Texas Gardening: Future Winter protection questions, 1 by bettydee

bettydee wrote:
The rain transfers the cold temperatures through the frost cloth, but the main reason is that the cold water soaks up the heat from the ground and the air inside the cocoon.

Last year, several of us growing Brugs throughout Texas were trying several methods including using bubble wrap, mini-greenhouses or pipe insulation around the branches in an attempt to keep them from dying down to the ground and having to start the vegetative growth cycle from scratch. I used frost cloth rated to 23ºF to double wrap a Brugmansia planted in the ground hoping to keep it from freezing down to the ground. I had asked my DH to make a frame out of pvc pipes, had help covering the frame with heavy plastic and strapped it to the ground. The Brug continued to bloom under the frame despite last year's multiday hard freeze. I congratulated myself for having found a way to keep my Brug safe. when a front with gusts up to 40 mph went through ripping the plastic off the frame. It was followed by rain and freezing temperatures overnight. The Brug froze down to just below the pipe insulation I had wrapped around the trunk.

This winter, I didn't want to go through all that work only to lose out to Mother Nature so I had it dug out, put into a pot and stuck into the greenhouse. Week before last, it and a number of other Brugs were loaded with buds just beginning to open when ERCOT, who had plenty of time to prepare for the extra power demand, called for the rolling blackout. I lost power for 17 minutes. That in itself wasn't bad, but it was enough time for air to enter the propane gas line and to keep the heater from coming back on. I didn't notice until several hours later and by that time almost everything in the new addition and along the perimeter of the older section had frozen including the Brug I had dug out. This is what my greenhouse looks like now. These setbacks are what we should expect when we push the zones, but gardeners are optimists at heart. :-)