Hi all,
I was away for the worst of the weather. Most plants seem ok but time will tell as to the extent of the damage. Phormiums and Cordylines seem fine as do the tree ferns. My Echiums are wilted but some may recover. A prized and large Aloe Marlothii has collasped but I still hope it may recover.
Please report here how your garden plants have fared.
As Gerry Daly explained in a recent article on garden.ie. To quote:
''Temperature levels dropped to minus 12°Celsius in some places and perhaps a degree or two lower in others. This is cold - these temperatures are plumbed only every fifteen or twenty years, and then only for an exceptional night or two.
But the recent freeze saw low temperatures last for a week and more, without thaw, depending on location. When this happens real damage is done to plant tissues. They freeze and the ice crystals slowly grow, just as the ice thickens on a lake, and eventually the ice bursts the cells and the cells die.
Very often this damage appears as dried out leaves, or mushy leaves, but sometimes the damage is done inside the plant, in the buds or in the cambial layer, that slippery layer of cells between bark and wood. Already, there are reports of cordylines and phormiums keeling over, the soft centres of these plants being killed by freezing. Griselinia and escallonia hedging too look to be in trouble in some places. Unfortunately, many plants will be killed and this will not become evident for a few weeks, when anticipated growth does not happen. In the meantime, nothing to do but wait and hope for the best. And to look on the positive side, losses always mean new spaces!''
