Christchurch did see a very near May record of -6C before it warmed again by dawn. Wonder how the Rhoopies at the Botanical Gardens are going there, if they are undamaged must be some of the hardiest ones in the world.  The city centre there does catch a little more coastal influence however so likely didn't see quite that temperature.

15 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Christchurch did see a very near May record of -6C before it warmed again by dawn. Wonder how the Rhoopies at the Botanical Gardens are going there, if they are undamaged must be some of the hardiest ones in the world.  The city centre there does catch a little more coastal influence however so likely didn't see quite that temperature.

It would be interesting to see how the Christchurch BG went. 
 

Yesterday we hit 28.3C, then around 2pm a dead pine tree fell on my shadehouse and by 5pm we had a bit of rain on and off through the night. Itwas a warm night. Around midnight it was still 17C, but around 7am about 12.8C. It’s sunny today which will help in cleaning up my damaged shadehouse and tending to the injured in there. 

Incredible, latitude 37'50" and half sky  up to directly overhead is growing red with the arora tonight.

1 hour ago, cbmnz said:

Incredible, latitude 37'50" and half sky  up to directly overhead is growing red with the arora tonight.

We are just heading down to the coast to take a look. It’s meant to be visible in about 40min from now. Real cool. 

21 minutes ago, Tyrone said:

We are just heading down to the coast to take a look. It’s meant to be visible in about 40min from now. Real cool. 

It's been naked eye visible right up to the top of NZ near 35S, quite amazing.

Last nights arora 

Only a week out from winter and we had a min of 6.5C (not unusual this late in May) and a max of 27.2C. This has been a warm May. 

The first few days of winter are going to be in the 20s C. Tomorrow we get to 15C before coming back to just above 20C. Very mild. 
Right now I’m listening to distant rolling thunder off over the ocean. Some decent rain is coming and the last couple of days of rain have wet the garden down nicely. 

Well and truely into the dry season now, can do some light work outside without having clothes being wringing wet. For me the rains stopped very suddenly in early April. Although just a kilometre away they got two storms of around 50mm each for the month (April) causing a big surge in the river level.

Rainfall for May was zero, average is 18.5mm (first month of the official dry season). Average minimum temp for the month was 21.8, average maximum 35.0, and now with the start of June it's cooling down and dry until at least September.

On 6/1/2024 at 8:20 AM, tropicbreeze said:

Well and truely into the dry season now, can do some light work outside without having clothes being wringing wet. For me the rains stopped very suddenly in early April. Although just a kilometre away they got two storms of around 50mm each for the month (April) causing a big surge in the river level.

Rainfall for May was zero, average is 18.5mm (first month of the official dry season). Average minimum temp for the month was 21.8, average maximum 35.0, and now with the start of June it's cooling down and dry until at least September.

I see a few mins below 20C. Better get the doona out of storage. 

On 5/10/2024 at 7:48 PM, cbmnz said:

Christchurch did see a very near May record of -6C before it warmed again by dawn. Wonder how the Rhoopies at the Botanical Gardens are going there, if they are undamaged must be some of the hardiest ones in the world.  The city centre there does catch a little more coastal influence however so likely didn't see quite that temperature.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/06/06/new-zealand-has-experienced-its-coldest-may-in-15-years-niwa/

I think April was really cool as well. No frosts where I am here in Dunedin but its been quite gloomy. Winter has been better weather so far with more sun and higher temps. 

 

It’s technically winter now, but we had a minimum of 15C today and a max of 22.8C with around 6mm of rain. I’m hoping for a mild frost free winter but there’s a lot of winter to go yet. 

On 6/6/2024 at 10:52 PM, Tyrone said:

It’s technically winter now, but we had a minimum of 15C today and a max of 22.8C with around 6mm of rain. I’m hoping for a mild frost free winter but there’s a lot of winter to go yet. 

You get warm temperatures there in winter and spring that NZ upper NI never sees but extreme minimum for the year is simillar.

I see the value now of letting these lady finger develop on the plant for as long as possible, these have grown to the proportions of supermarket bananas, just shorter. Thanks for the tip, Palmcode I think it was. 

