pretty gusty winds all night. I think 25mph.

I left my patio umbrella up to help protect some of my container plants and I think the umbrella is now ruined...the wind was just too much, I guess.

This is colder than I was thinking and I didn't protect my crotons that line the front of the house. I think they are only hardy to 35F(and not for extended periods)...that'll be 200bucks down the drain if they don't make it.

live and learn, I guess. I have spent the better part of the past two days bringing plants in the garage,watering,watering, putting blankets on, taking them off, putting them back on,etc.etc.
teeka

36 here in Jupiter farms
But the sun not up yet.....Im sure it will dip a little
No frost as far as i can tell. Dry as a bone :)

Did not cover anything. WAY to windy........

So Ricky, is you heat on? LOL
D`Ann

D'Ann - No heat, but I did let Karen drag an extra blanket out of the closet and we both wore socks to bed.

Your such a sport ! LOL

Here in Summerfield 27 F.

I was up early and recorded 31 in my backyard - tons of steam coming off the koi pond - at least the fish are loving the cooler weather - not my mango trees (in full bloom no less!). Sigh

31 in South Tampa (Davis Islands)

It was 34.5F about 8' high and 12' from my back wall at 05:30 this morning, I can live with that, I think my plants can too.

Gary

I walked three dogs this morning and it was 35 at 5:45 and it was cloudy. No frost that I could see. Right now it is 36, it's going up! Usually right before dawn in goes lower!
Humidy 67 and wind at 18. Burr, I have my heat on but I'm in an old trailer.
The temp. just went up to 37!

It's currently 36 here in Palm City a 1/2 mile from the river.
The heat isn't on here it's 65 in this drafty old house.

they say 32 here in ft.myers feels like 25 with windchill well i am not complaining all my maters and some other stuff are inside my living room right now home made eb's are deffinatly the way to go and for one night no way would i be having much of any kind of plants in NY especially maters in jan. :)

7 am. 34 degrees on the patio. we'll see. too cold for my liken's anyway.... at least it's not zero !!! nor is it for days on end.

Wow! 36 degrees feels mighty cold when you have been in FL for 18 years. I am glad I brought the orchids in. The two hands of bananas are probably history though.

Looks like it was 34.5 for a couple of hours here.
Check this link to personal weather stations for your neighborhood.

Here is a link that might be useful: local reporting stations

I'm showing 31 degrees here in Lithia, but Weather Underground insists it's 28.4 degrees. It didn't get anywhere near their original prediction of 22 degrees, thank goodness.

37 on the P. Pines back patio.

The giant Spath looks forlorn. Yesterday's wind knocked over a metal arbor and a potted tomato plant.

I'm with Ricky, I will bundle up but refuse to pay for heat in Fla!!!!!

27 in downtown deland, but it's already up above 30. brrr... the brugs and bananas don't look happy.

32 degrees in Chuluota at 0700. I think we dodged a bullet! The things I could not cover look a little tattered but nothing is completely melted down.

Four hours to cover stuff - how many to uncover and put away I wonder? Well I guess its about time to find out...

Regarding turning on the heat... I have an upstairs guest suite and since my husband is gone (and will never know) I just turned on the heat up there, put on flannel PJs and (the secret part) had a two dog night with both my Dalmatians in bed with me!!! Cozy warm! It was a shock to go downstairs to 56 degrees though.

Anita

31.9 was the low here in my backyard, under the frostcloth (thanks dghays) with the lights it was a toasty 34.9 nearly the entire night...whew, escaped another one!

It got down to at least 27 in the early hours this morning here in Inverness. Since we live at the bottom of 2 hills mine and my parent's yards are usually the coldest in the neighborhood. When I left for work at 7:00 my half full birdbath was frozen solid but since it was so dry there wasn't any frost on the car or lawn. Here's a few pics I took this morning.
This is the mini birdbath that I keep on the edge of my front porch under the eaves of the house. My outdoor cat uses it as a drinking bowl. This morning it had a thick layer of ice on the top of the water.

This is one of my salvias in the front yard that the stems literally burst and then a thick layer of frost formed on the damaged stems. I'm not sure why the first picture is on it's side even though in photobucket it's upright.

One of my neighbors forgot to turn off his sprinkler system and turned his lawn into ice. He even had icycles hanging off his chainlink fence.

Here's someone else who had their sprinkler on last night. The pictures a bit blurry since I took it while I was driving down the street. The white blob in the middle is actually a small tree covered in ice.

