Are my annuals dead???

We had a few nights of cooler weather and I was too lazy to bring in some of my annuals - too tired actually. I think they got a touch of frost....Anyhow I noticed that a few of them have a few leaves that have sort of turned black...does this mean the whole plant with die??? Some of the plant is still green and living (most of it). Should I take off the black leaves??? Or should I just invest in new annuals? I have never seen this before....

This message was edited May 24, 2008 10:36 PM

If most of the plant is still green and living I would give it a chance. I would cut off the dead leaves because all they can add is fungi and disease. Then leave them alone to recuperate. Many times big stores like Home Depot and Lowes leave their plants outside in the early season and they get hit with frost. A few days later they have 1/2 price sales because they are no longer attractive to the general public. The savvy gardener can purchase the annuals at half price if he/she is willing to wait a couple of weeks until the plants recuperate. I've done this many times, not because I'm frugal but because I hate to see a good plant go to waste. ☺

Thanks for the info - I was curious to know what other gardener's do when this happens....I guess I should have brought in those poor babies. My verbena and creeping Jenny was hit the worse....ugh!

I remove dead leaves also.
It takes awhile but th plant recovers.
The annuals with succulent stems really get hit the worse

My dahlias got hit with a frost and I did cut off all the black leaves and now she's doing awesome.

Creeping jenny would live thru a nuclear expolosion, I'm pretty sure, so I wouldn't give up on that. I had some CJ in those little tiny cell packs and left it out all winter and it survived in there. I had some impatiens last year which I forgot to take in and came out to some blackened leaves, but in the end they recovered.