Tropicals & Tender Perennials: How many cold climate people have a lot of tropical plants?, 0 by plantladylin

plantladylin wrote:
HollyAnn: Beautiful Orchid and Billbergia nutans!

Brian: That is a really timely and informative tutorial! My dear mother in law (who was an avid gardener, and would be 103 this month if she were still with us) taught me years ago about using leaves for compost, and even here in Florida we are told to use a few inches of leaf or bark mulch to protect plants during freezing temps. It does exactly as you explained, keeps the heat below ground level, protecting the tubers, roots, rhizomes etc. Any sunlight during daylight hours will heat the plastic, creating a thermal layer beneath. It's currently 36ºF here and we are supposed to get down to 22ºF tonight, with a hard freeze lasting 8 - 10 hours! Although I didn't have plastic, the tree Philodendrons have a 4" or so layer of leaves atop the soil. They've been in the ground for 35+ years and have frozen solid a few times over the years but always re-grow beautifully in spring. A lot of the other plants in the yard are covered with blankets to protect the foliage as much as possible, hopefully the ground won't freeze.

Dendrobium 'Mandarin Pink' is currently blooming ...