North Florida freezes - how have you handled it? (Jacksonville: heat pump, gym)

[Tennesseestorm]

We have been seeing all of the harsh freezing temps in northern Florida. I have been wondering how has your vegetation held up? Has anyone "lost" trees or vegetation because of the extreme cold?

Even tonight, its not as cold in north Florida, but still quite cool... its strange because tonight here in northeast Tennessee that we are running 10-15° milder than most of north Florida. @ 2am, Ocala is 39° and Jacksonville is 40° (International apt) and we are 52°.... even up to our north as you get up into western West Virginia, they are in the lower 60s now, while some areas in the Florida panhandle are in the mid 30s! Cross City Florida is 35° for example, while Roanoke Virginia is 59° and Charleston West Virginia is 58° and even in Elkins West Virginia (northeast WV @ 2000 ft elevation) is 54°. I guess they are getting a southwest flow and north Florida is still setting under that calm high pressure.

[projectmaximus]

really?! wow. as I type this right now it is 35 degrees in Evanston (just north of Chicago). And for much of the day it was in the mid-50's. I swear, I was wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt around town today. It was kinda weird because there's still a lot of snow and ice on the ground from the past 2 weeks, but it felt sooo warm.

[FLPL75]

We had a few nights and mornings of under freezing temps. Over here on the Southside we had 2 mornings of heavy frost.

A lot of sheets and blankets came out.

Here are some of the pictures I took





Had to protect our grapefruit tree that is loaded with grapefruit



add a couple of heat lamps and you get this interesting look



Even with the heat lamps there was a heavy covering of frost on the top of the sheets
The potted plants in the Screenroom ,especially my huge Jades were all gathered together and covered



Quite a few of my perennials took a hit, there was no way I could of gotten everything covered, but they will come back in the spring.


I will be very glad to see the 70's they are predicting today and this week.

[mawipafl]

Most of my plants took a hit with the cold, and I guess I'll have to wait until "growing" season returns before I'll know which plants have bit the dust and which will come back. Woody types of plants and bushes all dropped their leaves, and the tropicals (bird of paradise, banana, etc) are a lovely shade of black-n-brown. The only two plants I prepped for the cold were my potted orange tree (wrapped a towel around the graft) and my potted hibiscus (it was rolled into the garage).

My neighbors have a staghorn fern (a huge one) that they wrapped in sheets - it appears to have survived.

Good insulation doesn't seem to be the norm here, so our heat pump was doing extra duty (I do not want to see my next electric bill!) However, we made great use of our fireplace - happily it was built well so that a single Duraflame log put forth a good amount of heat.

I've been accused by many of being a packrat, but I surely am glad that I packed and moved all my woolies when we came to FL from up north :-) Never thought my gloves and scarves would see the light of day here in FL, but they certainly did!

[Joe 4520832257]

I'm still waiting for a "big" freeze to hit. There have been sooooo many palm trees planted since the 1980s, and we've had a warming trend since then. However, people forget that the Southeastern US is on an overall COOLING trend (100 years ago, it was warm enough for commercial citrus production. Not anymore).

Eventually, a really serious freeze is going to come and kill millions of dollars worth of certain palm tree species.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Our tree fern sustained some damage. I think it will be okay, but it will lose several large fronds.

Everything else is okay. My staghorn fern is so little that I just put it in the garage. Ditto my citrus.

My neighbor's large staghorn looks quite black.

[cricketfan]

Certain palm trees like the washingtonians don't seem to mind the freezing cold at all. Whereas the queens, which are the most popular, took a beating.

[FLPL75]

Another palm that is looking rough is the Robillini Pygmy date palms
Most folks don't realize you have to protect the heads from the freeze which means more than just throwing a sheet over them.

My friends landscape I was involved in the design of has 3 of them 1- 5 stalk 1 -2 stalk and a really tall single stalk. Needless to say there was a lot of heavy towels involved.
the fronds took a hit but the heads are ok so once the threat or further freezes is over we will be doing some serious trimming.


The biggest problem I am having is trying to avoid the urge to start trimming things back.
lol I am tempted to have my husband hide the pruners

[Tennesseestorm]

WOW Karla! That is one huge frost! Even up here in northeast Tennessee I have not seen a frost like that in a long time! I guess there was alot of moisture mixed with that cold that morning down there.

Yeah, my Windmill palm here in Tennessee took a beating when it dropped to 5° here for two mornings in January... I have had this tree for 5 years and it was never damaged when it would drop to like 12-13°, but even thats well below average and that low of 5° was the coldest we had seen in years! I hope my palm recovers. The Needle palm I have and the Sabal Birmimgham palm and Sabal minors were fine though.

Hope all of your stuff is OK.

[FLPL75]

I called it the waking to a winter wonderland morning lol
We also had no wind which helps keep the frost down.

We have some really nice weather coming the next 10 days so hopefully I will start to see some re-growth well lol one can hope.

A lot of the stuff that got damaged will come back it will just look shabby for a few weeks. it may sound strange but the damaged part will actually help insulate the reaming parts of the plant should we get another freeze which is why I need to hide my pruners and have some patience

If not I see a visit to the nursery in my future and I love plant shopping