of unpredictable weather we all now live in.

    For all that, your garden looks pretty green post-freeze, which I can only assume is thanks to your and Andrew's incredible efforts at protecting things so well. I'll be interested to hear if your mahonias come back. Our freeze wiped out all the lovely 'Soft Caress', and we continue to have deep freezes since then that make replants a risky bet. How I miss them!

    I know you will have more to share and document as you continue to thaw. Sending wishes for more happy surprises than not. Things will get better by mid-spring, but if like Austin's experience, everyone's gardens will be thinner. All one can do is carry on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen so many photos of toasted 'Soft Caress' foliage on FB! Mine we also hit last year and they made a nice recovery so there's that. I'm more worried about the ones I've never seen damage on before, like the gracilipes. Indeed, all we can do is clean up and carry on.

      Delete
  11. Agreed. It's exhausting to be on edge for days on end. After experiencing our massive ice storm in 2021, I couldn't muster up the energy to deal with it again this winter and took a more hands-off approach, only covering 3 (or maybe 4?) of my agaves and pulling an extra plant or two in the garden. After I wandered the yard briefly on Sunday, I have a minor bit of regret that I didn't do more for a few plants. There was just too much going on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We definitely can't do it all and it sounds like you've been carrying a lot lately. I hope some happy garden surprises are in your future.

      Delete
  12. The deep freeze of 1990 was a thing! I was living in kings valley, in the coast range NW of Corvallis at the time. We had 11 degrees and two feet of snow for two weeks. I went to the coast and giant icicles were hanging from the cliffs. The spray from the ocean froze over the sand and one could run and slide all the way to the water. The Willamette river froze over and people were walking on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wowsa! I think I am very glad that I missed that.

      Delete
  13. It is no wonder you are still numb. These erratic weather events are so devastating not only for plants but the gardener too. I hope your plants prove resilient after the heroic efforts you went through to protect them. Very clever plant covers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Elaine, I think the ones I covered are gonna be okay. I just wish I could have covered more. There's a lot of ugly out there.

      Delete
  14. It is understandable to be exhausted! The worry, anxiety about power, and not really being able to DO anything but wait. I'm hoping you have a lot of good surprises and not too many heartbreaking outcomes from this awful storm. Also, really nice job on your many creative coverings. Not only do they seem to have worked, they're actually cool looking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah yes, you get it. The waiting is exhausting! I feel like our front garden looked like an amusement park. My neighbors are understanding though.

      Delete
  15. Unbelievably shocking! You know, I have felt bad for myself here in Phoenix in the summer where nights do not get below 90º the last few years in July and August and it kills a number of my plants that can not breathe. But nothing like this cold, ice, and wind has done. I am so sorry, Loree. I hope you will be posting surprise survivals coming to your garden!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "surprise survivals" -- Really not much of a surprise as Hellebores have proven their resilience time and again, but all of mine are in perfect condition after the cold and ice, and 'Garnet Frills' is blooming its head off! Several more will be blooming in a few days. I will be planting a lot more.
      -artinnature

      Delete
  16. What a hellish experience-hellish is probably the wrong word . We're having a rainy January so the really cold (for us) temps have gone away for now. I can't even imagine trying to power through what you did. You do have some creative protective devices I must say -I hope they all worked for you ! It's really heartbreaking to think of the human and horticultural loss.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was the cold version of hell for sure.

      Delete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Comment moderation is on (because you know: spam), I will approve and post your comment as soon as possible!