Welcome to my zone 9 garden. My roots are deeply planted in the sandy soil of sub-tropical central Florida, where the summers are long and hot, but the rest of the year is paradise!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Would Someone Please Turn up the Heat!

Our second night of freezing temperatures (around 28 - 29) dusted our lawns with a coating of frozen ice. By 9:00 a.m. plants such as the crinum lilies, philodendrons and even the azalea buds were hanging their heads - victims of the chilly breath from Old Man Winter.







9 comments:

Connie said...

I'm trying real hard to feel sorry for you, there in your balmy zone 9. :-)
Will this cause you to lose your plants? I sure hope not.

Susan said...

Connie...(LOL) I hear ya! Believe me, to us this is horrible. It just goes to show it's all subjective. A lot of plants are toasted but fortunately all should rebound quickly.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I didn't think you had this cold of weather normally. I hope nothing sucumbs to the frost. brrr

Susan said...

Lisa...We get at least one or two nights a year of temps right around 32. About every 8 to 10 years we dip down into the 20's. Our tropical plants are burned on the top and a little droopy. Everything will receive a good haircut this spring, and then they'll bounce back.

Anonymous said...

I'm in Tampa (where are you?), and my yard looked just like yours! (Was that dollar weed I spotted in one of your photos?)
Plenty of people here did not cover a thing and had no damage! The stuff I covered lives, but is complaining mightily. Just goes to show how quirky this zone is -- so many microclimates.
I'm here to tell the Yanks, we're not feeling sorry for ourselves, really! But hey, we're up for hurricanes, drought, monsoons, sandy dirt, intense heat and nematodes. Freeze? Not so much!

Meems said...

Susan, I'm laughing right now at Penny's comment. She is a hoot... that girl! We do have to be up for lots of adverse elements but the freezing and frost is so random and can wipe out so much so fast. I'm not feeling sorry either because it is just part of gardening BUT HEY... I don't have to like it.

Meems @ Hoe and Shovel

Susan said...

Hey Penny...Welcome! I live in Lakeland, and I enjoy reading your article every weekend. I, very much, enjoyed the article on Meems. She does have an extraordinary garden.

We don't do freezes well, that's for sure. It's hard to lose our tropical beauties to one or two nights of freezing temps.

Meems...You're right! We don't have to like it. I spent an extra 20 minutes at my daughter's school (after I dropped her off) commiserating with another "gardening" mom about our losses at home, and making plans to revive the school's butterfly garden.

Alan said...

We had twenty one chilly degrees here southwest of Gainesville on the coldest night. Going to be a while for the grove citrus to come back from that one. The greenhouse passed the night with no problems.

I think the original Stoics were all gardeners.

.....Alan.

Susan said...

Alan...21 degrees -bbrrrr! We weren't quite that chilly but in the upper 20's nonetheless. 32 is one thing, but the 20's are a whole 'nother ballgame. Hope your citrus will be okay!

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