Arctic Storm Octavia Florida Damage Report

[Eric in Orlando]

Mt. Dora right in town seems to be a nice microclimate. I saw some Adonidias that survived the 2009-10 winter.

As for Traveler's Tree and WBOP, you can trim damaged or dead foliage now.

All the royals seem to have about the same hardiness here from my growing experience except R. oleracea is a bit more tender.

[SubTropicRay]

I saw some Adonidias that survived the 2009-10 winter.

That's amazing. Just about every Adonidia locally was lost in that horrible winter. The only survivors were literally planted under the south facing overhang of a structure. Even those looked like they barely survived.

[Eric in Orlando]

I only know of one house around here that had Adonidia survive, and those had only been in the ground less than a year. I was rather shocked when I saw some in Mt. Dora that survived.

[Sandy Loam]

I always feel that I shouldn't report freeze damage until at least a month after the event because sometimes damage happens later. Nonetheless, the only plant that appears to have been damaged by ARCTIC STORM OCTAVIA at my place was bottlebrush "Little John". I will do a closer inspection in two weeks and may report any additional damage. Apparently our town, Gainesville, in northern Florida, bottomed out at 22 degrees Fahrenheit, albeit only momentarily and then went back into the 60s again within hours. I will check my own thermometer when I get back, but I probably had a similar low temperature that night and yet nothing seems to be damaged apart from the bottlebrush tree and the usual suspects (Canna lillies, various alocasias, zingiber zerumbet, bananas, pentas, amorphophallus bulbifer, brugmansia, pencil cactus tirucalli, hydrangea, etc. -- in other words, plants that come back every year in the spring anyway). No palms were harmed by 22 F, but my most cold-tender palm is a pretty tough one anyway: archontophoenix cunninghamiana. I did not see any damage on any arengas, chamaedoreas, dypsis, livistonas, rhapis, washingtonias, phoenix, parajubaeas, thrinax, bismarckia, and so on. The only palm that might have been damaged are my three ravenea rivularis (majesty palm) and strilizia nicolai (WBOP- not a palm), but I will verify this when I get back. Aloe Hercules was totally undamaged, all cactii appear to be fine, even pandanus furcatus appeared okay at a quick glance, clusia guttifera was fine, all yucca fine, all cordylines fine, shell ginger fine, all bamboo fine, seagrape fine, schleffera actynophylla fine, various succulents fine, oleander fine, ....not sure about the hibiscus .....I could go on and on.

[Sandy Loam]

Hold on-- I take it back. I just got home and checked the thermometer memory. It appears that on that ultra-cold night of WINTER STORM "OCTAVIA" my house got down to 28 degrees Fahrenheit (27.7), so nothing I have would be damaged by that temperature anyway.