Hi there, we had five nights of temperatures below freezing. We have a lot of tropicals and despite efforts to protect our garden, most things were effected. Our vast amounts of variegated ginger are completely brown, but has some new growth. Our red passion flower vine is also completely brown and dried. Do you recommend I leave everything alone until the threat of frost is behind us or can I prune away the unsightly leaves and branches?
Poor you! We used to get freezes here. They got less and less to maybe 1 in January and it would kill me to almost to have made it thru with no damage. Now we do not seem to get any freezes. I can even get petunias to survive winters now with care.
What I followed was no pruning till spring growth started. The dead leaves will actually protect the core if you get more freezes. I would only prune if the frozen plant growth turned soft or mushy.
Spring is so close, I would just wait to see what puts out growth.
Also as time goes on you may notice less damage than you thought or more. 5 days of freezing weather is a lot for tropicals to survive. But if roots are still viable you could get great new growth. The banana might put out pups.
On the vine use your fingernail and go down to the bottom scraping the stems to see if any green left inside. If so, you probably will get new growth from the lower nodes or even from the roots. If no green in the stems hanging down, I would probably cheat and cut some of the dead back.
You almost made it thru this year! Better luck next year.
Thank you for your suggestions. I too thought that the old leaves would protect the plant itself. As for the vine, I think I will cut all the dead out and leave a little closer to the base. Hoping the maturity of the plants will help their recovery.
