Re: Freezing Temperatures in California & Elsewhere - Protecting Plants, Animals and Fish

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I keep my garden as a "whatever survives I keep, whatever doesn't, I don't plant". I don't have a lot of marginal plants, but I've got a few things I'm trying. For instance, I've got Metrosideros collina 'Springfire' growing, and the last frost fried all of the leaves. It could make it back, but we'll see. I've had one M. excelsa growing in ground that seems to have had bad burn on its lower leaves, but marginal burn on the leaves higher up (the plant is only a few feet high). For a while it kept getting hit hard. I think it might've finally acclimated (others around town planted as trees seem to fare better, I've always purchased mine as shrubs). My Protea cynaroides didn't show a single scratch with the last two frosts, however,  my Leucospermum patersonii has lots of leaf burn. I think it may have more by the end of this weekend... perhaps branch dieback. The P. cordifolium shows little if any damage. My Protea 'Pink Ice' shows no damage as well.

My brugs are probably toast to the ground, and the Wigandia... I have little hope for that. My one burning dissapointment is the leaves on my Corymbia ficifolia show lots of burn, so it may be killed back to the trunk (it's a 6 foot high sapling). All hope may not be lost.

After this weekend, I'll take stock of what didn't make it and remind myself never to plant that ever again ;).


Barry
Zone 16
USDA 9
Sandy soil
7 miles north of Monterey, CA and two miles inland.