4 hours ago, cbmnz said:

You get warm temperatures there in winter and spring that NZ upper NI never sees but extreme minimum for the year is simillar.

I see the value now of letting these lady finger develop on the plant for as long as possible, these have grown to the proportions of supermarket bananas, just shorter. Thanks for the tip, Palmcode I think it was. 

 

Those are looking good mate. Hopefully these ones will taste much better.

17c here today, and its been cloudy and drizzling for 3 days but generally warm. It looks there there could be some heavier rain coming tonight/tomorrow. Good growing weather for the cloudy forest palms at least this time of year.

On 6/5/2024 at 8:06 AM, Tyrone said:

I see a few mins below 20C. Better get the doona out of storage. 

It's all relative. But, over the past few days I have heard that word "doona" mentioned a few times.

 

Had a frost here. Ice on Hedyscepe and Archontophoenix. Showing some dark green spots on the fronds. Hopefully any damage wont be too serious.

11 hours ago, PalmCode said:

Had a frost here. Ice on Hedyscepe and Archontophoenix. Showing some dark green spots on the fronds. Hopefully any damage wont be too serious.

I did hear that last night reached a few places that often go through winter frost free, without being anything extreme in places that usually get frost. I've had my Rhopalostylis (both Baueri and Sapida Chattam) go mottled 4-5 times after ~-2C (they are now from last night), and all all cases it faded out within 2 weeks with zero damage.

My Archontophoenix have never had round spots, more like a darkening that is aligned with the veins on the leaflets.

This does slowly turn into partial damage that looks a bit ugly by spring, but grows out quickly. Took these last winter to record the difference.

If yours looks more like my Rhopalostylis then predict it will fade out in a week or two with no lasting damage.

 

 

 

18 hours ago, cbmnz said:

I did hear that last night reached a few places that often go through winter frost free, without being anything extreme in places that usually get frost. I've had my Rhopalostylis (both Baueri and Sapida Chattam) go mottled 4-5 times after ~-2C (they are now from last night), and all all cases it faded out within 2 weeks with zero damage.

My Archontophoenix have never had round spots, more like a darkening that is aligned with the veins on the leaflets.

This does slowly turn into partial damage that looks a bit ugly by spring, but grows out quickly. Took these last winter to record the difference.

If yours looks more like my Rhopalostylis then predict it will fade out in a week or two with no lasting damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

100%. It wasn't the coldest frost I can remember here but it was the most notable one in 5 plus years. Had a look at the palms today and they look fine. Most of the spots are barely visable allready. Bananas are a bit brown, no worries. Would be a different story if it were multiple frosts in a row ... Good to see that your palms recovering nicely from the frosts.

Currently getting the first real winter airflow from subantarctics down here in Dunedin after a relatively dry and mild winter so far with lots of northerly winds over the last month. Might be some snow on surrounding peaks by tomorrow morning, but no mins below 2C forecast in the next week.

Highs are not forecast above 10C till 6th August. Had a low of 1.6C in June - but was likely several degrees warmer where I am.

The Rhopies are V. slowly pushing spears through the last couple of months and have also noticed growth on the Archontos. 

Lots of trees blossoming at the moment due to the mild winter, but we still have a month left so can't begin to rule out a large cold event arriving till we get to around October. 

On 7/30/2024 at 1:45 PM, Phil Petersen said:

Currently getting the first real winter airflow from subantarctics down here in Dunedin after a relatively dry and mild winter so far with lots of northerly winds over the last month. Might be some snow on surrounding peaks by tomorrow morning, but no mins below 2C forecast in the next week.

Highs are not forecast above 10C till 6th August. Had a low of 1.6C in June - but was likely several degrees warmer where I am.

The Rhopies are V. slowly pushing spears through the last couple of months and have also noticed growth on the Archontos. 

Lots of trees blossoming at the moment due to the mild winter, but we still have a month left so can't begin to rule out a large cold event arriving till we get to around October. 

