Ouch, thats all I can say. From my experience crotons are much less cold tolerant than peace lilies. My variegated piece like made it through 27F with a light coating of snow and al the leaves burned off, but the center was green. Whenever my croton stays out in 32F or colder all the leaves drop off and sometimes it doesn't come back and when it does it takes a while to look good again.

you coco should probably make it though.

Good luck! Its almost over!

Bottomed out at 30 last night. Forecast was waaayy off again. However areas outside the metro were in the teens (Ocala,Fl).

We really bottomed out this morning in Polk County!

The wraping of the coco palm looked solid and most likely saved her. You were wise to take those precautions because the south is getting it bad.

The mid Atlantic is getting a solid winter, but not really unusually cold. I expect and HOPE our lows do not drop below the teens. The current winter pattern gives us cold weather but nothing record.

Either the pattern will stay generally the same off and on, or can unlikely change mid stream for us in the mid-Atlantic to either warmer or colder winter temps.

I expect FL to recover once this pattern brakes. My hope is that it does not reoccur because it was an unusual push of air that went almost directly south instead of turn westward to us and hitting us with more concentrated cold.

This is my fourth winter living in the Virginia Beach area and is by far the worst so far. It went to 8 degrees last night. Based on the last several winters I figured it only goes below 20 F maybe 8-10 times a winter, and has not been below 10 for a few years, so this was the year I started my "greenhouse" with several palms/citrus in the ground.

Wow did I make a lousy choice for a first winter. It's been below 20 almost every night for the last 3 weeks. Even with the lights, electric heater, and kerosene heater (intended as emergency backup, but lately it's been on every night) it still bottomed out at 40 last night. Good enough I guess, but watching this thing is becoming a full-time job.

My queen palm is hopefully doing OK wrapped up with christmas lights (it made it through several 10s last winter) and my lemon tree is even flowering, but wow this has turned into a big headache.

Normally we get a week once in a while into the 70s. I don't think we've seen 60 in over a month, and 50 maybe only once or twice.

Va canuck what part va beach r you from? lol it hasnt gotten lower than 21 here in va beach since like last year 21 was the low here and only 1 night north florida has had much lower temps over the last few days/nights than here. i dont understand where u live? i have queens outside and washingtonias outside with no problem at all not proected at all either

The south seems to not only be getting the worst of this cold air mass, but it actually seems colder there than by me. So far far the coldest I went to was 15F (I think a little colder, probably 13F). The little bit of spanish moss I have on my tree is still alive and has actually grown quite a bit and is establishing itself on other parts of the tree. if this is truly the coldest air we will see all winter, than I will have managed to get spanish moss to survive in a zone 7! One windmill palm I have (out of 2) was kind of on its way out in the fall so I only put a frost cloth on it for protection, so far after 13F no spear pull and only minor leaf burn (which might not be from the cold).

We have been below average everyday for a week, probably 2, maybe more, but fortunately my area has gone below 20 maybe 4 times this winter so far. my pindo palm (outside in its protection) is enjoying temps in the upper 40s right now even though its only in the mid 30s outside.

Good luck everyone!

Yeah, the cold air went directly south without barely any westward mobility until it settled south first. Surprised to hear VB got it that bad, I thought they were spared the coldest nites. Although its true you did not get the fluxuations into the 60s you normally see off and on.

All the pains/headaches the southerns like Canuck are taking to perserve palms and delicate citris are worth it as soon as it warms up a bit and this is just a faded memory. We can now appreciate better what the zone 4-6ers go thru.

This freeze really seemed to highlight the urban heat island effect. The lowest official Orlando low during this cold spell was 29. Fort lauderdale hit 34 and Miami 35. It's hard to believe Orlando was only 5-6 degrees less than traditionally Zone 11 SE Florida, but I certainly believe 20 years ago this cold front would have produced upper teens/ lower 20s here in the orlando metro. The rural outlying areas seem to prove this theory.

I agree with your theory. It is solid.

When vacationing last year in early March and huge cold front dropped FL from the 80s to windy 60s with Orlando facing some 30 degree nites the news said - BUT only for the non-urban areas. Large hiways and building clusters /all rubanized areas of Orlando were exempt from the freeze warning.

Yep, orlando is in a fantastic microclimate. I wonder if Universal studios got that lucky. Last time I was there I saw a large screw pine, lots of hibiscus including a 20' variegated hibiscus, and lots of other tropicals all definitely zone 10 plants. Im sure the city itself got pretty lucky. I wouldnt be surprised if the coconut palms in seaworld make it (but probably with damage). Whatever palms made it through this florida cold blast are long term hardy in there locations for sure.

