Just when many were wondering if global warming had taken hold of Florida,Mother Nature bites! Many areas in Central and North Florida experienced a hard freeze for several nights in late January and early February. In many locations temperatures dipped below freezing for up to 7 hours at a time with lows in the upper 20s. Amazingly, it even dropped below freezing as far South as Ft. Pierce for 3 hours one night with a low of 28 degrees.

Why is this concerning to homeowners? About half of landscapes in Florida are planted with tropical plants that cannot tolerate hard freezing. Those plants that were not covered during the freeze, especially tropical plants, have turned brown with freeze burn. In addition, many lawns have also been damaged from freeze burn and have turned brown as well.

What should homeowners do right now? Please don’t go renovating your landscape just yet – we are not out of the woods. There is still a chance for more damaging temperatures before the Spring. Pruning plants or replacing lawns now will promote new growth BUT will be very susceptible to damage in the event of another freeze. It is best to wait until the threat of frost has passed, beginning to mid March.

However, now is the time to start making plans for landscape renovations and re-designing for better plant adaptation. This simply means installing plants that will thrive in locations where other plants that were poorly-adapted to that site have failed (shade, wet or dry soil conditions, full sun, etc.).

There is a Freeze Warning tonight through Friday in Central and Northern Florida. The current forecast is predicting overnight freezing temperatures for extended hours which will likely result in some amount of damage or death to lawns and landscape plants. Here are some tips that will help minimize the harmful effects of low temperatures:

• Run your irrigation system for 15 minutes per zone for rotor heads and 5 minutes per zone for spray heads tonight and again in the morning once temperatures rise above freezing.
• Cover your cold-sensitive shrubs and ornamentals (see list below) with sheets or blankets, but not plastic.
• Don’t mow or walk across your lawn if it is frozen or if there is frost present.

If you have any questions, whether you’re a Massey Customer or not, please call us at 1-888-2MASSEY (262-7739).

Most Common Cold-sensitive plants*:

• Gold Mount Duranta
• Queen Sago
• Australian Tree Fern
• Palm trees
• Bird of Paradise
• Variegated Schefflera
• Cardboard Palms
• Hibiscus
• Tibouchina
• Firebush
• Plumbago
• Cardinal Plant
• Roebellini Palm
• Bougainvillea
• Staghorn Fern
• Fire Spike
• Lantana
• Croton
• Ixora
• Allamanda
• Philodendron
• Mandevilla
• Heather
• Oleander
• Butterfly bush

*This is just a list of the most common plants. If you have plants not on this list that are fruit bearing or annuals, it is recommended you cover them.