Florida Plants/Trees Killed by the Big Freeze

[gatorcane]

This freeze/wind event has not happened in a *long* time for Florida. Florida freezes usually happen only during radiational cooling, especially for peninsula florida. A member here noted that Pinellas County (a county surrounded by water on 3 sides) has not seen freezing temperatures like this since 1979).

I think *alot* of plants have died with this freeze event especially tropical plants that previously were growing in the west and southwest parts of the state (including but not limited to the Tampa Bay area, and Ft Myers). Those that planted Royal or coconut palms in the Tampa Bay area for example, may be sorry after this freeze.

I would like to open this thread so that we can share what plants or trees of yours were impacted (pics would be nice also).

[JonathanBelles]

I'll go out later when it warms up to see if there was any plant damage. I dont think there was too much. The giant palm in my front yard looks ok. Im kinda hoping the poop palm will die. I call it a poop palm because it was planted probably 15 years ago and only grew a foot tall. Its annoying when your mowing. The orange trees are another story. They were mostly empty this season anyway because of the drought last winter and spring, but this might hurt them even more. One of the trees is mostly dead, but it was mostly dead before the freeze.

[gatorcane]

I'll go out later when it warms up to see if there was any plant damage. I dont think there was too much. The giant palm in my front yard looks ok. Im kinda hoping the poop palm will die. I call it a poop palm because it was planted probably 15 years ago and only grew a foot tall. Its annoying when your mowing. The orange trees are another story. They were mostly empty this season anyway because of the drought last winter and spring, but this might hurt them even more. One of the trees is mostly dead, but it was mostly dead before the freeze.

Usually it takes about 48 hours to notice the damage so I think damage reports will be trickling in over the next couple of days.

[ohiostorm]

Take out your Poop Palm and I'll buy it off you and put it in a planter and stick it in my room here. HAHA

[jasons2k]

Yes, it will be a few days before the freeze damage (or death) is apparent.

I was just in the Tampa area over Thanksgiving and there were a LOT more true tropical plants there than when I lived there in the 70's and 80's. There were a lot of Royal palms, Coconut palms, Manila/Christmas palms, Foxtail Palms, Fishtail palms, ficus trees, etc.

My aunt lives in Dunedin and has a large tropical garden - a Coconut, Manila, Foxtail, Bird of Paradise, and many other smaller true tropical plants. She said it was 26F this morning, so I know she will probably lose some (or many) plants.

This is truly a sad event...and why it really irks me when people living in Florida/South Texas pray for bitter cold. The aftermath is no fun whatsoever for gardeners and palm enthusiasts.

[Ed Mahmoud]

I had a lemon tree that appeared to die during the December 2004 cold weather, that started showing new buds and branches the following April, here near Houston.


The Sabal Mexicana, or Texas Sabal Palm, is the only palm tree native to Texas, and thus should easily handle even the worst cold outbreaks that could ever hit Florida.


They were planted in 1936 at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, which has hard freezes every year, and were not killed until the brutal winter of 1983-84.





I don't have that, I have the Mexican Fan Palm or Washingtonia Robusta, or maybe Washingtonia Filifera, I got two of them as small plants at Wal-Mart for five dollars each because the sun had bleached the price tag and bar code too badly to be identified.

I don't even bother wrapping them during the horrifically cold nights into the mid 20s that seem to batter Houston every couple of years, and they survive well. They get by fine on the amount of water I use for the lawn, and one of the little shrub sized plants I got 7 years ago has a 'trunk' close to 7 feet, with fronds reaching another 6 or 7 feet above that.

[JonathanBelles]

I just went out and got an orange of the tree. One thing I noticed, even with the wind, there werent too many oranges down. Anyway, I picked one and it was much sweeter than the others Ive picked this year. No apparent damage to that tree as of yet. It will be months before I will see if the other tree was damaged as it has no oranges on it.

[richtrav]

Looking at the numbers coming in from FL I can't see there being much damage at all, a low of 31 in Orlando and Daytona and 29 in Tampa is nothing at all to get excited about, in the '80s that would have been a mild winter. These minima are still above the historical avg lows for the northern half of the peninsula at least. The wind seemed to stay up all night

Ed, I wouldn't recommend our Sabal mexicana over the native Florida palmettos for cold areas, from my personal experience the Florida palmetto is actually hardier to cold than the TX native. That shouldn't be surprising since the FL palmetto is native all the way to NC while the TX palmetto stops in South TX. I had both out in San Antonio in 1989 when it went down to 6F and the TX palms were defoliated (but survived) while the FL palmettos had little damage. The same was true in College Station, where the minimum was around 2F. Oddly, the FL palmetto also takes our sandy loam soil better than the TX palmetto, it doesn't get nutrient deficiencies (it also does better in hurricanes but that's not a concern in SA). I do think the TX palmetto does better in rocky soils though.

I don't believe many palms survived the one-two punch of 1983 and 1985 up in Dallas, the palms at the TX state fair grounds were killed from what I understand (TX palmettos were also killed west of Austin in the hills). The problem with palm growing in Dallas is not the ultra-low temp events like '89 but rather the week+ long events like 1983 and 1930. I'm sure 1899 would have done it too. But that's a lot of time in between to grow palms.

