I am sad to say over 90 percent of my garden is dead and as we have more freezing weather coming the rest might be toast also.
The strange thing is that the bananas might survive. The leaves are dead but the trunks are firm.
The daffodils survived unharmed. We have been growing these for over 50 years and they have bloomed faithfully every year
Oh well at least this allows me to redo some of the beds that I was not happy with
I'm in your boat - lots of toasted plants in my yard. Yep - we can cut them back in the spring and let them come back from the roots. If they don't come back, it's an opportunity to try NEW plants!!
I am sort of overwhelmed by the amount of cleanup that will be necessary. Frozen monstera leaves that are 2' to 3' in diameter are slimy. yuck. LOL
So far, so good in my garden. We had 2 nights of 30-35 degree temps with a wind chill in the 20's and I have not found any real damage on any of my plants.
We get down to 20 .
The first morning there was some damage but the second morning it was bad. I lost things that I thought could survive.
Oh well back to looking at seeds to buy. LOL
sandy
We didn't get down as low as predicted here so only a few curled up leaves but looks ok so far.
No brag cause many times I loose a lot in Feb. I remember one year the front yard was so dead I had to prune it all out and you could clearly see my house from the road out front which I don't like. But a lot came back and where it didn't I replanted. I'll keep replanting when it gets hit bad as long as I'm able. Love to see things grow.
Sandy do you want to replace flowers or vegies? Maybe I had better have another RU in April and we can help you out with plants.
It's a good excuse to get tog. again anyhow.
Bonnie
LOL
I only have a small place for veggies and they came through the cold fine.
I have not decided what I want to replace. Most of my plants where natives but even they get fried.
Sandy
Looks like we have another week of cold temps coming up this week.
It is not supposed to get to freezing down here, but they are saying at least a week of 30-40 degree overnight temps here in Tampa from now through the weekend.
Hope everyone's plants survive!
I'm sorry to hear so much damage occurred in your gardens. I know it was like that here in 2011, and 2010, and I think in 09' also. However most of my plants come back again, especially the natives.
I did cover with frost proof cloth what plants I could since they said we were going down to the upper 20's here for several hours. It only got to 32° one night here very briefly. I keep my most sensitive tropical plants in pots and took them into the garage, made the husband move his car out. Looks like we have more cold this week, not as cold but more nights for the plants to endure...so not over yet.
Just for encouragement I looked back into my archived photos. The first is my garden 1-23-11 all brown from the freeze, the second is only two months later in March...they do come back, sometimes even prettier than before since we can never bring ourselves to trim down that much. ;-)
This message was edited Jan 14, 2014 12:14 PM
That's encouraging, but my huge split leaf Phil. is gone - black soup!
I have checked a number of plants and they are dead. I have to many to cover.
Most should have been hardy but not.
We will see freezing temps again this week.
We will pray to God they come back from the roots - won't know until the end of March.
I agree all you can do is wait and see and have hope that they come back.
And Sandy, I don't think when it gets that cold covering with blankets does any good anyway, just keeping the ground good and mulched to protect the roots is the best you can do.
Kay, your philodendrons might come back. I remember one cold night many years ago and a friend's selloum turned to mush but it came back better than ever. The extended cold we had this time might be different however.
I am seeing more and more damage each day, it is so sad.
I have been scratching the lower stems on many of my plants and so far only one is still alive. I know most of my salvia are gone and the pentas are also history as they explode when it freezes. Had another plant that exploded also, one I just bought last summer. Wish I had taken a picture of it but by the time I get back from my trip the ice had melted and parts of the stem had settled back into place.
Wren, the Salvia self-sows in my yard - I pull it out all the time.
One of mine does but I had a lot of different kinds of Salvia.
I had expected my African Basil to die but it did survive last winter so at least I had them for 2 summers.
Most of my seedlings in the back yard look like they will survive.
I did bring in the 3 Giant Tree Milkweeds seedlings that where still in pots.
The other kind of Giant Tree Mlikweeds still show some green when I scratch the lower stems. So They might survive.
I feel your pain for losses of treasured plants. I am in Port St. Lucie (since Jan. 7th) after I drove down from Wake Forest NC. Jan 6th was 8 deg. in Wake Forest but our plants there are used to it (or died long ago).
This was my 1st Winter cold weather in this 2nd house and I wasn't sure how it would go - it only got to 35 several nights but then, 3 mornings ago, there was frost on everything. Leaves on banana, canna, heliconia, papaya, var. ginger and tips of hibiscus were pretty badly damaged.
At this time, I don't know if any of these plants will die, die to the ground and re-sprout or just put out new leaves. Some of the plants were given to me by my friend in Ft. Myers and may not be hardy enough for Port St. Lucie. My 2 mangoes and 2 avocados seem fine. I have not had any experience with frost damage.
Good luck to all!
Paul
Do not cut back yet. The dead leaves will help protect the plants. Specially do not cut back the bananas. Mine have dead leaves but the trunks are still firm. When it warms up then you can cut off the dead leaves and about 6 inches or so of the tops.
I learned that lesson the hard way Sandy. I no longer prune anything after winter until at least first of March. One year I pruned severely cause everything looked dead and I think I killed more by pruning too early. Only did that once. Never again.
Weather is fickle so we just have to roll with the flow.
Have been looking at new releases for 2014. One is Rose and Shine petunia.
