Another Freezing Thread

Well, I believe in "Bed Sheets" I have brought many things thru a cold night with bed sheets. I will however take 100 coleus cuttings and bring the trays of them in the house tonight.
Sidney

there are lots of queens and pymies around here. they can take some frost. the ponytail isn't a palm, but one of my books sites the fact that a mature in-ground ponytail can take 18 degrees for a brief period. smaller potted ones should be covered.

sidney, me too! my yard looks like an ad for bed,bath&beyond right now. i hold them down with bricks and round concrete sprinkler stops and fasten them together with clothespins.

This message was edited Jan 28, 2007 3:06 PM

Hi Sugar - me too... when I do cover, it's with bed sheets!!

Thanks Tracks... I think the palms will be good for tonight, I hope. I have one potted ponytail... the other is a mature (i.e., huge) in the ground ponytail!

it's so weird. i see 32 for tomorrow and 26 for the next day all on the web. the leesburg daily commercial is saying way warmer than that both days. i hope it's right, but i doubt it.

It was frustrating for me today that I had paid work for friends to do when I really wanted to be home getting everything prepared for the possible freeze tonight. I didn't get home until after dark, but I did what I could to protect a few things. The recent winds whipped through the "harem tent" and ripped most of the plastic off the sides of it within the past few days. I shored it up with some large binder clips I bought on the way home a few seconds before OfficeMax closed for the night and turned on the heat lamp, much to the confusion of the Poinsettias I stuck in there. I covered my Petrea volubilis (Tropical Wisteria) which is now in gorgeous full bloom even though it would rather be in Costa Rica. It has come through 3 winters so far without damage and just keeps growing larger each year, but I would sure hate to lose it to a sudden hard freeze. I expect most of my Alocasias that aren't really meant for this climate to be as limp as rags by tomorrow morning if the temperatures drop below 32 F for very long, but they will come back from the tubers. I've had Amazonica 'African Mask' and other tropical Alocasias returning for several years despite being frozen to the ground each winter. And with the threat of being persona non grata and excommunicated from your good graces, DutchLady, I did cover the plumies as best I could. I'll give them a string of twinkle lights under their sheets tomorrow when I hopefully will have more time for winter preparations.

Jeremy

Possibly 28 here by dawn on Monday. Possibly 22 or colder here by dawn on Tuesday. My roses have been growing well and it's going to be sad to see the tender new growth blasted, but I'm too lazy to drag out the frost cloth. Also, truth be told, more roses than not are bursting their pots and have put roots into the surrounding soil, which is full of dead tall stems of dog fennel and other weeds due to a year or more of neglect. Maybe the weeds will protect them a little from the frost. No good sulking over laziness and depressed state of the past year or so -- time to (once the frosts stop) plant anew and create a proper garden.

I still hate this cold. I know that the popular perception of Florida is wrong, but I still view each hard frost as a personal insult.

I guess we are still lucky here in Naples. It's 56 degrees at 1AM with a low of 42 expected Monday night (tonight) but most of my orchids are removed to a plastic greenhouse just in case. I learned my lesson last year when I lost dozens of them.


Fred

Well, what I could protect, I did with some freeze cloths. The pots that were too heavy to lift got a good blanket of leaves from my own yard, as well as the neighbors, as they are more than willing to give me their raked goods. I have bags and bags that have yet to be distributed around the garden, but I admit, I have been feeling rather lazy as of late.

I don't think I will be taking the cloths down too soon, as they do permit light in, but it sure does look like it's Halloween once again, especially the black-eyed susan vine that is totally covering an obelisk.

My garden has been neglected, and needs a lot of attention, so as soon as weather permits, I will be out tending to the garden, and pruning away a lot of overgrown bushes, etc.

My jade and desert rose are nestling right inside my kitchen door, cause I've lost them before, and didn't want to take any chances.

Gracie

Good Morning,

It's 25 outside, 35 in the greenhouse. I too hate to see things get frosted and die back in this late winter weather. I am comforted, however, that those plants will grow back better in the spring.

They are forecasting the low tonight of 22. How did things really get at Hawthorne at this time of the day Gooley?

Molly

Woo hoo... the wind was up all night and so far it's only 44 degrees! I'm already at work and there were no signs of frost here!

Bundle up everyone - tonight is the night for the cold one coming!!!!

39 when i woke about a few minutes ago. dead on with webweather and my thermometer outside. i didn't think the wind would ever stop last night but it finally did. i expect it will kick up today though. they are still predicting 27 for tomorrow morning. stay warm everybody.

