Getting cold in the desert

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The temperature at The Tropical Paradise got into the 30s F (close to 0 C) last night for the first time this year. We also had a gentle rain yesterday, so it's pretty uncomfortable for man and beast, but it's still OK for the tropical plants. But it's the first shot across the bow to remind us to start getting ready for the cold.

The ability of your plants to withstand cold temperatures is measured by how *hardy* they are. You can look up the hardiness of all of your plants, and many plant tags from nurseries indicate hardiness. In my experience, I have found that if you try to plant *houseplants* out in the garden, they will do fine until it gets into the 30s. Then, they will either look terrible, or they will die. One of the most beautiful plants that is commonly planted here in the Phoenix area is bougainvillea, but it is so sensitive to the cold that it doesn't take much of a cold snap to make it look terrible. I had one in the front courtyard for years, but between the sensitivity to frost, and the difficulty of keeping it trimmed, I gave up on it. And if you have a lot of tropical plants that are not very hardy, keeping them looking good, and alive, in the winter will be very difficult.

I've lived in this neighborhood for a long time and I note which plants look damaged after a cold night. Ficus trees are also a poor choice around here, and many of died in the big freeze of 2007, even fairly large specimens. And even the ones that lived looked pretty bad and needed extensive trimming after the frost.

Here in The Tropical Paradise, I have seen cold weather kill small specimens of Phoenix Roebellini (dwarf date palms), so they should get your attention when the temperatures drop some more. If they're as big as one the one in the photo, you don't need to worry - they will have some burn on the tips of the leaves, but they'll be fine. I've seen my elephant ears and canna get knocked to the ground by frost, but the bulbs are fine in the ground and they grow back stronger every year. I would like to create some type of canopy to protect them this year - but I'm not sure if I will.

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