Dodged a Bullet

It has been a crazy summer, with fall and winter rapidly marching across my back yard, I believe I came really close to loosing al of my tropical plants.

Friday I rode to St. Louis for a motorcycle club meeting and back home Saturday. Ended up in bed by 8:30 Saturdday night and up AFTER 8:45 Sunday morning. Again in late Sunday working on a rental unit. Monday morning drug my butt out of bed to learn the temperatures were around 26*F.

All I could think of was "Oh CRAP!" All of my tropicals (3 Fukien Tea, 6 to 8 Ficus, some smaller plants. Managed to get them to the office on Tuesday). Seems like all I've lost are a few leaves.

All that is left is to wait and see how they fair ove the next few lays.

Good luck! 26*F is really cold for those tropicals.

Early this week we just hit 50*F and my 2 Neea lost a lot of leaves already (i.e. black and crisp). I only thought of bringing in the buttonwood...didn't know Neea are as sensitive. I better finish my garage set-up this weekend.

I was caught by surprise by the cold snap too. I got lucky though, I live close enough to Lake Michigan that I really do get 'lake effect' weather. One mile west of me had temps of 32F, while in my yard, it was at 34 F. Not a big difference, but to date still have not had an actual frost. I have brought in most of my tropicals. No casualties so far. I'm hoping to stay above freezing another 2 or 3 weeks. Some years my first freeze is a full month later than my neighbors only a mile to the west. My location is east of Green Bay Road, which follows an ancient shoreline for Lake Michigan, east of that point you are down in the pool of air that is strongly influenced by the lake's water temperature.

The downside is in spring, the cold water delays the onset of spring, sometimes by as much as a month. It can be a problem getting warm crops like tomatoes and peppers started in the garden.