13 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Well this weekend has been trialsome. -1.2C yesterday morning complete with blown away frost cloth, then 75kmh westerly winds took down a tree onto my shadehouse destroying my Dypsis onilahensis collection. 😔

I will rebuild though. Black shadecloth goes in. One less tree to bother me again.

Bad luck! We worry about freeze damage before it happens, but forget there are plenty of other hazards that can damage or take out palms, hail, wind, falling trees, extreme heat etc.

Dodged that one, it seems. Bottomed out at -2.3C which matches my lowest of 2024. It didn't go below freezing until 3am however and warmed quickly once the sun came up. That will be no worse than the -1.9C earlier in the month which apart from Alexandre had nothing covered for.

Now have a full day sun to put some heat into the housebricks, driveway etc's thermal mass. Should make a difference. Yesterday was the dreaded cold sunless day forecast to clear at dusk.

22 hours ago, Tyrone said:

All the best mate. A forecast like that would have me leaving for at least the sub tropics. 0C at 10pm!!! Wow. I’ve never experienced that before. You’ve done your best. Just don’t do what I did the other day and not check to see if your frost cloth is still attached and working. You could get an outdoors gas heater set up near your most tropical palms. That works. I’ve done it. If you do do it make sure the gas tank gets some of the heat from the heater because it will freeze up solid and stop the gas supply to the heater. I’ve learnt from experience.

My memory was a little off, it was 0.4C by 10:15pm, 0 by midnight, pretty close. That frost bottomed out at "only" -2.3C though. My R.Baueri were very small them, coming through that with zero damage I realised they probably were going to be viable.

Gas heater is a step too far for me, would not bother to grow anything that needed that drastic level of action. It would have to be something really one off like thinking was facing a 1 in 50 or 100 year freeze to go that length.

The problem with being up a zone would be, could not help trying to grow the next level of sensitive palms, and so if/when a one in 5 -10 year freeze came , would be in the same position
My ridiculous contraption against the odds survived the day and needed minimal adjustment for tonight. I was wondering if the "sail" would take off and be over the road somewhere by time got home from work. Those poles are 3.6m long, the palm is over 3m tall now.

On 7/26/2026 at 8:41 PM, Tyrone said:

Well this weekend has been trialsome. -1.2C yesterday morning complete with blown away frost cloth, then 75kmh westerly winds took down a tree onto my shadehouse destroying my Dypsis onilahensis collection. 😔

I will rebuild though. Black shadecloth goes in. One less tree to bother me again.

Jeez, sorry to see that Tyrone. Those bloody pine trees have been a menace, but not an easy job to get rid of them either. Would be nice to have them lopped and chipped but you'd need deep pockets I guess.

Hopefully there are some survivors under there, keep us appraised.

13 hours ago, cbmnz said:

My memory was a little off, it was 0.4C by 10:15pm, 0 by midnight, pretty close. That frost bottomed out at "only" -2.3C though. My R.Baueri were very small them, coming through that with zero damage I realised they probably were going to be viable.

Gas heater is a step too far for me, would not bother to grow anything that needed that drastic level of action. It would have to be something really one off like thinking was facing a 1 in 50 or 100 year freeze to go that length.

The problem with being up a zone would be, could not help trying to grow the next level of sensitive palms, and so if/when a one in 5 -10 year freeze came , would be in the same position
My ridiculous contraption against the odds survived the day and needed minimal adjustment for tonight. I was wondering if the "sail" would take off and be over the road somewhere by time got home from work. Those poles are 3.6m long, the palm is over 3m tall now.

Your contraption looks great and your Rhopalostylis looks awesome.

Yeah a negative 2.3C would have me out with the gas heater and probably another wood fire and an industrial fan to distribute the hot air. I’m trying to still create canopy so if I have to do that once a decade maybe twice I’m ok with that. The majority of the garden is built to withstand those sort of temps. My marginal stuff will go in the most protected area close together for that reason. If I get stupid and plant a marginal out in the freezer then that’s my stupid fault if they die.

I hope winter will ease off for you now.

11 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Jeez, sorry to see that Tyrone. Those bloody pine trees have been a menace, but not an easy job to get rid of them either. Would be nice to have them lopped and chipped but you'd need deep pockets I guess.

Hopefully there are some survivors under there, keep us appraised.

Yeah the place has been testing me lately. I got the outside nursery panel back up again yesterday just before sundown. Will cable tie frost cloth back up today. The weekend is project “rebuild greenhouse”. Ahhh it needed some love anyway. Will re establish the guy wires and stitch in new black shade cloth.

Never grow Pinus radiata.

Not what I wanted to see when I woke and read the temperature this morning. A single coarse word came to mind. For my station that has been running since Dec 2016, smashed my low temp record by 0.7C. That's nature, winters seem to be getting milder and milder, barely go below 0 until 1st July and then this week happens.

However, especially now I've had a chance to look for damage, realising that a single reading at one point on the section does not tell the whole story.

It was so ridiculously still last night it was a 100% radiation event and the temperature likely varied over distances of metres. So far, seems anything under some canopy did surprisingly well. The most exposed bungalow seems to be the main casualty, I'm used to it getting a bit ratty by spring then quickly growing out the damage. This year looks like it will hardly have any green left until the next spear opens in spring.

Low was -3.4, did thaw quickly, warmed all the way up to 15.6 in the afternoon.

1 hour ago, cbmnz said:

Not what I wanted to see when I woke and read the temperature this morning. A single coarse word came to mind. For my station that has been running since Dec 2016, smashed my low temp record by 0.7C. That's nature, winters seem to be getting milder and milder, barely go below 0 until 1st July and then this week happens.

However, especially now I've had a chance to look for damage, realising that a single reading at one point on the section does not tell the whole story.

It was so ridiculously still last night it was a 100% radiation event and the temperature likely varied over distances of metres. So far, seems anything under some canopy did surprisingly well. The most exposed bungalow seems to be the main casualty, I'm used to it getting a bit ratty by spring then quickly growing out the damage. This year looks like it will hardly have any green left until the next spear opens in spring.

Low was -3.4, did thaw quickly, warmed all the way up to 15.6 in the afternoon.

Brutal. Hopefully that's the worst of it for you this winter.

Come on spring!

3 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Not what I wanted to see when I woke and read the temperature this morning. A single coarse word came to mind. For my station that has been running since Dec 2016, smashed my low temp record by 0.7C. That's nature, winters seem to be getting milder and milder, barely go below 0 until 1st July and then this week happens.

However, especially now I've had a chance to look for damage, realising that a single reading at one point on the section does not tell the whole story.

It was so ridiculously still last night it was a 100% radiation event and the temperature likely varied over distances of metres. So far, seems anything under some canopy did surprisingly well. The most exposed bungalow seems to be the main casualty, I'm used to it getting a bit ratty by spring then quickly growing out the damage. This year looks like it will hardly have any green left until the next spear opens in spring.

Low was -3.4, did thaw quickly, warmed all the way up to 15.6 in the afternoon.

That is painful stuff. The high pressure zones seem to be dominating the pattern this year. I hate them. I’d rather cloud and a bit of rain drizzle at this time of year. Has it been a dry July for you this year? It has been here.

What’s the bet your Bangalow will grow out of it eventually.