Arctic Blast moving in...

Halifax

Sapling
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New England
We had -12F here in NW Connecticut / Southern Berkshires last night. My cold frames w/dwarf conifers got down to about +19F, so I was pretty happy with that. I have a couple of Boyd's willows in larger containers, just a bit too big for the cold frames, so I piled a boatload of snow onto them before the extreme cold hit. I also have a bunch of Zone 2-3 dwarf conifers w/pots buried in cedar mulch so hopefully that will keep them OK here in Zone 5.

As a forest ecologist, I know that this powerful cold makes for healthy forests, particularly here in the east where we are dealing with adelgid-mediated hemlock decline. The much deeper cold in the north-central US should knock the hell out of the emerald ash borer (big mortality at -20F), but it's not cold enough here in western New England to make a difference.

As a ski patroller, I'm happy with deep cold and nice powdery snow, but worry about my plants in these intense cold snaps. Hopefully it won't be spring with a body count.
 

WNC Bonsai

Omono
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Western NC
USDA Zone
7b
Same here, 60s next week with a high of 68 on Thursday—shades of last February.
 

coh

Imperial Masterpiece
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Rochester, NY
USDA Zone
6
Amazing how warm it felt today - only made it to about 15 F but the sun was out and the wind calmed down. Almost felt like
spring after the past 2 days! Hope everyone survived.
 

CasAH

Chumono
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Location
Arlington Heights, IL
USDA Zone
5
@CasAH
LOL, I bet most did not catch the fact that you live within 30 miles from me. You also had -23 F when you put on your windbreaker. When I was young and full of piss and vinegar, I would be out in the cold in short sleeves.
Ah, the good old days.
I have been know to wear shorts and a tee shirt to walk the guy in my avatar in below zero weather when I lived in an apartment in Chicago.
 

Dav4

Drop Branch Murphy
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Location
SE MI- Bonsai'd for 12 years both MA and N GA
USDA Zone
6a
Minimum temperature for the next 10 days is in the mid 40's... Ugh.
Three days over 70 next week... will be putting plantone tea bags on the RMJs today. These are the only trees I would feed this early, as they tend to start growing slowly right about now and are so cold hardy I'm not concerned about new growth getting cold damage. The rest of the trees will need to wait until March.
 

Cadillactaste

Neagari Gal
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Location
NE Ohio: zone 4 (USA) lake microclimate
USDA Zone
5b
Beautiful day for a walk...and I was pleasantly surprised a neighbor plowed a path through the camp ground area and across the beach hill that I like to take Ahsoka across in our trek. Guess they followed our footsteps. Love living in our lake community. Where ones take a little of their time to show kindness to others. (I am the only one who walks that trail. Most prefer to stay to the plowed lake roads.)
image.jpg
 

coh

Imperial Masterpiece
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Rochester, NY
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6
65 F and sunny today. Soaked up some vitamin D. Sifted some soil, cleaned up the barn repotting area. I know winter is nowhere near done with us so made the
most of this bonus day. Hope everyone else did too.
 

Underdog

Masterpiece
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Ohio
USDA Zone
6
Pruning in 60 degrees was nice. My crazy Honeysuckle which overhangs thr pond was easy when water frozen.
 

WesB

Mame
Messages
185
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USDA Zone
7
The artic blast just got us. Highs in the 50’s and 70’s the past couple weeks. Now it’s already down to 19° F and the sun hasn’t even set yet. Back to normal by Saturday though so probably gonna try some collecting. I had to do the bonsai shuffle this afternoon. Shiver me timbers!
 
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