Before and after

Pre and post vortex.

More before and after. The poor little M. velutina bananas look like they are chocolate covered bananas.

What a mess and warm as it is today, more cold weather is predicted for late next week.

OUCH!!

Oh, Alice - mine look just like yours - pitiful! I know they will come back, but it makes me so sad to look at them.

I must say, I really am sorry to see... hell I'm in south Florida and I'm stressing if temps get into the 50's! (which luckily generally isn't terribly common for me). I'm sure you're heartbroken.

I must admit though. I would have assumed that plants like monstera and alpinia would find it hard to make it through a SC winter notwithstanding this bad cold snap??

hope it all comes back for you

Interestingly, they have been growing happily here, outside and on their own, for many years. We often have low temps but it is usually only for an hour or two in the early morning and nothing is overly bothered but this time it stayed below freezing for more than 30 hours.

I do wonder what will come back from such prolonged cold. Although our ground never freezes, this was an unprecedented situation. It will be a learning experience.

I did cover my begonia bed with about a foot of hay but I doubt even that helped. I am afraid to uncover it as we are due for more cold next week. I did take cuttings of my begonias before the bad weather set in so I won't lose anything but the growth they had put on over the years.

The temps were unusually high, 70's - 80's, right before the freeze, that did not help.

Often warm temps before a very cold snap sets up the plants for failure. We had warm days right before it plunged into the single digits in Atlanta around 30 years ago Xmas 1983 and MLK day 1985 - it killed all the crepe myrtles to the ground. They came back up in the summer but the same thing happened the following winter. Never saw that situation again until this year. I wonder if the crepe myrtles will be dead come summer (at least above the ground). You may never see this situation again but be prepared if it threatens.

My Ponkan tangerine (similar to a satsuma) and my red grapefruit trees look fine but my meyer lemon and my neighbor's navel orange trees look bad. It appears all their leaves will fall and it is questionable if they will return. At least we got all the fruit off them before the freeze.

I have stuffs if you guys need stuff. Lord knows how much stuff you all sent me. I have turned a few cuttings from folks like you into beautiful plants that are not being seen too much. I don't have a fruit tree, but I have an avacado.. I'll never see it produce in this zone. My split leave Philo needs a good tree. I have a baby sago palm. I have a baby banana. Momma is stilll leafed out in the basement. I'm gonna be a Grandma again after 20 years without a baby around, so I am ready to part with a few "Houseplant" type plants that have to stay downstairs.
Just offering, Alice.
( yes, I am still awake and can't sleep for some reason)

Hi Debra, good to hear from you. What wonderful news about a new grandbaby, nothing better than to have a new little one around. Several people have told me they are having trouble sleeping since DST kicked in. All our inner clocks seem to be discombobulated.

Thanks for your lovely offer of plants but I am using this time as an opportunity to downsize my plant collection. I had been slowly working at that and this winter helped speed things along. We are still having temperatures well below the average so I am still unsure what made it and what didn't but if they are gone, so be it. I've had a lot of good years with my plants and, at my age, it is time to let go. Makes me feel sort of free actually. LOL

The camellias handled the cold beautifully.

Good morning, Debra and Alice!!!

Alice, I am doing exactly what you are doing - downsizing. I gave my neighbor a ton of house plants and landscape plants and will be giving her more. I lost quite a few over the winter, too.

Hi Kay!

I have a Hibiscus question. Is this the right Forum?

Last year--I bought a beautiful Hibiscus. It bloomed and bloomed...
besides me having to fight with whitefishes for a couple months.

My question is more re the leaves of the Hibiscus.
When I bought it--it had those puckered, thick leaves. These, in my opinion,
have the prettiest blooms.

See pic. #1--and #2

The Hibiscus spent the winter in my cool, dark shop in a semi-dormant state.
It kept a lot of leaves on it--then, slowly, some of the turned yellow. No biggie.
It WAS in my cool, dark Shop.