Good knowledge and observation TZ.

Hi
This has really been a remarkable cold front not so much from the lows as we only set two records and then only by a degree but the daytime highs 42!!! Old record was 47 Also remained below 32 for almost 12 hours. old record 8 hours.
Too early to assess the damage as it's 37 right now .lol
Always a BIG difference between frost and hard freeze and duration is also important
Have not had the nerve to look at my covered orchids growing on the palms .
Was most concerned about the aviary even though I used heat lamps the birds roosted in their usual places!! My main pond is heated but the heater could not keep up for such long periods,particularly with no sun.
Oh well one of the joys of living on the edge lol gary

I live in south Chesapeake near the NC line, but well away from the ocean near US 17. I just say Virginia Beach for the benefit of those not from this area.

These photos were taken in Homestead, FL at just before 7:00 am yesterday (1/11/10).

Temp was down to 29 from about 3:00 am til 7:45 am.

garyfl- what kind of birds do you have? that florida icey rain is crazy... temps will soon pick up tho. vacanuck- did it really get down to 8* there in chesapeake? I have lived here in va beach my whole life and this is prob the worst i almost the last 10 years, cold wise... we have had more snow in the past and icy trees but this cold just needs to go.

Yeah it really did. When I woke up the weather forecast on the net said it was 9, and my temp indicator outside read 8.

Today is probably the last day of the cold for most of the east for a little while at least. Its not too horrible outside right now, 36F here by me. pretty much in or near the 40s from the end of this week to the begining of next week. Might be some preciptation later this week, but temps will probably be mild enough for all (or mostly) rain here. We shall see!

Good luck everyone.
Va canuck...
Wow 8F! That proves how much the coastal parts of southeast virginia are buffered from the ocean (most areas by the coast there didnt see much lower than 20F). The weather will definitely call for some thawing out this week so you wont have to worry for a while about the cold.

steve 0910...
Great pictures, but I do hope those palms make it. Im assuming they probably will, but you really never know. Looks like only extreme southern florida stayed away from frost, but the cold came there too (the cold also affected many areas of cuba which is 100 miles farther south!). Areas as far south as jamacia saw a difference in temps from this cold, that means this cold air traveled way down to the true tropics!

yea thats amazing to me that va beach didnt get lower than 21* at all and right about 20 min. inland it got down to 8 or 9 thats crazy. cuz like i said i have queens and washys still outside with no protection at all. very minor leaf burn on the tips of my queens... def cold but now close to 8*

The small coco looks like boiled spinach. And those lush Foxtail palm fronds are goners. BUT your Florida so my Cali freeze experience wont work the same for you. Foxtails can take much cold-if followed by war temps..I think many Florida plants will look fine..then look terrible..then, recover. Give it time.

Yeah for instance it's 19 F right now (punch 23322 into weather on Yahoo) and will likely get to 16-17 overnight, even though the oceanfront (23458) will probably just graze freezing. 11 degrees difference right now in only about 20 miles.

I'm just glad that this will hopefully be the last night for a bit that I need to burn my kerosene heater.....

Record shattering cold spell has ended. I took off the cover at lunch and i found this......

Not bad,not bad. Fruit is still hanging on as well. Only minor bronzing.

I think it looks really good. Only a little damage. By the time summer comes all the damaged fronds will be replaced by beautiful new ones and this cold will be no more than history. It also looks like it got some great growth too since you bought it! Im sure its going to really enjoy the nice warm up you are going to get later this week. I think everyone in your area will be enjoying the warm 70s and even 80s :)

I uncovered my palms today too, and was surprised that my pindo got no damage at all, but my windmill palms had a dark green color on the ends of it and the dark colored spots couldn't really hold up. the center is still good, and hopefully when this warm up comes it will come back. My needle palm had no protection (I actually forgot to add any) and so far it looks like it got no damage and my sabal minor which was protected (mostly because I didnt want to risk losing such a mature and expensive palm) and it also has no damage. The spanish moss still looks alive to me as well.

Good luck!

As damage starts to settle in I can see the full extent in central Florida, and it is NOT pretty. Even mainstays such as roebies are damaged in parts of the area.

Wow...

I can only imagine the damage that must be there right now. You are very lucky to still have your coconut! Now all the palms will have time to recover since I dont think any more freezes will threaten central florida southward for the rest of the winter.

Good luck!