Cold Weather Damage as of May 20

I know that any damage I see on leaf edges, such as browning or dryness, are not attributable to under watering. I mean, over watering. Oh heck, we have had some deep soaking rains that have stripped most of the leaves off the Croton in the 2nd tier planter. Nothing here is under watered. Frankly, the planters do not seem to dry out at all.

How does that help the plants send out new roots? I don't know.

I see problems on 1 out of the 5 sweet potato plants. Only one of the alyssum has survived. My blue hydrangea has an ugly brown tinge to the flowers. Ugh. Since I have not repotted this to a larger summer pot, maybe the recent cold weather with night temperatures in the 40's has been an issue.

Videos => Trial by Rain and Wind

If the plants can survive this storm, they will be strong all season long. These new guys had somewhere between 7 days and 7 hours of acclimation. No new root growth to hold them. Mother Nature has this all figured out, Don't Ya Know?

Yes, I know that I was early to plant this season. Let me just blame that on enthusiasm. When the planting was completed for my 2 tier system, poor weather was predicted for the next two days. The initial rainfall was lovely:
Then the rain fell with increasing enthusiasm. Sorry I got no thunder recorded herein, it was just a quick "boom" and then gone.


Later, the rain stopped, and the wind Huffed and it Puffed (with gusts recorded over 45miles per hour). We had over 12 hours of this wind.

I am happy to report that my window boxes were intact and unwavering. More than I could say for myself as that howling wind was a bit unsettling.


My one causality from the storm was a knock-down of my shade garden container. Yeah yeah, it was totally my fault as I know better than to leave empty trough planters on the balcony. The wind lifted up these boxes and hit my shade planter. Ouch.