[jasons2k]

Hey Rich,

I think there will be some damage out of Florida for two reasons - 1) the growing zones have been stretched big-time in recent years with the availablity of true tropicals at the big-box stores. People are planting all kinds of tropicals in the Tampa area that climatologically don't belong there (unless you believe the new Arborsite Hardiness maps). It's just not the same landscape that it was back in 1985. People back then actually followed the hardiness maps & guidelines.

Case & point, back in the 1988, we planted a Royal Palm in the yard. We had to drive to Port Charlotte to even find one in a nursery. Nowadays, you can find them in Orlando along with Coconuts, Manila, Bottle Palms, etc. at almost any "big box" retailer that sells plants. So, there a lot of plants in the ground now that will quickly expire at 32F. (Heck, they even sell Alexander/King, Manila, & Bottle palms here in The Woodlands, TX which is just nuts...Queen Palms & citrus are borderline at best for Houston but they're everywhere here now). BTW the Royal Palm made it one whole year.

2) The wind. As you know, a healthy, mature, pre-watered Coconut or Manila *might* survive 29F on a calm radiational night. But 29F in a windy advective freeze is another story. The wind, I'm sure, burned a lot of plants with this one...

I concur on the Texas Sabal. It's not really recommended. The regular Sabal palms do just fine here and should hold-up in Dallas for many years. Now all the Mexican fans they are planting up-there is another story. All the ones around Denton got toasted when I lived there a few years ago...

[Cookiely]

I think we have major damage to the Paypaya trees and the Banana tree, although I think they will make a comeback after being pruned back. The Avocado tree was shaded somewhat and seems to be doing okay but as noted above it maybe a couple of days before we know for sure.

[jasons2k]

Bananas and Papayas are easy kills, but they are cheap/easy to replace too...

[Ed Mahmoud]

Bananas and Papayas are easy kills, but they are cheap/easy to replace too...

I've heard a lot of the banana plants around here (haven't planted any, but they do look so tropical in the summer) don't die in freezes- the part of the plant above ground is killed back, but the roots will live unless it is a very hard/prolonged freeze and will generate greenery the following Spring.

[jdray]

I bring all my plants in when it freezes.
Potted plants are the way to go.

I refuse to plant palms, as the only native palms around here are:
Saw Palmetto
Cabbage Palm
Dwarf Palmetto


My plants that are exotic are in pots and are brought into the garage during cold snaps.

[jasons2k]

Bananas and Papayas are easy kills, but they are cheap/easy to replace too...

I've heard a lot of the banana plants around here (haven't planted any, but they do look so tropical in the summer) don't die in freezes- the part of the plant above ground is killed back, but the roots will live unless it is a very hard/prolonged freeze and will generate greenery the following Spring.

Yes, the roots (actually rhizomes) will come back if the stalk (trunk) has been frozen. The leaves will freeze with a frost or at 32F. The stalks/trunks will freeze at 32F as well, but they usually don't freeze solid (and turn the whole thing to mush) unless we have a hard freeze.

[richtrav]

Northeast Florida! There are lots of palms that will grow there, not just the 4 endemics. And for JS, I''ve seen a LOT worse than queens and citrus being planted around Houston, king palms and even royal palms come to mind off the top of my head. And the hardier citrus should be fine in Houston; heck, I had a young small Changsha tangerine make it through '89 without freezing all the way to the ground. Problem is most people don't plant the hardy stuff

I still think most of the vegetation in FL is going to be fine, the coconuts in Orlando are not going to croak from a couple of hours at 31. Some foliage damage maybe but that's about it. Heck the coconuts in far South Texas came back from the Christmas snow of '04, they looked like caca for a while but they came back.

[NDG]

As of this evening, damage was only confined to my Papaya trees and Banana trees, no surprise, but only to foliage. My avocado, mango trees had very little if any damage to foliage. Guava tree did get a littel damage to foliage. Royal and Fox tail palms no damage seen so far, temperature only went down to 30.5, so they can both tollorate just about down to 30, they start getting damaged in the upper 20s. My neighbor's queen palms are fine and should be fine, the can stand temps all the way down to the mid 20s. My small baby coconut tree did get some noticeable foliage damage, overall should be fine because I covered it well.

[CajunMama]

I just watched an ap video that said that the citrus crop was spared.

Snow in Florida Forces Beachgoers to Bundle Up
A blast of cold air brought flurries to the Sunshine State on Thursday but seemed to have spared citrus crops from the major damage that growers had feared.(Jan. 3)

http://acadiana.cox.net/cci/apvideo/0103dv_fla_cold_weather_x050b.wmv

[peteywheatstraw]

I was surprised to see it hit 32 this morning in Fort Myers, oddly the same low as at Daytona Beach.

I'm in Baton Rouge where it was 24 this morning. I brought in a potted bougainvillea last night - glad I didn't ground plant it this past fall. The hibiscus bush next to my house has taken four winters with not much problem but looks bad right now. Banana plants are toast but always come back - it would take a soil temperature freeze to kill the roots. My Queen palm looks okay (so far) and I'm not too worried about my satsuma tree.

[peteywheatstraw]

I remember seeing some big old orange trees down around Buras and Boothville, near the mouth of the Mississippi. They survived all the big freezes of the 80s only to get totally wiped out by Katrina.

[Ed Mahmoud]

I remember seeing some big old orange trees down around Buras and Boothville, near the mouth of the Mississippi. They survived all the big freezes of the 80s only to get totally wiped out by Katrina.

There used to be satsuma stands on the road to Venice when I worked offshore.



I know they rebuilt Fourchon, I wonder if Venice is back.