Well I'm sad to say that I went outside this morning and, upon removing trash bags I had on a couple plants and assessing everything, have found most of them showing signs of distress with some being hit pretty hard (like 20+ wilted growing-tips - surely the growth was too-supple for this season, my fault for having pruned too-late in the season)
I've grouped things more / setup more wind-blocks, am going over tarping setups for tonight -
but what of this damage? Should I be cutting-off just the bad leaves? The shoots, down to the lowest-affected leaf? I can't imagine leaving anything like what's pictured will be smart, seems it'd become a rot/bug nuisance very quickly...would greatly appreciate advice on precisely what to cut-off when approaching these damaged areas (if anything!)
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After much re-arranging I got most of my favorite specimen into my patio (all did fine except a recently-collected royal poinciana, it's put out 1 flush of growth since collection and it looks like the fresh growth is dying), and instead of trashcans used trash
bags on a few of the larger ones that are a major PITA to move (>50lbs)....the pictures above are from one of the bagged ones :/ I had another similarly-sized large one that was bagged and didn't get nearly as much damage, has to just be different cultivars or something because they were on the same bench and are almost identical ages (they're the first two large bougies I'd ever collected)
It was (still is) quite windy as well, and many of my specimen are
not well-established plants, my most-established plants were collected/transplanted just this past spring (and many were carved up pretty thoroughly!), and many are hardwood-cuttings - I've easily got 20 bougie hardwoods that were doing fine but just don't have established root systems (they've got good roots, I grew them out in a raised-bed and potted the best, bare-rooting them in the process, and that was months ago so I know they've got 'ok' roots but nothing remotely approaching 'established' - and it's the roots that are supposed to take the worst beating from the cold (it's hard to tell, when looking at the damages from last night, how much was due to coldness on the leaves versus inefficient root/'antifreeze' engagement..)
Do yours take a harder hit during the first cold periods of the season? Mine wilted during the first temp drop, but they were fine during the 2nd (colder) drop...I really didn't expect the damages I found this morning TBH, am really glad I took the time to get my favorite specimen into the patio last night :/
Your setup's beautiful btw, saved it in my 'gardens&benches' pictures folder that I browse-through every time I go to build/re-arrange my garden! I've moved two of my mobile benches alongside an in-ground 8' bench, so (3) benches parallel to each other, close-enough that you cannot walk-through them, everything squished-together on them - have setup larger landscape plants to act as buffers (some large 'purple porterweeds' I had growing in large ceramic containers, they were setup as the primary/first-line buffers last night and jesus did they get hit hard, their containers were bone-dry this morning and they all look like they're going to die, it's not just their tips they're wilted 100%...)
I've got them all together now, 3 benches side-by-side, all the plants squished-together - I like the idea of putting a tarp over them but the wind is insane, I can't think of any way to properly tarp that wouldn't essentially be building a mini-greenhouse (like, right now my best thought is to put (4) 4x4"s in the ground, in a square around the 3 benches, and tarp that - I don't think it's too useful to have the tarping just touching/sitting-on the trees, the pics I just posted were from a specimen that was bagged and it seemed the parts that were touching the bag got it the worst - to have a tarp that won't blow away, and isn't pushing-down on the trees, isn't something I know how to do properly, the 4x4"s and a trip to home depot for tarping is all I can conceive for this and if I do that I may as well just use another (4) 4x4"s to frame the top and have an 8' cube greenhouse..really want to avoid having to do that if possible!!)
Thanks for posting, had wondered about this- do you think that logic applies to tropicals? Like, for plants
that can tolerate freezing temperatures, ice can be a shield - but for plants like mine, ice kills...so when it's getting late tonight and I'm making sure moisture levels are dialed-in, I'm truly unsure whether it's better to get the crowns wet or not, I can see the wetness just conducting more cold (like how you'd feel colder when going out while perspiring)
The two larger crapes look pretty good thankfully, the two smallest ones (in ~8oz styrofoam cups and pure perlite) were certainly not happy, I'd grouped them w/ a bunch of other small containers but it wasn't enough (have since setup a much tighter display, w/ better wind-buffers)
I think 38 was the lowest it got last night/this morning but that leaf-loss I pictured above isn't an anomaly I probably have 30-40 shoots with bad tips like that :/ (all bougies)
Thanks a ton for replying, was very unsure about the watering (whether being a bit wetter helps or hurts when a cold period is coming), I understand that water's good insulation (even as ice)
for trees that can handle that, but for my tropical bougies I didn't know - I totally don't mind spraying them down at dusk&dawn, just want to be certain you're saying that's good-practice even for tropicals/bougies?
Am intrigued by this 'radiational cooling' effect you mention, am going to google it - crazy that you can have freezing at >32 though, am ignorant on how the cold moves though except that it sinks and that you don't leave things directly on the ground! Would love to hear your recommendation for what, if anything, I should do with the damaged/dead leaves pictured above?
(on a tangential note, I had 2 bougies where, after removing their bags, I found more leaves with leaf-miners than ever, like double what I'd call a 'bad day' in the case of these miners (I pull at least a couple leaves every day w/ the little buggers but had a ton to pull this morning!))