Not so fast there Portlanders! Winter is coming for you

We came so close to escaping winter this year. Sure, our weather had been cool the last few weeks, overnight lows in my garden in the mid to upper 20’s, the days “warming” to the mid 40’s. Nothing like the destruction of the last two winters though. Zone 9 plants were still unscathed, ferns that normally need to be cut back each spring still looked fresh.

Then—in those online weather groups I monitor—talk of cold began. One regular poster really got my attention when he said something about how rare it is to see Portland and Spokane (my home town) with the same temperatures forecast. WHAT!? Spokane gets cold, as in negative numbers. That would be catastrophic. Thankfully that didn't happen. What did happen though were temperatures that stayed below freezing for roughly 38 hours and a low of 24. That’s why all the containers I could move were in the shade pavilion greenhouse, there’s no way I wanted to risk them freezing solid.

Space was at such a premium by Wednesday afternoon that I started stacking pots…

These next few photos are from mid-morning last Thursday (the 13th), after the first round of snow came though. This one was taken from inside the house, in fact I gave up trying to get the screen back in the window after snapping this shot because the snow was blowing in the window and my fingers were frozen.

When it came to the in-ground plants I didn’t protect much, just a few things like my patch of Aloe aristata (Aristaloe aristata). They were covered in frost cloth and then a sheet of reflective insulation for good measure.

Adiantum venustum

I left the ferns planted in the palm trunk to fend for themselves. It's not a true experiment if you interfere. 

Ditto for most of the in-ground  agaves, no protection (I only protected two).

Fast forward now to Friday the 14th, around 11am, when the event was officially over and temperatures finally rose above 32F. The snow depth here varied between 2” and 4” depending on where you measured, due to the wicked east wind blowing. The official total for the area was 3". Thankfully there was only a brief period of freezing rain, sandwiched between snowfalls. For those who get excited about such things this keeps our streak alive, Portland has experienced 10 years in a row with measurable snowfall.

Even I have to admit agaves buried in the snow are very photogenic. 

Here’s something I would have protected if I’d thought of it, those fuzzy fronds are Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos'. It’s supposed to be hardy to 10F though, so it should be fine. 

Looking out the kitchen windows the bright yellow of this Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard'Color was a welcome sight. 

Ditto for the Edgeworthia chrysantha  'Nanjing Gold'…

And the bright pink Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' blooms. Storms like this can destroy these blooms if the ice or wind is too much for them. I'm so glad these are still looking good.

Here’s a look at what I protected in the front garden. This is the same shot I shared above, the 4th photo down, just taken about 22 hours later.

And after I pulled off the covers. These little Aloe aristata are tough, but I didn't want to risk their turning to mush.

These containers are usually placed along the house sidewalk, near the front door. I didn't want to shlep them all the way around to the back to the shade pavilion greenhouse, so I tucked them up against the house and covered them.

Here's one of the agaves I protected, A. parryi ssp. huachucensis 'Excelsior'.

And here's the other, there's a terracotta pot and frost cloth under that snow...

Agave 'Blue Glow', the cold/wet may still prove to be too much for it, but I had to try.

Let's take a look at the back garden now...

What have we there? Damn rabbit!

I like this shot. The planted up terracotta bowls were moved into the shade pavilion, which left the flat platforms open to hold snow.

I will survive! Actually this strongly variegated aspidistra was a solid performer though last winter's nightmare, so I'm sure it will be just fine.

The palm ferns are still looking good.

I'm sure the asplenium trichomanes won't miss a beat.

Hopefully the pyrrosia will be just as tough.

There's another pyrrosia experiment going on in the garden, one I don't think I've written about here. I planted a P. lingua on a chunk of Paulownia tomentosa trunk from our tree (we lowered it's pollarding point last year). It had the perfect "crotch" (sorry, couldn't come up with a better term) to plant. Pyrrosia naturally grow epiphytically on trees so I thought I'd see if I could recreate that here. Of course below freezing temperatures might prove to be too much for it. We shall see.

Speaking of pyrrosia, the back of this P. lingua 'Kei Kan' looked fetching with the white snow backdrop.

Looking at this patch of Aspidistra elatior gave me the shivers, and not because I was cold. No, I was remembering how bad it looked after last winter. It's made such a comeback. I don't think this wintery event will do any damage (unless a leaf or two broke under the weight).

The Stachyurus salicifolius buds are still a couple months from bursting open, after last year's storm most of them dropped. I have hope for a much better show this year.

I don't hold out much hope for this agave though (which I bought without ID, but at one point I knew what it was). We shall see.

I have three of these clear plastic bins, and put all of them to work along with frost cloth. Two protected rare-ish pyrrosia...

...and the third went over this (also kinda rare) Rhododendron cardiobasis. This is it's first winter in the ground and I didn't want to risk loosing any of those big leaves. 

The fern table and low stock tank were left open, but I did wrap a little frost cloth over a few things in the large stock tank.

That's a wrap on this storm! 

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.