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[Sunshine]

Update- both plants lost all of their leafs. I give it a 50/50 chance they will survive.

[New Wisdom]

Time to begin the great plant migration of 2014...
Everything has grown so much this past year. I fear that navigating my house for the next 6 months will be like exploring deep jungle=)

It's going to be like Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Texas, Peru, and Arizona in my house during the winter. Lol!

1 Like Chicsa likes this.

[Greentoe]

I meant to post an update on here a long time ago about last winter. Turns out the psychotria alba plants I thought died still had some life left in them. Above soil the plants appeared dead, but come spring they started growing back from the roots.

This winter I plan to find out if a more mature plant, with thick woody stems might fare better. If it goes deciduous and regrows leaves from the stem in spring I'm going to start putting them in the ground.

3 Likes Mandrake, happyconcacti and MadPlanter like this.

[Saros]

Nobody had a great suggestion to add an age column to the table so we can keep track of how well plants at different ages cope with cold. This will be useful information for the TEGG project.
So please make note of how old a particular plant is when reporting it's survival or mortality:)

1 Like TBM likes this.

[Frog Pajamas]

I accidentally left a 10 month old Mimosa Arenosa outside overnight last night, with a low temperature of 4-5C. It probably spent about 3 hours at the low, with another 7 or 8 hours under 10C.

It looks perfect this morning- no issues at all; I will update if it develops issues in the coming days. In my observation the arenosas are the most cold tolerant of the three mimosas.

1 Like happyconcacti likes this.

[Chicsa]

2 Mimosa Hostillis outside in multiple mornings of 45*F-50 (~7*C-10*C) No Damage noticed 1 had some drooping today on just the top node, unknown if from cold.
Hawiian Baby Woodrose one morning of 45*f-50f no damage or stress noticed
2 Psychotria Vidiriis multiple mornings of 45f-50f no damage or stress noticed
Cielo B. Caapi multiple mornings of 45f-50f no damage or stress noticed

2 Likes Frog Pajamas and gnosis like this.

[Frog Pajamas]

Phalaris Arundinacea "Big Med:"

Left it outside all winter on a covered porch. Lows were in the 20's to 30's (farenheit) nightly for a few months and we had highs in the 20's and lows in the single digits for about 4 weeks. It looked dead all winter but started growing a couple weeks ago and has a ton of shoots now.

Definetly a possible seasonal grower for anyone with limited indoor lighting in a colder climate.

2 Likes TBM and AcaciaAve like this.

[BubbleCat]

I guess this doesnt mean I can put my 3 leaf Nervosa outside just because the temperatures dont hit 0C anymore ? isnt it I think it needs / wants to go out.

Tabernathe Iboga:

lacking options I had them both in temps as low as 10 C for werks, maybe months. I consider it a pass, they still can be seen in my grow log, only the one that I moved into 25 C really took off and does much better. But yeah 19 C is okay for a long time.

[Greentoe]

I left my Iboga in an unheated greenhouse over winter. It only stays a couple degrees warmer in there than it is outside. It survived freezing temperatures, at least for brief periods of time. It lost most of its leaves but now it's putting out new growth and looks like it has some flower buds on it too. I repotted it earlier today and was surprised to see just how many roots this one year plant has.

1 Like MirlitonVine likes this.

[SoulGrower]

This is pretty exciting!  It seems that there are a few species I was under the impression would simply not survive cold.. much less freezing.  There are now several reports which indicate these tropical plants can do quite well outside, in the ground:

T iboga        --> may survive brief freezing temps (likely deciduous outside it's natural environment)
M speciosa  --> same
M tenuiflora --> same
S divinorum --> may be ok with temps to the 30's (mid 20's with some protection i.e. covering with a sheet)

I was certainly under the impression that M speciosa really got damaged below 65F.  Kept mine in a hoop house this winter.  Gonna be too big for that next year.  It's going in the ground this week to see how it fairs in my subtropical climate (brief freezing temps every few years).