In Brandon, we got down to 29.1 at 7am according to weather underground. We stayed below freezing for about 7 hrs. Brrrr!

I am glad I decided to cut down my banana cluster. I covered my mango and put a light under it. I hope it was enough. We wrapped the trunk of my Tibouchina and covered the top as best as we could but the wind blew it off. I think we may have lost that. It had froze to the ground 2 years ago and was just comming back. It is going to be a depressing week as we survey the damage.

Also in Jupiter Farms, one thermometer read 36, the other 38. No major damage, I think I damaged more stuff covering it up and breaking fronds, etc. I set up a tent that I use for art shows and put a heater under it for all my potted plants and orchids. I'm going to leave the tent up for the rest of the winter - instant greenhouse!

Cherie

karalynn, those are some crazy pics!

It's about 35 outside right now... 9:30 in the morning in North Tampa. Not sure about the absolute low, I woke up too late, but I know we were down in the 20's for awhile. Everything was covered and lit, but... the hibiscus looks pissed off and the ginger is toasted.

freakin' cold!

According to underground weather my low was 30 degrees and I had freezing temps for 6 hours.
I peaked out my window a little while ago and it doesn't look so good. I have alot of things that are going to be mush :-(
I have not taken the blankets off any of the plants that I covered so I don't know how well (or not) they took the cold.

Ariel

The low here was 23 degrees. Mighty chilly, but not as bad as predicted. The birdbath was frozen solid when I went out this morning, but I thawed it with some warm water. The eastern phoebe that sat on the fence watching me seemed to approve :)

Maureen

I woke up at 2:30 from the cold...this despite 3 blankets and heat! I went outside just to see what it was like.....brrrrr it was unbelieveably cold!!! I started feeling guilty for only moving a couple things closer to the house and throwing on 3 sheets.

So how cold is it expected to get tonight?

We got colder than many of you, I think. It was 31 when I went to bed and throughout the night, I checked. It stayed right at 29/30 in my backyard for over 6 hours. Birdbaths frozen solid, and quite a few plants damaged. But my starburst clero looks fine so far. I covered it completely and put a light inside. Did the same thing for one line of coleus that was in-ground, and all but one of those looks okay. The rest of the coleus still scattered about the yard are looking pretty black.

Amazingly, I don't think it hurt either of my scheffleras that are in ground. Both are 8 to 10 feet tall, and it looks like they came through unscathed.

Haven't gone out front yet to check my abelia and my blue sky vine. Pretty sure the vine will be frozen way back.

And guess what? We still didn't turn on the heat! We had a nice, toasty fire all evening, then went to bed under snuggly blankies and comforters, and all was well. Even my mother managed okay...though I DID give her a heating pad to warm up with. I'm so bad, I even left my little fan on that blows directly on me. I did turn off the ceiling fan so Mark wouldn't freeze, though.

I purely LOVE cool/cold weather, but I would prefer it to stay above the freeze point. I hate seeing everything dead after a freeze like this.

Marcia

You're gonna need much colder temps to kill a Schefflera and Clerodendrum will also take the cold. Tonight should be the last of it, warming up by Friday at noon. We should be back on the beach Saturday.

Low in Port St. John, Brevard county: 33 degrees.

Here are some NWS temp maps from 545AM and 715AM today.

Ricky, I read (thanks to Felix) that the clero would survive down to 28, but would lose leaves and buds. I was hoping to save them, and I think it has made it, fingers crossed. But if we had 6 hours of 29 (give or take a bit), I think it would have frozen enough to need cutting back, without protection. My thermometer registered 30 when I first went to bed, and I think it hit 29 during the night. It could have been even colder where the clero was, frankly, as the thermometer is almost against the house, and I'm always concerned that it reads a degree or two warmer than it really is.

My inlaws (in Cape Coral) have a house-high schefflera, and theirs dies all the way to the ground every time there's even a frost. I've had them die to the ground here, too, when it dropped into the upper 20's. The roots didn't die, but the tree had to be cut back to about 2 feet or so. Mine here at this house are so out in the open, I was afraid the same thing would happen.

So far, so good, though. But boy, I've got some seriously damaged coleus, blue daze, false roselle, porterweed, etc.

Marcia

From what I saw this morning, we did pretty well. My brug is not happy, at least the very top where we couldn't reach with sheets, but even my pipevine looked alright. I'll be able to get a good look after work.

