Every one of my brugmansias--regardless of location (against shed; near the house; facing east; facing west; beside a large hedge)--was badly affected, with dried shrivelled leaves. They were doing so well too, some with flowerbuds on the point of unfurling. They never suffered like this in Melb, but here the nights are persistently colder than in Melb, plus the daytime temps are persistently higher. Funny thing is that there was no visible frost at all. The cestrum hedge was also mildly affected.

They will all recover in spring, after being pruned back, fed and watered. Problem is that I have to look at them in their sorry state for the next two months :-(

Ironically, the plants I was worried about (my two Michelia champacas and cananga seedlings) appear OK, even though some are growing alongside the brugmansias. I've been diligently spraying them monthly with Stress Guard since the start of May, and that seems to be working.

In cold parts of Australia people generally plant cold-hardy plants, but areas like Ipswich--hot humid summers and cold frosty winter nights/warm winter days--are still a little bewildering for me. How are others in SEQ dealing with the cold nights?

The Spinach, Sugar Snap Peas, are fine and Cos lettuce are Ok.
The Cos we are eating and the new seedlings get covered by old net curtains overnight to keep the bugs off it must have kept the frost off..

The Banana leaves are burnt.

Melastoma affine *Native Tibouchina* was green on Tuesday now its all black except one green leaf right underneath.

All the soft brightly coloured foliage plants are burnt though this Orchid near the Gum tree is Ok so are the Broms.

All the new growth on the bougainvillea I pruned two weeks ago is black.. I have not looked at all the garden its so upsetting also too many plants on this 3/4 acre block..
I lived in Melbourne for 45 years and have never seen this kind of damage but then I did not grow tropical plants down there, or tomatoes in the winter like we can here..

Probably nothing can be done for the veggies but I hope the shrubs and climbers come out of it OK.

Best of luck with your plants too ...Cheers....MM.

but thursday morn' we had a black frost not much that can be done against those ones, they even burn plants that normally would not suffer in a white frost. even tender plants that where covered got some damage.

len

len

Darwin sounds good at present...MM.

Bad as it seemed this morning, I've just come from outside where, after a day's sunshine, the frost-damaged plants look even worse now, as if they've been scorched--ironical that after a long hot summer of bucketing, mulching and conditioning with Seasol, that it's the winter frost that got them, not the drought. Except for the frangipani, everything else should recover. (Even a few of the common red hibiscus are shrivelled.)

Misty, thanks for your photos. (I posted only two yesterday, showing the brugmansias; you can find them on page 3 of the link below.) My bananas look like yours, and I lost the three cherry tomatoes that I grew for the first time this winter (after having the tomatoes infested with fruitfly in summer). Well, they were free of fruit fly!

As you say, though, so long as the permanent plantings (better to have lost the tomatoes than the orchids) come back, it's not too bad ... just depressing.

I wonder how the Sydneysiders are coping, as they grow many of the same subtropical plants and they've had a cold blast of weather this week too. And what about gardeners further north: not as cold, but their plants are more frost tender--how are they getting on, I wonder.

Ah, intersting times. We've had drought, now frost; I'm guessing it will be floods next, although I'm too far west for a cyclone ... or so people tell me!

The black is terrible nine of my Hibiscus copped it, more Poinsettia's and I was shocked to see my beautiful yellow Allamanda that grows up on the the tall gum tree in the front is all black today. Now you have got me worried as you mention a very special Frangipani grown from seed that has been effected, I am so sorry to hear that as these plants are Irreplaceable.

I bought this Singapore Plumeria obtusa *Darwin Petite Pink * earlier on this year;

And all the new growth has been ruined those beautiful buds, it sits in a big pot at the bottom of the back steps I would have though it would have had a little protection there but it didn't it looks burnt today though not black so maybe a small chance for that one.

I do hope your plants come back, and mine too. I have a friend in Gympie it was a few degrees even colder there who has also lost a lot of her veggies not sure about the other plants though as there are more trees there, and the Sydney-siders I guess their plants will have suffered like ours...Such a shame. Cheers..Misty

Unfortunately, I don't think my Caribbean frangipani will, as it's a true tropical. (I've posted a pic of it on page 4 of my photo album at the above link.) My evergreen frangipani--the common white, not your rarer dwarf pink--was hit hard, with its leaves turning to brown overnight. I don't know whether it will come back but, as luck would have it, I'd pruned off a large piece of it in autumn and placed it in the shed for planting up or out in spring. If this ground-grown one doesn't survive, then my cutting will be planted and kept in a container.

Last night it fell to about 3 deg C--it felt comparatively balmy after the previous bitterly cold nights. My concern now is that some of the damaged plants will be tempted to put on a new flush of growth before spring, and be hit by another frost. I think the safest thing they can do is sulk until September!

Those two are some of my Fruit Salad ones. The Pink, White and newly transplanted thick stump of my Red one have been burnt just as bad actually the White looks the worse droopy like your one.. I cannot tell what my White with the Pink edge or my Yellow look like as those two are under two years old not very tall and the leaves had already fallen off.. They should be fine. Maybe your Caribbean frangipani will be ok, if there is still sap in it surely it will burst out somewhere else and keep growing as long as we don't have any more frosts..Its hard to cover everything but with hubby's help we sure will try if the temp drops again.. You have to be positive here they WILL be OK..

Alison you are often in my thoughts at present as the Freesia Laxa seeds you gave me are also seeding at present
Sad that you have had frost damage too though good to hear that the Singapore daisy was burnt lets hope that one dies off.. Cheers..Misty.

