Thanks Andrew, it's only supposed to get down to 36-37 where I'm at. Hope everyone else makes it through this cold front unscathed.

Matt

Thanks Andrew!

I'm one nervous mess right now. But last night I bought some frost blankets. I huddled all my plumies under the covered patio and then covered them with the frost blankets. I used the clothing pins to keep the blankets in place. I HOPE that should help keep them from freezing right?

All the babies, newly rooted plants are inside the kitchen.

Not good timing since I'm trying to unpack and get ready for Christmas! And I can't when I have plumies all over my kitchen. Sigh...

Matt,

how are you caring for your plumies? Inside or out? Should I still be concerned even though I covered them w/ frost blankets since last night?? How long can you keep them covered anyway?

It's so much work covering and uncovering them so I figured I will leave them covered until this cold spell passes.

No-Clue

I dont think there is any harm in keeping them covered if it makes you feel comfortable. Did it get below 32 degrees where you live? If so def cover them up.

I kinda have the mentality, I only want the strong to survive, maybe a little harsh way of thinking, but if temps aren't down to freezing then I'm not doing much different. I have all of my plants outdoors, and all but four of my bigger plants under a overhang to protect from rain. Thats it.

Matt

Andrew, thank you very much for your concern. I hadn't even noticed it was so cold at night until Allison (toomanydogs) texted me. I think it only got down to 36-37 where I'm at, but I didn't want to take any chances and brought many of my plumerias into the sunroom and the garage, and put patio umbrellas over most of the rest. Only a few were left outside uncovered, but they had no damage from the previous night at similar temperatures. It didn't get TOO cold, but it was a good trial run for me, as February is usually when it get cold here.

Andrew,
Happy Holidays and think you for the group warning. So far this winter is similar to last years where it has been warm at nights, the coldest my night temps have gotten so far at night has been 45 degrees on 2 or 3 occasions, the patch has been averaging about 50 degrees at night. My patch never gets too cold during winter or hot during summer the benefit of being by the coast but I do know that many people who live inland or more then 7 miles or father from the coast can experience really cold to freezing night temps occasionaly during the winter nights.
Current 7 Day weather forecast for my patch:

Here in Riverside I woke up Saturday morning to frost on the grass and had to use an ice scraper on my windshield. It was quite a surprise because NOAA weather had predicted a low of 40 degrees for our area. Since this is my first winter with plumeria I don't know what to expect but now I know not to trust the predictions. During the fabled winter of 2007 we had temperatures down to 23 and the 30 year old Barbara Karst bougainvillea froze down to the ground. Hope that we don't match that experience this year!

Toomanydogs,

There were many people in the IE (Riverside, Corona, Upland, Ontario, etc.) during the 2007 freeze that lost a good portion of the collections. Jack @ Kimi's Plumeria in Corona even lost a bunch of plumies. in the Freeze of 2007 my patch got to 36 degrees. I met with a plumie friend from Riverside in October who told me that during the winter of 2010 and 2011 had a night or 2 of frost and lost several plants, some lost irreplaceable plumies such as Red Dusk and others that are hard to get like Thai peach from Jungle Jacks (the mother tree in Thailand was destroyed so there was only 1 season where the Thai Peach was available.).
So if you value your plumies or have rare irreplaceable ones I would put them in your garage or get a green house to store them in during the coldest winter months. In So Cal the coldest months are typically Jan and Feb, so more to come. You may want to watch your plumies also if they were out in the cold air as it may take a week to show signs of damage like cracking and oozing of black fluid, shriveling, etc.

I also check Weatehr.com, Accuweather, Weatherbug, Weather Underground for hourly updates during the night to see what my plumie patch temps will be. Usually my forecasts are pretty accurate as the coastal influence and marine layer help to regulate the temps and keep them more Constant. I think the drier air in the IE makes your temps a bit more unpredictable as you can have clean night skies which lets the heat escape.

Hope your plumies are ok and that you have a Happy Holidays.

Stay warm ya'll!
In 30+ years of growing plumeria I only lost them once to a freeze, never brought them in, never covered them. 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 we had record freezes, we got into the 20's for hours and hours. We have had worse freezes that they survived and I still maintain it was the fact they were so stressed from the hurricane in '08. Very few plumeria on the island survived. The 30'++ rubber tree in the backyard died in that freeze. The big Christmas snow a few years prior to Ike had no effect on them here. Merry Christmas!
Tally HO!

Sounds like most of you all made it thru this period safely. Let's hope it continues for the rest of the winter. I hate this time of year with a passion! It's supposed to hit the mid 20's here tonight. Snow for early Christmas Eve morning. I hate winter!

Andrew

Thanks for the additional weather resources, Mr. Freak. I live in a flat spot near Corona so there isn't much air drainage and the clear nights following the passage of a storm are the dangerous ones for low temperatures. Most of my larger plumeria are under a shade structure covered by clear PVC but not enclosed on the sides. I also sprayed them with "Cloud Cover". I am not looking forward to the next two months of cold weather!

I can't agree more on hating winter! Hope everyone made it through this cold snap, we got to 38 with wind chill of 28. I pulled in all the seedlings and the trees off the backdeck. The plumeria out in the garden are just fine. Hope it doesn't get any colder for any of us the rest of the winter.
Happy new year!
Tally HO!