Yet another freeze report

I think I can finally give a preliminary freeze report from the extreme
northern end of the Sacramento Valley. Only time will tell for sure what
will come back from the apparent dead, but some of the living are
accounted for. 

We got no colder than about 20F, though the stiff wind pulled heat out
of everything much faster and for a longer period than any radiation
frost ever does. Compared to 1990 (16F several nights running), it was a
minor freeze, significant for sorting the hardy from the non-hardy just
the same. I have fairly cheap water here (thank you, US taxpayers, for
the ag water subsidy), and ran sprinklers for three days running on some
containers and on a couple of citrus trees. The ice just finished
melting today with 70F temps and a balmy breeze.

Surprisingly, my Bauhinia forficata (B. candicans?) lost only leaves and
the smallest twigs, unlike 1990 when it froze to the ground, skipped an
entire summer and reappeared as numerous root sprouts the NEXT spring.
The citrus leaves above the ice/water coating suffered, but have
actually seemed to repair themselves over the last few warm days. Even
the cutting-grown Eureka lemon kept all its exposed leaves.

Some Myoporum montanum have had all their leaves killed. Can't tell yet
if they will sprout back from below. Prostanthera rotundifolia came
through unscathed, as in 1990. It's hardiness is my best encouragement
to try more Australian plants up here in the interior. I was surprised
to see Centaurea gymnocarpa badly damaged, and lots of Salvias took a
hard hit. S. canariensis and S. microphylla were frozen to the ground. I
hope they return. The little Anomatheca laxa were barely singed as were
Babianas, but Oxalis hirta scorched badly (probably has enough reserves
in the bulb to revive).  Tetrapanax papyrifera is just a forest of
leafless skinny trunks, but I think none froze back very far. It will be
interesting to see how far back the Solanum aviculare will die, and what
it will look like sprouting (I hope) from the woody trunk.

I'm most curious about some plants from the Guatemalan highlands I am
trying after a trip there a couple of years ago. An unknown salvia
remained quite green. Wigandia caracasana died to the ground like last
winter, but may return from the roots, and Wedelia trilobata froze to
the ground (I can understand now how it could be a problem where it
doesn't freeze!).

All in all, I'm afraid that freezes like this, where most things squeak
by, only encourage me to try more marginal plants. In 1990 I went
through a short period of pseudo-reformation and tried to avoid marginal
plants in favor of guaranteed hardy things, but it didn't stick.

This balmy weather is such a contrast to just over a week ago. And it's
just setting us up for disappointment when winter returns.

Gary Matson
Far Northern California
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