While I am enjoying the relative warmth of the Bay Area in California, the Mister is reporting on the state of some of the plants in our yard following the unprecedented longterm, overnight freezes in central Florida. We had over 10 days in a row where temps dropped below freezing, all the way to 14 one night. After a day or two with slightly higher temps, we'd dip back to frigid again. It has been a terrible winter that has taken a toll on our sub-tropical plantings.
We brought some plants into the garage. Others we covered.
Covering the plants didn't seem to make a difference.
It was just too cold for too many nights.
This is one of two large Staghorn Ferns that apparently have turned brown.
We have two pygmy date palms that exhibit very little green.
The pot in the background used to have several lovely, full,
succulents. This is one of the 'shoulda-woulda-coulda' plants
that we could have wrestled inside.
This is what remains of my Chinese Hat plants that
This bank used to be covered with ferns and variegated liriope.
The perennials and cordyline were hit hard.
The Mister received an email from a gardening group that did offer this suggestion:
"Give your plants 2-3 months before calling time of death."
Hopefully many of the plants will come back from the roots.
It may take time for our garden areas to look full and vibrant again.
And for those plants that don't regrow, we can follow the advice of the same email:
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!"
We will find a hardier plant that will be able to thrive in our climate gone awry!
Maybe we should replant with plants similar to the
"Butcher's Block Plasticus" planted below....
The cold seemed to have no impact on this plant!
(This is an old pitchfork I found on the property. I thought it would be cute to
'plant' it in the garden with a vine growing up the handle. But, I didn't want
a vine that would grow out of scale and obscure the antique.
I bought a plastic garland, "planting" it in my garden
and entwining it around the pitch fork!)
So, we can celebrate one green thing in the garden!
you guys were hit hard, sorry about your plants. We were wondering what that cold snap would do to the price of produce coming out of Florida, as no doubt their crops were hit hard as well?
ReplyDeleteI saw a few news reports about efforts the strawberry farmers were taking to protect their crops....but I think all crops were hit hard.
DeleteYou've had more winter than we have this year. Crazy. I agree with the "give them a couple of months" thought. I didn't with my first set of pomegranates and ended up trimming them to death, trying to trim back to "live" branches. If I'd just left them alone until June, they (probably) would have been fine.
ReplyDeleteThe article that my hubby got did suggest refraining from pruning. Everything looks so ugly and 'dead' that it's hard not to try to clean things up.
DeleteHope your interesting plants recover with warmth, water, and time. I also wonder what spring will be like across the South. These last weeks have been brutal and we've gone through more than 50lbs of wild bird seed. 60*F today - let the thawing begin!!
ReplyDeleteHugs!
We will see...time will tell!
DeleteGood advice. The visible part of the plant may be dead but not the roots.
ReplyDeleteThat's what we are hoping.
DeleteI bring both my staghorns in the house when we have below freezing temps and one of them is huge, so heavy I can't manage it and get my grandson to move it for me. My night blooming cereus and the plumerias get hauled into the garage against the connected wall and covered with a tarp. But the advice is good. some of my semi-tropicals take months to come back after a hard freeze but come back they do.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a night blooming cereus - I gave the mama plant away and gave cuttings to quite a few of my friends. I have never heard of anyone else mentioning that plant! Hindsight is 20/20 as far as the staghorns are concerned. My husband has a tractor and with some effort, we could have lifted them using the tractor and moved them into the garage. We had a hard freeze last year and many of our plants that took a hard hit did come back, after a few months. But, this year the freeze came day after day.
DeleteI agree, they may come back, fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteYes, fingers crossed...and whatever doesn't make it won't be replanted.
DeleteYes give them time and sunshine! The only advice I have is that extra mulch helps.
ReplyDeleteYes, time will tell.
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