Cold Survivors, these plants weathered the storm

Daffodils, hyacinths and other spring bulbs laughed at the frigid cold. Photos by Doug Oster Tribune-Review

No worried for this hosta, it will come back strong.

After temperatures dipped to 20 degrees over the weekend, everyone (including myself) wondered what would survive. It’s not that unusual to get a really cold day in early spring, but it’s always a guessing game as to how plants will react.

Most of the things in my garden did fine, but there were some minor casualties.

The bad news started up in the orchard, where peach trees were in full bloom. I can’t imagine there will be a harvest this season, but will wait a few days to see if anything is left. Japanese maples leaves took a hit as did hostas, but there’s no worries there, both are resilient.

I was concerned about unprotected Swiss chard, spinach and lettuce, but they were unaffected, which is pretty amazing. All the other greens nestled under blankets of floating row covers thrived.

Pansies and lettuce did fine when temperatures dropped to 20.

This Swiss chard was unprotected and didn’t mind the cold.

Pansies, flowering shrub, daffodils and other spring bulbs shook off the cold too. I thought some of the daffodils might succumb to the bitter cold.

Every spring offers challenges, most plants will shrug off the coldest days, and there will be more to come.

Even for veteran gardeners, it’s hard to predict how plants will react, that’s part of the fun…right?