Mostly, my plants have leafed out by now. Luckily for me, spring comes early in zone 9.
I lost the two huge plumbagos that anchored my foundation planting. Oh, well. I'll buy some tiny replacements cheaply and they'll be huge in 2 years. I used the loss of those plants as an excuse to plant a new satsuma. The plumbago will eventually be a ground cover under its canopy.
My little Texas mountain Laurel and Indian hawthorn aren't looking good. I'll wait to see how they do.
My Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow bush (Brunfelsia pauciflora) and blue butterfly bush (Clerodendrum ugandense) were both dormant before the freeze, so I'm not sure if they're dead or waiting to leaf out.
Just before the freeze, I dumped a bag each of mulch on my hibiscus mutabilis var. flore pleno (by far the most dramatic plant I own) and skyflower (Duranta erecta), and thank goodness because those both froze to the top of the mulch. I'll have to cut them both almost to the ground. But they're already leafing out, and they, too will be recovered in 2 years if next winter is milder.
I put 5 gallon buckets or sheets on top of anything else that concerned me, and put all of my pots in the garage.
The 3 gardenias look rough, but none are dead.
I have...uh...35 (really, 35?!) varieties of roses, and they all definitely came through except for Mrs. R. M. Finch. She's just brown twigs now, and I'll have to see if she comes back. My other roses responded with some variety. The ones with rugosa heritage and my Don Juan climber defoliated completely but sustained no twig damage. Several of my dwarf shrubs lost a couple of leaves and otherwise laughed at the cold. The rest of the roses all lost most of their leaves and sustained a moderate amount of twig damage, but are doing fine.
Other than replacing the plumbagos (which are sold very cheaply as annuals) I'm going to give most of the dead-looking stuff until June to prove that it is not, in fact, dead. After all, I need to save up for my daughter's orthodontia, so I have no budget to replace them this season anyway!
