Fred's Garden Blog

Two weekends ago I cut back several thousand brug seedlings that were damaged by our freeze. I also learned a valuable lesson, you really can get sick from handling brugs. I have not had a problem in the past, but I think because so many of the stems I cut back were oozing out sap, and the fact that I was wearing shorts and no shirt, was a bad combination. At first I just had puffy eyes and a major headache, but later ended up with cold like symptoms and insomnia.  It was not a pleasant experience, but I'm pleased to report that I am doing fine now.

Here is how my seedling growing area looked one morning of the freeze.



I ran the sprinklers in hopes that the ice would form a blanket and protect the plants. It did the job until we had two nights of 10+ hours below freezing with the temperature bottoming out at 25-26.

This is how everything looked a couple of weeks after the freeze -



Not all my brugs look as bad as these. I protected about 100 larger stock plants and lots of 4" plants that came through with little damage.

After two days of pruning things started to look a little bit better.



Although most of the tops were damaged, I believe the ice saved most of the seedlings. Had they not been iced over, the pots may have froze solid, killing the roots.

I still have lots of cleaning up to do to remove all the cuttings. I also have another growing area with larger plants that need selective pruning as they only received minor damage.



The good news is that as I was pruning I could already see new growth sprouting out from the base of many of the plants.

Next year I assure you I will have my greenhouse built for sure!

This is a continuation of yesterday's post showcasing an assortment of freeze damage plants from my yard.

I'm not sure if my monstera suffered stem damage or if just the foliage was damaged.

The smell of death is the air as plants damaged by Florida's recent devastating freeze succumb to Mother Nature's wrath. The visual impact is bad enough without the need to max out the senses with the smell of decaying foliage.  

I thought I would share some pictures of the ugliness in my yard. At least I have enough evergreen plants scattered around to balance out the signs of death.

My dog Inga blends in well with many shades of brown the freeze has generated. Here you'll see brunfelsia (foreground) and tibouchina (background) showing severe damage.

I guess I should not expect any bananas this spring.

The clerodendron (right) really took a beating. The acacia on the left will have to be cut back to the ground.

My yard grown brugmansia look like death warmed over.

The gold dust croton is one of the hardier types of crotons and it also succumbed to the cold this winter.

It would be cool if this Ixora would keep this nice bronze color year round.

This giant king sago is going to need a major pruning next month, something I am not looking forward to because of the serrated stems.

I'll use my lawn mower to trim the asparagus fern. I have large beds of sprengeri plus some smaller plantings of meyer (below).

More photos to come....

You may have noticed I'm a few days behind on my posts.  The reason is because I managed to accidentally step into a hole, knocking my back out of whack in the process.  :(   The hole was one from a large potted brug plant I yanked out of the ground so I could protect it from the freeze.

I have been unable to sit at my computer for more than a few minutes at a time so posting has not been high on my priority list.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be better...

Last week's freeze was the biggest cold event in over 20 years according to the local media.  I'm hoping that it will be at least another 20 until we have another one!   For those of you who do not think it gets very cold in Central Florida, I thought I would share a few photos from my winter wonderland here in Clermont.

Citrus really took a beating this time.  I spot checked a bunch of oranges on scattered trees and all showed signs of cold damage.

I had to rely on constant watering to protect my large Angel Trumpet seedlings growing in the open.  With several consecutive nights of 10+ hours below freezing, ice accumulated quickly.

Even though I turned the sprinklers off when the temperature reached 37, piles of ice were still present when I had to start the sprinklers  up again after sundown.

While an acre of glistening ice may have been a beautiful sight to some, now that the temperatures are back to normal it is not a pretty sight at all.

The photo above gives a whole new meaning to the term "Frozen Orange Juice".  Those oranges had accumulated over an inch of ice during the course of the evening. I'll be busy squeezing lots of oranges this weekend, filling my freezer up with fresh OJ.  Once an orange suffers freeze damage you have 7-10 days to use it before it spoils.

This is a new cactus called "icicle cactus".  Cool, isn't it!  :)

I hope this is the last external garden ice I have to see for quite some time.

Now that the temperatures have warmed back up to the 60's, the lizards have thawed out and are back on the move.  This little guy was soaking up some sun on an empty plant bench.

I'm not sure what to think of this new Angel Trumpet seedling.  It is a cross of brugmansia Bernstein x New Orleans Lady.

If it had the bright orange color of brugmansia Bernstein it would be a winner for sure.  Better yet, a new Orleans Lady style bloom with Bernstein's color!  Maybe a cross back to its parents will do the trick?

This new Angel Trumpet seedling certainly fits the definition of razzle-dazzle, "showiness, brilliance, or virtuosity in technique or effect, often without concomitant substance or worth". 

The seedling is a cross between brugmansia Axel Rose x Ludger's Windsong.  The crazy tendrils are a carry-over from its father.  I wish it was a deeper yellow, but you never know how the color will develop when warm weather arrives in a few months.

Today I'm featuring a new Angel Trumpet seedling that has brugmansia Creamsicle as its father. Looking at these two blooms side by side you can see where the Creamsicle part fits in.  The newer bloom on the right is cream colored while the older bloom is orange. Combine the two and you have a Creamsicle!

Meet today's featured seedling, a cross between brugmansia Rubiline x Creamsicle.  The blooms pictured below are about 2 days apart in age.

Today's featured Angel Trumpet bloom has edges and tendrils that almost appear as if they have been toasted.  The blooms are from a cross between brugmansia Axel Rose x Mountain Magic.

Even as the flower matured the color did not extend past the outer edges of the bloom and the tendrils.  The bloom had a nice shape and was long lasting.  It will be interesting to see what this one does the next time it blooms.