Rebecca
12-04-2006, 11:49 PM
Or When Neighbor Goof!
A couple of weeks ago I let my house neighbor use my washer and dryer while she was waiting on hers to be repaired. No biggie, neighbor's do that for one another.
Well sometime yesterday she finally got around to retrieving her laundry products from my side of the basement and inadvertently left my basement door open as well as the main basement door and the back door. We're inthe middle of a major cold front, thing Siberian Express, high winds, the whole nine yards.
Now I don't know why I decided to go out back, but it's a good thing I did as that is when I found all the doors open and the wind being tunneled right down the steps and into my basement and hence plant room. The fan was on, as I keep it on to keep air circulating and to help keep the temps relatively uniform throughtout the plant area. I was beginning to feel sick before I even got down the steps.
Plants right next to the door were damaged, with 2/3 or better on my oldest Tropical Hibiscus having it's foliage frozen or severely damaged, the Pineapple Scented Geranium sadly wilting. One of the Spathphyllims on the floor in front of the water heater has half of it's leaves frozen. Plant on the bottom shelves do not look too good. Orchid foliage looks to have been frozen, my one bromeliad had frozen areas on it. One of several small "spider plants" that had summered in the garden and were looking so wonderful was mush. In all there were at least a dozen plants with definite cold damage.
What I found odd was some that I thought would have suffered the most, didn't appear to have any damage at all. The Succulents and my one variegated Hoya and the Palms are seemingly o-kay. Some of the Lantana don't look happy, but they can be pruned back and will be fine.
The big Clivia is unscathed, yet the variegated tropical Hibiscus and two others farther away from it are all drooping.
I'm upset about the plants being damaged, but most (except perhaps the Dendrobium Orchids) will eventually come out of it. Some that were wilted so badly were also dry, so perhaps that will have saved them from serious damage, but they aren't coming back very quickly. I'll check them again tomorrow and take my pruners with me to cut back the ones I can. I'm upset with my neighbor's caarelessness, but can't say I am really mad at her, but I haven't spoken with her yet so will see what she has to say tomorrow. Hopefully she will at least apologize.
If any good comes of this I hope the cold killed the spider mites and aphids that had attached my hibiscus seedlings.
The daylily seedlings weren't phased a bit by it! In fact, they probably enjoyed it!
The fan is off for now and I may turn it around 180 degrees before I turn it back on.
I may see if I have a big enough piece of wood I can nail up as a kind of baffle to keep cold air off of the plants right next to the door. The piece that would be just about perfect is what I have raised up on blocks that these plants are sitting on so they aren't on the cold floor, which would be even harder on them.
Why am I telling all y'all about this? As a warning to others for one and to show that plants are all a lot tougher than we sometimes give them credit for. Those orchids haven't been doing well for years, so no great loss there, and they may come out of it. Nothing important was lost, even the "spider plant" that was turned to mush will probably come back from the crown, and the stems on the two sun coleus seemed to be firm, so they could come back as well. Time will tell.
I am a little miffed at myself for not getting down to the basement sooner and perhaps avoiding the problem altogether.
Don't you just love winter.
A couple of weeks ago I let my house neighbor use my washer and dryer while she was waiting on hers to be repaired. No biggie, neighbor's do that for one another.
Well sometime yesterday she finally got around to retrieving her laundry products from my side of the basement and inadvertently left my basement door open as well as the main basement door and the back door. We're inthe middle of a major cold front, thing Siberian Express, high winds, the whole nine yards.
Now I don't know why I decided to go out back, but it's a good thing I did as that is when I found all the doors open and the wind being tunneled right down the steps and into my basement and hence plant room. The fan was on, as I keep it on to keep air circulating and to help keep the temps relatively uniform throughtout the plant area. I was beginning to feel sick before I even got down the steps.
Plants right next to the door were damaged, with 2/3 or better on my oldest Tropical Hibiscus having it's foliage frozen or severely damaged, the Pineapple Scented Geranium sadly wilting. One of the Spathphyllims on the floor in front of the water heater has half of it's leaves frozen. Plant on the bottom shelves do not look too good. Orchid foliage looks to have been frozen, my one bromeliad had frozen areas on it. One of several small "spider plants" that had summered in the garden and were looking so wonderful was mush. In all there were at least a dozen plants with definite cold damage.
What I found odd was some that I thought would have suffered the most, didn't appear to have any damage at all. The Succulents and my one variegated Hoya and the Palms are seemingly o-kay. Some of the Lantana don't look happy, but they can be pruned back and will be fine.
The big Clivia is unscathed, yet the variegated tropical Hibiscus and two others farther away from it are all drooping.
I'm upset about the plants being damaged, but most (except perhaps the Dendrobium Orchids) will eventually come out of it. Some that were wilted so badly were also dry, so perhaps that will have saved them from serious damage, but they aren't coming back very quickly. I'll check them again tomorrow and take my pruners with me to cut back the ones I can. I'm upset with my neighbor's caarelessness, but can't say I am really mad at her, but I haven't spoken with her yet so will see what she has to say tomorrow. Hopefully she will at least apologize.
If any good comes of this I hope the cold killed the spider mites and aphids that had attached my hibiscus seedlings.
The daylily seedlings weren't phased a bit by it! In fact, they probably enjoyed it!
The fan is off for now and I may turn it around 180 degrees before I turn it back on.
I may see if I have a big enough piece of wood I can nail up as a kind of baffle to keep cold air off of the plants right next to the door. The piece that would be just about perfect is what I have raised up on blocks that these plants are sitting on so they aren't on the cold floor, which would be even harder on them.
Why am I telling all y'all about this? As a warning to others for one and to show that plants are all a lot tougher than we sometimes give them credit for. Those orchids haven't been doing well for years, so no great loss there, and they may come out of it. Nothing important was lost, even the "spider plant" that was turned to mush will probably come back from the crown, and the stems on the two sun coleus seemed to be firm, so they could come back as well. Time will tell.
I am a little miffed at myself for not getting down to the basement sooner and perhaps avoiding the problem altogether.
Don't you just love winter.