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Florida Gardening

Duranta, Orange Jasmine, and Night-blooming Jasmine

14 years ago

Did anyone else lose their durantas during the freezes?

My 10 foot tall (young) golden dewdrop tree is totally dead looking, though I HOPE it will come back from the roots. (Actually, I'm hoping it will leaf out again in warm weather, but I'm afraid it will need cutting back).

And my gold mound durantas are BLACK. But, they do have some green tips here and there, which I seem to remember from last year, so I'm hopeful judicious pruning will be all I need to do with them.

Also, my orange jasmines that I thought had survived now look like they've been blowtorched! Anyone know if they will leaf back out later, or if they will need to be cut way back?

Finally, my night blooming jasmine is blackened and smells awful. (Actually, my whole yard smells of rotted foliage!) What experience have you guys had with any of these? I'm hoping for some encouraging words for Zone 9 or 9a.

Thanks!

Marcia

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Comments (4)

fawnridge (Ricky)
14 years ago
Marcia - quite a bit of the Gold Mound Duranta in my neighborhood is also black from the cold. My Lakeview Orange Jasmine on the north side of the house has no damage, neither does the Cocoplum or the Fiddlewood, but both of those are natives. (Lakeview Orange Jasmine is a nursery creation so it can't really be considered a native.)
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michaelz9
14 years ago
Last year my durantas got hit pretty hard as well but came back from the roots. They look pretty bad right now too, but I'll just wait a bit and see if they bounce back again. I sure hope they do as I had the 'alba-white flowered' variety and would hate to have lost that.

Of course everything looks like the blowtorch was directed at them. Agapanthas, porterweeds, milkweed, plumbago, dutchmans pipe. About the only thing that came thru with flying colors were my daylilies, blackberry lilies, herbs, and blackeyed susans.

At least there's not a foot of snow on the ground. :)

Mike
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gatormomx2
14 years ago
I have all three plants you have Marcia .
Much colder up here so more damage .
All came back better than ever from last year's freezes .
I am sure they will return again this Spring .
Do not prune until March .
Then cut them to the ground .
I hear the blow torch look is all the rage now .
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manature
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks, guys! That's encouraging. Ricky, the orange jasmine I have is the Lakeview. It's awful looking, both the shrub one and the standard I had in a pot. Not a living leaf on it, but I'm hanging in there, hoping it will pull through. I love the scent of those blooms.

Mike, my gold mound durantas got hit last year, too, and were black, but came back without pruning. Funny, this year, the plants are completely black, except for the tips, which already have bright green leaves coming out. So I'm thinking they'll be okay, if we don't get hit again.

Mary, I had temps around 25 & 26 degrees for five of the eight nights that we had hard freezes. And the temps stayed in the mid-20's for HOURS. I hope you didn't have much worse than that. I'm very happy to hear that your night-blooming jasmine came back strong. Did you have to cut it back? I'm dreading that. Mine was 5' x 3', and I hate having to start over. But I guess it grows fast, because it went from a small cutting to that size in one year.

No, I won't be pruning until after March 1, but I'm trying to get a sense of what might pull through and what won't.

Thanks again for the input!

Marcia
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