Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
April 12, 2007 issue
Story by Sam Calhoun
“It’s all gone,” said Bill Moretz, owner of Moretz Mountain Orchard, about his stone and palm fruit crops. “When it gets down to 12 degrees, you can’t expect things to survive.”
Last week, High Country farmers and gardeners braced for an extreme drop in temperatures over the weekend after summer-like temperatures characterized the end of March and beginning of April. Many perennials, flowers, shrubs and trees started to bloom before the cold weather hit.
And it hit.
Temperatures plunged into the teens in Boone and down to 6 degrees on Beech Mountain on Saturday, with anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of snow reported across the High Country during the weekend.
The temperatures were too severe for Moretz’s crops to survive. He reported a 100 percent loss on his peaches, nectarines, cherries, apples and pears, and said goodbye to his spring and summer raspberry crops. Moretz does expect to pull off a fall raspberry crop.
“It just doesn’t look good, but that’s the way life is. There’s good years and there’s bad years,” said Moretz.
Jerry Cheek of The Tomato Shack spoke with representatives of area farmers’ markets Wednesday morning and heard the same story. Cheek said that farmers from the Brushy Mountains to Hendersonville and from Virginia to Pennsylvania took a hit on their apple crops during the cold snap. He explained that apple production starts in North Carolina and then works its way north as the season progresses, but this year, with the loss of the majority of apple crops in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, most apples sold in this region will have to come from Washington—nationally the biggest apple producing state—but its varietals are no match for the freshness that only local apples can bring, Cheek said.
Sharlie Siegmund of Charlotte’s Greenhouse talked to Moretz Wednesday morning and was saddened to hear the fate of his crops. She said, however, that his situation was not unique—farmers up and down the East Coast suffered a similar fate.
“The fruit crops got hurt big time, but people will have time to replace their produce,” said Siegmund.
Siegmund said that hostas “took a big hit” from the frigid weather, even if they were covered, and shrubs around the region “now look awful,” with their blooms drooping downward. She said that if shrubs are in a high-visibility area, go ahead and take off the dead tips.
This weekend, Dr. Ray Russell of RaysWeather.com is again forecasting below-freezing temperatures with light snow. Siegmund said that gardeners shouldn’t waste their time or money covering their plants again this weekend, as another cold snap will do little damage after the damage is done.
Fred Pfohl of Fred’s General Mercantile fought the elements last weekend as well.
“We’ve got these tulips up here that we’re proud of every year, so we took some precautions,” said Pfohl, who used burlap and stakes to build a tent for his tulips. “We uncovered them yesterday (Tuesday) and we think the tulips might have survived. They aren’t going to be as pretty as usual, though.”
According to Pfohl’s thermometer at his store, temperatures sustained at 7 degrees atop Beech Mountain for roughly 24 hours over the weekend, causing forsythia all around his neck of the woods to be “totally zapped,” he said.
“We always say up here at Beech, you never plant bedding plants until after the 15th of May,” said Pfohl, who added that he remembers two-inch snowfalls on Memorial Day weekend.
Pfohl said that it is tough this time of year for Beech Mountain residents because all the local nurseries display their colorful plants outdoors.
“The folks up here at Beech Mountain just have to turn their heads when passing [those nurseries] and wait until later in the season,” said Pfohl. “It’s still wintertime around here, if we want to believe it or not.”
Vonnie Smith of Flower Power was working along King Street Tuesday and stopped to talk about the recent cold snap. She said that Boone’s bloom schedule is usually behind the bloom schedule of her hometown of Laurel Bloomery, Tenn., but this year, both towns were on the same track in terms of the summer-like temperatures of a few weeks ago.
Smith said that fruit trees in both regions suffered a lot of damage but that most other plants, flowers and perennials will “grow right up through it,” especially “tough perennials” such as day lilies, irises and peonies.
Smith doesn’t recommend cutting plants back after the cold snap.
“If you cut them back, then the plants are more exposed when it freezes again,” said Smith.
Smith remembers the spring of 2002 when the High Country had three days in a row of 20-degree weather in May. During that snap, the area had a 100 percent loss on ferns and lost new growth on evergreens. “That was worse than this,” she said.