Storm Report—February 2021 (Part Two)

Looking at the neighbor's driveway from a side-window you can see the Mahonia x media 'Charity' taking an ice induced nap on the neighbor's car. That's also our bamboo leaning over in front of their garage door.  
A different window into the back garden shows the small Schefflera brevipedunculata almost flat on the ground and everything else also bent under ice load.
Outside now it's time to explore the icy garden. That rebar was supposed to help keep the top-heavy schefflera upright but obviously it wasn't up to the job. I have since staked this little guy up again and have hope he'll be okay. 
I can normally walk right under this foliage arch, but not on Monday. I had to bend so far over I was almost on my knees.
Ice covered Metapanax delavayi...
While Sammy (the Yucca rostrata in the middle of the photo) looks pretty pathetic, it's the palm (Trachycarpus wagnerianus) on the left that really made my plant-loving heart hurt. Thankfully as the day went on and things warmed the fronds again lifted up towards the sky. The two split bamboo, plastic-covered tunnels you can see in this image both started to bend and flatten under the immense weight of the snow and ice, luckily I caught it in time to scoop off most of the weight and keep them from collapsing.
I didn't even notice the flopped over top on my Cryptomeria japonica 'Rasen' (photo below, the tall guy just behind and to the right of Sammy) or the fact the loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is flopping in the opposite direction, until looking at these photos. What was most concerning to me at the time were the sheets of ice (falling to the ground like a giant was emptying a huge ice cube tray) coming off the two tall fir trees behind us. You can see one of them on the left below. These tall trees were covered with ice and it was just beginning to warm and melt while I was out there photographing.
Looking over at the palms and the Magnolia laevifolia which was crumpled up in an ugly way.
Winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) stems magnified by the ice.
Here you can see the sheen of ice on top of the snow.
Maybe even more dramatic here...
The crust was so hard, I'd been walking around on top of the snow and ice for the last couple of days. Now everything was so slick the only way I could move through the garden without falling was to take very emphatic pounding steps that cracked the ice a bit.
The Grevillea rivularis has so many little leaves that the ice load was very heavy.
I'm fast-forwarding now to a photo I took of the Grevillea rivularis Tuesday afternoon—unfortunately the entire plant has turned a dull brown. This is not good! It's been through worse weather, but we'd been so warm, and with this storm the cold east winds were brutal and went on for hours. I will be very bummed to lose this plant.
Back to Monday's photos, I couldn't safely walk out into the front garden (ice!), so I stood on the front porch and tried to capture the fact my Arctostaphylos 'Austin Griffiths' was splayed out in two very different directions. That's it directly under the chimney of the blue house across the street. I am happy to report it's upright again and the chimney is almost completely blocked, my normal view!
Ice on the Hover Dish planter. Hopefully the mix of yucca, opuntia and agave that I have in there will be okay.
Now I've skipped ahead a few hours to Monday afternoon. We'd been above freezing long enough that a little ice had melted I could start to dig out and uncover the Echium wildpretii. I really wanted to do this as soon as possible because in my experience these plants need air circulation to stay happy. This is my big guy who'd been under a trash can for 5 days. Pretty good! I was thrilled.
Side view...
The second specimen, the word flawless comes to mind.
This guy was a little shaggy going into the freeze, he's maintained his look well.
I had two echiums with long trunks that curved along the ground a bit, I was careful to protect them as well.
Before we jump out to the front garden to look at the final two echium, I first want to share this Astelia ‘Silver Shadow’. It was covered and I was surprised—upon lifting off the cover—to see I'd mushed a begonia leaf in the process and it bled pink! Speaking of the begonias, they're still under snow days later, I don't anticipate they'll make it.
This Astelia 'Red Devil' also got protected, cause I've had astelia melt on me, and while this one is tough, I didn't want to risk it. Others were left out in the open, we'll see how they do.
A pause to look at an ice covered agave... 
Out in the front garden now and this Euprhorbia rigida was peeking through the snow where Andrew had shoveled. They were about to bust into full bloom last week before the snow fell.
The fourth Echium wildpretii was looking a little sad before the snow, it looks about the same now. I went ahead and uncovered the Agave parryi while I was working in the area.
The fifth Echium wildpretii stayed covered (under that terra cotta pot) until late Tuesday, I just wasn't willing to risk walking out there into the middle of the planting bed and stepping on something. Finally when it was obvious the snow was in no hurry to depart I went for it. I have no photo as proof, but upon emerging it looked just as good as the others.
I really wanted to uncover these two big Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' on Monday, but they were still a little drifted in, and I didn't want to risk damaging them (I did uncover them on Tuesday, and they look great)...
I did take the cover off the Agave 'Mateo'...
And the little Agave parrasana 'Meat Claw'... both of which looked perfect.