Tropicals & Tender Perennials: 'Phoenix' bird or paradise, 1 by dyzzypyxxy

dyzzypyxxy wrote:
Hey, this is what DG is all about. Fun for us to share our experience with you, too. Yes, your frost damage would have shown up right away. Leaves look sort of burnt, curled, hanging down or falling off. Flowers look kind of crushed. (the cell walls break when the water in them freezes so the plant tissue just collapses)

No way the temps went quite as low as predicted, for various reasons. Gulf water is still in the 60's so that keeps the temp up, ground is still quite warm from all the nice weather we've had, and very few cold nights until now. Also we still had a little bit of wind last night, so that also helps to mix the air and not let the cold air settle down to the ground as much.

Good job on the covering! I'm going to cover tonight again, just because if it does go down to 40 it will slow down a bunch of my veggies and stuff that I have producing. I just rolled up the frost cloth and left it in place so it's easy now to re-deploy the tent camp again.

Most likely your C.pulch plants are darn good and dormant already, so very likely no harm. But if you have time it wouldn't hurt. IF you can keep them warm enough to not drop their leaves, that will give them a head start in spring. Only another 6 or 7 weeks - yay!

Here's a pic of my angel's trumpet in full bloom as I was covering everything on Monday night. Most of the flowers are still on there now, so that's a good indicator that the temp didn't fall too far! These things are very tropical/tender. btw, I completely forgot to cover my C.pulch - once again the poor thing is out of sight, out of mind. Just checked and it still has all its leaves!