Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[Dauntless]

I ordered a bolt of frost cloth online earlier this fall. It was a whole lot cheaper than at the nurseries. I covered about 20 good sized plants with it and still have quite a bit on the roll for future plants.

Thanks for the link, that could come in handy in the future.

[phoenixtropicals]

28° here. Even worse than last night. Well, this should be the end to this craziness.

[GermanStar]

Wow, much better today than the previous two nights, my thermostats read 30°, 29°, and 27°. So hopefully, no more sap spilled.... Big difference between last night and the prior two is wind. Dead calm last night, so my uninformed, uneducated guess is that sans wind, colder air sank to lower elevations. Freeze warning or no, I'm still going to cover a couple of my most tender plants tonight, then that looks like the end of it.

[GermanStar]

Ouch, I just caught a glance of a 10' Cape Honeysuckle that looks like toast. Another, growing right up against the house and only about 5' tall, looks considerably better. Leafy plants let you know how they're feeling a lot sooner than succulents, damage assessments can take a week or more.

[mullenium]

my recorded low inside my mango PVC structure 2 nights ago (the first snap) was 32! and this morning I went out around 8am and looked at the hygrometer inside and it was 33.. sounds like my mango's will make it.. the top half of my trovita orange looks gnarley, hopefully the skirt method protected the bottom half...

how hardy are lantannas? I have a few in the front yard, they always seem to die back in the winter and re grow come spring.. but will they survive this? I guess only time will tell

[GermanStar]

Lantanas are pretty tough to kill, they are reportedly hardy to 9b (25°), but I'd bet they can take a little more. Assuming all the active growth dies from the frost, just cut 'em down close to the ground and give 'em a month.

[phoenixtropicals]

35° here this morning. Which is surprising because it was only 40° at 10 PM last night. I was almost certain the forecasted low was incorrect at that point, but I guess some warmer air moved in from the west. Time to uncover now.

[GermanStar]

Still assessing here. Looks like one dead Agave, two more with some substantial damage, and the Euphorbia damaged to an unknown extent. Last go-round, it looked near perfect for more than week, and got bit hard. This time it looks a bit damaged already.

Beyond that, all greenery on the Jacaranda is toast, which is fine it that's where it ends. I had capped its dripper a few weeks ago anyways, so it was going to slowly defoliate. Jacarandas are better off going through a winter drought, as that is their natural cycle. I've cut the Cape Honeysuckle down from 10' to 4', it's never taken a hit like that before. And then there is a big potted/pedestalled asparagus fern, which seems a little too yellow. If it dies, that's fine. I have a spare that I was able to bring inside, so I can just do a little repotting and presto -- good as new.

I wonder how much of this damage is from the first night. It wasn't supposed to be that bad, so I didn't really prepare properly. I learned a valuable lesson about temps here and wind speeds. No wind, no worries. Big wind, big trouble.

[phoenixtropicals]

I hear you. My plants were a bit more beat up than I had thought they would be too. I went all out covering things with lights etc., but I think the wind pushed its way through the coverings and scorched things. I think its really hard to insulate things when its windy. I did cover one guava with a heavy bed spread instead of frost cloth and it faired better. Frost cloth is nice because its light but probably a heavy covering is better when its windy. Still, I think the effort was worth it, because nothing outright died or was killed completely to the ground this time. Looks like Wednesday might get chilly but none of the forecasts look bad enough that it will get below freezing yet. I spent about half the day uncovering stuff, and to cover up again would be annoying. We'll have to cross our fingers and hope that it will be a nice spring warm up from here out.

[GermanStar]

It really is a different game if you have succulents. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for you it's alive or dead, most damage will wash down the drain within a few weeks or months as new branches and leaves grow. But for slow-growing succulents, moderate to severe damage can scar for life -- consider cactus for example.

As for wind, look at our relative temps Wed and Thu night. I might be 700' (or more) higher than you in elevation, and live on a ridgeline between two washes, a shallow wash behind my house, but a large deep wash in front. Wed night was blowing a gale, and I was far colder than you, as well as FH proper, Thu night was dead calm, and we were about the same temps. BTW, I found a Weather Underground FH station that reads pretty close to my temps, while the official one is often considerably warmer, as you noticed.

I discovered this link on another forum, and thought you might find it interesting, particularly in regard to wind/frost: Principles of Frost Protection

[phoenixtropicals]

Yes, it really is interesting how variable the temperatures can be, and how geography affects it. I'll check out that article. I was enjoying the pretty purple ficus trees around town today while driving in my car. Looks like everyone's trees got it in Mesa, Chandler, and Gilbert anyways. Makes me wonder if central Phoenix looks any different. Anyone from central Phoenix out there whose ficus trees are still solidly green?

[phoenixtropicals]

Nice article. Well, it looks like we had an "Advection Frost". Doesn't get more nasty than that.

[GermanStar]

I'm sorry, but there is no good reason to plant ficus trees here. They are very tender and often scar for life, pretty much like the succulents I was describing. People move here from the Midwest and trust local nurseries to sell them region-appropriate plants, and occasionally get screwed in the process. It's different for the likes of us, we're hobbyists and understand the risks of tender plants, but I see no ROI on ficus trees, only future misery.

[phoenixtropicals]

I agree with you in principle. Especially when it comes to queen palms which always suffer early death here. However, ficus trees do grow extremely fast and look very lush. Also, even though they have gotten hammered in my neighborhood, only the small ones have been unable to recover, even from the 2007 freeze. So, for some parts of town I think they are a reasonable investment.

[phoenixtropicals]

Yipee. Nothing below freezing forecasted for this week. Maybe spring is on the way.