Time for Six on Saturday once again. I’m sharing the aftermath of the historic low temperature (28F/-2C) in my South Florida garden. The temperature is about 10 degrees below our normal low. Above is a photo of what looks like a fall garden – this was completely tropical green a week ago.
I have never seen cold damage like this before. The foliage has been burned white. My experience with cold damage is usually foliage is burnt brown, rust or black – not white. I suppose this is a combination of wind and cold.
This is an Adonida Palm (Veitchii merrilli) I am probably on the northern edge of hardiness for this tropical palm. I think it will recover, the center growing point is still green and intact as is the trunk. Some of the trunks of the more exposed palms of this type are bronzing.
This is a Dendrobium orchid growing in the trunk of an avocado tree. Most of my orchids spent the last week in the tub of my second bath, but this one is well rooted into the bark of the tree. I covered it with pillowcases for several days and it seems to be fine. Fingers crossed. The avocado tree is fine.
The Nam Doc Mai Mango wasn’t so lucky. I remember now (too late) the Thai Dessert Mangoes are the least cold hardy of the bunch – but, oh so delicious. I have a bad feeling about this one, though I can tell it is still alive – so far. I have been meaning to plant a late season mango, so this may be my chance.
Super Fireball Neoregelia bromeliads burned white. The more exposed the location, the more fried the plants are. The white damage is still growing a week later. I cannot imagine there is anything to do but trim these off.
Burned foliage on the hopefully indestructible Sea Grape (Coccoloba uvifera) There is going to be a lot of raking to do!
Please share any thoughts about pruning, etc. I haven’t deal with cold damage like this – ever!
Thanks to Jim at GardenRuminations Follow the link to see more garden goings on SOS!
The Shrub Queen 
Yuck, I hated when that happened in Texas. We had freezes more often there, and I finally just had plants that could make it. I only covered a few special ones. I don’t envy your job of cutting them back. I remember mine were all mushy. We are going down to 7 here, and the wind gusts are so hard that the screens are blowing and the house is creaking.
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Yuck is right! Oddly nothing is really mushy and the so called hardy natives didn’t fare any better than the tropicals. Go figure and write a nasty letter to those zone people at the USDA??? Are you cold yet?
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Very cold. Going down to 6. The weatherman said he grew up here and never saw it this cold. I think it’s me. The deadly storms to hit Texas happened after I moved there, and when we were in CT, we had the snowstorm of the century.
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If possible, and not too unsightly, I do not start to prune until I am certain that there will be no more frost. Premature pruning stimulates new growth that is more sensitive to subsequent frost. The damaged growth insulates inner growth from subsequent frost.
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Thanks and I can deal with that though I am concerned about the masses of bromeliads with dead stuff on top. It seems the pups coped with the cold better??
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If the older shoots bloomed already, they are not perceived to be a priority like the pups are. The plants will let them go first.
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I hope so. The stoloniferous bromeliads are weird to me.
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Ooh, poor plants. It looks like they got it badly. Hope they recover. 🤞🏼The vagaries of weather these days, I’ve given up any hope of figuring it out!
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It is what it is!! that is all I can say about the weather. Oddly, our zone was recently made warmer..ha!
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The cold snap that reached Florida was widely reported in the medias, even here in France (they were talking about 0°C in Miami…). I thought of you, and I didn’t realize you’d have -2°C. 😱 The color of the leaves you showed us today looks a lot like what we get here when it’s hit by frost. I hope most of your plants will be able to recover.
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It’s always the falling iguana story! Old time Floridians will tell you frost used to be more common, so I don’t know. Sooner or later the weather gets weird wherever you are. Have you had plants turn white like that?
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Of course. Tips or some old exposed leaves of my cordyline or palm trees not covered
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I really hope your plants will recover!! It’s unpredictable like that sometimes in the spring here, so I have had losses before.
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Thank you, this is a new experience for me with the tropicals.
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It’s not you?! Weather happens. The weather man is probably 20. I have been through all sorts of absurd Southern weather
You are getting the Yankees version.. Enjoy ❤️
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Oh gosh, so sorry about the cold damage! It’s been strange to see people in the Carolinas getting more snow than we’ve had here in the Upper Midwest. And it’s crazy that Florida had cold winter weather! While we had some double-digit below 0 lows in January and terrible windchills, that happens some winters here. But, overall, folks in the eastern part of the country, including Florida, had truly unusual weather this winter. Re: the trimming question: Of course I don’t have much experience with cold damage to the plants you have. But I do know that often plants I don’t expect to survive cold snaps in the spring here come back after some trimming. I hope yours will fare well, too.
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Thanks, Beth I am thinking trimming in March is probably the answer. Stay warm!
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Oh dear, I hope that was the last of your cold spell. The damage does look messy, doesn’t it. Fingers crossed the majority of those plants survive… they are often more reslilient than we think. Stay warm Amelia!
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I hope your plants will survive. -2°C is nothing for us here but of course quite shocking for you guys.
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