Brrr... is cold here too!!!!
I also cover my cold sensitive plants, enter my seedlings and water the rest hoping for the best. Now everybody is outside getting as much sun and warm as they can, tonight... inside they will come.
Although I stay inside most of the day, a little cold like this is nice, as you said "kill the tropical pests".
Mariae.

I've been indoors mostly since late in fall... you are lucky to only experience cold temperatures once in a while! We get frigid temperatures, ice and snow, and below zero wind chills every year... and they last several months!

I think if you refrain from watering anything outdoors... cold and wet equal rot... and keep everything tender blanketed, you'll be fine. Enjoy the pest killing properties of this cold spell, and enjoy the crisp, chilly air... you won't get another opportunity to experience it for a while!

We're supposed to get rising temperatures within the next few days... in the lower 50s, they say. We shall see. I'm just hoping for an early and warm spring!

Hey there Florida neighbors. I am Way Down here in SW Florida and we had close to freezing last night and 20's expected tonight. I have been here 30 some years and never seen as many cold spells as we are having this season. Keep warm and safe.

What happen to the Florida Oranges? :-(

Maria, if the oranges weren't picked wherever the temperature dropped below freezing long enough to freeze any of the fruit contents,then the fruit must be picked very quickly and the fruit only used in processes that would destroy any bacteria. Nothing from the fruit is wasted anymore.citrus oil, fragrances,citric acid, ascorbic acid,
fructose and many other things are extracted by heat,steam amd pressure,among other ways. The skin and pulp are candied
in it's own juices to make a nutritious, tasty animal food.
The trees will stand several hours of twenty six degrees Fah. The fruit will stand a little freezing weather,too. How much depends on sugar and acid content,the thickness of the peel and genetics.
Very few of the commercial groves remain in pasco county.In fact all the processing plants moved south of highway 60 which runs across the middle of the state,through Tampa,because the groves are farther south. Farmers Didn't replant after the last series of hard freezes.The exception are the Kumquat groves around Dade city-San Antone. I moved here as a boy in 1955. I believe that was the year that the top couple of inches of the earth froze. It was 17 degrees Fah most of the day.I was from Moultrie Georgia and I had never seen it that cold.My Georgia grandmother had a large satsuma orange tree there. Cindeea,I would like a
l- o- n- g
spring;instead of jumping from cold to hot,as usual.

Del

Here are my plants taking refuge from cold.
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Jan, I love your home! It's so bright and airy looking... very lovely! And all your plants look happy!

If I'm correct, you have quite a collection of Hoyas going on, there! Very nice!

Thank you for sharing your home and plants!

Ouch! These sudden hard freeze/cold fronts hurt, don't they?

We were supposed to get down to 23 last night. The internet weather web sites said it was only 28-29, but it felt mighty cold outside.

A local and privately owned weather station that is on the internet says that we got down to 22.5 at about 5:30am. I don't know who to believe because my remote thermostats were destroyed in one of the hurricanes.

Doesn't matter, I suppose because all of my potted hippies are in the garage, patio, porch or greenhouse, and with a forecast of 23 degrees, you'd better believe that some of those areas were provided with extra heat.

23 is terribly cold for here, and extra cold for the Tampa area.

Let us know how your amaryllis did, okay? I have so many that need to go in the garden, but I am an overprotective mother. I need encouragement.

Is it going to get that cold again tonight? Our forecast is for 28-29 which is cold enough....

Ann

(((eliz))) hey girlfriend. Yep, we are expecting upper 20s tonight. Jan lives near but on the end of a beautiful canal and that helped protect them some over there. We are more inland where last freeze was 28 degrees. The amaryllis I have in the ground is in the circle bed in the front yard under frost cloth and there is an uplight on the tree there hopefully keeping the 6-9 bulbs at budding/blooming stage warm. I have another few ground bulbs that were smaller sized around the A/C unit...the dryer vent is there and it is next to my pergola with Christmas lights wrapped around my Vanilla ORchid and dennis rigged up an old fashioned car lot light string of 25 watt bulbs to go under the pergola keeping bromeliads and hoyas and pineapples warm (I HOPE!!!)