Its been OK here, snow didnt eventuate locally except a little bit on the peaks and didnt go sub zero. Frosts have stayed away too, but now a high pressure system moving across so frost remains a small possibility 👍

16 hours ago, Phil Petersen said:

Its been OK here, snow didnt eventuate locally except a little bit on the peaks and didnt go sub zero. Frosts have stayed away too, but now a high pressure system moving across so frost remains a small possibility 👍

4 weeks to spring. Bring it on. 

We got frost 2 days in a row in the end (sat and sun) which are our only frost days this winter (had 1 outlier in May which is crazy). Got down to 0.9deg in the city - but ground temp would have been below zero. No damage on the rhopies but a Meryta sinclairii with some badly timed tender new growth got zapped.

Banana flowering at the moment. It opened up a bract on a 3C morning. 

No damage from this period so far, have not dropped below +0.2 C , after tonight the nights warm a bit. Hopefully tonight is the same as last two, then can also dare to think the most dangerous part of the winter is over.

 

Well. I’m going to call it. 23C on Saturday and the threat of frost is gone.

Winter 2024 is over!!!

I think I should be starting the 2024/25 growing season thread. 

On 8/8/2024 at 8:51 PM, Tyrone said:

Well. I’m going to call it. 23C on Saturday and the threat of frost is gone.

Winter 2024 is over!!!

I think I should be starting the 2024/25 growing season thread. 

Too soon for that over here . That said I think a risk of a once in 30 year garden wrecker frost is probably over for this year, as the sun is getting noticeably stronger.

It got to 24C here today. More like a winters day in Brisbane or even Rockhampton, not 35S on the south WA coast. Beautiful spring day. 

We had intermittent snow flurries down to sea level here yesterday. Nothing settled on the ground though. Everything seems ok. Cold, clear day today but no frost due to steady wind.

11 hours ago, Phil Petersen said:

We had intermittent snow flurries down to sea level here yesterday. Nothing settled on the ground though. Everything seems ok. Cold, clear day today but no frost due to steady wind.

Sounds like here when it snows.

Weird winter here. June, July and the first 2 days of August were brutal. Repeated frosts only broken up by wet, miserable days with some cloud cover at night. Since then, absolutely beautiful. I can’t remember an August with so many nice days, and even overnight temps are warming up. Average of 17.5C maximums this month including 4 in a row over 20C last week and 2 days over 20C predicted this weekend. It’s even been motivating to get out and clean up the garden a bit. I’m hoping the extent of the damage is over. All in all it looks like my Syagrus schizophylla has crown rot; hoping some H2O2 will do the trick. And my Bentinckia condapanna didn’t enjoy repeated dips well below freezing but weirdly the newest frond is relatively ok. The damage seems strange for cold damage, anyone seen anything like this? Older fronds completely torched but the newest still looking good. It’s not like it’s more protected with overhead canopy than other fronds, if anything the opposite. 

19 hours ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

Weird winter here. June, July and the first 2 days of August were brutal. Repeated frosts only broken up by wet, miserable days with some cloud cover at night. Since then, absolutely beautiful. I can’t remember an August with so many nice days, and even overnight temps are warming up. Average of 17.5C maximums this month including 4 in a row over 20C last week and 2 days over 20C predicted this weekend. It’s even been motivating to get out and clean up the garden a bit. I’m hoping the extent of the damage is over. All in all it looks like my Syagrus schizophylla has crown rot; hoping some H2O2 will do the trick. And my Bentinckia condapanna didn’t enjoy repeated dips well below freezing but weirdly the newest frond is relatively ok. The damage seems strange for cold damage, anyone seen anything like this? Older fronds completely torched but the newest still looking good. It’s not like it’s more protected with overhead canopy than other fronds, if anything the opposite. 

Hope it's not like a young R. Baueri that I had, it got cooked by a week of 30C days with full sun in a hot patio area (possibly made worse by some type lensing effect from a window behind it) when I trimmed some hedging that let more sun on the area.  Despite all efforts it died but very slowly as one frond at a time went brown.  It took about 3 months for the last one to go. Your photo does look a bit similar.  

