That sucks,i hope you get them in. It's been so hot this winter. The last couple of weeks I've been dealing with med 80's poping up.

So many things blooming, and my brugs were all coming out so beautifully. Was planning on selling them, but I guess not now if they freeze. PRAYING that it's a few degrees warmer here than predicted, or that the predicted temps go up in the meantime. Wishing now I hadn't tossed out all those old blankets and sheets I used to cover plants. I still have a few, so brugs will at least get covered, and tiny plants will get covered with leaves, but everything else is on its own.

Me too, not happy about it. ) This is why some of my tropical plants are still inside. I knew it was going to happen.

In shorts and raincoat yesterday, in sweats today

Does anyone remember this old nursery rhyme? My mother used to say it often in March.

The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm
and hide his head under his wing, poor thing.

The 10-day Wunderground forecast (my favorite!) for my zip code shows a low of 36 next Thursday morning. (On Wunderground, lows are shown on the day before they actually hit which is the following morning. I guess because it is a forecast "overnight" low?)

I am a Wunderground fan because it is zip-code specific rather than for the local airport or wherever is your city's official forecast location.

Using the Wunderground map, you can find the closest personal weather station to your home and monitor temps - especially freezes, and rainfall. There are three Wunderground personal weather stations close to my house which have provided really helpful info to me.

Carol in Jacksonville

Wunderground is still showing 32 on Wednesday and 35 on Thursday. Better safe than sorry, I say.

Guess I shouldn't complain. It was snowing in my home town up until a few minutes ago.

http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article138046428.html

DG where do you live? Ok I see you live in Gainsville. It seems odd that it would get that cold this late. I feel for you DG.

Can you get your neighbor to help you throw sheets one your brush? Would that help?

Thanks, I'm sure I'll be fine. Only worried about the tomatoes, really, and I'm bringing those in. It always seems to be warmer where I am, and the predictions change every day. I'm just tired of crazy weather.

Not that I believe in such, but the groundhog "predicted" winter wasn't over yet.

Damned rodents! ;)

Well, today's forecast everywhere definitely has freezing temps for Wed night/Thurs morning and low 30s Thurs night/Fri morning. I wish this rain would let up a bit. I need to go to the laundry room and do some clothes!

Safe in Central Florida. Spent all weekend gardening without looking at the weather forecast. Whew.

I hope i get a good rain out of this its so dry that my weeds/lawn is starting to die

It's been raining off and on here for two days, but not enough, really. I'll go out and water tomorrow before the cold strikes.

DG same here Tuesday night 39 and Wedn 30, Thur 32, Damn! Tropicals going in the greenhouse and I'm covering My eggplants with straw and plastic on top of it. Tomato containers are too big to move but I'll fo the same as the eggplants. My peppers and corn are several inches tall but in containers so will do the same for them.

I do this around 4pm and trap the ground heat in the "tent". A couple years ago we had a night of 27 degrees and that's what I did for my impatients and they came through fine.

I think there is an upside here. The freeze effect on plants is the result of two factors: temperature, and equally importantly, length of time. From what I'm seeing, the freezing temps forecast for most places in Florida will have a very short duration. There is a big difference in the effect of an eight-hour freeze versus a 20-minute one. A lengthy freeze will knock plants back to the roots. A short one will cause some leaf burn.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Hope all goes well in all of your gardens. :)

Carol in Jacksonville

Bea - Luckily, I don't have many plants to worry about, so I only want to protect the big tomatoes. I'm not even going to worry about the bananas, because honestly, they aren't very tasty or to my liking, and I'm getting rid of them this year anyway.

LTY - Right now, Accuweather is calling for a low of 27 tomorrow night with below-freezing temps for at least 4 hours. That will kill tomatoes, and maybe knock back my brugs a bit, but they usually die back to the ground every year anyway. It's just been a warm winter.