Birdbath was still frozen solid at 10:30 this morning. But, stuff I had covered looked very good. Will go out before long and cover them again for tonight. Now I remember why I left Ohio 50+ years ago and never went back. cora

Lucky me. 24 degrees at 2:30. Finally got up to freezing about 9 AM. Its gonna be ugly.

Ariel, I answered your question about newspaper pots on the last thread. If you can't get it email me elfinc1 at earthlink dot net.
ron

It was 31 in my backyard in St Pete at 6am. My alternathera and several coleus look pretty fried. Impatiens and orchids look surprisingly good. Crotons don't look harmed either. I'll wait til tomorrow to unwrap the sheets from the bananas.

Around 5:15 this morning ,My thermometer said 29, husband's car said 27, weather channel said 30, take your pick, Highlands County (Sebring). Either say too COLD for my tropical fruit trees and me.

When I went to bed last night at 11pm it was 32. I woke up at 3am and it was 28. It was still 28 at 7am when I started to get ready for work. Much too cold for most of the plants in my yard. Despite the sheets, most look pretty bad. I live in Lakeland, FL.

Hi mousey,
Glad to hear from somebody else in Lakeland. You must have had the advantage of the 'urban heat sink' or a lake. Living west off Knights-Griffin I had no help.
ron

37* here in Sunrise. Looks like the only things that didn't fare too well were a spiral ginger, a variegated costus that I am trying to save (it was covered) and we have a sabre ukraine tomato that is not very happy. The other tomatoes are good though.

Here's a report from further north.....the low on Wilmington Island ( east of Savannah, GA.) only went down to 28 degrees both nights...but it was below freezing for over 12 hours for each stretch. Interestingly enough, I only suffered damage to my 4 year old ( in the ground) poinsettia, and angels trumpet.. My thornless key lime, bougainvillea, night jasmine, and all the other citrus are completely unscathed....

It's interesting that your tropicals fared as well as or better than many further south.
It reinforces the point that plants that have had a chance to harden off or acclimate are better able to tolerate extremes.
Here in south coastal Florida we've had near record high temperatures for most of December. Mid to upper 80's many days. And very few nights below 70.
So when that cold blast swept through with wind (34 degree low one night with 20+ mph wind) many plants were surprised.

My yard fared well, some wilting and wind dessication of leaves, normal for January. But nothing died!

Nice climate you've got there, Wilmington Islander!

Thanks, Treefrog. It can and does get cold here...I've seen 8 winters here and the average low is has been 25....with a low of 19 one year (2003) and two years with nothing below 30....the 19 degree year dessicated all of my freshly planted citrus, but all survived. The "zone pushing" plants I do have, are planted on the south side of my house with tall oak canopy, which gives me another 3-5 degrees warmth. I used to have a couple of very mature passiflota edulis vines, producing hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of commercial quality fruit, until some sort of fungal problems got them after the 2004 hurricane season. Dr. Wallace from Armstrong Atlantic came and took cuttings from the plant ( a purple possum and a black knight) because they, like lots of things, weren't supposed to grow this far north. Having less sunlight and heatting days in the winter, I am firmly convinced, increases most subtropical plants cold hardiness. Good luck and lets hope my next freezes aren't severe, and you have no more in your forecast.

I havewn't been home yet, but K reports that it got to 21.5 in our back yard, and Cookie says it was 24 in hers. I gave my family instructions on what to do over the phone, but I really didn't expect it to get so extreem, and without me there to supervise, i know some plants got overlooked. I go home tomorrow, and I'm really dreading the damage.

27 in New Tampa. Travelers Palms were hit very hard as every leaf on each of my three were frozen and now curled up. Darn. Took the entire summer last year for them to start looking good again after that late season freeze the last day of February. Hopefully they will survive, as last year only a few leaves curled.

Wanted to add that my chlerodendrums, sky vine, yellow and cherry allamandas, bouganvillea, cannas, bananas, heliconias and crinum lilies were fried too. Suprisingly, my plumbagos escaped damage. Leaves were burned completely on my royal poinciana and a few dwarf poincianas. Variegated scheffleras were somewhat burned, but not as bad as I expected. Variegated ginger came through fine. Pink Ixora's were moderately burned.

My mom read somewhere that the reason plants that should have froze didn't was because of the strong wind we had. The wind kept the cold from settling and damaging too many plants.