Winter rolled in early this year in Florida.  Typically we may have a slight chance of frost in December, but if we are going to encounter sub-freezing weather, it usually comes in January or early February.  This week we are in the midst of a hard freeze.  Last night the temps here dropped down to 25f.  As I am typing this at 2:00am Wednesday morning it is already 26f in my brugmansia growing area.  I'm sure it will drop 3-4 degrees more before sunrise.  To protect my plants from this sub ...

This year is off to a frigid start as cold air plummets south and puts Florida in a deep freeze.  We have already had two nights of below freezing temperatures and now the forecast shows below freezing temperatures through the weekend.This is how Rosalie looked this morning when I went out to check on my brugs.  I rely on sprinklers to protect a large percentage of my new seedlings.  I started the sprinklers at 1:00am last night and kept them on till 10:00am this morning.  It will most ...

Thank goodness no, but the billowy white frost cloth sort of gives the appearance of snow mounds from a distance.With a long spell of cold weather in the forecast this week, I covered many of my in-ground brugs with frost cloth.  Hopefully this will provide a few extra degrees of warmth, enough to keep them from experiencing the freeze damage they would incur if I did not cover them. The large covered plant on the right in the photo below is a 8 foot tall Cherub.  It was just getting ready ...

Well it looks like we are going to start the new Year off with a bang!  The National Weather Service has just issued freeze warnings for Sunday and Monday mornings.This graphic above is the forecast from AccuWeather.com.  I like Weather Underground's forecast better, a low of 31 for both Sunday and Monday mornings.  Two degrees can make a big difference with my Angel Trumpets.   I have found Weather Underground to be historically more accurate around here than AccuWeather.Well, I know what ...

Yesterday morning it dropped down to 34, cold enough to generate some scattered frost amongst my Angel Trumpet seedlings.  This sort of caught me off guard because I did not see any frost warnings in the forecast.  I could have easily scheduled the overhead sprinkles to come on in the wee hours of the morning, protecting my plants from frost.The damage was only to the upper most, tender growth.  I did not see any damage to the stems or to the more than 100 seed pods currently developing on ...

It looks like D-day is just around the corner.  The dreaded day I'm referring to is our first night with frost and potentially freezing weather.  I was hoping we could slide through the winter without either, but the odds of that happening are not looking good right now.  Here's what Accuweather has to say - "Clear with the temperature approaching the record low of 28 set in 1979; watch for a hard freeze".  Oh joy, guess I know how I'll be spending the new year, covering plants with frost ...