Ugh Oh Cold!!!

[Shiffdaddy]

Today is supposed to be the last cold day for a while! It 29 right now and was 26 last night. So far no casuties. I had my dad place all my exposed plants on a table with a covering and then wrapped thick inulating blankets all around so only a little air could travel through and then we got a powerful spot light that's stays on the pointing them all night, this light is hothot not close enough to burn but all the sheets help bundle the heat. It works great and I'm glad for it to be over!

Ben

[WhiteRabbit]

My poor hibiscus! I didn't think it needed to be covered, as it is next to the house and slightly sheltered by the roof over-hang .... apparently I was mistaken

[Leafmite]

The hibiscus might recover. Mine have lost all of their leaves (frost, temps colder than predicted) and grown new ones. Weather here is so unpredictible that forecasts are often wrong. Hope it recovers for you.
Glad to hear the orchids survived.

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

The hibiscus might recover. Mine have lost all of their leaves (frost, temps colder than predicted) and grown new ones. Weather here is so unpredictible that forecasts are often wrong. Hope it recovers for you.
Glad to hear the orchids survived.

aw - thanks It just looks awful! It doesn't get cold enough here to kill most plants, but can (as it did) get cold enough to freeze foliage - so I'm pretty certain it will be ok, but looks horrible (my unprotected Gerbera daisies always get frozen in winter, all the foliage dies, but they come back great!) - and of course probably won't bloom for some time, as it will need all new growth

Yes, orchids were all protected - in garage, or at least well sheltered (for the cold tolerant ones) - I'm lazy about in ground plants tho ...

Now I need to get on moving the orchids back, and I'm sure most will want some water.

[RosieC]

23F overnight here and it's only got up to about 25F during the day. All the trees and plants are covered in ice crystals from a frost that's never left.

Thankfully everything outside should be fine, but my greenhouse got colder than I wanted, with a minimum of about 37F when I was aiming for a minimum of 41F. Only one tiny Disa looks to be a problem and I'm not convinced it wasn't having problems anyway. Everything else is doing fine and a Cyp formosanum is even showing a new growth just starting.

[Stray59]

shiffdaddy:
So glad to hear you orc's are ok! I am sitting in Indianapolis and have seen temps in the 'teens recently, so the idea of "just covering the plants" makes me envious at this time of the year - but we have had some gorgeous snow-covered views recently!!!
Best of luck for the rest of the cold season.
james_mickelso:
What is Visqueen? It seems like I have heard of it before, but I can't remember what it is. And as far as your "pathetic" greenhouse, it looks pretty good to me! In the second pic you posted there is a plant on the floor with two spikes coming up - sort of looks like a cymbidium starting to spike. What is it? All of your collection looks great to me, so in my book, the greenhouse is far from "pathetic".
Congrats on the nice collection -
Steve

[JanS]

I just drove back from Santa Barbara (California) yesterday and on my way back I stopped at Santa Barbara Orchid Estate which I have never visited before (and which is very much worth a look if you are in that area). They have a very large greenhouse, some of it open to the outside and they do not heat it in any way except for a small section where they have some Phals and other temperature ultra-sensitive species. They are very proud of the fact that they grow plants that can (usually) withstand local outdoor temperatures.

Browsing through the place I met an elderly gentleman who was checking on frost damage from the last few days. Having never seen what it looks like I asked and he led me around. They apparently got down to around 26 deg. in some parts of the complex. The most obvious damage was to flowers, which look very obviously drooped and will not recover, but the plant itself, according to him, will be fine. He also showed me previous damage to actual plants which looks like dry yellow spots on leaves and is different from leaf rot which is mushy. The "interesting" thing he pointed out is that the damage may be extensive on one plant and yet not be present at all on another plant of the same species very near to it. So I guess individual plants have individual tolerances. He did say that some years back they had a record-breaking cold spell when it got down to 20F and they lost many, many plants. So at least in their case, there is a major difference between high twenties and low twenties as far as orchid survival.

As for me here in San Diego, I got a small thermostat-controlled heater in my small greenhouse so I don't worry about my plants...I just worry about what my wife will say when the electric bill comes . I love the Christmas lights suggestion and will try it - should be much cheaper than the heater/fan I have now.

[AnonYMouse]

Since the primary reason for having this Kumbava/magrut/Kaffir lime is for the leaves, I cover it when we get frost warnings.
This year, I found super cheap clear umbrellas ($1.50 each!) for it.

[Ordphien]

It had been a rather cold winter in SoCal hasn't it?
Luckily my specific micro climate allows the temps to dip into the low thirties high twenties without any damage to any plant..
Dunno what's so magical about this area but it seems that even my phals handle these temps no problem.
Summer is a big problem for me though...

[Moirae]

Originally Posted by Ordphien

It had been a rather cold winter in SoCal hasn't it?
Luckily my specific micro climate allows the temps to dip into the low thirties high twenties without any damage to any plant..
Dunno what's so magical about this area but it seems that even my phals handle these temps no problem.
Summer is a big problem for me though...

It seems we had a rather hot summer this last year too. Heat wave after heat wave and triple digits. Our air conditioning unit is on the other side of the apartment and doesn't really reach my bedroom windowsill so the area my orchids are in was sometimes getting up to 100 degrees .

The phals didn't mind too much at first (in fact they grew multiple leaves from the warmth and fertilizer), but the consecutive heat waves and days of triple digits was finally too much for them (leaves were hot and starting to droop more) and me. When I saw my thermometer read over 98 for the 4th day in a row and it was still climbing (wound up getting to 106 that day), i moved all my plants in the bathtub, put my showerhead on the mist setting and took a cool shower with my orchids . I dumped the water out of their crowns, put them on the sink and put a fan on them and closed the door to keep the humidity up for the next day and a half. That respite was enough for them to survive the rest of the summer.