Come spring--I took it outside and, eventually, had the time to do a good root-pruning
as well as stem pruning. It is re-growing leaves pretty good--but the leaves are different!!!
They are NOT the leathery/puckered leaves the Hibiscus had when I bought it.
They are smooth and, sort of, maple shaped.

See Pic. #3.

WHY are the leaves different? Why did they change?

It will be a while until I see any blooms. Wonder if they will be the same as last year's
or will they be different as well???

Will post more pictures when something happens....

Thanks for any advice or comments, Gita

What a beautiful hibiscus. I suspect it is a grafted plant, sometimes the ones with the prettiest flowers do not have strong roots so they are grafted onto sturdy rootstock. Perhaps the rootstock has taken over and that is the leaves you are seeing. Often a variety called Pride of Hankins which is known for it's strong root system is used for stock. I am not sure if it has leaves like yours though.

There is a Hibiscus forum here on DG, why don't you post this query over there and get an opinion.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/hibiscus/all/

I'd agree, it looks like you have a root stock plant there.

SOOOO? What is a "root stock plant"? Will it bloom????
Is it what they take a section of root from to graft something else on?
Will be interesting to see what comes from it.

I did post this on the Hibiscus Forum. So far--no one has answered.

BUMMER! I wanted my beautiful Hibiscus again, Gita

Hey Gita,

Yes, rootstock is what they graft the scion (the desirable plant) on. Did you notice your plant die from the top down to the ground and new shoots coming from the ground? If so then you probably lost the desirable part and have the rootstock's plant that came up. I seriously doubt you lost the top part though else you would've probably mentioned it (you didn't prune to the ground, did you?)

The other thing is to look for the graft union if it is truly grafted. Hopefully it is/was growing on its own roots. According to this website below, most modern ones are grown on their own roots but some rare ones are still grafted.

http://www.exotic-hibiscus.com/

Butch--thanks for chiming in. You always know so much!

--The plant never died--it stayed alive all winter in my Shop. It even kept many leaves on it.

--NO new shoots from the ground at all.

--I have looked--and do not see a graft union.

--I pruned it back so it can re-grow from the old stems and bloom.
--I pruned each stem back, selectively, to about 12" or more above the soil level.
Like I would prune any other plant to rejuvenate it in the spring. Nothing near the soil was touched.

I did put it in fresh soil anda bit bigger pot--and top-dressed it a little bit.
Did not root-prune it as this was ONLY it's second year (at least in MY possession.)

Beats me! No one is answering me on the Hibiscus Forum. Shame on you!!!

1--This is from October last year. I kept it under this light as it kept blooming.

2--This is taken on Dec. 28. Last bloom it had indoors.
I think this may be when i took it down to the Shop, where it dropped a bunch
of leaves--but kept some. I can notice that the leaces have lost their "puffyness"
and look almost flat.

3--This is how I pruned it back in mid-April of this year. Nothing wrong with this--right?
But--you can see a leaf growing at the base in the "new" shape. Slow metamorphosis...

--And--we are back to June--last month--and here it is re-growing.

A mystery! Gita

It is a mystery Gita. It may be that you or the grower inadvertently buried the graft union as I see several trunks coming out of the soil in your photo of the naked plant. Only one is generally grafted per plant. It would branch out from that. However, all too often I see pots of hibiscus with several plants jammed in together and that may explain the different trunks emerging from the soil.

If your plant is all rootstock, yes, it will bloom and probably be a lovely flower. I know the Pride of Hankins is very pretty as is Albo. another one frequently used for root stock. Somehow your new leaves do not resemble either but you never know.

https://almostedenplants.com/shopping/products/875-Pride-of-Hankins-Hibiscus/
http://hiddenvalleynaturearts.com/acatalog/albolacinatusinfo.html
http://www.westalley.com/ludick/grafting.htm

Thanks, Ardesia---
I guess all I can do is wait and see what develops when, and if, it blooms.

Gita