So in view of the ever-dropping forecast temperatures, almost all the potted plants have to come in - again. I'll be glad when they are all gone and I don't have to fill my LR with plants several times a year, but I was hoping to make enough off of them to pay my fees for the community garden in September.

Yeah, D, you're right! They are forecasting a longer freeze for Gainesville than I realized. I checked AccuWeather and I see that it will be for about four hours on Thursday morning. (They play the same game as Wunderground: show it on Wednesday forecast when it will actually occur on Thursday morning.). I'm sorry you will have so much work to do. I hope you don't lose all of your tomatoes. I'm hoping for a good outcome for you!

AccuWeather - Gainesville forecast

Carol

Wunderground gives a good pictorial graph forecast that makes it easier to see on which day the low will actually occur. Here is a link to the forecast for Gainesville. If you scroll down, you can see that it is Thursday morning when the red temperature line falls below freezing:

EDIT: Well, none of my Wunderground links have been working and I'm not sure why. So sorry!

Wunderground: Gainesville 10-day forecast

Carol

Dirty, the AccuWeather forecast shows the low of 27 on Thursday morning. Switch to the hourly view and scroll right through the 8-hour timeframes. The forecast for 27 is on Thursday morning.

I have all my tender plants and both tomato plants in the house now. Bless their little hearts. They don't understand what they did wrong! They were so happy where they were. LOL The good news is that every time I bring in plants, I have fewer and fewer, because many are getting planted out or sent to new homes.

If all I had were the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers it would be manageable, but I've got stuff all over the property breaking out like it's Spring. I also planted small golden Lantana all across the front of the house and I have new plants (mostly perennials) popping out all over. There's no way to save them all.

I hope that all the plants in the colder zones are okay. It is very cold in my area but at least not freezing. One more night...

Silvia

Rita, I have the same, but I'm like you -- I can't save them all. Take heart in knowing that while some may be burned back, few will be killed unless there is a freeze that stays at 25 degrees for more than 5 hours. That's what did in my yard in North Port in I think it was 2010. Still, most of those plants came back out eventually, even though they were never as pretty again.

I used to have two huge cardboard boxes full of sheets, blankets, etc. to cover things in my yard plus yards of twine to tie them on. When it gets that cold, nothing covering them will save them. I piled some leaves over some of the more tender plants, and may go out and dig up my dwarf oyster plants and put them into a pot until all this chilliness ceases. In 2010, I dug up four large angel trumpets and put them into 5-gallon pots in the garage to save them, and also dug up three bananas and put them in the garage. My yard looked like one of those houses where all the furniture is covered with sheets, but much more colorful.

Silvia, yes only one more night. 5 hours of freezing or below temps early tomorrow morning, then hopefully, clear sailing ahead. Honestly, we've had such a mild winter, I was crossing my fingers, but knew from experience that we would likely have one more freeze.

Just for fun, this is what my living room looks like during a freeze. This is how small it is -- that is about 1/4 of my LR space. Of course, when I had my house, I had over 200 plants that had to come in, and the DR was where the most tender stayed, on, under and around the DR table -- then there were more in the garage and the back porch and the hardiest were crammed up close to the house. I'm glad I don't have all those plants anymore.

Hit 40 this morning so I'm good hope everyone else up north is ok. Every time I see the news the predicted temps get lower

Glenn, tonight should be the coldest night.

Good Luck all! Wow DG, you have a lot of plants to bring in, thank goodness it only last a day or two :o)

What temperature should I cover container sweet potatoes, eggplant, and tomatoes? I've heard 45F, 40F, and just 32F or lower.

I cover at 35

I didn't cover a danged thing. If they die, they die. I doubt they will, but I'll definitely get some damage. Well, my tomatoes will be o.k., though! I forgot to dig up my oyster plants. I hope they make it. I did cover them with leaves, but not very deep.

27 F in Gainesville right now. Should be warming up soon. Hopefully, not much damage.

We got to 39 thats pretty cold this time of year. I hope everyone up north came out ok