I've also noticed that sometimes fairly well established zones for certain plants just aren't always accurate.  In my area, there are quite a few mature landscape plants that literature say are only suitable for 11-12.  I'm right on a line for 9b-10a however.  I think you can plant species a zone or two outside your range, and sometimes get lucky.

2 Likes Bach and MirlitonVine like this.

[MirlitonVine]

I've also noticed that sometimes fairly well established zones for certain plants just aren't always accurate.  In my area, there are quite a few mature landscape plants that literature say are only suitable for 11-12.  I'm right on a line for 9b-10a however.  I think you can plant species a zone or two outside your range, and sometimes get lucky.

Totally agree. Many people it seems think these rules are set in stone. It's more complicated than that. Plant can adapt quite well. I live in the exact zone as you do, I have quite a few plants which conventional wisdom would say could not survive frost/ freezes, yet they do fine.

Check out my mimosa tenuiflora, growing in the ground, survived 3 or 4 frosts, and one hard freeze.

And my HBWR who was on the edge of my un-heated greenhouse, it dropped below 32 in there for shore, all it's leaves were fried. It was cold enough in there to kill all of my coleus plants, various mints and a plumeria.

One of my psychotrias was also in the same spot next to the wall, it stayed green. I thought this plant was an alba, but it's beginning to show the stipules now, so if it's a viritis that's even more awesome.

My caapi was also in the greenhouse for the hard freeze. I had just got it in the mail and if I would have known it was going to freeze inside the greenhouse, I would have brought it into the house. It's just fine, enjoying her new home.

[BubbleCat]

I am bringing the Voacanga in and thought I want to report on recent conditions. It germinated August 2014 and spend this year as a balkony plant. In recent nights it has lived through 10 Celcius and maybe slightly lower with no harm or anything. Growth isnt measurable anymore though. I dont want to push my luck and see how low it goes until there is first damage.

[happyconcacti]

Hi All,

We've had an abnormally cold start to winter. We've had 4 or 5 nights where temps dipped below freezing (29F was the lowest -1.6C)

Things doing just fine:
2ft t. terscheckii, no damage at all
2x 6ft. Acacia acuminata v. narrow phyllode, actually still growing at the tips, amazing!
2x 5ft. Acacia maidenii, not looking so great, phosphorous deficiency I think, but not seemingly affected by the freeze
bunches of PC pachanoi, no damage at all

The only thing that does look so good after the cold temps:
1x 3ft. mimosa hostilis, the leaves have all turned brown and mostly fallen off, the stems seem to be alive, hopefully comes back in the Spring

A note about terscheckii:
the cacti grower that I'm working for keeps telling me terscheckii handle the cold better than most other cacti he's grown, including the native saguaro. He really thinks that they'll do just fine in zone 7a and possibly a bit colder. And so far, it seems to be true.

Peace,
hcc

1 Like AcaciaAve likes this.

[Chicsa]

cold damage to young caapis noticed one night of 46*F and a 2nd night of 50*F (7am-8am is hour of lowest temp)
Larger caapi seemed uneffected as did the HBWR

1 Like FewTrueSeed likes this.

[oplopanax]

My attempt to over winter Mimosa tenuiflora here in the PNW in a greenhouse failed, she made it though the first freeze just fine, but that only lasted for a few days and when I went to check on her after this last cold snap (about a week of below freezing temps, frozen ground outside & some snow) she looks pretty dead, the trunk does not scratch green.

One thing that I wish I had noticed was that all the water that I had in a big tub in the greenhouse to act as a heat sink had evaporated before or during this freeze, if I had refilled it maybe the plant would have survived.

On the other hand, mt entire Trichocereus collection did just fine in an uninsulated shed for the entirety of the freeze, all I did was put a heat lamp in there like the one I use for baby chickens. This is amazing since I have lost so many cacti in similar conditions minus the heat lamp, and the amount of heat it gives off seems negligible.