Preparing plants and flowers for a freeze in Florida is essential
As the state’s tropical and subtropical flora are rarely adapted to freezing temperatures. When cold snaps threaten, taking proactive steps—specifically hydrating, covering, and insulating—can protect sensitive foliage and prevent, or at least minimize, damage.
Here is a guide to preparing your Florida landscape for a freeze:
1. Water Thoroughly Before the Freeze
Watering is the most crucial step. Water your plants, shrubs, and trees thoroughly a day or two before freezing temperatures are expected. Moist soil holds significantly more heat than dry soil, acting as a buffer to keep the roots warmer. Watering also helps keep plants hydrated, reducing damage from desiccating, cold winds. Focus on watering the soil at the base of the plant, avoiding spraying the leaves directly.
2. Cover Plants Correctly
Covering plants traps ground heat, which can keep temperatures around the plant several degrees warmer than the surrounding air.
- Best Materials: Use frost cloths, old sheets, blankets, burlap, or towels.
- What to Avoid: Do not use plastic directly on foliage. Plastic causes damage by touching the leaves and conducting cold, and it does not allow the plant to breathe.
- Technique: Drape the material over the plant, ensuring it reaches all the way to the ground to effectively trap heat. Secure the covers with bricks, rocks, or soil to prevent them from blowing away.
3. Protect Container Plants
Potted plants are more vulnerable than in-ground plants because their roots lack the protection of the surrounding soil.
- Move Indoors: Move potted plants into a garage, shed, or covered porch.
- Group and Cover: If they cannot be brought inside, move them together in a group against the warmest wall of your house, then cover the entire group with a blanket or frost cloth.
4. Add Mulch
Adding a thick layer (2–3 inches) of organic mulch, such as pine bark, straw, or leaves, around the base of plants helps insulate the soil and roots. For young citrus or delicate shrubs, piling mulch or soil over the graft union (the swollen area low on the trunk) is crucial, as this protects the most vulnerable part of the tree.
5. Add a Heat Source
For particularly sensitive or prized plants, add a temporary heat source under the cover. A small, non-LED string of Christmas lights can provide just enough warmth to prevent freezing.
6. What to Do After the Freeze
- Remove Covers: Remove covers as soon as temperatures rise above freezing the next morning to prevent the plants from overheating in the sun.
- Do Not Prune Immediately: Resist the urge to prune damaged foliage. Brown, dead-looking leaves provide insulation for the living tissue beneath. Wait to prune until late spring, when you can clearly see where new growth is emerging.
Summary Checklist
- Water: Deeply soak the ground around plants 24–48 hours before.
- Cover: Use fabric sheets or frost cloths extending to the ground.
- Insulate: Add mulch around the base.
- Move: Bring containers into a garage.
- Remove: Take off covers when temperatures rise.