Lost all my...

17 years ago

A couple weeks ago, we had our coldest blast of the year (winter not over yet though) and we had a couple nights at 10 degrees below zero. We were overwintering quite a few plants in a small "nursery" building...basically a 8' x 10' shed with a sloped plexiglass side. This was heated with a ceramic heater to a comfortable 50-55 degrees (at night). Just before that cold snap, I put a second heater in for extra insurance. Unfortunately we lost power that night and everything froze. We were overwintering a dozen very large verigated leaf Pelagoniums along with a dozen 12" hanging baskets with various cutting type ivy Pelagoniums (gorgeous huge blooms). All were doing quite well and were blooming very nicely and had fresh growth that we were looking forward to taking more cuttings from. Needless to say, we are sick with our losses. Along with these were other geraniums, New Guinea Impatiens, a couple ferns, etc. I guess we learned our lesson and have since purchased a small propane heater and a small kerosene heater for backup to get us by future outages in the winter. It will take us forever to make up what we lost. Sad but true. I hope no-one else goes thru what we had to. Good luck to everyone else and take care of those plants!

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Comments (5)

malibu_rose
17 years ago
So sorry to hear that. Hope you will be able to replace most of these you lost. Good luck.
homemommy
17 years ago
That is terrible. sorry for your loss.
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jeannie7
17 years ago
Blueflint, did you have to replace them. As you have brought them along through winter...and then they suffered what they might have got last fall if left outside, they might still have life in them if they haven't gone all mushy.
Cut them back to exert as little pressure on them when you give them new sunlight, new watering. If there's life in them even a little, they might well surprise you.
Fresh potting soil might be called for....if the ice crystals have formed in the soil, it might have destroyed the soil's ability to drain well.
Anyway, if you haven't disposed of them yet, they deserve a chance.
A southern or western...or in a pinch an eastern exposure inside your home might be the best place to bring them along.
blueflint
Original Author
17 years ago
As bad as I hate it, they were frozen solid, down to 10 below. The thawed plants turned to mush. I had hoped the crowns had survived but nothing... The seed type Pelas are fairly easy to replace and I have seedlings already up. It was the fantastic cutting types that I am sick over. We had an ivy leaf type that had the biggest most beautiful wine colored flower heads (unlike the small flowers of the seed ivy types) and had trailed to 3 feet off the pots. I had these plants (6 big ones) for a couple years. The other ones I am sick over were the verigated leaf Pelas. Some were "Kalideoscope", others I don't know the name of. I found these were tough plants and grew very well for us and added interest and flash in the beds. What a sad thing to happen.
mehearty
17 years ago
Oh Blueflint, I am so very sorry. =(