Alison, did we swap brugmansia cuttings a while back? Was it you who took that small cutting of pink B. versicolor on the first page of my photo album? If so, did it survive? The plants I received in return flowered in shades of cream/palest yellow (not in my photo album) and strongly scented white (which is). I love them all!

Usually frangis have dropped their leaves before any frosts but this year they haven't dropped them like usual which is why they look worse. Once the warmer weather arrives they should shoot again.

Our lowest here near Gympie this year was officially -4.3C but at my place -3C was the coldest. We have a rainforest style garden with tropical/sub-tropical plants but haven't had much damage as most of the tender plants are protected by the upperstorey. Some have yellowed off a little but often do anyway in winter. More plants have been affected by the lack of rain here. The main plants affected were some vegies and even they are still growing.

A canopy of taller plants would have helped but, because mine is a new garden with only two established trees (and those out in the front, away from most of my plantings), my plants don't have that protection yet. And the plants themselves are all still small and not well established yet, so that's probably why they were so hard hit.

Another 4-5 weeks and the danger of frost should be over (fingers crossed).

We had major frosts a couple of weeks ago.

My thermometer is situated 2m off the ground and under an overhang of the house, so it didnt record the coldest temperatures that others did. All the grass and many garden plants and trees have died from the frost.

Some of the tropical plants have succumbed incredibly from the sudden cold weather we had.

As you may have heard, places received down to -10 degrees on the Atherton Tablelands. We, where I'm living recorded closer to 1 degree on a couple of mornings with other mornings also recording 2-5 a few times. It is still mild with only last Tuesday morning we recorded 6 and two nights ago 5.4. As mentioned my thermometer is situated 2m above the ground and within a sheltered site, none of my plants located near the thermometer were at all affected by the cold however outside without the roof/awning of the house to protect them, they were scorched.
Many Spathodea's 20m tall had their crowns burnt, Large mature Schefflera actinophylla's lost all their leaves, a Schefflera bractescens up the road seems to have died all together. Many restoration plantings in the area have been dealt a serious blow (frost). I have seen mature Elaeocarpus grandis, 20m tall killed by the frost. There is a planting of over 2000 Blue Quandongs, for timber, just up the road from here. They all were standing proud at about 3-5 m tall and at least 75% of them have been totally killed by the frost. There is a frost band where all of the plants died and then another band on the highest side of the planting where they have mostly survived.
There are mature Wodyetia which have all their leaves burnt to black however seem green in the centre's. Mature Coconuts in Malanda seem to be fine- surprisingly.
Mature Cyathea cooperi's growing along the creeks on the tablelands - have no leaves left...this is predictable though.
I was in Cairns a couple of weeks ago, doing some work on a hillside and looked at the ground to notice the Praxelis clematidea had brown leaves as a result of the cold...I was standing at 60m asl at the most.
I was staying at the Daintree village the night of the worst frost and a local told us that it had got down to 6 degrees that morning.
A friend at Whyanbeel, just north of Mossman recorded cold (not frost) damage there.
Trees which are very susceptible to frost: at least up here.
Elaeocarpus grandis, Ficus septica, Ficus hispida, Delonix regia, Cassia javanica, Acmenosperma claviflorum, Homalanthus novo-guineensis, Alphitonia petrei, Cyathea cooperi, Schinus molle, Syzygium malaccense, Alocasia macrorhiza (exotic one), Pandanus species- especially oceanic species, Spathodea campanulata, Scindapsus, Pawpaw, Banana's, Dracaena fragrans, Allamanda cathartica, Euphorbia pulcherimma........Duranta had burnt tips and the ground covering Lantana totally died (possibly a good thing).
There are lots of species I have seen with burnt leaves.and also alot I have seen killed by the cold.....even Athertonia diversifolia. Large trees have entire branches with dead leaves.
As you can see below, the temperature up-here has been rather even until you reach the end of May.

Jan: hottest day time max= 36.5 hottest night time min= 26.5 coldest day time max= 22.7 coldest night time min= 18.7 rainfall = 186.1mm
Feb: hottest day time max= 35.5 hottest night time min= 22.5 coldest day time max= 23.2 coldest night time min= 17.1 rainfall = 594.3mm
March: hottest day time max= 35.0 hottest night time min= 21.6 coldest day time max= 25.4 coldest night time min= 14.7 rainfall = 131.4mm
April: hottest day time max= 33.3 hottest night time min= 19.0 coldest day time max= 22.2 coldest night time min= 12.9 rainfall = 124.7mm
May: hottest day time max= 32.5 hottest night time min= 19.9 coldest day time max= 21.5 coldest night time min= 13.1 rainfall = 108.4mm
June: hottest day time max= 25.7 hottest night time min= 19.5 coldest day time max= 17.8 coldest night time min= 3.3 rainfall = 62.5mm
July: hottest day time max= 26.0 hottest night time min= 15.2 coldest day time max= 15.5 coldest night time min= 2.0 rainfall = 57.4mm

regards Kris

Alison

Kris, you really put my losses into perspective. Although your temps didn't get as low as they did here, your plants were less able to cope. The most dispiriting thing is when mature plants get cut down, as they will take longest to replace. I'm not familiar with most of the plants you list, but I am surprised by a few I recognise. The delonix, for instance: my small potted plants were affected, but the street trees look fine. Also, the tree fern (cyathea): mine came thru unscathed and even provided some protection for the pot plants growing beneath it. I guess it's become acclimatised to Ipswich's winters. (My cassia javanica seems to be dead, too, so that obviously is highly susceptible to frost; even a few quisqualis look dead although not all of them.)

At least you've had rain!

I'll know in spring which plants have survived ... do you have spring up there? When will you be certain that a plant has died or only been temporarily affected by the cold?