Del, nice to meet another fellow Floridian on the Amaryllis forum. You are kinda inland, near Arcadia? JHow's your temps. I remember when I first moved to FL a friend of mine moved to Atlanta. I had just moved down here from Michigan. Anyway I went to visit her and they had an ice storm, and no one knew how to drive. There were cars, trucks, busses just stopped in the roads as people abandoned them. I was one of the few people who knew how t get around. It was really weird. And in 30 years it's also been a long time since we have had "a
l-o-n-g spring that was comfortable. Perhaps we will see it milder on the heat side! Good luck witht the freeze.

Hi all of you Floridians. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr -- We have been very cold here in NJ, around zero for a couple days, but then it's going to warm up to 40's for several days in the afternoons. On Monday, I'm going to Florida for a few days (please let it be warm). Was looking for some nice green scenery and some flowers. Hope it's not all frozen and brown. Are the Oleanders out yet? I used to live in Altoona (on the southern edge of the Ocala state forest) for awhile while I was a child. Went to Umatilla for Jr. High. I can remember going out with boiling water in the a.m. to thaw out the hand pump to get water. My daughter lives down there somewhere around Orlando. She has not spoken to me in almost three years -- not really sure why, but we are supposed to meet up next week. She's bringing my two grown granddaughters who are around 20 and 25. Wish me luck. I'm half anxious and half scared. Will also be going to Port Charlotte for a visit and over to Pompano Beach to check out some Hibiscus. Please be warm, Florida.

Jan, that is one gorgeous room! It's so sunny and warm, and love all that greenery. Thanks for sharing.

Jodi & Kitty, thanks for your kind words.
Kitty, I wish you the best with your daughter & hope it's warm down here when you visit.

Hi to npublici.
Interesting to hear you refer to AhnKhe. I spent a year there back in 1966-7 and still have fond memories of the place. A very beautiful area. Have often thought of going back some day. I have friends in the south of Vietnam and have been tempted to return. Welcome to Florida although I think Vietnam is much prettier than Florida.

I must agree with haitidoc... all the photos I've seen of Vietnam are so lovely... the mountain scenery of Xuan's home is gorgeous! Although, Florida is much closer and easier to get to if a person wants to enjoy the warmth and tropical vegetation!

Kitty... you're such a wonderful person, I can't imagine everything not going smoothly! Time is so fleeting, and family is really all we have... I pray that you are able to mend fences and spend wonderful time with your daughter and her daughters. :-) I'll be with you in spirit.

I was at Ahn Khe Sept 65 to Feb 66 when as a soldier,I was sprayed with agent orange,along with the trees around the camp.We cut the trunks for bunkers and burned the small stuff for three weeks,breathing the smoke.I am very fortunate to be alive, due to the multiple things wrong with my body. So very many have died from it. Nothing can match the beauty of most of Vietnam. The only thing I ever disliked was when it tried to rain a years worth of rain in one day,with half inch raindrops blowing sideways. The terrain is beautiful, the weather almost perfect and the people are beautifully featured.
Del

Kitty, I too wish you the best. Family is crazy and I suppose we must make the best of it- what is said: change what you can and cope with what you can't- some things are outside of one's control.

Del, it sounds like you have been through hell too. A crazy world we live in to spray poisonous defoliants on a most incredibly beautiful place. A reminder on the follies of wars I think.

We humans are so destructive... we hurt our environment, and even worse, we hurt each other. I pray that someday soon, we can all live in peace, treating each other as we want to be treated. It's really not so difficult! Live and let live!

I feel for all the casualties of our destructiveness as a species, whether from war or from any man made disaster. When are we going to learn... life is so short and so precious!