First Frost Finally!

After waiting and waiting, we finally had our first frost last night. It hit 27 degrees and we were greeted by a white, icy wonderland this morning. We missed tying the record for the latest first frost, December 9th, by just two days. I am still wondering what kind of Winter we are going to have. The forecasters are calling for more of a "true" Winter this year. But with such a late first first I am wondering if we are doomed, for a third year in a row, to another mild, warm Winter.

Hard Frost

We had our first hard freeze overnight. The temperature early this morning at our house read 22.7 degrees and one of the cars, on an early trip to town, displayed 19 degrees. Brrrrr!

The whole world was covered in a heavy coast of hoarfrost.

Intricate patterns on blackberry leaves.

I especially enjoyed the patterns that the frost left on the Queen Anne's Lace pods and on the fallen leaves.

First Freeze of the Year & Freezing Rain

We had our first killing frost overnight, along with some freezing rain around 7:00 AM as I ate breakfast. The reported low was 32 degrees but I think it might have been a little colder down in the big garden. All of the dahlia foliage is now brown and the Zinnias and Marigolds have expired too. The growing season is officially over.

Record Cold

Wow is it cold outside. This morning at 7:00 AM the temperature recorded at the airport was -10 degrees. It turned cold quickly last night. By 11:07 PM it was already -7 degrees, which beat Saturday's all time record low.

At 10:30 this morning I bundled up and went for a walk. After filling all of the bird feeders, I decided to walk down the secret path. It looks like a deer crossed the bridge during the last day.

As I crossed the bridge I discovered the creek was half frozen.

The ice was covered with such pretty patterns.

Then I hiked further down the path. Again, I wasn't the first creature to have walked this was since the snow fell.

Rose hips glowing in the hedgerow.

I pushed my was back through the thicket to a different view of the creek.

It is so pretty, rimmed in snow and ice.

You could still see and hear it running in a few places.

While I was admiring the creek, I heard the familiar call of a pileated woodpecker. He finally flew overhead and landed on a dead tree between the creek and the main road.

He was to far out of range for me to get a good, clear picture. But I was still able to get a few snaps. Pileated woodpeckers are beautiful birds, but especially so against a snowy white background.

Killing Frost

One night ago we had out first frost of the Fall. I think it just hit 32 degrees at dawn. My dahlia blooms were damaged but the main plant stalks and leaves survived just fine. But last night, one night later, we had a much harder frost. Today all of the dahlia plants are dead, except for their most center stalks and the buried tubers below. Also, all of my annuals that I grew from seed were killed too. The growing season is officially over!

First Frost

We had our first frost last night. It was just cold enough to turn the back "lawn" white.

Close up, every detail was outlined. As I walked to my car this morning, I was greeted by the cheery, warm glow from the lean-to greenhouse. Last night was also its first night back in service this Fall.

Frost Warning

They are calling for our first frost of the year tonight. Of coarse, you never know if it will happen as predicted, or how hard it will be. Plus there is the additional issue of micro-climates. Three sides of the big garden are surrounded by large fir trees. This living buffer quite often protects the garden from lite frosts that will easily kill plants up at the house.

I decided to act as if the freeze was imminent and went down to the garden after work, with scissors and a bucket in hand. First I stopped to admire my marigold row. Although I didn't get these poor seedlings transplanted until the weekend of July 4th, they still produced a nice display.

An close up view of a "Red Metamorph" marigold plant. There was a bit of interesting diversity among the various blooms. A few blooms receded back to solid red.

On this one, only the center of each petal was yellow.

I had a few plants of "Francis's Choice" marigold. These plants were taller than the "Red Metamorph" but produced few blooms.

Next to the marigolds, I planted from seed a double row of "Persian Carpet" zinnias. I have long grown this variety and love it. It has such diverse bloom forms and colors. Cut, they make a really lovely small bouquet.

One of my favorite forms found in the "Persian Carpet" mix. I love this double orange. After cutting the zinnias, I cut a bouquet of dahlia poms and one last bouquet of larger dahlias. I hauled everything back to the house and picked out some vases. Tom-cat's orange coat looks perfect next to the "Persian Carpet" bouquet.

First Frost

We finally have had our first official frost. Eugene's temperature hit 32 degrees overnight and I am sure that we were a degree or two lower up here. All three of the birdbaths were frozen solid and there was a pretty hoar frost on all of the plant foliage. This is a full two months later than last year. It seems very typical that we either receive our killing frost during early October or then it doesn't happen until December.

The Last Frost?

This morning we awoke to a chilly morning. The temperature outside read 34 degrees but the water in all of the bird baths was frozen. Later, when I spoke to a friend in the Dahlia Society, she told me that she had left a tray of young dahlia plants outside, overnight. This morning some of them had died. So even in town there was a killing frost. The question is, will this be the last frost of Spring?

