Re: Pictures of plants before and after freeze at my house
Posted by Chris in Tampa on 1/11/2010, 10:22 pm
Having a fire 5 or 6 nights has really kept the temp up in the house. Morning temp in my house, 53. 61 in the closed computer room thanks to body heat and the computer. A chilly 46 in a closed off room on the other side of the house.

Still cool outside. Had to deliver my neighborhood's newsletter and spent almost 45 minutes in the refreshing weather.

We do have a lot of hibiscus. It didn't do well. That is relatively new to our yard, so we have never had it in a bad freeze, so we don't know what it might do. Good to know it might come back.

The thing that look like banana trees is actually a giant bird of paradise. It can die in a freeze, but so far looks like it is just looking worse. It might not have been enough to kill it entirely. We actually used to have banana trees but they did die in freezes. Eventually the either all died or they were taken out when my dad built a tree house in our yard. It was later sold to someone and where the big group of plumeria are is where the banana trees once were.

A lot of things take awhile to show damage. There is a lot more damage showing today. Had a tiny bit of front this morning too in places.

A lot of the problems I think we have with some of the trees is losing their leaves. Some of these trees don't put on new leaves each spring. If they lose the leaves, that's probably it for that part of the tree. Meaning, without leaves the tree can't produce food to survive and it dies. That is what takes so long to know if it will survive.

We had our biggest plumeria trees die last year, or maybe it was a couple years ago now, in a relatively minor freeze. Unfortunately, we'll probably lose a lot. The only large tree that survived that last time was the one nearest to the house, the one that lost its leaves instantly. We had a lot of seed pods this year, maybe a couple dozen containing sometimes several dozen seeds each, but they are melting already. I think that is a sign to come. They take awhile to get black inside and die. I'm not sure how they survive in winter without leaves anyway. But the cold shock really gets to whatever process they use to survive until they grow leaves back. We just have way too many to cover. We did cover a lot one year, but since the ground was so cold this year prior to it, it would likely not have helped significantly.

We have some palm trees that have wilted leaves here, but most in our yard look pretty good. Some neighbors have some different types and they don't look that great, but I don't think it was quite cold enough here to kill those. Seems like it will kill the palm frawns but not the tree.

The thing about the plants is that my dad has simply taken care of them since he has lived here for about 30 years. While there has been expense over the years, a lot of this stuff grew, it was not planted big. If it dies, we will not be replacing it. Too expensive. And logistically the big stuff could not be replaced anyway, which is why it was unique. My dad propagated a lot of the plants over the years.

Meanwhile the areas crops are mixed. Lots of fish died in the tropical fish industry. Strawberries seem to have been okay in a lot of places, but there was a story on a kumquat crop that was pretty devastated, though the trees made it out okay for next year. I haven't heard about anything regarding trees dying, so hopefully any loses will be confined to this year. They were say on the news that we have all sorts of crops around here. I had no idea we had like dozens of different types.

The trees at my house have done not so bad since the 1985 freeze. I got curious about that one and looked up some of Tampa's worst freezes in modern times.

January 21 and 22, 1985:
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KTPA/1985/1/21/DailyHistory.html
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KTPA/1985/1/22/DailyHistory.html
As low as 21. Record January low.

December 25 through 27, 1983:
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KTPA/1983/12/25/DailyHistory.html
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KTPA/1983/12/26/DailyHistory.html
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KTPA/1983/12/27/DailyHistory.html
As low as 19. 1 degree away from the December 13, 1962 all time Tampa low of 1988.

Those are the two freezes that have previously wiped out our yard. (Trees included.) And it might have also driven the citrus industry even further south in the state. I think I heard that somewhere.

Some quick pictures.

The plumeria that my dad put in the garage. Might be a few hibiscus in there too. You can see the stalks he broke off that you can grow new trees from in case all the others die. That is the main reason we have so many. Keep breaking some off, especially due to freezes, and have a lot more to plant when a majority live.


Another picture of the schefflera tree I posted before, as seen this evening:


And the rubber tree, as seen this morning, with leaves browning:
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Pictures of plants before and after freeze at my house - Chris in Tampa, 1/11/2010, 12:29 am
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