How long can soil of plants in leaf be frozen without damage

Rivian

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Its been 3 days or so, and im starting to wonder about my satsuki and florist azaleas, chinese elms, chinese quince.
 

leatherback

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The plants at some point will start dropping leaves. Protect from wind and sun and you should be fine. My chinese elm was frozen a few weeks last winter. Dropped the leaves. And started pushing once spring came around. RIght now my elms, azaleas are fully frozen too. (But the rain is defrosting as we speak)
 

Rivian

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I am willing to lose the florist ones but maybe I should take in the satsuki and one other to a cool room above freezing where they can rehydrate
 

sorce

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My question is, why did this happen in the first place?

Reflection time, it will add value to our information place.

Sorce
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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My question is, why did this happen in the first place?

Reflection time, it will add value to our information place.

Sorce
My question would be a reflective one too: are we prepared to do winter protection every year?
I don't. So whenever I get something new, it stays outdoors. If it dies, it's not my cuppa tree. If it lives, welcome to the fam!
 

sorce

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My question would be a reflective one too: are we prepared to do winter protection every year?
I don't. So whenever I get something new, it stays outdoors. If it dies, it's not my cuppa tree. If it lives, welcome to the fam!

This is a very practical approach that I highly appreciate.

Sorce
 

Deep Sea Diver

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Certainly one way to handle the vagaries of weather… and a valid position to give more time for study and reflection during the winter weather.

On the other hand, there is a lot to be said for having a wider variety of species, even ones that need a bit more protection, as long as one creates a wintering over plan and takes action on the plan ahead of time to keep their-trees safe.

I had to ante up for better protective measures once I got involved with propagating satsuki and other evergreen azaleas. Luckily COVID kept me mostly home looking for projects to do. We are finally blessed the with space to do these.

This year’s construction events after last year’s big snow collapse of a couple production cold frames proved to be a fun, yet arduous, learning experience. Winter prep was seamless this year.

Now I have more time to kick back, observe, and have fun studying the endless number of topics I’ve not mastered yet.

31AF6337-9B9D-4809-A14C-923F902A89FE.jpeg E355D674-4710-4E52-994F-AA9D7129B510.jpeg
Da’ ‘20 Home made takedown cold frame that actually worked. One of the COVID projects.

Happy Holidays to all!
DSD sends
 

Rivian

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My question would be a reflective one too: are we prepared to do winter protection every year?
I don't. So whenever I get something new, it stays outdoors. If it dies, it's not my cuppa tree. If it lives, welcome to the fam!
This is why I bought my Punica granatum 'Kazake', Lagerstroemia indica x fauriei 'Sioux', 'Natchez' rather than normal ones. At this point my JM + late frost are probably the most troublesome.
 

Mapleminx

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My question would be a reflective one too: are we prepared to do winter protection every year?
I don't. So whenever I get something new, it stays outdoors. If it dies, it's not my cuppa tree. If it lives, welcome to the fam!
Honestly winter always worries me when there is a new leafy member of the family that I haven’t gone through that season with yet.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Honestly winter always worries me when there is a new leafy member of the family that I haven’t gone through that season with yet.
That's very honest of you. I have done that in the past, worrying. But I switched my mindset to a binary option: the plant either lives or dies.
My worries don't change a thing about the outcome unless I'm prepared to pamper the plant. But if I pamper this one, I should pamper the others as well. And if I pamper any of them, I wouldn't feel at ease if I wouldn't pamper them every year from then on forward. That's a lot of commitment and a lot of work, and it takes a whole lot of space too!
So I drew a hard line: I'm getting trees that should be frost resistant and I don't pamper them at all. I want every species of cool plant, but I acknowledge that some are just not for me.

Every summer, I'm worried about heat, over watering, under watering, birds, weeds, bugs, outbreaks of whatever kind.. My plants and I worked hard this year to get everything set for winter - although I could use some extra fat reserves myself. Winter is the time to lay back and relax. We all deserve some time off. Trees are dormant, so am I. Gives me time to contemplate about grafting, what plant should go where next year, which ones require a repot and which don't. Winter losses in my backyard go down every year but the amount of plants keeps growing; I know which cultivars and species will survive because I've tried and tested it.
But to each his own. If people do want to take better care of their plants, they absolutely should!
 
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