hey tim ... first.. understand.. this is normal life up here in ground freeze mi ... so just dont freak out ... i dont think you said how established the plants are .. young doesnt mean much ... how established are the roots ... small things.. get a few boxes form the grocer and cover them .. keep in mind.. ground temps are the important thing... the roots arent going to freeze and die .. besides the fact that those you list are fully hardy.. even up my way ... taller stuff.. not much you can do ... prayer will help you cope.. the key is.. whether leaf tissue actually freezes .. breaking the cell walls in any given leaf.. if that happens.. the leaves will get ugly or destroyed.. most established trees.. regardless of age.. can and will releaf snow is irrelevant .... ive seen it snow at 40 degrees ... the forests regenerate themselves and there is no one around to worry or fret ... so dont make anything worse ... if you cover anything.. you can not leave coverings on the next day.. you dont want heat to build up under such.. and cause more problems ... so you have to somehow be home to remove them when temps get to the mid 30s at least ... crikey.. if you can figure out how to kill a maple.. let me know ... none of this is going to do it .. lol ... ken ps: if they are potted.. you didnt mention such ....

Apparently, ANY type of squash - summer, winter and/or pumpkins - produces shoots that are edible. Squash shoot recipes abound but no one makes any specific claims that one type of squash is better for this purpose than any other. And I could not find evidence of any specific cultivar that was grown specifically for its shoot production.

Roses and asparagus are very similar in their tendency to snap very tender and crisp new growth with very little effort needed. What you are experiencing is very normal with thick stemmed, fast growing basal growth of just about any class or variety within a class of roses. Young lateral growths are also 'snap-able' early on, but toughen to the 'bend' stage as they extend and age. This is especially true of roses which have large blooms. Their husky, crisp young growth snaps easily. Moses

A coupla weeks ago, I was looking resentfully at my salvia elegans - takes up a lot of space, demanding of water (cos potted) and requires winter nurturing. Planning planticide. And yet, it is now in fulsome bloom looking rather lovely (and smelling gorgeous). Too big to overwinter indoors (like my few remaining pelargoniums) so now dithering (again) about getting rid this year. (The greenhouse is already stuffed with various salvias (including 2 leucanthas, sagitatta, corrugata, reptens, a coupla guaranticas, all the cuttings and all the seedlings. Easy propagating tends to amplify the space problems. Plus, I have fallen hard for penstemons...so many plants, so little space.