This was not the Christmas I was looking for...

The white you see in these photos isn't snow, it's a thick layer of ice pellets with about a quarter inch of ice on top.

Pyrrosia lingua and variegated Aspidistra elatior.
The effect looked a little like a sugar coating.
I moved all the containers I could lift to the shade pavilion greenhouse, and covered a few things in the ground. Most everything was left to fend for itself though, like my Sinopanax formosanus.
Some of the smaller rhododendron leaves roll up so tight in the cold they look like cigars, Rhododendron sinogrande just endures.
Magnolia laevifolia and an astelia, fingers crossed for all of the astelia. We were below freezing day and night for almost 72 hours. In my experience that's a deadly length of time. Many plants can shrug off a dip to 19F (which was my low) as long as it rises to above freezing during the day.

I completely forgot about this Pseudopanax laetus, which is borderline hardy even in the ground and this one is in a container. Damn. That orange wall looks warm though doesn't it?
Stachyurus salicifolius, Eriobotrya japonica (loquat) and Podocarpus macrophyllus 'Miu'. These should all be fine.
Candied Adiantum venustum fronds are almost unrecognizable.
The pastel shades of iced sarracenia are sugary sweet.


As I mentioned with the rhododendrons, several broadleaf evergreens in the garden respond to the cold with curling of their leaves, here the variegated daphniphyllum.
Curling Mahonia eurybracteata leaves mimicking the black mondo grass, Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens', beneath it.
Here's an ice coated leaf from the neighbor's laurel.
Extremely high winds ushered in the drop in temperatures, they also tore the tetrapanax leaves right off their petioles. Somehow the Agave victoriae-reginae bloom spike (with seeds) remained upright.
The agave itself looks rather porcupine-like
The frozen layers were so hard you could walk on them without leaving any prints, even in the lawn.
Grevillea rivularis and sempervivum.
I covered some of the agaves, but not all of them. Tough love for this guy...
Black mondo, Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'.
I have this theory that many times I do more damage trying to help than I would have done leaving things alone. Take these agaves for example, I dragged them closer to the house hoping that would give them a little projection. We don't really have eaves to speak of but every bit helps right? 
I kind of liked the splayed out leaves on Archtostaphylos 'Monica', they're bending under the ice load. Usually they're very erect.
I completely forgot to move this hanging container. I didn't even look up and see it until taking these photos Friday afternoon.
Saturday, Christmas Eve we received more freezing rain. This is the view of the top of the hanging planter from inside the house. Yep, agaves and cactus love to be in frozen water.
A friend had his gutters break off under the weight of the ice, here's how our garage roof looked from the bedroom window, luckily our gutters held.
Holman, my adopted Yucca rostrata, spent the entire event standing in the driveway, I think he'll be okay.
Things got pretty wet and slippery as the top layer of ice started to melt late Saturday afternoon, although it's still not all gone as I type at 4:30 on Christmas. Schefflera brevipedunculata...
Trachycarpus fortunei 'Wagnerianus'
Drama queen bamboo
Iced over aspidistra.
Daphniphyllum macropodum
We kept our power through the cold, so we had heat. There was plenty of food in the house and all of our loved ones were tucked safely inside their own homes, so while it wasn't the Christmas weekend I hoped for, it wasn't a disaster.

Only time will tell how the plants respond to the cold. I'll sign off with a before and after of the stock tanks behind the garage, the ones full of shady treasures. I took this first photo on December 6th. 
Here's what they looked like after I had them all wrapped up, protected from the cold and ice. Fingers crossed! So what was the weather like for you this holiday weekend?