Aechmea blanchetiana doesn't like 26f.
frost damage
Sorry this happened to you - my whole yard looks like this plant!
This is my front yard, not to good looking. My back yard doesn't look as good.
My question is will they recover. I have 2 i was traded and they look just like that. I trimmed the tops off. I pray they will live.
The plants with the damage will make pups with any luck. Do not do anything to them yet.
I feel your pain! this is my tree fern, I'm happy to say that it's busy putting out new fronds already.
My whole garden pretty much looks like that!
Rj
This was how it looked in October
Here's a shot at Aroidia Research; the two plants are Alocasia 'Borneo Tsunami Waves' (left) and Alocasia x portora (right). Note the extensive damage on the Tsunami Waves (no A. odora in the hybrid) while the Portora is almost undamaged. Since this picture was taken, the Tsunami Waves has thrown a new leaf and several blooms.
(Note: the Anthurium hybrid at the base of the Portora was NOT left out in the cold, as I was in no way going to allow it to be damaged, hence the pristine condition of the plant!)
This message was edited Jan 22, 2010 9:27 PM
rj i am so sad to see your tree fern like that. amazing how resilient plants are i am sure they will come back.
pink jungle queens before
after. it was about a week delay before any effect even showed on these.
I have just done the rounds at my house and removed appr. 100 plumeria tips. A pretty depressing task. None of those will bloom this year. Pictured below is one of the ones that I will not see bloom.. :-(
I had a cup of rubbing alcohol and my trusty clippers. Anything that was turning black and caving in was ruthlessly removed about 6 inches below or until I reached white wood.
Note that I never reached FREEZING temperatures at my place. 35.6 was the lowest recorded. Goes to show you....
Every day I go out to look at my plants and see new plants with damage.
In the 15 years of living in Florida this is the 1st time I have seen damage on some of my plants.
http://image75.webshots.com/75/1/56/6/2980156060064494108PUzvDt_fs.jpg
This was a ti plant, it all black today
The landscape of Florida and many of the southern states sure took a hit this winter! This s is a "Before" picture of a Schefflera tree in my backyard ...
The landscape of Florida and many of the southern states sure took a hit this winter! This is a "Before" picture of a Schefflera tree in my backyard. Photo taken late November 2009 ...
Oops ... computer has the hic cups again!
This is what the Scheff looks like today ...
This is a Philodendron before the freeze, photo late November ...
It was sitting in the SW corner of the backyard under a tree and we covered it with a heavy blanket but with a few nights of 26/27ºF I think it's pretty much a goner. I pulled the pot out this afternoon.
Poor Pitiful Philodendron ...
It's sad to see plants go down like that. One thing about Schefflera, they grow easily from cuttings.
That Schefflera has been through many a frost, and a freeze here and there in the past, and has always re-sprouted when the weather warms. But, we've had nothing like we experienced this winter with 9 straight nights of below freezing temp's. I have a feeling it will take a lot more to totally kill that Scheff! I kind of wish it would be dead ... I made the mistake of planting it as a small plant next to the screened pool area ... really dumb idea as the root system does a lot of damage to cement foundations. We had our old pool and deck resurfaced year before last and there were some huge cracks in the cement deck that I'm pretty sure were from that tree's roots! I haven't checked the branches and wouldn't be too sad it the freeze actually killed the roots but I have a feeling the tree is alive and well and just waiting to re-sprout once again!
The Dracaena marginata on the south side of the house got hit by the cold too but it looks to still have life to it so eventually it will be pretty again.
Dutchlady, yes the Florida landscape looks pretty bad. My sister in Fort Lauderdale area said they have leaves falling everywhere too. It looks even worse the farther north you go in the state but nothing anyone can do about it except re-plant whatever doesn't survive. It's so hard not to get out and cut everything back but I know better than to do that here. We can still have a chance of another cold snap and even frost until at least the end of February. I have some Hibiscus in the yard that I doubt are alive but they weren't my favorite plants anyway, LOL so if they are goners I will have fun trying to decide what to plant in their place!
