Hostas froze, now what?

[IGot2P]

Here in extreme SE Iowa (zone 5) we had a couple of weeks of VERY warm weather thus most all of the early flowers came up big time. Immediately following this warm spell we had just the opposite, down in the twenties at night. :-(

Well, needless to say the plants really suffered. The tulips and daffodils appear to be recovering but the hostas are really a mess and most of them were about 8 to 12 inches tall when the cold weather came.

Finally, the question; do we cut them back or just wait and see how they make out on their own?

Don

[Cheryl Isaak]

Amazingly enough, they will be just fine. Heck, the snowdrops and daffodils were still there after the last snow. I might go pick some daffodils before the snow falls (AGAIN, (&(*&(*@##&^*&^(#) tomorrow. C

[Manelli Family]

Ours had the same thing happen to them. We also lost many blooming stalks on our iris. They just toppled and turned to mush. Our daffs were already through blooming. The azalea buds and flowers are gone. Our garden will be a lot less colorful this spring.

[Bill R]

Don,

Plants like tulips and daffodils will be fine -- don't cut them back but do cut off the dead flowers. Depending on how cold it got, your hostas may not make it. The best thing to do is to trim back the dead foliage and see if they come back. It may take several months to see new shoots on your hostas.

[Michael "Dog3" Lonergan]

IGot2P news:evhl9m$u34$ [e-mail]:

Don, I live in St. Louis Missouri and we had a bitter, hard freeze as well. Your hostas should be just fine. Mine show the freeze but I've seen this before, and the hostas should pop up and do their business as usual. Hostas are very hardy... at least in my experience.

Michael

[IGot2P]

I hope that you are correct but I have not seen any "pop up" action yet. You are about three and one half hours south of me so hopefully your freeze was not quite as bad. Anyway, time will tell what the hostas will do. Cheers, Don

[FragileWarrior]

IGot2P wrote in news:evloo4$rs7$ [e-mail]:

Did they have flower spikes on them? I think things that were about to flower will not flower again this year. The greenery will come back, though, if they didn't expend ALL their reserves on the first leafing.

[growitgreen]

Hello Don. Good question. I am always amazed how much earlier everyone elses plants sprout before mine. I definitely lucked out on my hostas because they are still just nubs sticking out of the ground. Regardless, they are the least of my gardening worries as it pertains to that cold snap we experienced in zone 5 last week. I planted a few small plants I bought a couple weeks ago and I have to say they don't look so good. But I believe that even these plants will bounce right back as soon as the warm weather comes our way.

[Phisherman]

Here in east Tennessee. My hosta froze last weekend, along with the dogwood blooms, trees, rose of sharon, etc. The rose bushes are okay. Havn't seen this kind of late frost since living here since 1989. The hosta looks like wilted lettuce. I'm not doing anything--just waiting for new growth.

[Michael "Dog3" Lonergan]

Phisherman news: [e-mail]:

Some of my hostas look like wilted lettuce too, but I'm fairly confident they will snap back. I don't know about blooms on anything else this year. My azalea blooms are mush, for the most part. I'm guessing the only azalea blooms I'll have is from the 3 Autumn Monarchs... and that's a big maybe. All of next years buds have frozen, even though I had them covered so I'm not even sure I'll get azalea blooms next year. For some reason the lilac bushes are intact. My chief concern is the Japanese Maple in the front yard. It is an exquisite tree and quite big. Every single leaf froze and looks totally dead. We had a couple of days in the mid 60s so I put the hose on it as the ground was dry and cracked by the time the deep freeze passed through us. I left the hose on a slow drizzle for 3 hours at the base of the tree. I guess it is wait and see. I've done all I can with the advice I've gotten from the Missouri Botanical Gardens staff. They are wonderful.

Michael