 

12 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Hope it's not like a young R. Baueri that I had, it got cooked by a week of 30C days with full sun in a hot patio area (possibly made worse by some type lensing effect from a window behind it) when I trimmed some hedging that let more sun on the area.  Despite all efforts it died but very slowly as one frond at a time went brown.  It took about 3 months for the last one to go. Your photo does look a bit similar.  

 

You’re right it does look similar. I’d just be shocked if a Bentinckia could possibly get cooked in a Melbourne August!

On 8/25/2024 at 9:30 AM, tim_brissy_13 said:

You’re right it does look similar. I’d just be shocked if a Bentinckia could possibly get cooked in a Melbourne August!

Or was it the effect of low temperatures for yours but the overall impact was similar, something related to the roots or the growing point was disabled? See how on mine, in the second photo, the emerging frond went brown before some of the older ones.

On 8/23/2024 at 9:21 PM, tim_brissy_13 said:

Weird winter here. June, July and the first 2 days of August were brutal. Repeated frosts only broken up by wet, miserable days with some cloud cover at night. Since then, absolutely beautiful. I can’t remember an August with so many nice days, and even overnight temps are warming up. Average of 17.5C maximums this month including 4 in a row over 20C last week and 2 days over 20C predicted this weekend. It’s even been motivating to get out and clean up the garden a bit. I’m hoping the extent of the damage is over. All in all it looks like my Syagrus schizophylla has crown rot; hoping some H2O2 will do the trick. And my Bentinckia condapanna didn’t enjoy repeated dips well below freezing but weirdly the newest frond is relatively ok. The damage seems strange for cold damage, anyone seen anything like this? Older fronds completely torched but the newest still looking good. It’s not like it’s more protected with overhead canopy than other fronds, if anything the opposite. 

Hopefully it pulls through.

I had zero success with this species on multiple attempts.

However I can grow Satakentia and Kerriodoxa. Not amazing but alive and growing. 

18 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Hopefully it pulls through.

I had zero success with this species on multiple attempts.

However I can grow Satakentia and Kerriodoxa. Not amazing but alive and growing. 

Satakentia that’s amazing! I once got one from Palms for Brisbane and it didn’t last through June. I do have a small Kerriodoxa but haven’t exposed it to the elements yet. 

 

21 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Or was it the effect of low temperatures for yours but the overall impact was similar, something related to the roots or the growing point was disabled? See how on mine, in the second photo, the emerging frond went brown before some of the older ones.

Mine is actually the opposite. The newest frond is fine as is the spear. Older leaves have burned completely. That’s a bit different to what I’ve seen previously; generally cold damage for me shows up more on new fronds and potentially the growing point if rot has set in. I think there’s hope given that the growth point seems ok. 

Hobart displaying it's typically psychopathic early spring weather. ..the rain is welcome however, as it's been a very dry winter.

8 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Hobart displaying it's typically psychopathic early spring weather. ..the rain is welcome however, as it's been a very dry winter.

All over the shop here too. Much milder/warmer than average, but it’s constantly blowing a gale. Wind gusts over 80km/h the last few days with occasional downpours. Some parts of the city had large hail a few days ago but I managed to avoid it. 

14 minutes ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

All over the shop here too. Much milder/warmer than average, but it’s constantly blowing a gale. Wind gusts over 80km/h the last few days with occasional downpours. Some parts of the city had large hail a few days ago but I managed to avoid it. 

Our mean max for August so far has been 15.8, as opposed to the long term of 13.1, so significantly warmer! Has been super windy here as well. The whole month has felt far more spring like than end of winter.

31 minutes ago, Jonathan said:

Our mean max for August so far has been 15.8, as opposed to the long term of 13.1, so significantly warmer! Has been super windy here as well. The whole month has felt far more spring like than end of winter.

I’m sitting at 17.9C average maximum compared to the long term averages of 15.0C and 14.5C at the two closest BoM weather stations. 3 degrees extra every single day is ridiculous really (in Celsius for the imperial forums users). Must be close to record setting.