Temps have really been gettin down to right at frost level here the last night or two with warnings that tonight will be even colder. I have brought everything I love (that is small enough to carry) inside. My house looks like a jungle now. Ha. Things that were too big or that rambled up the trees (my big australis) I wrapped with burlap & pinned with clothespins. So far ...so good. Nothing looks bad yet. I see it is REALLY bad across the midwest. How are the rest of you coping with this cold snap the country seems to be having?
Marcy
Cold snap in the South West US
Miserable! I kid you not!
We're getting it again - so far no power outage...but this time I'm prepared. The electrician wired the house for a generator, and we purchased one on Friday. Bring it on, weather....uh, no, just kidding!!!
The weather has been so bad here!! The heater ran out of butane and I woke up at 3:00 am to see 39 in the greenhouse..Went out and started plugging in heaters and Baby Girl(my beautiful pitbull) came out with me and decided the ducks had to get out the yard,!!! So I was in my night gown and fuzzy slippers chasing her in the dark!!! Then I thought I'm crazy!!!!! Can't wait for spring!!!!
The duck chaser!!! LOL
I put my back-up heater in the greenhouse tonight! We have a freeze warning with the temps 21-31...coooooooold! Stay warm everybody!
Blessings,
Awanda
My post was a funny(but we are having cold and wet weather and I am tired of it....wearing polarfleece to go to bed!!!)...and I realize how really UNfunny it is. I hope you all stay safe and warm....
The nearby web-weather station says we've already tied the low temperature for the year tonight and it's going to get a lot colder, 'cause there's no cloud cover tonight like last night.
I too pulled in everything I could carry and I've got 2 small jungles, one in the dining room where there's lots of daylight and one in the front for the things that came in that way.
One advantage is that the small lemon tree I had out in a pot has the house smelling wonderful! Glad I didn't get around to planting it last year. The local citris growers are very nervous. I hope all goes well for them.
Cool looking duck chaser Diane. I hear you had some tornados there in New Iberia recently. Did you get hit?
T-
Everything not nailed down around here is inside. Even some big pubicalyxs that I swore I would never take in. 30'F seems a bit extreme for SF. You can't walk through my house at the moment without dodging!
I had to bring in all my carnosa's since it got down to 18 degrees in the last couple of nights. This is really unusual weather for the pacific northwest and I am really afraid for all the homeless people we have in Eugene - there are not enough shelters.
Ann
Where I am at the hoyas all came in a long time ago, but I am worried about keeping the greenhouse warm enough. The highs here are only supposed to be in the 30s the next few days with lows in the low 20s. My little heater can only keep temps about 10 degrees above so I've got a spare heater waiting. I need to figure out which plug is on whihc circuit today so they aren't on the same one. I also have a kerosene heater and kerosene in case of a power outage, although of course that would probably only do me for a night. I also have some things to cover here, thought about hitting a thrift store today if I can and pick up some old sheets. I am so ready for spring....
Kim
This will be a real test for some of the things I left out there. The thermometer outside the kitchen window says 30 this morning, but the one out on the olive tree says 26. There are several things still out there & even a few unwrapped, so we shall see how they do. Fortunately, here it only stays this cold for a few hours in the wee small hours of the morning. Then it warms up quite a bit for the day so that may make a difference in how well they can survive.
Hope you all are staying warm. We've pretty much "dodged the bullet" so far this weekend, as it's stayed just barely above freezing so we didn't have ice. We've got one more day on the "winter storm warning" to go - hopefully, it'll pass uneventfully!! Stay warm, everyone!
It was the big... O.... here this morning. 7 by the time we got to church. Even colder tonight. All my babies are in and I am very glad I don't have to scramble to bring them in, I have been wondering about your hoya's Marcy, as I heard on the news the citris crops in California were in danger of freezing. I hope everyone's outdoor hoya's will be O.K.. And come on Spring, lets get to it.... :)
I did leave a couple of Hoyas out as experiments- two varieties of carnosa and the aff. globulosa. Despite hitting freezing night before last, they all look okay so far!
We had a low of 20 last night, but the hoyas were at a warm and cozy 71! I was tempted to sleep in the gh with them!!
Blessings,
Awanda
Seems like the entire planet has gone crazy temperature and storm wise. Winter is usually pretty mild for us here in my part of S.C.
We dont even get frost until december but for the past 2 years its come early. Lst year it came in nov. this year it came in oct!! We go through dec with mild temps and then in jan it gets cold. Or what we like to call cold( 30's/40's) In decmbere we had almost a week of night temps thta got into the 20's. Then it got warm/hot again.
January started off hot.. Not normal at all as this is when we get our coldest weather. This month and next is when we get our 20 degree temps and sometimes intot he teens but only for short periods of time. I've already had to run my ac in the house for the better part of this month and the gh's haev been open more than shut which never happens in january.
