hi all,
My plant ecology book, and the course I took last semester taught me that plants in general are evolved to survive at 57.7 degrees F or 15 C (being that this was the average temp of the earth). So I would not worry about nightly drops to the 50s. I keep two phals right by a window that gets plenty cool air this time of year. They are fine. Also, I learned that tropical angiosperms (flowering plants) are capable of surviving 2-3 degrees below freezing for up to 2 hours (depends on the species, trees are better at this than herbaceous plants like our orchids). So while I do not recommend letting your 'chids freeze, if they get a little cold (say 50 or 40 or upper 30's) for a few hours, I would not panic.
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"We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?"
Goblin Market
by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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