Yet Another Frosty Morning

Yet another frosty, cold morning. The thermometer read 27 degrees and everything was coated in a thick blanket of white frost. I particularly admired the braken ferns, their beautiful geometry etched in white.

A Frosty Morning & A Lovely Afternoon

We were below freezing again this morning. For those of us counting, that's three days in a row. Quite unusual for this time of the year. The difference today was that the sun came out early. It quickly warmed up and we had a beautiful day. Our big leaf maples were glowing in the low afternoon sunshine. This is why we love October.

Even Colder Night #2

Last night the official low at the airport was 27 degrees. We had a reading before dawn of 29 degrees at our house. As you can see, the extra three degree drop in the temperature finished off my dahlias. They are a pretty sad looking lot now. The good news is I can proceed now with my digging and dividing without feeling guilty about cutting down blooming dahlia plants! Tonight after work I went down to the garden and cut down my first three rows. It was a quick and easy task. Since we haven't had any rain for over two weeks, the ground is nice and dry. I can't believe that I am chopping down the dahlias and I don't have mud sticking to the bottom of my shoes. The dahlias plants are also really easy to work with right now. The frost has essential "freeze-dried" the plants. They are dry, light and easy to carry off to the burn pile. Clean up has never been this easy - seriously! I'm just not used to these easy working conditions.

Here's two rows after I was done. I left about 4" of stem above the ground on each plant. This gives me a nice handle to hold as I gently lift the tubers and a good place to wrap the name tag around as it is carried home. I will let these tubers rest in the ground until Sunday before I dig them up. This will give the tubers time to be "shocked' that the plants are dead ( or in this case cut off). The tubers will immediately begin to harden off and cure underground. The eyes on the individual tubers will also begin to swell. When I dig the tubers on Sunday it will be much easier to see where I should make my cuts and the tubers should store over winter better as well. I have fifteen rows of dahlias this year. My goal is to dig 3 rows every weekend and then wash, divide and label the tubers from those plants during the following weeknights. Sticking to this schedule I will finish digging on Thanksgiving Weekend. Wish me luck!

The First Killing Frost

This morning on the way to work the car thermometer read 32 degrees. As I drove by the big garden I slowed down and tried to see if I could find any signs of frost damage. I thought that the dahlia foliage looked a little bit darker than normal but with such a quick glance I couldn't be sure. After work I walked down to the garden. Sure enough, the season is officially over! As you can see, all of the dahlia foliage was blackened by the freezing temperature. All of the new growth had turned to mush too but the main stem on each plant was still alive. It didn't get cold enough for a complete kill on the thick stemmed dahlias.

Tonight it is suppose to get even colder. Since I have had this much damage already, I am hoping that tonight's cold delivers the final knock-out punch! It was interesting to see what was damaged and what few plants survived.

My two beautiful rows of "Persian Carpet" zinnias were killed as were the other two varieties of zinnias. My row of mixed marigolds however, survived just fine. My theory is the heat from the earth kept the air temperature from freezing from a height of about 12" high to the ground. Since the marigolds are all just about 6" tall, they all made it ok through the night.

I was very thankful that the marigolds didn't freeze. I planted 3 varieties in the Gem series; "Lemon Gem", "Tangerine Gem" and Red Gem". One of my "Red Gem" plants appears to be a sport. Instead of the solid red petals tipped in orange that the other plants displayed, this plant had many blooms with orange petals overlaid with two red stripes. You can see some examples of this in the picture below. So, I decided to save some seed from this plant and see what I get next year. Perhaps this was a one-off, and will stabilize next year. Or perhaps I have the seed for a neat variation in the "Gem" series. Stay tuned!

The Last Bouquets of the Year...?

Tonight, right after work, I headed straight down to the big garden. The weather forecasters are calling for the possibility of our first frost of Fall tonight. Yesterday I had picked two bouquets of flowers but I still had a lot of blooms yet to pick. I went through the dahlias and picked a bucket full of red/orange/yellow blooms and then I picked a bouquet of all my Pom dahlias. After I got home and arranged everything I took all of the bouquets outside for a group picture. After all, this could be the last hurrah of Summer!

Here is a close up of my Pom bouquet. I really love this dahlia form. The small, round blooms look sweet, all bunched up together in a mass display. They also remind me of my late Grandmother who also admired this form.

Here's my bouquet of "Persian Carpet" zinnias.

A close up of my pink/white/purple dahlia bouquet.

And my fiery orange/red/yellow bouquet.

This "Jac's Julia" bloom got its own vase. This is a new variety for me this year and this is the first bloom to open. I love it! Here's hoping that it has made some good tubers. I would love to grow more than one plant of it next year.

You can tell that there has been a huge change in the temperature today. It is another lovely sunny day, but there has been a constant, strong, cold wind. As I staged these bouquets tonight my two garden helpers remained curled up in their beds!