Now the past few days have been very warm up to almost 80 yesterday and 70+ today. But starting tonight we are suppose to get down to 34,high tomorrow in the 40's and every night for the next week is to be in the low 30' to 40.
I'm not going to complain though because all of this warm weather has really helped cut down on the amount of gas being used to keep these gh's heated.
dmichael
Just wondering how your outside hoya's did Mark and Marcy?
Everything was fine, Tami. I left a pubicalyx, some carnosas, and aff. globulosa outside, and they had no problem. The temps were very near freezing, 33' one night. The only damage was to a Scheffelera whose sheet blew off in the night. I sort of wish now that I had left more things out- I suspect they all would have been fine. Serpens is actually setting buds now- seems it enjoyed the cold snap!
Marcy, how did your australis fare?
By the way, I hope all of our European friends on this forum are doing OK!!! Please let us know how you are doing.
I heard there were hurricane-force winds - so bad people were blown into objects and killed, and objects were rammed into buildings. It seems it was extremely destructive.
Ann
My Hoyas are all indoors so they are safe. In the greenhouse everything is toasty warm with the heaters so all is fine there too:) Just after the New Year I left and went to Alberta for a week. I thought I was going to freeze solid before I got back. In Calgary it was - 25 C with a wind chill of -35 yikes. On the news there were cars all over the roads and ditches. One couple abandoned their car and started walking.... they didn't make it poor things. I think they said any exposed skin would freeze in a matter of minutes.
Well you can all imagine I was anxious to come home where it was warm again. Our winters hang in around 40 to 45 F most of the winter. Did I get a surprise when I got off that flight... It was -5C and had snowed. I saw on the news that all of California was getting the same cold front. I am sorry we(Canadians) kicked up such a storm and pushed it so far south. The gods way up north must have been upset about something:) I will try real hard to keep them happy so that they don't do this again. hehe
I do hope everyone keeps warm. Spring starts in February RIGHT!
Bea
Mark did you have the hoya's covered at all? How many nights did you have below 40 and did you take note if the soil was wet or on the dry side. I'm so darn nosey !!!
Bea, spring or not I'm going to start repotting, because it wont be long after that and it will be in the 100's... Oh such a warmth just came over me.. What a wonderful thought.
Tami, the nights were under 40' for about a week, near the freezing point for 3 days. None of them were sheltered, but the area they grow in is close to the house and there was little wind. Soil was dry, as we haven't had a decent rain for almost three weeks (I watered them by hand, but not enough, probably). It seems to me like the temperature would have to dip at least a few degrees below freezing to seriously hurt pubicalyx and carnosa. Like I said, they haven't even stopped growing and gone dormant! Probably due to the unbelievably sunny winter we've been having. No fog or overcast at all.
Being blown around in Bristol... but still OK. They keep putting out gale warnings which makes me not want to cycle to work - ! It's not much fun cycling in high winds, I worry one day I'm going to be blown off, but it seems to be fine. Got some lovely hailstones yesterday when I went to the beach - just stood the other way til they went away!!!
The heating in my front room got fixed, too, and the hoyas seem to have responded positively to that - some have started growing again. We've had some sun too which helps! Now we're just going to get cold for a couple of weeks - brrrr!
I have heard that they can take down to 40 for long periods of time, but that they go dormant. Very interesting that yours are still growing. Most likely because they are in a sheltered sunny area.
hills, glad to here your doing O.K. what a bunch of crazy weather this year.
Sorry...I have been "missing in action" for awhile..Ha...the action is helping someone move and then giving a birthday party so havn't been on here for awhile.
All the hoyas seem to have survived. I did get some frostbite (or something) on a couple that were outside, but it is only on a few leaves, and I think the plant will be OK. The australis did fine as did the carnosas and pubicalyx. There were a number of others out there too that I had wrapped in burlap that also did ok. Like Mark...I think I could have left quite a few more out & they would have been alright, but I just didn't want to chance it.
We had 3 nights of very cold (for here) weather. It went to 30 degrees in several places around my house and even 27 in one place (must have been in the wind there). However...it only was that low for a couple of hours in the very early morning. (there was frost on the grass and car). I then rose to 40 degrees by 8 am & continued climbing to around 60 by 2:00. It is still getting down to 40 at night here, but I have moved most of the ones I brought in back out and they seem fine. Nothing is growing that is out there though. I also did let them go dry for the 3 days of low temps.
So ...that is my report on those things. I will try to get some pics soon. The leaves on any of my hibiscus that were out there have turned black, but I know they will be leafing out again in spring, as I have had that happen before. The hoyas all seemed to be hardier than some of my other tropical plants.
Marcy