That sucks. I'm so sorry. I lost my very large hummingbird bush (Hamelia) although there is the tiniest seedling growing from its base. I'm replacing the bush because I'm not willing to wait for that seedling to become a large bush. I will try to teansplant it somewhere else. I also lost 4 milkweeds. Hate that cold weather and we have a repeat. We are going down to 37 for two nights.

Hi Larry!

Did you do the scratch test on the bark to see if there is any green left? I thought the same thing with my Allamanda but after noticing that there was some green underneath, I cut it drastically and now is putting leaves again.

My hibiscus that were very tall also suffer a lot of damage after Irma. We cut them short and took the frost well after that, remember these by the garden door? they were bushy and probably 12 ft tall. This is how they look just now.

Silvia

I am going to violate my note to self and comment on a plant in Florida gardening. LOL. It may not be completely dead. Check for green like whgillie suggested. If that doesn't pan out, and after a while you see no growth, cut to the ground. The roots are probably not dead and will sprout out.

I grow tropical hibiscus in pots at my house, but my Brown Turkey fig has had the same problems with severe cold from time to time and it always comes up from the roots.

You won't have lost much time, but if the roots are still alive, they will rebound very quickly. If not you can still dig them out.

No green, Silvia. The bark is sloughing off and the cambium is black and slimy. I'll wait another week before I start cutting them down, but I don't have much hope for them. What really hurts is all the party plants I lost. I can't just get replacements from Lowes. Some of them came from people that aren't with us any more. This Bird of Paradise was just a sliver when I brought it home. There is a little life in some of the smaller pups at the bottom, but I'm not sure how to separate them.

Cut the plants back to the ground and have patience. Hibiscus especially will usually come back.

Larry, sorry about your lost plants but some of them will surprise you and come back from the roots, it happened with a sweet tamarind that I had, we cut it all the way to the roots because it was too tall for the spot and it came back and now is a bush.

The corms in the BOP will come back I hope.

And yes, I know what you mean with the plants given to us from other gardening friends, I missed them all and the garden parties, hope one day we will have them again...

Silvia

Don't give up on them! Mine froze back, every limb is dead, but the other day I noticed some growth around the bottom of the largest one, and one tiny sprig on another right at the base. I'm hoping my red one survived too, but nothing there yet.

I think it has s good chance of coming back. Good luck!

I agree that they will come back. Mine are and I was just sick to see the damage. If I didn't know how beautiful they were I would've pulled them up but I'm practicing extreme patience and it's paying off. I am in 9B Central Coastal Florida.

I think I'm likely to lose my beautiful peach and yellow streaked hibiscus. It only has one little sprout, and it's distorted. It wasn't well before the freeze, so I'm praying that one little sprout grows big enough for try to root so I can have a new plant. I've never seen one like it before, so I'd miss it if it died completely.

My plants suffered major damage from Irma and were recovering then repeated hard freezes almost totaled them. My banana tree just emerged from the soil and the hibiscus and pentas are really coming around. I did lose a coconut palm that I planted late last spring but I really didn't like it all that much.