[Tilted Irish Kilt]

dayglored :" But mainly though it's the houseplants that freaked me out by dying.
They're not in the field soil -- they're just in their regular pots they've always been in."

It sounds like they've gotten 'sun stroke" (too much sunlight), all at once.
It sounds like these houseplants hadn't been 'hardened off' by gradually giving them increasing sunlight.
Houseplants that have been over-wintered indoors probably received indirect sunlight, and they got used to it.
Leaving them suddenly in full sunlight, they probably got too much sunshine = sunburn.
They may still be salvageable if you bring them back indoors, and trim off the dead debris .
This last winter saw many grey overcast days in Western NY, even though it didn't snow.

[dayglored]

> It sounds like they've gotten 'sun stroke" (too much sunlight), all at once.

Yeah, that's a definite possibility. Ouch... unfortunately they weren't salvageable even with trimming, but we've learned.

Thanks for that diagnosis, and also the comments about the soil. Yeah, clay is nasty stuff and we've got a lot of it a foot or 18inches down from where it tends to puddle after a heavy rain.