Re: What to do after the freeze

At 03:59 PM 12/29/1998 -0800, you wrote:
>While the folks in Northern California are reporting on their losses, us
>Southern Californians are suffering as well.  My tropical garden is
>devastated.  I've most certainly lost the salvia coahuilensis (spelling may
>not be great, but you know what I mean) as well as the salvia involucrata.
>Bananas, bauhinia, heliconia, holmskoldia, crotalaria, gingers, guava,
>brugmansia and cardamom are all severly burned.  And why does the banana
>always fruit just before the worst freeze of the year?????
>
>Anyway, I wonder what to do now.  Shall I water as usual or shall I hold
>off on the water?  We have no rain predicted in the near future and I
>usually cut back to once per week or less this time of year.  If I water,
>will that help with the recovery or will it do more harm?
>
>What do you all recommend?

Nan:

The Salvias will come back from the base just fine.  Don't expect much
growth for a while, though.  Some forms of involucrata are hardy for me, and
S. coahuilensis is just out of it's range.  

I've had an ice storm, and let all of my big S. greggiis on my deck hugging
my house's brick walls, and they all did OK.  It went down to 22 degrees one
night, and even the plants on an open table look fine.  While I'm sure there
was some root damage, the pots were big enough to keep from freezing solid.
They will probably go into my cold frame this weekend, though.

After cutting back the plants, cleaning out litter, and checking for
insects, I will probably apply a little Osmocote to the pots and close up
the cold frames.  I would advise you to let your plants go for a few days,
then cut back until you get to healthy tissue, firm and green.  I would wait
until spring myself to do this, but you shouldn't have the same problems I
do - pruning even dead branches of Salvias here seems to increase the amount
of dieback in spring.



Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, NC  27406
336-674-3105
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