Are You Ready For Some Winter?

In Florida, we can always wear shorts on Christmas Day, but we must not forget that we have a winter season. In the Sunshine State, our winter arrives with a cold front either in the two weeks before Christmas or within the following two weeks after the New Year. With the La Nina weather pattern this year, Central Florida's coldest temperatures so far will occur tonight and Tuesday night. Is your landscape ready for freezing temperatures?

• Make sure your plants are hydrated before a freeze.
• Do not run sprinklers systems during freeze.
• Use frost blankets or large boxes to keep plants insulated.
• If using anything other than frost blankets, ensure that the material is not touching the plants' foliage.
• If boxes, sheets, or other material is used, it must be removed each morning and replaced before sundown.
• Don’t overwater palm trees before or after a freeze.
• If palms are damaged - use a copper fungicide as soon as possible.
• Healthier plants and palms survive winter better.

While meteorologists are predicting a mild winter, this only means that we won't be seeing many freezing nights. Make sure you have frost blankets on hand for those tender tropical plants.  If any plant damage is noticeable, try to resist the urge to prune plant vigorously until until mid-February. 

Merry Christmas!

I love it when the weather at Christmas is cold. Stay warm - it will be freezing Monday and Tuesday in Central Florida! These Gordon Setters are my sister's pride and joy. They live in England, which is also experiencing their coldest weather on record.

Christmas Lights in a Florida Garden

What do Florida gardens look like in the winter? We usually can wear shorts on Christmas Day, so our landscapes normally look great in November and December. But this year we've been hit by fluctuating high and freezing low temperature records within the first two weeks of the month.


While my tropical November blooming Panama rose, Rondeletia leucophylla took the frost more seriously than the rest of my garden plants, the cold weather has the sycamore in its glorious fall motif while my sweetgum and other deciduous trees are bare.

When you add holiday lights to your shrubs and palms, you add heat to the surrounding plants keeping them a few degrees warmer. Here's how the Florida Botanical Gardens in Pinellas County keeps warm during this unusually chilly December. Look at everyone in their winter jackets and coats strolling along the festive pathways. You can still see the Florida Botanical Gardens holiday lights through January 2nd.

Chilly Mornings Set Records In Florida

Last night and early morning saw record lows in the 20's for Central Florida with wind chills in the teens. Despite warm La Nina predictions, we are seeing two freezes a week apart and temperatures 20 degrees below normal for this time of the year. The good news is that crabgrass will be killed.
With winter still a week away, our landscapes will have to contend with a few more freezes before March, so what should you do in your landscape to help your plants recover? The answer is: as little as possible. Turn off your sprinkler systems. Watering plants now with damaged foliage and stems will only allow disease and rot to occur in the stems and bark which could increase the plant's chances of death. Chances for rain this weekend will help water your plants naturally, if not irrigating normally on your watering day is all that is needed. For future freezes, make sure that the day before a freeze, hand water the ground around your tropical plants and fruit trees will help keep the warmth of the ground radiating at night.

The bad news is that tropical plants, palms, and fruit trees and any leftover summer annuals will also show damage. Don't remove any damaged leaves or fronds yet. Keeping them on will help insulate the plants during freezes. Optimally, you'll want to wait until the chance for freezing is over - usually at the end of February, mid-March.

Hold off on mowing turf with leaf firing (burned tips) or that has gone dormant until temperatures are back in the 60's. This also will keep the turf from further damage. There is no need for any fertilizing or pesticide treatments this time of year.

When temperatures stay below 28 degrees for more than 2 hours, citrus fruit damage will be likely. Harvest any ripe citrus as soon as possible. If the fruit is edible, the inside of the fruit will still look normal, smell good, and taste good.

If you haven't gotten frost blankets for your tropicals like scheffleras, hibiscus, crotons, allamandas,mandevillas, pygmy date and queen palms.

In Your Backyard: Chilly Willy, It's Supposed To Be Florida!

Robert Carrion's reality photographs from Montverde, Florida. Temperatures definitely hit the 20's, with wind chills in the teens.





For homeowners, watering your yard two to three days BEFORE a freeze will help keep it warmer than watering it during the freeze. Wet soil will generate more heat than dry soil. It also helps hydrate plants.

Wrapping them with frost blankets and adding lights underneath the plants will also add more warmth.

But if your landscape received snow and sleet, then you're probably going to see more damage to your plants than in a normal Florida winter. Here's how to check if your plants survived:

• Delay pruning for several weeks to see what has actually died.
• You can pull off any damaged leaves.
• Scrape bark for green growth underneath the damage. If it's black, then cut back till you find green cambium.
• Mushy stems are an indication of frost-damage. Cut back to ground.
• Don't fertilize or amend soil.
• Allow for rainfall and/or if none, irrigate once every ten days. Do not overwater.
• Frozen plants may take longer than usual (months) to recover so be patient with any plants that are favorites before digging up and throwing away.

More information on cold protection for your ornamental plants.

Why do citrus growers use micro-irrigation on their groves?

Spring blooming Trees for Florida:

Saucer Magnolia

Chickasaw Plum

Dogwood

Great Spring Catalogs:

Plant Delights Nursery

Tomato Growers Supply Company

White Flower Farm

K. Van Bourgondien & Sons

We will be talking about fruit trees for Florida with Chestnut Hill Tree Farms next week! You don't want to miss the next "In Your Backyard."