The temperatures in May have been crazy. The high was 52 degrees on May 20th when I did most of my planting, but the next day it climbed 20 degrees to 72. Last week there were several days in a row with temperatures in the upper 70s and it seemed summer had finally arrived, but Saturday it barely got out of the low 50s for most of the day, and Saturday night it got cold enough to give gardeners and farmers a good scare. Some of the counties to our north were put under a frost advisory. I was relieved when we didn’t make the cut, but it didn’t matter. The winds were so brisk overnight that even though we managed to stay above 40, there was a wind chill that dessicated some of my plants.
Our backyard is edged with arborvitaes and cotoneaster shrubs, so there is some protection from the wind. My homegrown annuals showed stress, but none of them croaked. Many leaves turned from green to purple:
The potted plants on the north-facing patio (some homegrown and some purchased) did not fare as well. My basil plants were particularly unamused. The leaves were damaged and later in the day they started drooping. Hopefully the plants will bounce back later this week when our nighttime lows will be higher than some of our daily high temperatures have been recently.
I was also alarmed to see some of my potted petunias and Proven Winners flagging noticeably, but as the sun gently warmed them, they rallied.
The saddest victims were growing together in a pot. I did manage to find a popcorn cassia plant a few weeks ago. They can only be grown as annuals here because they are hardy in Zones 14-16. I didn’t even know the zone designations went that high! I had been keeping the plant inside in a sunny window during some of the colder days of May, but when we hit the low 80s last week I figured it was finally safe to stick it outside in a pot. I planted a sweet potato vine with it to hide its rather naked stem. When I came upon the pair, the top 1/3 of the cassia plant had collapsed. The sweet potato vine looked even worse. The leaves and even the stems were completely limp and lifeless.
It looked like the cassia plant could be salvaged. If nothing else I would cut off its top and hope that it branched out. I declared the sweet potato vine a lost cause. Because last night was just as cold, I dragged the pot into our screen porch to protect the cassia plant from further damage.
Yesterday afternoon I went shopping for a couple of perennials to fill some bare spots. I saw several types of sweet potato vines for sale, so I picked up a replacement for what I assumed was my now-dead plant.
When I got home the cassia plant had revived fully, but more shocking was the sweet potato vine. It had re-inflated itself. Some of the leaves were burned, but otherwise it was back to its old self:
I haven’t gone outside yet this morning to see if everything survived another harsh night. I just hope this is finally the end of our roller coaster ride because it’s stressing me out.