>Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 10:34:29
>From: Ron Rovansek
>Subject: frozen plants

>Beth,
>When my plans freeze I usually cut or bend back
the dead stems
>to a foot or so in height, then mulch all around the
plants and
>over the dead stems. I think that the air space
provided by the
>stems holding up mulch keeps the plants warm
without letting
>them become too soggy. Another way to achieve
this is to lay
>some brush -like old christmas tree branches -
over the plants
>them mulch a little over the branches. If you have
a wet yard
>you might use pine straw instead of leaves, since
pine straw
>doesn't absorb and hold water like leaves tend to
do.
>
>I think it is interesting that tolerance of frosts and
winter
>hardiness are not at all related. For example,
firespike -
>odontonema strictum, forsythia sage - salvia
madrensis, and large
>turks cap -malvaviscus pendulaflora are real
wimps about frosts,
>and turn completely black with even a modest
frost. They are all,
> however, almost 100% winter hardy in south
Louisiana, which is
>to say that almost 100% of individual plants will
survive the
>winter and resprout in the spring, ecen without
any attention
>such as mulching the bases of the plants. On the
other hand,
>little leaf sage - salvia microphylla, and orange
abutilon -
>abutilon pictum are both quite tolerant of frost,
and tolerate
>temperatures in the upper 20s without much
damage to leaves or
>flowers. Yet when these two plants are killed
back to the ground
>by really cold weather, they are much less likely
to resprout in
>the spring than the first three plants I mentioned.
Of course there
>are plants which are both winter hardy and frost
tolerant such as
>winter shrimp plant - justicia brandegeanna, and
plants which are
>neither, such as lollipop plant - pachystachys
lutea.
>
>Ron Rovansek
>
>
>Beth wrote...
>
>Ron, what steps should Steven take to attempt to
save those plants
>which may survive. Should he cut back now and
mulch heavily, or just
>leave the dead branches and pile the mulch around
the base of the
>plants.
>
>Sammy and I here in Thibodaux covered pretty
much and, although it
>got down to 29 degrees here, we see significant
burn only on hamelia
>patens and salvia madrensis.
>
>Beth Maniscalco
>Thibodaux, LA
>(approx. 60 miles SW of New Orleans)
>
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>
>