I no longer have an outdoor thermometer, so I honestly don't know whether it got much below freezing in the past few hours. -- I haven't been out yet as I type (too cold!) Dead calm as is usual on such mornings. The personal weather station in Citra says 32.5 F right now, but Citra is a bit south and east, presumably over the border in 9a, and I don't know if there is canopy protection at that site. I really must get a cheapish automated weather station and put it online (the CItra one is on wunderground.com) now that I have an expensive satellite hookup 24/7 rather than dialup (Wildblue, so far very nice if a bit laggy, not overloaded in Florida as much of the local satellite footprint is over the Gulf and unusable).

The wellhead needs protection. This is going to be a pain, as I cut off most of the roof of its shed back when the well pump broke last spring, fearing it would have to be pulled from its casing (nope, just a new above-ground capacitor). I was hoping for no really hard freezes this year: last winter spoiled me. I want a greenhouse but I know how much work it can be, how expensive it can be to heat and how troublesome to keep cool in summer. I suspect that my tenderer clumping bamboos will be sorely hit (hard to cover a 15-foot or taller plant), but at least they have made some good progress before now (they tend to shoot late and their culms are often still tender at first frost) and that the Dendrocalamus asper is a goner (mature ones can supposedly take 22F or so with minimal culm damage, but this one was brought up from Loxahatchee three years ago and is still struggling to be much more than a big rooted cutting).

Oh, for a giant bubble that one can put up for a night or two and then take down, just enough to keep big tender plants from freezing! Or a force field or something science-fictional! Or maybe I should move to Puerto Rico?

Gooley,

I used my fridge/freezer thermometer outside on my back porch. A meat thermometer on a stick also has the cold temps. Look in the kitchen drawer. You might find one of those to put on your back porch.

Molly
:^)))

ok...i just managed to get this good 12 x 12 screen room kinda pop up thing on the patio. I figured i would somehow put it over the palms and the pond. Derned if it doesnt have a roof..but mosquito netting for the sides...got to figure out how to get myself about 5 degrees...the patio gives me only about 2-3 degrees of cushion. I will let the darn things die before I get hout twenty sheets i just have to wash tomorrow. perplexing...but an interesting look to the patio.

kwetz said, "Is it Palmalito who makes your Pepper Jelly ? "

The HORROR!

No, my pepper jelly is made by hand, in my kitchen, from peppers I grew in my Driveway Container Garden of Fire.

Incidentally, to make this post actually relevant: The peppers seem to be doing okay -- there are even pepps still on the vines that I should have picked weeks ago. So far, I've only lost that hibiscus. Prolly my bougainvilla as well, but I haven't been paying attention to those. Passonflower is still blooming...

It was something like 24 degrees last night in Tally. Now, at 2:34 p.m.... it's a whopping 44. And now you all know why I always say, "It ain't a nice day outside until it's at least 70!"

Well, my yard looks like it was next door to Bed, Bath and Beyond when a bomb went off. I hope this is the only freeze I'll see -- and I bet my neighbors hope so, too!

HAHAHA! Bed Bath and Beyond. I just looked at The Weather Channel's hourly breakdown and it shows it dipping to freezing at midnight so I'm guessing we'll have about 8 hours of freezing-subfreezing temperatures. There are some really nice specimens of bougainvillea, queen palms, and other subtropics i'm seeing increasingly used in the north florida landscapes I hope they don't get damaged too badly tonight.

MicheleJolie, LOL! My yard is covered in bedsheets as well. I love driving to work in the morning and seeing everyone's old linens covering the hedges. I tucked in all my bromeliads for the night, and brought the few orchids I have indoors. Most of my stuff is native so I told them they'd have to tough it out on their own. You know, I don't think I had to cover anything up last year. I was actually wanting a frost to hit my tibouchinas soon. I want to move them, but I didn't want to cut them down when they're still blooming so prettily. Now I'll be able to chop them down and move them without crying about all the pretty flowers going to waste.

Question why does gardenglory's zone show as being Zone 8a and MicheleJolie's zone as being Zone 8b, and I don't see any zone listed for myself and we all list Gainesville, FL as our location?

the dg member adds that info him/herself. some people don't even put what town or state they're from. you can still do it (edit your home info).

Mellielong---I have 100+ sheets covering my plants right now too so I can relate! A neighbor stopped today when I was covering some more and he said "that puts a whole new meaning on airing your laundry in public!" He offered to help, but I was finishing up---he admires my gardens in the summer and has a great sense of humor.
I have put several of Monika's brug pics in a couple of my posts ---that lady has done some beautiful hybridizing--hopefully we can get some of them in the states soon. She is remarkable!!!

According to the USDA Zone Hardiness map Gainesville, Fl is in Zone 8b.This is still the 'official' map I guess though it's all relative with the new Arbor Day map placing us in Zone 9b (which would be in keeping with our lowest temp yet of the year tonight, around 27 degrees). Thanks trackinsand!

