The low temps we had here under freezing occured on: Tues.,1/20 low 28 degrees;Wed.,1/21 low of 24 degrees;Thurs.,1/22 low of 21 degrees and Fri., 1/23 a low of 27 degrees. We had rain on Wed. morning around 3am which my sheets got wet and never dried. I had two corn plants and only one got covered. The covered plant suffered more damage than the uncovered one. I also had several spider plants burned but I think they will come back. My ficus of 21 years of age braved the cold better this time than last year(so far). Christmas Cactus, ages from 28 to 35 years old, only one has some burn from the wet sheet. I am thankful the damage was not more severe.Oh yeah, all my plants are outside but in a protected area sort of.

will take some pics tomorrow. much carnage in the yard. Bananas are fried. no more red passi. Brugs? they're gone. even penta took a hard hit....porterweed is a goner and so is the firebush. I'm really REALLY hoping that these will all come back from the root...all were established plants. The ten brugs were started from cuttings mailed from Maryland...rooted, potted and babied ALL summer long in pots. We finally put them into the ground...it was making a beautiful brug forest. weeeelll...the forest looks worse than toothpicks! Even the bouganvilla looks terrible. I have to remind myself, however ,that we're not raising crops to feed the kids on this stuff......... from Rockledge.

I was going to say the say thing as Bihai, most everything will come back from the roots in the spring. The ground doesn't freeze so the roots are ok, just give them a chance. :o)

*wiping away the tears* ....i'll trust your best judgement.
*sniff* but we don't go chopping (pruning) yet, right?

UGH - I've been too afraid to go outside and actually do a thorough look, so I just know what I can see thru the windows, lol.

My Brug took a huge hit - but it needed pruning back anyway. All the hibiscus look sad - but they should be OK.

The only things I might actually lose would be all my blue daze (they are black and probably dead) and mounding lantana - not sure if those ones will re-grow or if they froze to the roots.

But, on the bright side....ALL THE WEEDS DIED!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!

I am continue to be amazed at the low temps you get in peninsular Florida. Here on the Georgia coast, I have had only 3 nights where the temperature dropped below freezing this winter...and my lowest was 27, which was enough to fry the banana leaves, the brug leaves, and my red passi...but my p. edulis and all of my citrus, still loaded with fruit, INCLUDING my thornless key lime, are completely unscathed. My St. augustine grass is still green as a leprechaun.
Here's hoping all of your plants recover! :)

lowest here - 19 degrees
same as the freeze of 1989
Lots and lots of damage
most plants will return
DO NOT CUT !
DONOT TRIM !
I tell myself this mantra every time
I look out the window or walk around
the property
Firebush will return beautifully .
I must remember that the plants and yard will
look better for this freeze -- eventually .
This is not the last blast !
Save those covers and do not prune - yet .

gatormomx2, Does the same advice (do not cut, do not trim) go for vegetable plants? I posted the question and a pic within the topic "my heartbreak" also in the Florida forum. My tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and peppers were decimated. Is the best thing to do to just simply leave them alone?

my yard took a bad hit as well. Nature did a hard trim for me, but as mentioned above, the plants will bounce back.

Here is a link that might be useful: pictures after the freeze

Abendwolke,

How did your Mango tree do?(unless I missed it from your pics). Mine looked like it was "torched"...I'm sure most of your plants will come back. I just hope mine will recover?

puglvr
My mango looks "torched" like yours. Let's hope they comeback...
Willy

I had my mango under a tent. A few tips are torched, the ones touching the tent walls. I am not sure about the flowers yet, I believe they did not survive, but at least the tree itself is ok.

From my research , I have read and heard that it is OK to pull annuals - things you know will not return .

Someone here mentioned , cut off down to the green on veggies and see if they return . Nothing to lose !

Perennials and woody stems need to left alone . This is SOOOO difficult ! Even today , I was tempted to trim but I resisted . The reasoning is that the plants are already in severe shock and pruning is one more big shock to add to their burden . Also, pruning triggers tender new growth and it's only January . It is WAY too early to trim . All the energy will go towards producing new growth when it needs to go towards recovery and root stability . Along comes a slight freeze and wham ! - you've really shocked those injured plants now . Even dead leaves provide some small protection against the cold .

So , I am considering raking over my Impatiens and Amaryllis - ones I know will not shoot up new growth immediately . I will cut off the veggie tops and wait . The trimmings go in the compost piles . And the rest --- sigh -- must wait . I know some gardeners in my area who will wait until April or even May to trim and prune .

You can always prune later but you cannot go back and un-prune .