Found it in Jung's seeds. Plan to order some when it warms up here. They are black cherry red and cream. Looks really beautiful. I have never tried any of the wave petunias which I think I will this year in hanging baskets. Another interesting looking plant for foliage is Jungle Cloak' acalypha . Going to search for it also.
Think spring all and look forward to new plantings.
I have been studying the seeds on http://www.georgiavines.com/ they have all kinds of seeds and plants. Am also looking to get some more wild (native) seeds from
http://www.everwilde.com/. Love the selection from these too.
Also planing to go over to Tallahassee when it warms up and check out what I can find at the Tallahassee Nursery, Native Nursery(and yest these are the names of these 2 nurseries) and go down to Crawfordville to the Just Fruit and Exotic Nursery. I always find great stuff there.
I lost most everything this time. I do not think much that looks dead will come back.
Over 90% of my plants are dead, dead dead!
Sandy
Sandy, my plants look the same - very sad! We are getting another freeze this Wed. and Thurs. - down in the 20's here on the beach.
I was at Wal-Mart yesterday and they had all these hyacinths and tulips in the garden center. Prices for a large pot just under $8., down to one small bulb for .98 cents. They were just popping up above the soil and I was so tempted, because I knew if I bought one we would finally warm up to 80 degrees. ☺
PLEASE GO BUY SOME OF THOSE BULBS!!!!! LOL
We have 3 nights of freezing weather coming.
Sandy
The strange thing is that my tropical plum trees have not even lost their leaves. They are just sailing through all of this weather.
LOL...I might just do it for you, Sandy.
We picked up some coconuts when we were in Sanibel last summer off the ground and put them in the garden for decoration. Two of them sprouted a tree to our surprise. I thought for sure they would be zapped by now, but they are still doing fine. ☺
-Sherri
Sherri,
Just read an article about how tough coconut trees are. Maybe you got a winner there and didn't realize it.
Sandy
I'm so sorry you lost so much. I love Just Fruits & Exotics Nursery. That's a few miles north from my dgt. in Greenville (Madison Cty.)
Crepe Myrtles seem to be cold resistant. Mine has always made it through and I don't even usually cover them.. Now watch because I said that they will all croak.
Hope it doesn't go down as low as is predicted for tonight. I'm so tired of hauling plants into shop and out during the day when the sun is out.
Good luck to all with this cold snap.
It is dropping fast here and it looks like 3-4 nights of it.
Oh well back to looking at seed catalogs!!!!
Bonnie, I was ever so surprised when I saw a Crape Myrtle nursery on the north fork of Long Island, NY. My NJ in laws grew them in their gardens too. I wonder how those yankee cm's are making out this year.
Sandy, our ground never froze here and I know yours didn't either, we may be surprised by what comes back from the roots this spring. I have been going around doing the fingernail test and I'm finding lots of green. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Ardesia,
I did prune my larger crepes last week severely so I may loose them but I sure hope not. I paid quite a bit for 20 mini crepes when I first started landscaping out front. They are patented by a horticultural attorney in N. Fl. Didn't realize all that when I bought them. Got a good variety of colors in the mini's. Got 3 that grow about 10 feet. Just hope I haven't killed them dong it just before we got another cold snap. I'm originally from Conn. so often watch the weather up there. Boy, are they getting it now. Couldn't take that anymore.
Hope everyone has some plants that make it through. This isn't the first time we have been thru these cold snaps. Yuk!!
Bonnie I have hear that it is not good for the crapes to be severely pruned. They call it around here "Death by Pruning"
I've heard it called Crape Murderer...LOL.
The only thing that should be trimmed back are the seed pods after they bloom. Major pruning shouldn't be done until you start to see new growth and no more frost. But I wouldn't worry about it Bonnie, by cutting back you encourage the tree to start new growth and only the new little leaves would be frosted back. However we would need some pretty warm days for the tree to think it was spring and sprout new growth. The cold is probably keeping it dormant for now.
I did see some new growth popping out on some of mine in December, but they've stopped that now. :-)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I am over these cold snaps. Granted, I suspect they are good for the asparagus I am trying to grow, because they need cold to go dormant in the winter. However, the rest of the yard is mostly tropical and these cold snaps are not helping.
Plus, when it is that cold outside...I don't want to go out and get yard work done.
Shauna
My Dog is driving me crazy. He loves this weather but he also wants me to be out there watching him play--yes he is one crazy spoiled dog!!!
My dog loves it too, she is quite frisky and hard to get back into the house.
I'm over the cold too, I just covered everything once again. Noticed my new milkweeds are damaged, bummer for the butterflies. I covered them tonight, but probably too late.
I have some potted seedlings in the back yard that so far have not been damaged much and part of them are milkweeds.
But the next 3 night is will be down to mid 20's so do not know what is going to happen
They say 36 at sunrise time here, but I think they are off the mark this time. I just went outside to throw some stuff in the recycle bin and it is dang cold, scary cold. I bet we hit 32 or pretty close to it tonight.
Here at my house it is usually 5+ degrees warmer that reported, as the weather reporting station is at the air port on the northwest side of town.
It's 34 this morning, colder tonight - next week it's supposed to be EVEN COLDER!
33° at sunrise here this morning, still at 38° . I heard cooler tomorrow than today but didn't hear colder next week. We were supposed to go camping at Tomoka State park in the motorhome with some retired friends all next week, but canceled it.
My milkweed are self sowed seedlings, there were some taller ones with flowers that were damaged, but younger new spouts down lower still looked good, hope covering them helped last night.
Amazing how warm we were in December and then this dang hanging on cold weather.
