Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Aftermath

The weather has finally warmed back up here in Central Texas after record breaking cold and freezing temps that spanned a couple days. I covered my plants I felt were most at risk, hoping to save them from imminent death.

The results:

The Aloe Vera - Alive! I wrapped this one up tight and it survived, it just looks awfully raggedy:



The philodendrons in the entryway - 1 Alive, the other on life support,but alive:

I cut all the mushy parts off; and the one nearest the doorway, that was mostly sheltered by the brick walls, will recover:



The other one was at the outside edge of the entryway and got the brunt of the cold. I thought it was dead, but if you look very, very closely, you will see a green spike poking up from the rootball. I am crossing my fingers it comes back:



The Potted Palm: Verdict not in. It is looking not so good for the potted palm. It was wrapped up tight, but since it was in a pot, I think it still got too cold for it. I will have to wait and see if it recovers or gives up the ghost. Notice the brownish-green color of the fronds. Eeewww:



The Sagos: Alive!! I *almost* didn't cover these as they are right up against the south side of the house. I am sure glad I covered them now! If I hadn't I think they would have lost all of their fronds. I used an old car cover to cover them up. It was just big enough to cover them all:



You can see where the cold got to them on their edges, but they pulled through:



The yellow-stripey Agave (I don't know what kind it was as a neighbor gave it to me. It came from Florida): Deader than a Doornail. This one is toast. Even the pointy center part is mush. I even wrapped this baby up tight. Didn't help. Hopefully it will send up some pups from the roots in the spring:



My my lemon tree also made it through unscathed, but only because I put it in the garage! Sure glad I did! I imagine it would have been dead, otherwise.

I hope some of my other plants survived, like my pomegranates and flowering senna. I won't know for sure until spring arrives.

So, 2 years of the most extreme drought followed by a record breaking freeze. It's a miracle I still have a garden to speak of. I'm about ready to pee my pants in anticipation of what Spring has in store. Probably a record flood of some sort and some tornadoes and giant hail. It is an El-Nino year after all.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad to hear about your surviving plants. I lost the same agave you did, as did several other folks. It was such a cute one, too. oh well, right? You made me laugh with your spring predictions; we've certainly had a couple years of extreme weather, haven't we? At the end of this (it IS going to end, yes?) the plants that are alive at that point will definitely be keepers.

sweetbay said...

I love those Sagos, I'm glad they made it!

Lisa Carroll-Lee said...

Hi there! Just found your blog! Love the title, btw, as a fellow central Texas gardener. I can't believe how much survived your garden. My aloes and most of my palms are flat out dead. I'll be back often to read. :)