Dry but cold in Dallas so far🥶

[palmnut-fry]

Well I wanted to share this cool  all-Windmill palm house near me in Casa View area! They planted most I have ever seen at one time and from he dead trunks reveals the last few deadly freezes of late 

 

The 20's are turning out to be coldest decade since the '70s from my memory and even colder really. I covered and protected yesterday best I could. Trying a low wattage bulb places at base of my prized Brahea armata

 

It has been upper teens all day but they still say we will be low freezing until Weds. An eternity.

So much was stressed by record heat and drought this year, sure will be hard on poor plants! Geez

[Meangreen94z]

Ironically it’s supposed to warm up slightly in Leander. It was 20°F at 6pm and will rise to 23°F by 10pm before cooling back down to 18°F . Chance of snow overnight .

[happypalms]

Dedication that’s loving palms 

[RFun]

Looks like a lot of time spent in that 12-14 range for DFW.  I hope the power has stayed on.  It looks like the cold air has just parked itself over that area of the country for now.

Edited January 15 by RFun

[ChrisA]

Dear Old Mother Nature has been cruel to the plants lately.  As Eric said above, plants in Texas have had to contend with a record hot summer on top of a terrible drought just this year, which follows the drought of last year and its freeze, and then the awful freeze of Feb 2021.  There are many natives that are also dying in great numbers due to these conditions. It's very sad to see.

This summer in San Antonio many of the cedar elms had dropped most of their leaves as the heat wore on. Not sure if they will be leafing out again come spring or not as that is the second summer they have been forced to drop leaves.

Here's hoping we get a break, but doesn't look too promising.

[RFun]

53 minutes ago, ChrisA said:

Dear Old Mother Nature has been cruel to the plants lately.  As Eric said above, plants in Texas have had to contend with a record hot summer on top of a terrible drought just this year, which follows the drought of last year and its freeze, and then the awful freeze of Feb 2021.  There are many natives that are also dying in great numbers due to these conditions. It's very sad to see.

This summer in San Antonio many of the cedar elms had dropped most of their leaves as the heat wore on. Not sure if they will be leafing out again come spring or not as that is the second summer they have been forced to drop leaves.

Here's hoping we get a break, but doesn't look too promising.

Yes, that's a lot of stress for plants.  The good news is that the temps will be getting warmer sooner than later.

[ChrisA]

7 hours ago, RFun said:

Yes, that's a lot of stress for plants.  The good news is that the temps will be getting warmer sooner than later.

That is indeed good news! Sorry, feel like Debby Downer, gotta focus on the good news as well. 😁

[Queue in the disappointing sound of the sad trombone]

[Sabal King]

On 1/14/2024 at 4:54 PM, palmnut-fry said:

Well I wanted to share this cool  all-Windmill palm house near me in Casa View area! They planted most I have ever seen at one time and from he dead trunks reveals the last few deadly freezes of late 

 

The 20's are turning out to be coldest decade since the '70s from my memory and even colder really. I covered and protected yesterday best I could. Trying a low wattage bulb places at base of my prized Brahea armata

 

It has been upper teens all day but they still say we will be low freezing until Weds. An eternity.

So much was stressed by record heat and drought this year, sure will be hard on poor plants! Geez

Curious to see your big bermudana because my three (all unprotected) are already showing signs of defoliation like last year when we hit 10.6f.  This year we got to 9.9 in my backyard and when I took a stroll outside yesterday, it was obvious these do NOT like getting near 10f.  Yours is much larger, and curious what it looks like this week, but more so in a few months.  Good luck

[palmnut-fry]

UPDATE:

The rains today & yesterday after the deep freeze were shunned by my protective multi-layers of sheets and plastic! I will uncover them all together tomorrow. I peeked at the Armatas other day and they look good whereas the Sabal bermudanas had significant leaf spotting and burn. S. minors unscathed but even Rhapidophyllum has leaf scarring esp on older leaves. Trachys seem like they pulled thru but this did the recoveries of late no favors! We'll see how bad it ultimately isin coming weeks. 

Long term weather models show no more significant freezes and actually a late Jan warm up to marvel Spring. 

These weather patterns are so confusing to plants but surely a few more freezes await us closer to March!? As long as lows are closer to 30s the better to keep dormancy going another month. But i will take the mid 60s next week!