Over 100 sheets! Wow, that's dedication. I guess it's worth it for the few nights we have to do it. I know whenever I get jealous of the plants I can't grow because it's too hot here, I just remind myself that most people can't have outdoor bromeliad gardens. So it all works out!

bromeliads...thats what im working on...or warming up from. They are under the screen, next to the pond and pool...however, 6 hours below freezing is alot to compensate for. Im thinking on bringing in the cymbiniums...cant remember what they take. I said goodbye to all the outside pentas and impatients...looking forward to nice new ones in a few months. Hope it murders the rust that has just started appearing on the daylilies. Along with the millions of aphids. I sure hope ladybugs dont freeze. 100 sheets...WOW Just cant wash all of that..but admirable for sure!

Mark Angelo, You are pretty new here, don't remember bumping into you until now. Welcome to Dave's and hope to see you at some of the plat swaps this spring.

You can add your zone by clicking on the top tab "My Info". Then go down on the left and click on "Manage Your Preferences" Then click on "Location" There is a place on the bottom of the list for you to put your zone.

Stay warm all. Everything is the same here as last night as far as readiness goes. They are claiming a low of 25 tonight. We already had that last night.

Molly

more sheets!

100 sheets....where in the world did you get 100 sheets? Dont tell me you own that many! I brought some pots of some tender new plants in, but everything else is on its own. Im sure the bananas will take a hit, but they are big enough that Im sure they will come back. I turned all the water spigots on by each of the pastures; Im a little worried about those pipes out there in the open. This is the first really hard freeze Ive had since I had them put in. The news tonight said to turn your inside faucet on too, just on drip, to keep the lines moving. I have to catch myself; as I walk past the kitchen I automatically try to turn it off.

Its nights like this that remind me why I moved down here. I can deal with one or two nights like this, not dozens of them.

Fortunately, our kitchen faucet has broken so I don't have to remember to leave it on slow drip. We have a new one to put in this weekend.

Yeah ! 5:30 am the clouds blanketed us NO freeze in our weather viewing area ! 44 degrees here ! Hubby did cover everything in case .
Hope you all faired good with no frost either !

halo - If you check with you local hotels, they replace any that have a small tear or are the least bit stained - I get most of them from 3 different hotels and have gotten some on freecycle as well. I keep them in trash cans in the greenhouse

Funny, It's 22 outside, no different for me than I have had the past few mornings anyway.

I have to not spend so much time dwelling on the fact that outside, the brugs, snailvine, morning glory bush, varig. duranta, castor bean trees, EE's, and a few others are looking like overcooked collard greens hanging on the stems. In my mind, they will be back in the spring.

What more can I do? I recken if I wanted an easier garden, I would have bought a house with no land in town or just stayed in S. Florida.

Molly

50 degrees near the beach at Naples at 6 am today. We dodged this one!

I hope when i go out...some of the ratty stuff is killed back. my weatherbug is stuck on indialantic, and wont change locations. If we stayed the same as last night...all camellias and azealas are still in full bloom. Didnt want those flowers gone! Hopeing it killed back the perinials EE's and some bugs. Camellias have beenn covered for two months. Slow growers...but worth it.

finally got weatherbug up. says 28. Yesterday it didnt get below 33. So in town at least..its about 5 degrees cooler than last night. Wish the sun would come out so I can see out there.

This message was edited Jan 30, 2007 6:58 AM

It dropped to 37 here. Brrrrr.

Just went out to look for the cat, it's down to 20 now. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Molly

KC....long time no see. Thats darn chilly for down there. I still seem to be holding at 29. Even the crinums are still in good shape. I dont think they could take two nights in row tho..so glad tonights warmer. Peeked out on the patio...forgot the plumies...they didnt care. Palms are in good shape too.

well, there is frost on the back lawn next to the lake and frost on the roof, but the temps say 38, online and on my thermometers. i don't understand it, but i'll take it.

Nods, very chilly, but it looks like we might skip a frost this year. Which is good, because my Brugs are in the ground, and they look sad after a frost.
Sorry I haven't been on much lately - I plan to take a pic today and post it of how the pond area is coming along. Its looking very different from the last time y'all saw it.

Doesn't seem to have gotten all that cold here. The guy in Citra with the $200 weather station on line had a low around 28 (couldn't find my own thermometer to put outside). I took in a sorry-looking plant last night that I believe is a white sapote, marginal for here at best (22F can kill a mature one, I understand, and this one is anything but that). Some of my roses have been putting on amazing bursts of new growth of late, and I fear that most of that is blasted even so.