The frustrations, the glory, and the fun of a gardener living in Zone 9 in Florida during spells of the cold winter.

I was born in southern Missouri where there were 4 seasons. I grew up in an area that was mainly farms and that is where I learned to love farming. My dad and his mother were big gardeners and between the two of them, I learned so much about growing a garden in the backyard with all their tricks and tips.

Then I moved to Central Florida and all that I knew about gardening and growing plants was basically thrown out of the window. Nothing was the same anymore.

I immediately started doing a lot of research online and buying books on how to grow plants and gardens in Central Florida. I also joined our community garden club where I really learned a lot.

Learning my planting zone and finding out the first and last day of frost in your area. My area in Central Florida is Zone 9 and the 1st day of frost is November 15th and the last day of frost is March 15th. This helps make decisions on what and when to plant certain plants.

The worse thing to plant

I’ve heard so many times from new Floridians that they will purchase plants from the local big box garden centers. But, remember this, businesses want to make money and it’s easy to put out plants to make a sale, instead of selling plants for your area or letting you know what may happen in cold snaps.

A great example of what businesses will sell you in our area is Queen palms. When you move to Florida, palm trees are what folks want to have in their yard. Since we moved to a newly built community, everyone wanted that “instant’ palm tree, and everyone just had to have queen palms put in their yards. We did the same thing.

But, as we learned over the years, they are by far one of the worse palms to plant in Central Florida. They shed badly, the seed pods grow huge and when ripe will throw out hundreds of very large seeds that plant themselves, and before you know it, there are queen plans growing everywhere. The palm frowns need to be trimmed often and that is a big expense. The worse part is if you have several days of 20-degree weather, there is a big chance that the cold will turn them brown and they will eventually die. We had to have both of ours cut down because of the cold death. The picture above shows how the palms were slowly dying.

Over the years, most of the queen palms have been cut down in our community.

There is a good substitute for the queen palm and that is the Sable or Mule palm. The cold doesn’t bother them and they are a much cleaner palm when it comes to shedding with no huge seed pods. The only downside is when new sago’s are planted, they have what is called a hurricane cut at the top and the branches are very short. It takes about 6 months for the branches to expand out but they are worth the wait for beautiful and basically worry-free palm trees. In the picture above, you can see the green Sable palm wasn’t affected by the cold.

what to do to prepare

I’ve been asked so many times. Do you cover your plants? Yes and no. It depends on the cold snap. If it’s going to be just a heavy frost, I will just lay a towel over my flowering pots to keep the flowers from burning. The temp won’t bother the plants since it will stay above freezing.

But, if the temp is going to be below 29 degrees, I will water my landscaping and pots to get the roots and plants fully hydrated. Dry plants will freeze worse if they aren’t full of water. Remember, water freezes at 32 degrees and stays there which will help insulate the plant. I will then cover the plants the night before that are in pots and that will keep the roots warmer. I don’t cover the plants that are in the ground. The ground will stay warm enough for the roots to survive. I know more than likely the leaves will wilt, turn brown, and fall off, but the roots will be protected so that in the spring, new plants will sprout.

I have found that using old towels and sheets works best for me since my potted plants are rather large. Some of my gardening friends use frost cloth, old milk jugs with the tops cut off for smaller plants, and cloches. NEVER use plastic to cover your plants. It will burn them more.

What to do after the cold snap

Wondering how to care for your plants once they have been damaged by recent freezes? You may be tempted to prune them, but please, DO NOT PRUNE them yet. This advice is so important. Let me explain the best way to help them recover from any cold damage.

Water
After a freeze, check the soil around your plants. Plants may not be getting the water they need if the soil has dried out or if the water in the soil is frozen. Remember, that when the weather gets really cold, the humidity goes down and dries out the ground. Watering the landscaping and pots can help defrost the soil and provide your plants with an available source of moisture. Especially for the roots. Even injured plants need water.

Fertilizer
While you may be tempted to add a little fertilizer to your plants to help speed their recovery hold off. If you fertilize too early you could encourage new growth before cold weather has gone. New growth doesn’t fare well in cold snaps and it will damage the plant even more. It’s best to wait until spring to begin fertilizer application. Once the danger of frost has passed, an application of fertilizer can help speed recovery.

Pruning
DO NOT prune cold-damaged plants right away. I cannot stress this enough. The dead foliage looks bad but will help insulate plants from further injury. After March 15th, the last frost day of zone 9, I will cut back the dead foliage and wait to see what happens. If you are afraid you may cut off too much or exactly where to prune, wait until plants begin to sprout new growth. I do this process with milkweed, Boston ferns, poinsettias, and perennials growing in large pots. My plumbagoes will burn badly but I will trim them down to the ground in the spring and they will come back again and bloom as if nothing happened.

Most annuals like impatiens, begonias, marigolds, and most other annuals that are damaged by the cold may collapse and look like they have melted. If this happens, it’s best to just pull them out to prevent fungal or bacterial problems from arising as they decay. They are a lost cause at this point.

As you can see in the picture above, my marigolds were really burned during the cold and I will just pull them up. BUT, before I do that I will deadhead the flowers and throw them in the dirt. I will keep the pot watered and when it starts warming up, new marigolds will start growing again from the seeds.

evergreen plants

Evergreen plants are just that, evergreen, and do well when there are cold snaps. The only problem I have noticed is that the tops of the bushes may burn and turn brown sometimes. This has happened to my azaleas many times and in the spring, I just trim back the brown areas after they stop blooming. My fox tail ferns and bottle brush bushes will burn on the top but with a good trim in the spring, they will be fine.

If you have blooming bushes such as camellias and azaleas and you notice the blooms have browned, don’t worry. All the buds that are still in the bud stage will bloom later. This has happened to my azaleas many times. The picture above shows how my petite azaleas, which I have throughout my landscape and bloom from Thanksgiving to April, bloomed after a week-long 20-degree weather we had over a decade ago.

plants that survive the cold

My favorite plants to put in pots or in the landscaping for winter are pansies and violas. They are cold hardy, so many colors to choose from, and as long as the weather stays in the 70s or colder, you can have beautiful color from November to March. Not only do they love the cold, they also thrive on it. After this cold snap we had, my pots were busting with blooms.

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