Our lovely yellow magnolia ‘Gold Finch’ in now more like a Gold Finch in drab winter plumage.
That Pelargonium bowkerii seedling I grew for a few years, is now frozen solid. I forgot to bring it in from the deck.
Whooops!
The Japanese Petasites seemed quite frozen and limp, but by noon, it’s parasol-like leaves were as perky as ever.
Last Thurday night our temperatures dipped near 27 degrees F. Not unusual for this time of year, but one always wished that one could escape a damaging frost when such things as the Magnolias are in bloom. Even though this year has provided the most perfect of springs, with a deep snow, late melt, a steady and slow thaw throughout March, which lead us into April with no scary deep freezes ( we can get 90 deg. F days followed by 18 degree nights, here in New England), all in all, this has been a nice, slow spring, perhaps a little dry, but then we received 2 inches of rain this week.
But the frost, it arrived later in the week and even though most plants could handle it, the yellow magnolias of Elizabeth and Gold Finch, did not. These plants will all survive….driving to work, I can see all of the native trees in the woodland, just emerging, all looking fine. It’s these dang Chinese and Japanese imports!
