Posted by Nye Simmons on April 8, 2007 at 10:15 PM
Saturday - a family day - drove to Biltmore for Festival of Flowers (NOT) pretty much all froze up - lots of snow up high like at Lori's Place (as viewed from I-40) - hope you got somthin good girl - attreactive snow on redbuds etc not able to stop - frozen new greenery on the trees - Asheville not very green yet but dogwoods out there - they seemed to have come through sortof OK - all in all painful not to be out doing something more serious with such a rare opportunity - oh well maybe next millenium
Today - Easter Sunday following 2 nights of sub freezing temps in the Park and Blue Ridge - dogwoods so far pulling through with little (but some) visible impact along Little River and lower flanks of 441 up to Chimneys - redbuds gone - yellow trillium mostly in fair to good shape - sweet white are toast ditto phringed phacaelia at Chimneys picnic area - didnt walk cove hardwood but from the road it looks awful - purple phlox in that area hanging on but very wilted - the purple along LR look OK - there are vast hillsides that are simply brown - figure if it was green its now brown with few exceptions (throw some lettuce in the freezer - take it out the next day - come back a couple of hours after it thaws - or nuke it for a few seconds )- flanks of Leconte from Campbell overlook - toast - except for 2 red maples in the distance - Chimneys flanks look bad except for a couple of steep gullies that have some green that looks ok - thats where i turned around
All in all it looks like a smashing blow possible a death blow to spring photography
unknowns
1 - will dogwoods start browning out in the next 2-3 days or continue to stay healthy
2- did mid level trees that had just started to bud get frozen or stay OK and will come on line
3 - will sarvis etc be ok later at the end of the month - like at GYF
Now more than ever we will need specific reports about whats left at what elevation
Thanks for the update (and the telephone updates, as well).
Fingers are crossed for the dogwoods. They are usually pretty tough, but that was a damn hard freeze.
Posted by Lori Kincaid on April 9, 2007 at 7:12 AM
Nye,
Thanks a million for the update, as bad as it is. I've been stuck inside with a cold and haven't been able to closely check the damage.
It started here on Wednesday night/Thursday morning with temperatures in the low 20s. I took a walk on the AT early thursday and things were already looking frozen, but not yet dead. Lows were in the low teens or below Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but it's 24 this morning.
We got about 3 inches of snow Friday into Saturday. Between my cold and howling winds I didn't get any photos :-(. Most of our sarvis weren't yet blooming, but some were and many were in bud. The ones that had started to bloom were frozen out. Rare for Sarvis, they're usually hard to fool. I'll know more about the ones in bud later today. I do have hope for Graveyard since it's about 1000 ft higher than here and usually a week or two later.
I haven't hit the woods yet, but I suspect little remains. We weren't in full bloom at 4100 ft but the purple wakerobin, mayapples, false hellebore, and everything small and white were looking good before it all started. Large-flowered trillium were just starting to come on and few leaves were on the trees, so I'm hoping for a spring resurgence in a week or two.
Thanks for the timely posts. I had planned to leave this morning for a few days in GSMNP but after monitoring the weather over the weekend I had second thoughts. Thanks for confirming my apprehensions.
My foam flower and bleeding heart died a sad death, but looks like my dwarf crested iris are going to be okay in a few days. We'll see. I'm going scouting tomorrow after all this rain and will update from here after that. My dogwoods are browning a bit, but I am hopeful a few will recover.
Posted by Nye Simmons on April 17, 2007 at 11:30 AM
4/17
drove little river road yesterday Y to sugarlands and back thorugh Wear's Valley - 441 was closed due to snow and downed trees - had hoped to get eyes on the high country
dogwoods almost gone ground flowers look decent - yellow trillium purple phacaleia some phlox - most of the dead lettuce hanging on the branches is gone now - trees mostly look bare like early March bare - have reports that fringed phacaelia made a comeback at the chimneys picnic area and that there is a band of green forming above the kill zone but dont have personal eyes-on confirmation of that yet - I may be hard pressed to post for the next few days but will try to get phone messages to someone who can - may be working other areas fro waterfalls etc that arent foliage dependent depending on what I find Thursday
Discussion
5 repliesToday - Easter Sunday following 2 nights of sub freezing temps in the Park and Blue Ridge - dogwoods so far pulling through with little (but some) visible impact along Little River and lower flanks of 441 up to Chimneys - redbuds gone - yellow trillium mostly in fair to good shape - sweet white are toast ditto phringed phacaelia at Chimneys picnic area - didnt walk cove hardwood but from the road it looks awful - purple phlox in that area hanging on but very wilted - the purple along LR look OK - there are vast hillsides that are simply brown - figure if it was green its now brown with few exceptions (throw some lettuce in the freezer - take it out the next day - come back a couple of hours after it thaws - or nuke it for a few seconds )- flanks of Leconte from Campbell overlook - toast - except for 2 red maples in the distance - Chimneys flanks look bad except for a couple of steep gullies that have some green that looks ok - thats where i turned around
All in all it looks like a smashing blow possible a death blow to spring photography
unknowns
1 - will dogwoods start browning out in the next 2-3 days or continue to stay healthy
2- did mid level trees that had just started to bud get frozen or stay OK and will come on line
3 - will sarvis etc be ok later at the end of the month - like at GYF
Now more than ever we will need specific reports about whats left at what elevation
best of luck to you all
Nye
Thanks for the update (and the telephone updates, as well).
Fingers are crossed for the dogwoods. They are usually pretty tough, but that was a damn hard freeze.
Thanks a million for the update, as bad as it is. I've been stuck inside with a cold and haven't been able to closely check the damage.
It started here on Wednesday night/Thursday morning with temperatures in the low 20s. I took a walk on the AT early thursday and things were already looking frozen, but not yet dead. Lows were in the low teens or below Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but it's 24 this morning.
We got about 3 inches of snow Friday into Saturday. Between my cold and howling winds I didn't get any photos :-(. Most of our sarvis weren't yet blooming, but some were and many were in bud. The ones that had started to bloom were frozen out. Rare for Sarvis, they're usually hard to fool. I'll know more about the ones in bud later today. I do have hope for Graveyard since it's about 1000 ft higher than here and usually a week or two later.
I haven't hit the woods yet, but I suspect little remains. We weren't in full bloom at 4100 ft but the purple wakerobin, mayapples, false hellebore, and everything small and white were looking good before it all started. Large-flowered trillium were just starting to come on and few leaves were on the trees, so I'm hoping for a spring resurgence in a week or two.
Lori
Regards,
Mike
drove little river road yesterday Y to sugarlands and back thorugh Wear's Valley - 441 was closed due to snow and downed trees - had hoped to get eyes on the high country
dogwoods almost gone ground flowers look decent - yellow trillium purple phacaleia some phlox - most of the dead lettuce hanging on the branches is gone now - trees mostly look bare like early March bare - have reports that fringed phacaelia made a comeback at the chimneys picnic area and that there is a band of green forming above the kill zone but dont have personal eyes-on confirmation of that yet - I may be hard pressed to post for the next few days but will try to get phone messages to someone who can - may be working other areas fro waterfalls etc that arent foliage dependent depending on what I find Thursday
best
Nye