Below is a slightly edited version (to make sense as a posting) of an email that we received from the landscape company, owned by Elegant Friend's younger son, that takes care of our lawn needs.
The early morning of Feb 10 we hit a low of -17F. According to an article – this was the coldest night in 29 years, the second coldest in 106 years and the 4th coldest ever recorded in Wichita.
This is essentially a zone 5a temperature - [USDA page]
How will this affect us? Time will tell. We were blessed to have six inches of snow cover still on the ground this will help perennials that were covered. Gardeners in Minnesota (zone 4) can get by with some zone 5 and 6 perennials when they have adequate snow cover. Some shrubs may die back to the snow line.
How will this affect trees and shrubs? Zone 5 plants should be fine. Zone 6 plants may have cambium damage that can cause them to die back or die. After it got down to -21 in Feb of 1982, some zone 6 died totally, and mimosas leafed out then slowly died back to just the lower trunks over the next year.
I just wish to point out that our own little city, being closer to Oklahoma (Nowata OK reported minus 31 degrees) than is Wichita, got colder than the official Wichita reports. Our own thermometers (checked one against the other) registered minus 18 degrees. Wow! One whole degree different. (Gotta get those bragging rights in.) Combined with the winds that we experienced, our chill factors were, again, down in the minus 30s.
At that, we were still four degrees warmer than the temperature recorded by Bogie in Coldest Day in the year (so far) during the previous cold wave.
Hopefully your plants are okay. I'm not worried about plants surviving in the cold that we have had the last couple of weeks (-18 is still the coldest) because of the snow cover. I am more worried about the negative temps we had in December (-10 or so) Even zone 4 or 5 plants have a tough time when they have no protection at all.
only time will tell for both of us.
Posted by: bogie | February 12, 2011 at 01:55 PM
Okay, you know I meant to say that the -22 was the coldest we have had. Jeeze, talk about brain freeze!
Posted by: bogie | February 12, 2011 at 02:25 PM
Bogie--We had Tender Care put in a couple of column junipers (I think that they were about $400 each) + I bought about 15 small shrubs (a few each of three kinds of holly and a couple of butterfly bushes) that I planted last spring and summer.
My worry is for those new plants because we have been having drought conditions for several months (we are still -1.5 inches of precip for 2011!) I didn't have the time to drag the hoses around to water everything a couple of weeks ago before the first of the two cold waves hit and didn't have high enough temperatures in between the two.
I'm also worried about your creeping phlox that got transplanted in late summer, some daylilies that were first planted in mid-summer, and some yarrow planted in mid-late summer - for the same reason. They may have been very dry (hard to tell, since they are in clay).
Posted by: Cop Car | February 12, 2011 at 05:22 PM
Yikes!!! I hope your plants are fine!
And thanks for the kind comments!!!
Posted by: Kay Dennison | February 12, 2011 at 07:09 PM
The phlox will be fine once they get some water - phlox is very good at going dormant when it needs too. I would think the daylilies will be okay too. I would be more worried about them if you had too much rain as that stresses them more than dry conditions.
I'm not so sure about the yarrow. I'm pretty sure it is a zone 3 plant, but I'm not sure how it is under stress.
Posted by: bogie | February 14, 2011 at 03:56 AM
Bogie--Thanks for the info on the yarrow. I hadn't thought to check. As to the previously mentioned column junipers, I had forgotten one of them - there are three.
Posted by: Cop Car | February 14, 2011 at 07:38 AM
Yikes...that is just darn cold CC. I really do hope there are no lasting ill-effects on your plants. Well, at least you know you have plenty of company. This week we are expecting to actually have some warmer temps to help melt these mounds of snow. If I could do a handspring....I would. Stay warm...and hopeful.... ~Joy
Posted by: Joy | February 14, 2011 at 10:38 AM
Kay & Joy--Thanks for the good wishes on our plants. I'm betting (not very much, mind you) that your wishes will make the difference and that they will, thus, pull through in fine shape.
It was 46 degrees when I awoke this morning.
Posted by: Cop Car | February 14, 2011 at 12:38 PM
The cold broke records in the desert, too. It got down to 8* one night followed by a few more freezing nights. This minute I have the door open and it's 78*s. Thank you Sol.
I lost many plants, but they would have survived if I had covered them. Pipes broke here, but I was lucky. My garden hose was filled with ice and when I tried watering, chunks of ice came out with the trickle of water. That's a first for me in all the years I have lived here.
Posted by: Darlene | February 14, 2011 at 04:35 PM
The coldest I ever experience was -29 in Madison, WI. No tender plants thrived there. Including me!
Posted by: Hattie | February 15, 2011 at 01:55 AM
Fingers crossed for your plants! -17F, indeed! You guys can keep those negative double-digit temps!! How did the birds fare?
Posted by: M.E. | February 17, 2011 at 05:55 PM
-18F, I mean....every litter bit counts when it gets down there....
Posted by: M.E. | February 17, 2011 at 05:56 PM
Hattie--You beat me. I don't think I've been out in weather less than -18, before, come to think of it. In 1960 (+/-), it was -17 or -19 when I went to work on a Saturday. I wore black woolen slacks & a long-sleeved blouse and you would have thought I had posed for Playboy from the grief my co-workers gave me. Women just did not wear pants to work in those days!
ME--I don't know about "the" birds, but the birds in our locale did fine. They had lots of food and unfrozen water to dabble in at our house.
Posted by: Cop Car | February 18, 2011 at 04:30 PM