Crap!!! I went out and pruned the brown woody stems off my red and pink hibiscus. Do you think I doomed these guys to a certain death?

My grand plan to put the frost sensitive plants on the south side of the house/fence to protect them from the wind tunnel created from the neighbor's oak trees met a tactical flaw in the plan: 3 days of bone chilling nights. But at least I found out what plants I added last summer can laugh at the cold...

My Achillia, dill, blue-eyed grass, most of my mints, an almond scented plant that I think is a cultivar of a butterfly-bush, and amazingly enough my shrimp plant are all quite happy that the plants next to them are gone and they can stretch their branches easier. I guess they get to stay and I'll try again with their neighbors.

My papaya is really really REALLY upset with me, and considering the rotten vegetation smell its giving off, I don't think its going to pull through. But I'll wait an see what happens. I totally forgot to protect my kiwi and it looks equally upset. Hopefully it'll grow back from the ground.

My varigated devil's backbone is also very annoyed, but I know from last year it will come back just as strong.

The lantana, pentas, and Persian Shield got killed to the ground but I can already see the pentas coming back and assume the others will as well.

My in-ground plumeria and ti plants are also upset with me and those concern me the most. The ti will come back since you have to practically put them in a wood chipper to kill them and cutting them back like this encourages bushiness, but it would be nice if they could survive a year or two to fully develop their leaves. My green ti will get 20" leaves if left alone long enough.

ordpete ~ No you have not doomed your hibiscus to certain death. When we get cold weather it would be wise to cover the plant, fully to the ground, to give it some extra warmth. This will be needed even more if the plant puts out some tender growth.

I have a 2 acre yard, and if I don't start pruning some of my plants now I will not have it finished in time for the spring planting season. I tend to go overboard with tender plants because they are prettier.

Christine

My garden in South jax got 26 degree weather for 2 nights and predictably, bananas, alocasias, some gingers, firebush, white bird of paradise and hibiscus defoliated.
The surprise is that wild lime, cocoplum, seagrape, neoregelia bromeliads, alpinia nutans ginger, majesty palm, bismarck palm, areca palm, and lady palm were unscathed due to their protected locations under pines and bay trees!

I was in Orlando when the freeze hit. I knew it was coming, so I brought all my potted plants in (which include an orange tree, tomato, eggplant, pepper plants and cauliflower).

I worried what I would come home to. I got pretty lucky.

One of my Chenille Plants got the worst of it.

The other scrawny Chenille that is positioned under the Ficus came through just fine.

One Areca (?is that what it is?) behind the shed got hit hard, but the other dozen are fine.

And a couple of banana trees are looking pretty rough.

The ferns and Bird of Paradise look sort of stressed, but not really damaged.

However the mango blooms seem to have survived!

So I am definitely counting my blessings, and chances are everything will come back (although I'm not sure about the Chenille or palm).

Heather

Here in Lake County, water in a cup froze solid. I use that as a test of how cold it got. It's more accurate than thermometers, and cheaper.

A brief and very superficial damage report:

White sapote--no damage at all. Loaded with fruit, too.

Macadamias--no damage, except to flowers.

Jaboticabas--some burned and dropped leaves, but otherwise no damage.

Strawberry guava--no damage.

Avocados ('Winter Mexican' and 'Brogdon')--a couple of burned leaves.

Rose apple--90% brown

Jakfruit--50% brown, but was covered with 2 sheets of plastic.

Black sapote--dropped some leaves, but was protected with water and plastic.

Lychees ('Brewster' and 'Emperor')--30% dead leaves, but the others have brown ribs, so time will tell.

Mangos--100% brown.

Barbadoes cherry--30% brown.

Guava--100% brown.

Sapodilla--100% brown.

Carambolas--90% brown, fruit falling to the ground.

Ollie

It was 20ﾟ for over 5 hours.

Question is should I dig it up and put in these plants that are blue Porter weed?

NFM your photos are not showing up for me. Everybody else's are.

We live in a heavily wooded area so most of the time we are about 4-5 degrees higher. Not this time. The second cold spell lasted several hours here at 26 degrees and I had damage:

Predictably my firespikes, milkweed and lantanas are fried but tge lantanas and firespikes already have new shoots peaking from the ground.

My broms had no damage probably because they live under the trees.

My agaves lost all their outer leaves but the growing shoots are fine.

My hamelia looks dead but I'm hoping.

I lost all my pineapples.

All my native ferns but one species were root-killed but already are sprouting.

All my tropicals survived in the GH.

My pocketbook had a heart attack when the electric bill arrived. Heating the GH is expensive!