Beginner Gardening: Buying houseplants on eBay, 1 by plantladylin

plantladylin wrote:
Paulie: I wouldn't give up totally on that plant. Is there any firmness on the stalk, down near the roots or is it all soft? If there is even a little bit that feels firm I would plant it in dry soil and see if it becomes established and puts out more roots.

I've never bought plants on e-bay but I agree, this is probably not the best time of year for shipping plants. The weather has been so weird the past month. We are having some of the coldest weather here in central Florida that we've seen in ten years! It was 34ºF last night and the next four to five nights are expected to be in the mid to upper 20's!! I have a couple of Monstera's sitting in containers out in the backyard that will be goners if they aren't already! I'm afraid our landscape will look totally different for awhile if we get four or five consecutive nights of temperatures in the 20's! Some of the tropicals may not survive. We have a large area of Tree Philodendrons on the side of the house that have been there more than 35 years and we've had a freeze here and there over the years that have knocked them down to mush but they've always re-sprouted in spring. But, we've never had four or five nights of temp's so low! I know the large Schefflera tree will be mush as usual after frost but I don't really care if that thing doesn't survive. I should have never planted it so close to the pool deck ... the root system is massive and cracks cement!

My husband helped me move a lot of plants under cover yesterday. This is what one part of my unheated Florida room (enclosed porch) looks like right now. And, some of the more tender plants will likely suffer a bit of cold damage even inside this room but hopefully will recover.