Floretam is a newer, and less cold-hardy variety of St. Augustine. It starts to fail at 20F. I think I have the older "common" variety, which is slightly better in cold tolerance. My strategy will be to wait a few weeks and see what is trying to green up. If the roots aren't dead, then the lawn will come back. Now, the fact that we got several inches of snow covering everything will almost ensure that the roots weren't killed after snowfall, though the question is whether they got killed before the snowfall. If even a fraction of live nodes remain, the lawn will eventually fill itself in, though it may take a few years to do so.

I am in Denton Co. in far N. TX. I have been very worried that I may have lost most of our lawn. We have a lot of St. Augustine but I do not know which variety. We also have Zoysia & Centipede, I prefer both over the St. Augustine because of Brown Patch & Cinch Bug damage. I am on 2 acres & likely have between 1/2 to an acre of lawn. I have been here 28 years & built this yard from a heavily wooded lot. I hope that I don't have to replace a large amount of the grass.

Oh, man! I read that as Denton, Colorado and started feeling like I was in the Twilight Zone. St Aug should not do will in Colorado.

I think roselee should be fine. The DFW area gets super cold temps almost every year, and they manage to cultivate St Aug through it all. The second snow melted today and I still have some green spots in the Floratam. I also installed some Raleigh St Aug late last year. I have not ventured back to where that stuff is. Maybe tomorrow. But it looked amazing compared to the Floratam elsewhere. Raleigh is more cold tolerant. In Bandera we had many hours at mid single digit temps, and I have some confidence that both types will come back.

If you do lose some grass, we got the Raleigh at Millburger's Nursery at the corner of 1604 and Bulverde Rd (inside the loop). They sell 7 pallets of Raleigh per day to walk ins and another 7 pallets to the professionals. What that means to you, as a consumer, is that they have the freshest turf you can get. Just be sure, if you need new grass, that the location is ready NOW to put it down. Do all the prep work before you buy the grass, and put it down as soon as you get home. If you want to replace the grass with Floratam, you have to special order it. I think the price is the same, but they don't keep it in stock.

Everyone's "elderly" is their own. I can't tell you how to feel, because I see people younger than I am using a cane or walker and who seem to be very elderly. But as for me, about a year ago I realized that I was starting to feel elderly with back issues and upper body weakness. I was one of those people who could not get myself up again using just my legs. I started doing some twisting exercises, deep squats, and slant push ups. The twisting fixed my back the first day - apparently I needed a chiropractic adjustment to unpinch a nerve, which I did DIY. The squats have allowed me to get up again if I fall. I do 30 squats while I brush my teeth every morning. The push ups toned up the upper body, some core, and just made it easy to hustle bags of fertilizer and flats of sod around. I do 30 of those after the squats. We also walk the dog every day at a local park. That's a full half mile!!! (Boerne has a 0.5 K "race" every year, so this is almost two of those!! The race is from one bar to another bar, ;-) ) Anyway, I'm so glad I started this minimal exercise program. I no longer worry about being elderly (70 now). I probably should worry a little, but I don't. Other than that I'm sedentary here at the computer. I do try to stand up and move every hour or less. That seems to help, ever so little, but some.

Your back yard is beautiful, by the way. In general terms, what part of SA are you in? As soon as we can we're moving back to the Northwood area inside 410 west of Harry Wurzbach.

dchall and all, I would be thrilled to find a little patch of green in my Floratam St. Augustine, but it sure looks dead right now. But then I thought it was a goner after the very sudden Jan. '18 hard freeze, but on March 6 found some stolons with a purplish tint, which indicated a little bit had survived. It took most of the summer for it to recover fully, but recover it did!

We originally bought our Floratam at Milbergers; got a couple of pallets, cut them into pieces and plugged it in. It easily overcame the existing St. Augustine with patches of Bermuda and covered by mid summer.

We could do that again. It's wasn't that much work, not as much as preparation and laying solid pallets, but the question is what are the chances of another extreme weather event. So am wondering if we should we go with something more permanent if it does not survive this time. Where is my crystal ball??? LOL

We live near the Castle Hills area so not that far from where you, dchall, are thinking of locating.

I credit the activity of gardening and walking the dogs to our good health and vitality as well. But you, dchall, are a mere child compared to my age! Whoo hoo! LOL

Since the cold spell this year is a "50" year event, I would not look at the traditional dates for last frost, etc. I would watch the long term forecast and try to project what will happen in the next 10 to 20 days. There are official long term forcast. The cold will end, Unless this is the ice age that was predicted before global warming became the fad. ;-)

I guess the biggest hope we have for grass surviving is everything was still dormant and the snow should help insulate from the cold. In 1989 the cold snap that happened was the first killing frost and everything was still green and growing. According to Neil Sperry the lawns that were well taken care of the best suffered the worst damage. t ones that were neglected, not fertilizer or watered fared much better, since they were partially dormant.

I have found with Bermuda grass the most winter damage is from the first or last hard freeze. i was in an area that on type of Bermuda grass was not suppose to grow that far north. A farmer planted it and it made it through the winter, but it broke dormancy about a month too early and we got a late hard freeze. That is what killed it. we had much colder weather earlier in the winter and it had survived. Saw it happen on a fall planted bermuda stand also.

How about seeded Rye Grass on St. Augustine? Is that going to be dead, do you think?

The annual ryegrass over seeded on our buffalo grass appears to have come through unscathed with a ~4" snow cover during the run to -1 F and a consecutive
string of single digits lows in Dallas. Not currently using perennial ryegrass, but think it should probably be okay too.

Life has been found on Mars! The Mars-like desolation that was once green grass -- that is.

A few sprigs of St. Augustine gave been spotted. I'm not positive they are Floratam and not a few stray bits of the old Raleigh that survived. I don't want to be cheering too soon, but I'm hopeful, very hopeful.

Now wouldn't that be something? Floratam surviving two 9 degree nights plus several days of below freezing temperatures. If it has I'm sure the snow helped..

It will be a slow recovery. I'm sure the native Bermuda will be happy to fill in while the recovery take place. But right now I'm a happy camper.

I'm sure the native Bermuda will be happy to fill in while the recovery take place,

That's my biggest fear. I've waited 6 years for this St Augustine to spread over the bermuda and prairie grasses to fill the front and back yards.