snow cover

It snowed here yesterday, and was pretty cold last night- I think the lowest was 19° with wind chill factor much lower. I took a few measures in the yard- had tank water on hand, so I set the buckets outside for a few hours, then lightly watered most of the green shrubs- not the rhodies though, it rained recently and they sit in the lowest part of the yard. I read that watering just before a hard freeze helps the plants withstand damage. The sedums- both kinds- were already sprouting new green leaves, and wind had blown leaf mulch off a corner of the black-and-blue salvia. I heaped mulch back over those. My mints and lemon balm both have green foliage peeking out from their leaf mulch blankets- I put two small boards over the pots of mint (would hate to loose my chocolate mint plant again) and upended a bucket over the lemon balm.

For the new camellia I took the most care. I have a roll of green fencing wire, unwrapped part of it to make a circle around the camellia, wedged it upright with a few large rocks, and draped an old sheet over the whole thing. Probably the plant would be okay without protection, but I would be so upset to loose a new, young, relatively expensive (for me) plant simply because I didn't take five minutes to cover it up on a very cold night. It looks like we are going to have three or four very cold nights in a row- I'll probably leave the cage around the plant, just take the cover off during the day so it can get some light, and drape it again at night. Like I sometimes do with my coldhouse.