Frigid Florida

Well, it's another chilly Florida morning. At 7:30 AM it was about 35 degrees outside. I don't know how cold it got here last night, but seems most of the area was getting down to 27-32 degrees, and the orange groves are in jeopardy. I think that my orange tree is okay.


I brought in my other potted plants and vegetables last night.


Some are already freeze-bitten or haggard from the cold wind. They'll be staying in today and tonight, as there is another freeze warning tonight. The wind chill is 5-10 degrees cooler than the outside temp, thanks to the 20 mph winds, so it really feels like it is 25-30 degrees outside. We won't even make it out of the 50s today.

However the weather rebounds for this weekend, and we'll be 70 degrees again by Saturday. That may be a good day to go kayaking! The cold weather has the manatee huddling together down at the power plant, so as it warms this weekend they will be venturing out into the river to feed. Good day to see them up close and have them interact with you. Last year we had one come right up to our kayak and hang out for probably 20 minutes while it laid on its back and "licked" the bottom of the boat. Must have been some mineral build up or something that it liked. We got to scratch its nose while it snacked on our canoe and snorted water on us. Fun!

Rare Florida Freeze

Well, while I was out of town on business, Florida got hit with a rare freeze-- the likes of which I haven't seen for many years. It got down to the upper 20s in Orlando where I was on business. When we went to leave about 6:30 AM to go to our show, there was ice on the windshield that had to be scraped off.

I'm not sure how cold it got at my place, but I think this area got around freezing. I worried what I would come home to. I knew about the cold weather ahead of time, so I brought in my potted plants before I left. So my veggies came through okay. I was really lucky. I only have one plant that I've found that could turn out to be totally destroyed by the freeze. That's my Chenille Plant:


A tour around my yard found a couple of other plants that seem damaged or stressed. For some reason, the Areca Palm behind the shed seems to have been hit pretty hard, but all my other Arecas are fine:


Also one of my banana trees seems to have been hit pretty hard:


And the other tree seems stressed, as does the (Draecaena?) next to it:


My ferns seem pretty stressed, but I think they'll survive...


...and likewise the Bird of Paradise looks a little stressed, but I think it will be okay:


On the positive side, my Poinsettia continues to bloom.


I'm excited about this! I've never before gotten a poinsettia to bloom again. Now I just need to trim it down and see how it does next year.

Also the bougainvillea by the shed has finally started to really throw some blooms.


It has been a little slower to bloom than the one out in the sun.

The Cape Jasmine is still hanging onto that bud, and won't let it bloom.


My tomato plant keeps going.


I think it's got about five tomatoes on it now.

My mango blooms keep going, too...


...and my eggplant and yellow pepper.


I have a flower coming in on my White Bird of Paradise:


The cauliflower are getting big, too, and need to be split up among more pots.


So I got pretty lucky with the freeze. A lot of people lost a lot of good plants. However I play a sort of "survival of the fittest" type of game in my yard. I refuse to spend too much time protecting and maintaining everything.