Gardening with Georgia

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And the effects of cold keep on coming

Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 06:51:18 PM

After three days of dropping
leaves, the black olive looks
like this.

 

Among the damaged: Pithecellobium, Pseudobombax, Pritchardia, Podocarpus…are all the P-plants doomed? Naw. Ficus, gumbo-limbo (some), African tulip trees, some coconut palms, royal poincianas, the list goes on. The damage likely will continue to appear.

I called Steve Nock, aroid hybridizer and expert who owns

 
Borneo giant shows how it
disliked the cold.

Ree Gardens with his wife Marie, to ask about my damaged and drooping philodendrons and other aroids. Cut back to the stem and use fungicide where you find soft tissue, he said.

Aye, sir.

 


 

9 comments - Add a comment

My coconut palms have brown fronds since the cold snap. Should I have my garderners cut the brown ones off now or wait?

posted by Nancy, Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 9:27 PM

Wait until the fronds fall by themselves or until the leaf stem is brown. Even mostly brown fronds may still have some potassium remaining in them that the palm can re-use for new growth.

posted by Georgia, Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 9:51 AM

The damage to my tropical garden is amazing - the heliconia, cuban bananas and gingers are dying to the ground. The thyrallis, thurnburgia, fiddle-leaf fig, and hibiscus are all dropping their leaves. Even the silver buttonwoods are dropping leaves. Amaryllis are dying to the ground and nearly every palm has browning fronds. This is worse than after Wilma! it will be interesting to see how nature bounces back. the only positive is the death of the iguanas - that'll stop 'em from eating everything.

posted by Jim Reinert, Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 2:55 PM

The damage to the heliconias in my garden has been devastating. We cut them to the ground this weekend, but I believe that even the rhysomes have rot. Do I need to put some fungicide or is it too late now. Please tell me what I need to do to see if I could salvage some.
Thanks.

posted by Gloria, Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 11:36 AM

Here's the list of hardest-hit plants (4 miles inland from the beach at Ft. Lauderdale):

COCONUT PALM (Cocos nucifera) – about 50% leaf browning of oldest fronds;

TROPICAL ALMOND (Terminalia catappa) - rapid complete defoliation;

BRAZILIAN BEAUTY LEAF (Calophyllum inophyllum) - slow but complete defoliation after several weeks;

SEA GRAPE (Coccoloba uvifera) - Heavy Bronzing (and some browning);

MEXICAN BLACK OLIVE (Bucida-buceras) - moderate bronzing.

PITCH APPLE (Clusia rosea) - partial defoliation with end-stem death;

SCARLET GEIGER TREE (Cordia sebestena) - defoliation, possible end-stem death;

MING ARALIA (Polyscias fruticosa) - slow defoliation and end-stem death;

SCREW PINE (Pandanus sanderi) – showing significant browning to older leaves several weeks later.

WHITEVEIN (Sanchezia speciosa) - rapid defoliation;

MOTH ORCHID (Phalaenopsis sp.) - rapid death;

CUBAN OREGANO (Plectranthus-amboinicus) rapid defoliation;

DUMB CANE (Dieffenbachia amoena) possible death to larger species, smaller species (e.g. D. picta) slightly more tolerant to prolonged cool?;

PARROT'S BEAK (Heliconia psittacorum) - rapid defoliation, possible death;

CROSSANDRA (Crossandra infundibuliformis) - rapid defoliation;

PURPLE WAFFLE PLANT (Hemigraphis alternata) - rapid defoliation, possible death;

PEACOCK PLANT (Calathea makoyana) – leaf curling/death;

PEACOCK GINGER (Kaempferia pulchra) – rapid leaf death;


No especial adverse effect, other than dropping of some of the older leaves, to: Gumbo Limbo, West Indian Mahagony, Javawood, Ackee, Ficus sp., Trumpet trees, and Silver Buttonwood.

posted by Michael, Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 10:46 PM

Regarding heliconia cold damage: should we wait to cut down the browned stalks and wait for them to sprout once again or cut them to about a foot from the ground now? I'm getting mixed responses and want to do the best thing to resuscitate them. While @ Fairchild yesterday, I noticed that theirs were still standing--but they also didn't look as bad as mine. My stalks look as dead and brown as the leaves. And should I fertilize them? HELP!

posted by Sheril Hirsch, Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 10:18 AM

Regarding heliconia cold damage: should we wait to cut down the browned stalks and wait for them to sprout once again or cut them to about a foot from the ground now? I'm getting mixed responses and want to do the best thing to resuscitate them. While @ Fairchild yesterday, I noticed that theirs were still standing--but they also didn't look as bad as mine. My stalks look as dead and brown as the leaves. And should I fertilize them? HELP!

posted by Sheril Hirsch, Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 10:19 AM

Regarding heliconia cold damage: should we wait to cut down the browned stalks and wait for them to sprout once again or cut them to about a foot from the ground now? I'm getting mixed responses and want to do the best thing to resuscitate them. While @ Fairchild yesterday, I noticed that theirs were still standing--but they also didn't look as bad as mine. My stalks look as dead and brown as the leaves. And should I fertilize them? HELP!

posted by Sheril Hirsch, Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 10:19 AM

Cut them just a few inches from the ground. I would use a systemic fungicide on the stumps to prevent any disease from entering the rhizomes. Cleary's 3336 or Thiomyl (the thing) is ideal for this. Wait for the plants to send up new shoots when the weather turns warm before fertilizing, then do so lightly. (That will probably be March.)

posted by Georgia, Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 12:33 PM

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