PV - My poor figs had almost defoliated earlier this summer from some strong winds so since they have finally started growing leaves again (plus they are popping out figs), I hauled them just inside my balcony door. I will haul the crape in too once the wind starts since it had gotten almost defoliated earlier as well with the figs (I just sprayed it for PM and it's finally getting ready to bloom - a bit late). Meg - yeah, I think we are all so involved in so many other things that things like that slip our minds! That's why I did my mental check this morning because I know inevitably I'd forget something and there I would be, running out on the soaking wet balcony in the windy whipping rain, in the pitch black, trying to drag some wet plant that fell over, inside! LOL I left my hanging hoyas out because they are well back from the rail and in the far eastern corner and should be okay there. The hibiscus came in (that's a nuisance to move but it defoliates in wind real easily). I'm going to leave the passifloras out because they are already back from the rail and made it through Isabel last year. The habs came in as well as the oleander, the Stephanotis, a fuchsia, a lantana, a plumie, 2 christmas cactuses, and a pointsetta that I had rescued out of the trashroom this past spring (LOL). I'm leaving the EEs out there as well as my white bird of paradise and my prickly pear cactus (which I pulled back from the rail). I'll bring in the gardenia as soon as it gets dark (it's been drizzling on and off). The rest of the stuff can get rained on including the coffee plant (it should love that since those shrubs supposedly like something like 70+ inches of rain per year... LOL). I'm surprised my building didn't put up notices about the balconies like they did last year in preparation for Isabel, considering I know a bunch of folks have umbrellas out there (and they're open too...). Oh well... I guess we'll have to hang on and see what happens. I know that when Bonnie came by, we didn't even get any rain at all, which was somewhat surprising given the hype around here about her...

Hi, DL. I'm not quibbling about terms, but it sounds like you only 'potted up', which is quite different from a repot, which includes removing all or almost all of the soil and root work. I agree with James - I think your tree's roots are in dire need of attention come spring. There are lots of posts about repotting methods - James has posted a good one, and I'm sure I've left a description that parallels his on this and other forums, so you might wish to have a look around for it. Your question more closely asks what temperatures will my tree tolerate, but it leaves unanswered the question of what temps are best. It would be best if you could keep actual soil temperatures above 25 and below 42* for the winter. Here is a longer explanation about cold-hardiness I left on this forum previously. If it leaves you with questions, just ask: Commonly, each species of plant has a general range of cold-hardiness. Within species and cultivar, cold-hardiness is genetically determined. That is to say that a plant that is propagated from cuttings or tissue culture will have the same ability to resist cold as the parent plant. Plants cannot "develop" a greater degree of cold-hardiness by repeated or prolonged exposure to cold, even after 100 years (trees). If we pick any plant at random, it may or may not be able to withstand freezing temperatures. The determining factor is the plants ability to prevent freezing of bound water. Bound water is the water inside of cells. There are actually three kinds of water to consider when we discuss "freezing". The water held in soil - When this water freezes, and it can freeze the soil mass solid, it doesn't necessarily kill the plant or tissues. Then there is free or unbound water, also called inter-cellular water. This is water that is found in plant tissues, but is outside of living cells cells. This water can also freeze solid and not kill the plant. The final type of water is bound water or intra-cellular water. If temperatures drop low enough to freeze this water, the cell/tissue/plant dies. This is the freeze damage that kills plants. Fortunately, nature has an antifreeze. Even though temperatures drop well below freezing, all plants don't die. In hardy plants, physiological changes occur as temperatures drop. The plant moves solutes (sugars, salts, starches) into cells and moves water out of cells to inter-cellular spaces in tissues. These solutes act as antifreeze, allowing water in cells to remain liquid to sometimes extremely low temperatures. The above is a description of super-cooling in plants. Some plants even take advantage of another process to withstand very low temps called intra-cellular dehydration. The roots of your trees can stay frozen for extended periods or go through multiple freeze/thaw cycles w/o damage, so long as the temperature does not fall below that required to freeze intra-cellular water. If roots remain frozen, but temperatures remain above killing lows, dessication is the primary concern. If the tree is able to take up water, but temperatures are too low for the tree to grow and make food, stored energy becomes the critical issue. Dormant and quiescent trees are still using energy from their reserves (like a drain on a battery). If those reserves are depleted before the tree can produce photosynthesizing mass, the organism dies. There are a number of factors that have some affect on the cold-hardiness of individual plants, some of which are length of exposure to seasonal cold, water availability (drought stressed plants are more cold tolerant), how recently planted/repotted, etc No one can give a definitive answer that even comes close to accurately assessing the temperature at which bound water will freeze that covers the whole species. Unbound water is of little concern & will usually freeze somewhere around 28*. Some material will be able to withstand little cold & roots could freeze/die at (actual) root temperatures as warm as 25-27*. Other plants may tolerate much colder actual root temperatures - as low as 10*. There's just no way of knowing unless you have a feeling for how cold-tolerant the genetic material the plant was derived from might be, and finding out is expensive (from the plant's perspective). ;o) Another example of this genetic variance is that trees found growing and fruiting well closer to the equator need no chill time, while other trees, derived of genetic stock from a more northerly provenance may need a period of chill to grow with optimum vitality in the subsequent growth period/cycle. It's wise to remember that root death isn't instantaneous at one particular temperature. Roots succumb to cold over a range of chill with cultural conditions affecting the process. The finest roots will die first, and the slightly thicker and more lignified roots will follow, with the last of the roots to succumb being the more perennial and thickest roots. Since any root death is a setback from an energy allocation perspective, and root regeneration takes valuable time, it's probably best to keep actual root temperatures in the 25-40* range as long as we can when the tree is resting, even though the organism as a whole could tolerate much lower temperatures. Even well established trees become very much like cuttings if all but the roots essential to keep the tree viable are lost to cold. Regeneration of roots is an expensive energy outlay and causes the trees to leaf out later than they normally would and shortens the natural growth period and reduces the potential increase in biomass for the next growth cycle and perhaps beyond. Al

I'm always ready. Alicia made me paranoid as hell! I KNEW the house was going to blow away any second. For years everyone laughed at me and my evacuation paranoia, then came Katrina and Rita. Of course, I still don't know why people in Sugarland and Huntsville ran off, that's where we GO! And some idiot from the USMS, said on Good Morning America last week, part of the problem was people going so far, that you didn't need to evacuate to Dallas! Well, duh! Like we WANTED to? There were no hotels, no campgrounds, no restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. open so you had NO choice! My plan is like always, if we get enough notice then run away. If we don't then hunker down and hope for the best. I have enough food for a month, us and the animals, lots of water containers to be filled, emergency lighting, medical supplies, wind up radio,extra film, extra bullets, etc. Off to buy a generator tomorrow. We have the boards all cut for the windows. The chain saws are sharpened. Alicia was a cold front on Monday, a tropical depression on Tuesday, tropical storm on Wednesday, on Friday we got hit with a category 2 or 3(the controversy rages) and it was NOT ever predicted to hit Galveston or to grow as large as it did. So evacuating is not always an option. Rita and Katrina were rare in that we had about 5 days to watch and prepare. In the Gulf we breed our own storms and sometimes, like Alicia, there is less than 24 hours notice. Tally HO!

My favorite is the fresh cranberry orange relish. It's in their refrigerated section. They also have a freshly prepared regular cranberry sauce, but I love the cranberry orange sauce. It's just cranberries ground up with oranges and some sugar. I buy at least 3-4 tubs each season and freeze a couple for turkey dinners throughout the year. Thanks for reminding me that I need to make a trip to pick some up.