freeze damage Archives | Diana's Designs Austin

Eagerly awaiting surviving bletillas in my garden …

When we had the icy freeze last week, one of the things that panicked me was the potential damage to the emerging bletilla striata, or ground orchids.

I bought them several years ago after falling in love with them in my dear, departed friend Eleanor’s garden.

The three plants each put up one bloom the first two years. Last year I had about two blooms each. But this year, I’d already seen about 10 stalks peeking out of the ground – waiting to wow me with fabulous blooms.

And even though most of the newbies were burned in the freeze like this one in the foreground – take a peek behind it at that newer, smaller lime green shoot.

Thank goodness. I think covering the plants with a blanket that miserable night probably helped those that were just at the surface, even though the taller ones didn’t survive.

It’s amazing what Mother Nature can do — both good and bad.

Now I am eagerly awaiting some of these blooms in the garden. And I know that I will appreciate them even more this year.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:26-05:00March 12th, 2014|bletilla, Bletilla Striata, Blog, freeze damage, ground orchids, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Mourning the garden – post ice storm

It’s a sad day in the garden. Last night’s freezing thunderstorms decimated all of our signs of spring. All the beautiful new buds and blooms we’ve been enjoying in the warmer weather over the last few weeks are gone.

This plum tree’s tender new blooms are all toast.

This is what she looked like two days ago.

The blue bonnets will probably perk back up, but they are drooping under the weight of ice this morning.

The aralia looks miserable, but it will come back – it always does.

Even the winter-hardy quice blooms are all brown and wilted.

This ice looks very sculptural on this yucca rostrata; luckily it will be fine once it warms up.

I know we aren’t suffering like our friends up north in the real polar vortex, but it’s been a rough winter for us here, relatively speaking. And it’s a sad time for Texas gardeners. Our spring won’t just be late this year, we’ve lost most of the buds and blooms of spring for the year.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:39:27-05:00March 4th, 2014|Blog, freeze, freeze damage, ice, ice damage, Sharing Nature's Garden, winter, winter 2014|0 Comments

Agaves – which ones were hardy enough to survive the surprise winter?

Have you been adding xeric agaves to your garden in an effort to be more water-wise in light of our extreme heat and drought?

Adding native and adapted xeric plants to the garden is the perfect solution to reducing your lawn and your water bill.

But, as with all plants, it’s important to do your research and know what you’re getting.

This cold and early winter weather had been hard on some agaves that can take the heat, but can’t handle the cold.

I’m always pushing the edge of the envelope (and not just in gardening, but we won’t talk about that here). So, that means I trial many plants in my garden that might not be a perfect match for our climate. And, sometimes it kicks me in the …trowel.

Here’s what did and didn’t make it at this winter’s current low in my garden:

The squid agave, pictured above, is always a tough cookie. They have survived for me down to 17 degrees in the icebox winter of 3 years ago.

The giant franzosini agave handled the cold with aplomb. It’s big and bold and still making way too many pups! Let me know if you want one! I’ll even ship! Seriously!

This was an experiment. This octopus agave is stunning when it’s alive. Trust me. However, I knew that experts report it hardy only to between 26 and 28 degrees. And that’s in the ground. Plants in a pot are much more tender because their roots get colder above ground faster. Sometimes it doesn’t even freeze here in the winter, so I was taking a calculated risk, knowing I might simply have to replace it when it warms up next spring. And I will replace it. I love the look and the sculptural shape so I will just take my chances and treat it like an annual in cold years.

This Arizona star agave looks pretty ugly now, but I think it will come back from the crown — it will just take a while to be big and beautiful again.

This standard weberii agave seems to be tolerating the cold just fine. It’s been scraped up by the deer, roaming around looking for places to rub their antlers, but that’s just a cosmetic problem for this agave.

I’m very surprised that this variegated agave Americana made it through. I’ve lost some in previous years’ freezes and I fully expected to lose this one at 24 degrees. There are a few ugly spots on the back side, but it’s doing great. Those that died in previous years were much younger, so I think this one did well because it’s well-established now.

This wicked sharkskin agave in the back xeric bed is hanging on just fine.

I think this sweet little quadricolor agave has struggle with some deer munching and the cold, but a little pruning will help it shine again in the spring.

You can see that the green goblet agave has some freeze damage on the lower leaves, but the rest of it looks healty. Another haircut and it will be pretty as a picture again.

And, finally, my whale’s tongue agave is hanging tough and looking good in the cold.

Just to set the record straight, I have learned some lessons from previous freezes. I have several desmettiana agaves in pots in my greenhouse – staying toasty warm for the winter. I use to have a nice one along the front walk and it died in a slight freeze. They are so pretty that I reserve those for pots now.

As long as this is as cold as it gets this winter, most of my agaves are safe. Hint, hint…. How are your agaves faring in the winter vortex this year?

Next post I’ll talk about how and when to prune out the rotting stuff.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:12-06:00January 10th, 2014|Agave, agave Americana, agave webberi, Arizona star agave, Blog, Franzosini agave, freeze, freeze damage, green goblet agave, octopus agave, Sharing Nature's Garden, squid agave, whales tongue agave, winter 2014|2 Comments

freeze damage

Eagerly awaiting surviving bletillas in my garden …

Mourning the garden – post ice storm

Agaves – which ones were hardy enough to survive the surprise winter?

Escape in the garden