How seriously should we really take the first frost?

My parents said it was down to near freezing in Irmo. I guess we got lucky last night with the cloud cover and the breeze here. Tonight will probably be the end of the growing season for us in Lexington though.

30f this morn with damaging freeze and frost. Lots of tender plants with leaves frozen solid - though burnt, most flowering plants should still bloom again with upcoming warm weather.

32F for us this morning, lots of frost on the ground and on the plants that aren't next to the house. Backyard fared a lot better because the trees blocked a lot of the frost. So they live to grow another day... for now.

I got all my flowers in last week end.
We had a light frost last night how was yours if any.

Lavina

I've been lucky .. so far nothing is burnt .. bedraggled, but not burnt.

I actually saw frost on a roof this morning, kind of early for that..

That's the difference being a few miles inland makes, it was 44 here on the marsh this morning.

I was looking at the forecast down around the coast last night and it's amazing how much it varies over just a few miles of separation down there. Wish we had some of that extra warmth up here.

Frost was all over the car this morning, had to wait for the heater to melt it off. Surprisingly the yard looks pretty good this afternoon - minus the hail damage from last month. That really wrecked havoc on what would otherwise still be a beautiful yard. Mother nature burned me with another form of ice, but ice none the less.

We can have a 10 degree difference between our home and highway 17 in the winter.

From where you are to where I am to I-95 are huge differences. (Should that have commas?) For those who have no idea what we are talking about I am about 1 mile inland from Ardesia and I-95 is probably 20 miles tops from where I am and the temps are completely different especially when you hit the lowest lows and the highest highs. Summer time can be easily a 10 degree difference from the coast to I-95. Same or more with winter lows.

I spotted that dragon fruit right off the bat because I have thought about trying to grow it. I didn't get to try it or talk to anyone about it. Did get to talk some bananas with what I assume was the guy in charge of growing them. Do they have to cover that green house or anything like that to grow the dragon fruit?? It's wild looking but I have never tried one. Interest be high on that fruit on whether I should give it a try. I have a nice dry spot which I assume they like and I might actually throw some frost cloth over them if I need to. ????

I did notice a sign that said something about not taking pieces which you know that idea had crossed my mind. LOL.

LOL we all wanted to snitch a few pieces. Ned Rahn was one of the vendors and he told us about the fruits. We found one of the employees and got her to take us in there and tell us about them. They are a lot like orchind cacti with the same needs. I don't know if you noticed but they had one, fairly slim, trunk which was wired to a hefty (4"x4") stake. When they reach a certain height they are pinched so they branch out. They do cover that GH for the winter. They are supposed to be grown easily from the seeds which are very tiny.

The banana researcher, Greg Fonseh, is a hoot and he is always fun to listen to.

My understanding is it's more a vine and that's why you need a decent size stake. Might be next years experiment.

We actually helped them pick the fruit so we were right in there trying not to break off a few branches. :-) Nothing viney about those plants, they really look exactly like an orchid cactus on steroids. Orchid cacti do droop and maybe that is why it looks like a vine. They had an umbrella shape with one stem growing upright on the stake and then the top branches spreading out umbrella like.