Plantladylin,
I have a couple philos similar to yours that did not get knocked out like yours. Mine has even more red than yours; if you are interested, let me know.
LariAnn: Thank you so much! What a sharing garden this is! I will wait until the weather warms up a bit and see how everything fares. I have a lot of cleaning up and re-arranging to do before I decide to add anything else but I do love Philodendrons and am so mad at myself about that one because I had it for about eight years, from when it was a really small plant. My husband offered to move it onto the deck under cover with a lot of other plants, but I thought it would be okay where it was, covered with a blanket. We never expected multiple freezes and I doubt it would have survived on the deck either.
In a couple of months when the weather warms up for good, I will check to see if you still have an extra ... and maybe we can do a trade if I have something you'd be interested in!
Lin
Lin, "It's an ill wind that blows no good". If you really want to get rid of that Schefflera then now's the time to drill some holes deep down into the stump and pour in a mix of diesel and sump oil, or whatever other tree poison you might have available.
Aaah, my neighbor keeps telling me to have my husband cut it way back and then pour gasoline or oil onto the stump, but I just can't bring myself to do that. I'd be afraid of polluting the ground area and possibly ground water nearby. Around the first of March Pete will get out the chain saw and take it way back, and at that time I can see if there's any green wood or if the tree possibly/hopefully died from the extreme cold temp's! If it is dead I will just have him cut it as close to the ground as he can or maybe leave a couple of stumps at different heights that could be chiseled out to hold bromeliads or something.
Another option is to cover it with something black so no light gets in. Any sprouts will die with the lack of light. I did it with a Bougainvillea, took about 5 years but eventually worked. A Schefflera weakened like this one should go down a lot quicker, if it's not already dead.
I noticed that my philos aren't going to make it...
If the leaves and petioles on your philos are falling off naturally, there is still hope. You know things are bad when the leaves die all the way to the stem but remain firmly attached to the stem. Live tissue is required for natural abscission of leaves.
It looked like the main stem has gone all mush...may be something will spark up later...
I can't believe how trashed things are
Its amazing what made it in my yard and what didn't. We were below 28 degrees, in many cases below 24 degrees, for 10 straight nights, for hours, sometimes 8-10 hours. The lowest it got here, I BELIEVE, in my yard, was 19. At that same time it was 'officially' 17 at the airport, but they are, like, 15 miles East of me.
Plants that came through without much damage:
Aechmea gammosepala
Fatsea japonica, green, variegated and the 'Spiderweb' variegated
Nidularium bromeliads
Dyckia bromeliads
Aspidistras
Lady Palms
Mexican Fan Palms
Needle Palms
Calamondin trees
white and black bamboo
Plants that made it, but were burned:
Queen Palm
Saribus Palm
Pygmy Date Palm
all the bananas
Buddah Belly bamboo
Plants that went dormant and won't come back til March or April:
all the gingers
all the elephant ears
crinums
almost everything
I am not too worried, everything I have is pretty much perennial, some of the bananas have already tried to push out new leaves, but it sure looks bare. EVERYTHING went down to the ground, even things that have made it through the winters intact for 8 years.
We're getting another cold snap this weekend....then I think it will be safe to clean and trim here...if not..let em die!
Thanks, Gina - that gives me a glimmer of hope for some of my plants.
I understand the the dead parts of plants give some insulation to live parts. Trimming the dead parts would leave anything alive unprotected if another freeze comes along.
I have to take a photo of the tree fern...oddest sight...no fronds....but one new one just poking out...it's a trunk with one little curly queue frond coming out...I'm going to have to wrap it up this weekend for safe side...it will get close to freezing, and only for a short time.
Randy, mine is just like yours - really looks odd! LOL
I'm happy to see that it's still kicking though...I can't find my cable to download photos...!
Go to Walmart and buy an adaptor for your camera card, then do away with the cord.
okay....sounds like a winner..thanks
That 10 night/day cold spell was so nasty I actually got cold damage INSIDE my greenhouse in some cooler pockets. SOme philodendrons and anthuriums defoliated, some palms have leaf burn. That's a first for me